Thursday, November 26, 2015

A Pillow For Your Under Eyes: Laneige Cushion Concealer SPF30 in Light*

With the increasing popularity of cushion foundations (read my review of Laneige's BB Cushion here), many brands have decided to go all out on the cushion technology, introducing cushion blushers, gel eyeliners, eyeshadows and more. Laneige is definitely on top of that trend with their Cushion Concealer Broad Spectrum SPF 30* ($20 for 2.5 ml at Target), available in Light (which I have here to show you) and Medium.
First off, I have to say that Laneige's Cushion Concealer doesn't actually have a cushion - the applicator is in fact a soft fluffy... ehm, ball, I guess. Or round doe foot. It looks pretty adorable when brand new with its baby pink color. The delivery method of this concealer is a clickety pen, and I absolutely love, love that there's a window on the side of the packaging so you can easily see how much product you have remaining. The concealer with the most similar packaging on the US market right now is the newly released Burberry Cashmere Concealer, while the Maybelline Age Rewind is a similar concept, but it features a sponge on the end and the size of the applicator is much larger. Laneige's doe foot fits perfectly into the curves around your eyes or nose.
The Cushion Concealer boasts SPF 30+ (combination of physical and chemical sunscreen ingredients), which is a rarity, as well as skincare benefits on top of its concealing action: it's supposed to have a hydrating and brightening effect. I was actually expecting the texture of this product to be much thinner, but in fact, it's quite creamy (only slightly thinner than my NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer), and blends easily into the skin. The tone of the Light shade is definitely quite yellow on me, which surprisingly works well not only on areas of redness but also under my eyes (I have a lot of purple tones there, but if your eye area is more olive, this may look too ashy).
I would say the coverage of this concealer is medium, so for me personally it's not really suited for pin-point blemish concealing. It's sufficiently opaque though to disguise the darkness under my eyes or redness around the nose. When blended in, the finish of this concealer is a natural satin, but unfortunately on me, it sometimes exacerbates texture under my eyes, and I find it a bit difficult to layer over my eye cream - it blends out unevenly, especially towards the outer corners. It looks alright when I pat it in with a finger versus blending out with a brush, but I'm not sure if the results warrant babying this product so much; judge for yourselves in my uncomfortable eye close-up.
L-R: Laneige Cushion Concealer in Light, Bobbi Brown Corrector in Porcelain Bisque, NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer in Chantilly
No concealer on the left under eye area, Laneige Cushion Concealer applied on the right.
Overall, I think it's an average concealer - it's just a bit too much effort for me to coax it into behaving the way I would like it to. Looking at the photos of my under eyes with and without concealer, I actually think the two sides don't look all that different, and maybe I'm just not the best judge when it comes to under eye concealers because I don't have huge issues to conceal in that area. If you've been thinking about purchasing Laneige's Cushion Concealer, keep in mind the two major downsides of this product: very limited shade range and the price per ounce - 2.5 ml of product isn't a whole lot (in comparison, NARS Creamy Concealer contains around 6.5 ml, while the Maybelline Age Rewind contains 6ml for $7-8). Have you tried any of the spin-off cushion products? What is your current favorite concealer?

Disclaimer: Item marked with an asterix (*) is a press sample I received from the brand's PR for review consideration. All links are non-affiliate. All opinions are 100% honest and unbiased, no matter if the products featured were purchased with my own monies or provided as free press samples. Thank you for reading!

4 comments:

  1. My biggest stressor about these is that I have no idea how to clean them effectively/properly. The colour's nice though!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad to see your review here, I just saw this the other day at Tar-jay. Too bad it does not layer well on top of eye cream, I suspect maybe it has too much silicone in it? Coverage-wise, I think it looks decent on you but I agree, neither brightening nor add anything special. Thanks for the great review!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aw, sorry to hear this isn't a winner for you. It's actually my favorite under eye concealer at the moment! So I'm very thankful you passed on your Medium one to me as it's the perfect shade for me for most of the year. In January/February I'll probably have to use the Light shade. I agree that it doesn't seem to make a big difference for your under eyes. But on me it's actually very brightening without being too obvious.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That packaging is pretty neat I agree - I'm about to finish my Maybelline Age Rewind but think I'm just going to work on my Clarins concealer rather than buying another

    ReplyDelete