A little while ago I reviewed the Lancome Miracle Cushion Foundation and at the time I found myself wondering what the original, Korean Cushion Foundations would be like in comparison to our Westernised versions, so, with the help of Cosme-de.com I started trying out some of the original Cushion Foundations, starting with the Iope Air Cushion XP SPF50 Foundation.
Before I share my thoughts on the foundation itself, I just want to flag up Cosme-de.com as it’s such a fantastic shop full of beauty goodies; they stock pretty much every well-known beauty brand you can think of, alongside lots you’ll never have heard of, and most of the products have decent discounts applied, plus they run lots of promotions, so if you’re a beauty fan you should definitely mosey on over for a decent mooch around!
I think I need to only use Korean foundations from now on as their shades are so well suited to my pale skin tone. The shade I have of the Iope Cushion Foundation is C21, Cover Vanilla, which is such a good match for me – it blends almost perfectly with my skin tone, meaning I can build up a really good coverage without it looking heavy.
If you’re unfamiliar with the idea of cushion foundations, they’re basically all the benefits of a liquid foundation in a compact form; they come in a compact which contains a sponge soaked in the liquid base, so you get the best of both worlds. They come with a sponge applicator and, in my experience, are well packaged so shouldn’t cause any problems with leaks and you use them by pressing your applicator on to the sponge which then releases the liquid; the harder you press, the more liquid comes out and the higher coverage you can achieve.
As you can see from the pictures, the coverage of this is a high medium – not quite high enough to be deemed high (how’s that for a confusing sentence?) but definitely higher than medium as it hides the redness really well. The finish can only be described as dreamy, as it leaves skin looking dewy, healthy and just naturally very good. A little powder is needed for those of us who are prone to shine, but it lasts well and obviously the compact formula means you can carry it around for top-ups.
I’ve actually tried two out of the three cushion foundations I was sent and I’ve been extremely impressed. They deliver everything you could need from a foundation; great yet natural coverage, easy application, a lovely texture and a nice and high SPF, so what’s not to love? The Iope Air Cushion Foundation is £35 here – link – which sounds like a lot, but for that you get the compact with an enclosed soaked sponge, plus another sealed sponge to replace when you’ve used up the one in the compact, so you’re getting a lot of base for your buck. If you move quickly and you have a few things to buy, Cosme-De.com are also giving away gorgeous teddy bears with minimum spends, but you only have today to order before the promo ends, so head here – link – for more info and move quickly if you want your cuddly toy!
*PR S
wow that looks great, a brilliant colour match!
It’s so, so good! I love absolutely everything about it – really impressed!
Hey! I was just wondering if you can help me? Firstly, brilliant blog, I love it! My second question is that I am looking into the idea of maybe picking up an air cushion to try but am nervous about skin tone colouring. Usually I use No 7 Cool Vanilla. I was just wondering what shades you use with other brands as this one matches your skin so well ^^
Thank you
Thank you so much for your lovely comment and so sorry for the late reply!
I think, if I remember correctly, that Cool Vanilla is the second palest shade – is that right? If so then you won’t be too far away from my shading, which is almost always the palest colour in all foundations…not the most helpful but I find a lot of the lighter foundations from Asian brands are quite adaptive, so as long as you’re cool-leaning then you should be okay with the palest colour. I hope that helps, although it doesn’t sound like it does, so please let me know if you have any other questions and I’ll try to help! xx
Hello ^^
Thank you so much for your response. I decided to bite the bullet and make the order assuming that I could just sell the spare refill and compact on eBay after should I dislike it. Thankfully IOPE has come up trumps ^^ Where usually I’d use primer, concealer, foundation and powder, I now only have to use IOPE ^^ I love it (and think my face has actually cleared up a little since I started using it) 😀
If there are any other Asian brands you could recommend I would really appreciate it 🙂
Thank you ^^ xox
That is such fab news, I’m so pleased! xx