Review - Holika Holika Hard Cover Glow Cushion

Holika Holika Hard Cover Glow Cushion 

I've never used any base products from Holika Holika so I decided to give their new cushion a go. Cushion comes in two versions Holika Holika Hard Cover Perfect Cushion and the one I bought Holika Holika Hard Cover Glow Cushion. 

Picture taken from www.seoulcheap.com

Hard Cover Glow Cushion, as the name suggests has has a glowy/luminous finish and is meant for dry, combination and oily skin.  Product description on the box states "Hard Cover Glow cushion makes skin look flawless and luminous with its moisturizing effects and radiant glow finish."  It comes in three colors, I have purchased 01 Warm Ivory.

Picture taken from www.seoulcheap.com

The cushion comes with 14 g of products + a refill. This is the first budget cushion I have seen that comes with a refill. Price depends from seller to seller but it is around  USD 17. 

Cushion and refill 

Packaging is the standard cushion packaging with a puff and a mirror. Design is quite nice and clean with its beige cover. Quite grown up and classy looking. Cushion has SPF50+ PA+++.

Holika Holika states:

Cushion has  whitening, anti-wrinkle and UV protection function.

Strong ampoule moisture, power moist cushion - Contains high moisture double moist serum and aloe vera leaves water ingredients to provide strong moistness on skin and with pollubarrier™ prescription to protect skin from UV rays and external harmful environment. Care for healthy and moist skin without dryness.

Flawless cover lasting, long wearing cushion - With the combination of hybrid clear powder which has gentle application to brightens skin tone and absorbs sweat and sebum, keeping skin glow and moist for long time without darkening and stickiness.

Clear and transparent luminous moisture, water glow cushion - With solid dual effect of air touch powder and glossy up oil to create moist, lively and luminous skin texture for another level of clearer looking skin tone.

Source: www.seoulcheap.com

Ingredients

Ingredients list from the box

The following are listed as main ingredients by Holika Holika:

• Aloe Vera leaves water
• Raspberry extract
• Argan tree kernel oil
• Allantoin
• Centella asiatica leaves extract
• Silk amino acid
• Pollubarrier

Pollubarrier™ - Protect skin from fine dust, city pollution and other external harmful causes.

• EXO-P™ - Block harmful ingredients.
• T-NMF™ - Enhance moisture.
• Cera-Barrier™ - Strengthen skin barrier.

Source: www.seoulcheap.com

Hard Cover Glow Cushion in Warm Ivory

And now to important stuff how does it look on skin and how it wears.

Color is a nice fit for my NC15/20 skin and it did not oxidize.

Swatch of Warm Ivory

Finnish is truly luminous, it gives this kdrama like glow that is on the border of but not crossing into greasy looking territory.While you can definitely feel like you have something on it is not too heavy feeling.Cushion has a  rather strong floral scent which you cannot smell once it is applied.  Despite being glowy and moisturizing it sets fast and does not transfer.It wears for 6 hours or so before starting to fade evenly. Coverage is quite nice, a good medium to full coverage that covers redness and sallowness really well. It is somewhat buildable but not too much because it can turn cakey.

 Sounds really good does it not? Well, we are done with the good part and are moving on to the ugly part. It settles into pores and fine lines like nobody's business. If you take it under the eyes it will crease and gather into fine lines, same around the mouth and nose and god forbid you have proper wrinkles because this base will gather in them like it plans to party. It  also emphasized pores on my cheeks something horrid. Now you can work around this if you use a pore filling primer like Benefit's Porefessional and make sure you use a light hand on parts with pores and wrinkles and if you set it with powder. But you know what, that is a lot of work for a cushion foundation and I don't want to work that hard. This is a form of makeup that is supposed to be convenient and easy to use on the go and this one is not. I assume that on a younger, less textured skin these things would not be a problem but on my ageing skin it was. Shame this, cause I really liked the glow it gave. 

Considering the oil control, my skin is normal but I noticed I got a bit more oilier using this than my other base products, nothing alarming but I am not sure how much people with oily skin would like this. 

You can see how it settles even into tiny lines on my hand

To summarize:

The good:

- affordable and comes with a refill

- nice coverage and luminous finish

- good lasting power and does not transfer

The bad:

- it settles into fine lines and wrinkles

- it emphasizes pores

- not great oil control