Loreal Lumi Cushion Foundation

So here is the elusive L'Oreal Lumi Cushion foundation, I say elusive because it's sold out everywhere around me. I had to order this off Ulta. I got shade W2 because in the regular Lumi I wear W3 but I typically wear that in the summer. So I went a shade lighter to wear now, but really I was just shooting in the dark.

Unfortunately when I swatched this first it seemed a bit dark and even more so when it dried. This is a more expensive drugstore foundation as well! I paid $17 for this and price checked other places to make sure I wasn't getting ripped off. I wasn't, it was $16.99 everywhere I seen it. So I bought it from Ulta because I had points to use and plus I used $3.50 off $10 coupon at Ulta so I actually got it for a lot less. Also Walgreens is really good to have coupons to use on their beauty products as well. So I feel like you could get this for less if you were smart about it. So that's my advice if you want it, buy from Ulta and get $3.50 off if you have free shipping or buying it in store. If you can't get free shipping or go to a store, then try to find some coupons you can use at other places. The regular Lumi is $8-$10 and True Match is $7-$10. There are 12 shades I believe and a really good range actually from fair-dark skin tones. It's .52 oz and it is a liquid that comes out of the cushion. That's kind of a bummer because most foundations are around 1 oz. The regular Lumi is 1 oz with 15 shades and the regular True Match is also 1 oz with 24 shades. Both of those being quite a bit cheaper than this. I understand though it being less product because of the cushion packaging. If it had an entire ounce it might be super messy or really big packaging which wouldn't be convenient. 

The difference I feel between the regular Lumi and the Lumi Cushion is that: the original Lumi focuses mostly on hydration and luminosity with 40% pure water and vitamins to not only hydrate you but give you a healthier look. Which is great, but not great for oily gals. The Lumi Cushion is mainly marketed for it's different packaging it seems, but to me it's not necessarily a luminous finish but rather a natural finish initially which I really prefer. The plus side to this also is that the cushion seems to control the amount of product that comes out so you won't waste as much as you would with a pump possibly or an open top. Which for some people that might irritate, but to me I think that's pretty smart because you aren't wasting product.

This is what it looks like initially. The little pouf on top is something I probably won't use but it does seem like decent quality if you wanted to take this with you somewhere. Though I'm not sure it's gonna be best with travel and I'll explain below.

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So this is what the product looks like. As you can see a lot of product is already out of the sponge (or cushion). This was how the product arrived. It had a little sticker over it to keep it from running out which I really appreciated because there was a lot of product on the sticker too when I pulled it off. This is where I'm not sure if it's travel friendly because a lot of product came out with out me even pressing it. So if it were to be turned upside down then I'm afraid it would run out the sides or be super messy when you opened it. Other than that, I think the packaging is super cute and neat. 

**update: when I opened it, it had a lot of product already out, I'm assuming from transit. Once I used that excess foundation, it really didn't over produce product by just pressing on the cushion. Not to say that I would store this upside down or in my purse though.

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This is the swatch in W2. Like I said earlier its a bit darker than what I wanted but I think I can make it work, hopefully. What I'm really gonna be testing is to see it's coverage and if it oxidizes because it seemed like the swatch got darker once it dried. Quite a bit darker actually. So we're putting it to the test to see if that is indeed the case or if it actually wears better than it swatches.

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How I applied this was just pressing the cushion with my finger and dotting the product on the face. Not a ton of product comes out upon pressing on it which I really like. So hopefully it won't turn into a huge mess, like I originally thought. I used a kabuki brush from Morphe to apply it (M439) and it blended really really well and didn't break up any while blending. It had a really nice satin finish. Natural to satin finish I think but I lean more toward satin. The coverage on this is pretty good. It's medium coverage. I think if you build this up you could get full coverage. I had some redness around my chin and my forehead and I could still see that somewhat so you may want to color correct before hand or use a color correcting primer or BB cream. It wasn't that big of a deal to me though because my skin looked soft and smooth but not like a mask where it's one flat color. I would stick with a brush to apply it because I'm afraid a sponge or beauty blender would sheer the coverage even more and change the finish to a more luminous finish right off the bat, and the finish is what's really doing it for me right now. Upon applying this the color wasn't an issue. By blending it out and into the skin the color worked really well. I do think if you got too much product and it was also the wrong color you might would have an issue. I actually swatched it next to the regular Lumi I had in W3 and it's several shades darker than this one which is W2. The color chart may be different though for the Lumi Cushion and regular Lumi. So upon application I really am liking this and thinking that my previous negatives about the product aren't that big of a deal now seeing how it works on the skin. Tomorrow is the true test though. So we'll see.

  **Next Day Update**

So I applied this around 10 in the morning in the top pictures. I did some color correcting underneath the foundation because it wasn't gonna cover some redness I had. I used Makeup Forever Ultra HD Concealer in Y23 under my eyes and around the sides of my nostrils. We went to eat, I got my nails done, came home took down some more Christmas decorations and checked it again around 3 and it was super dewy and if I touched my skin it transferred to my fingers. So I took a clean flat top kabuki and just pressed the foundation in to absorb some of the oils and also buff out any streaks and what not, you could also use the pouf it comes with to do that. I didn't set mine all over just under the eyes and around the nose. It still got really dewy though even with setting it and using a mattifying primer. So while initially this applies really nautral and satiny it didn't really stay that way for more than 4 hours without needing to be touched up, to avoid getting super dewy. Then again it is a "Lumi" foundation so that's to be expected somewhat. If you're dry, then I think you would really like this. If you have a lot of redness or discoloration I think you're gonna need a BB cream, or color corrector underneath this. It says it can be built up but if you applied it like I did by just dotting it on with your finger then I think it would be time consuming. Not that it's not possible to do.

As far as color and oxidation. It only got slightly darker, which I'm really happy with and once I used a clean brush on it to buff it some and absorb some of the oil it looked really nice again. So if you're wearing it just take a pouf or brush with you and it's easy to fix if it get's too luminous or if it were to break up.

So my final thoughts are that this is a really good medium coverage foundation. It's less luminous (more fresh) than the original Lumi which I like. If you have relatively good skin, normal to dry, and don't want full coverage that looks like a mask, this is an ideal foundation. My main issue is that I really feel like this is expensive for a drugstore foundation. I feel like it should be around the $12 range at most. I understand packaging and what not is probably the cause for it being $17 but when I go to the drugstore or buy a drugstore foundation I don't intend on spending almost $20 on it, even though it is really cool packaging. Especially when there are some really good ones out there that are around $7-$10. So far I've only seen this at Ulta, Drugstore.com, CVS website, and Walgreens website (it says it's not sold in their stores). I didn't see it in store at Walmart and it's not on their website either. Let me be clear though, I do like this. I think it might be a dry girls dream come true in a foundation. My only real issue is the regular price of the product, but as I stated earlier there are coupons out there and sales so you could get this cheaper I think.