Lancome's Miracle Cushion Foundation Liquid Cushion Compact SPF 23/PA++ is the first cushion foundation from a Western brand (if not one of the first), and it seems to be launched to much aplomb and fanfare in the West, (it hasn't hit this part of the world yet, though!). I found this entire trend interesting - while Western makeup and beauty trends are still exported to Asia, it also seems like the cross-pollination of beauty trends definitely goes both ways now. From the advertising I've been seeing Lancome do in the Western market, I was slightly amused to see that it was launched in the West to such fanfare and noise, with collaborations with Lisa Eldridge, Penelope Cruz modeling the product, Instagram hashtags, a mini-movie, and a microsite proclaiming the "new technology inside".
Lancome Miracle Cushion Foundation: Launched with guns blazing! (
Source)
I had a bit of a "Whoa, Nelly!" moment at all the fanfare, because BB cushions and cushion foundations have been popular in Asia for awhile. And like all beauty products, it is very much a trend-based phenomenon, and more marketing gimmick that actual substantial formulation change. I've written previously about
BB creams (and CC creams) and whether they justified the hype behind them, and also
BB and CC cushions and whether the product was worth the hype as well, so I thought it would be interesting to take a similar ingredients analysis-based approach to Lancome's Miracle Cushion. (On a totally unrelated side note, I find it interesting that Lisa Eldridge - I absolutely admire her, by the way - is holding the cushion applicator puff the way you would a normal foundation sponge when applying traditional liquid foundation, rolled up in her hand. I've never seen anyone in Asia apply their cushions holding the applicator this way, because you could tear the thin applicator puff over time. Most people I've seen just press the puff flat to their face with tapping motions to blend, rather than roll or rub the applicator across the face.)
Lancome Miracle Cushion Foundation: Collaboration with Lisa Eldridge (
Source)
I thought an interesting question to explore would be: From a formulation perspective, is the Lancome Miracle Cushion actually any different from the myriad of Korean BB cushions and cushion foundations we have here already? In fact,
since BB cushions and CC cushions are really just souped up versions of BB creams and CC creams, are they even any different from your run-of-the-mill BB cream? Or, for that matter, a more traditional tinted moisturizer or foundation?
I thought this question was worth exploring, although I've already written about BB/CC Cushions before, because there is often a perception that Western BB creams/CC creams are somehow "inferior" to Asian BB and CC creams, although, as I've blogged before, from a formulation perspective, they're not significantly different. In fact, when I first blogged about
BB creams and how they weren't really worth the hype a few years back, I got a bunch of feedback from some diehard BB cream fans saying that I was doing the analysis wrong, and that I needed to look at Asian BB creams because those were so much better than Western BB creams (nevermind that 1. I'm an Asian girl born, bred, and living in Asia, and 2. I looked at primarily Asian brand BB creams for that post). I guess what I'm trying to find out here is whether this perception of a Western BB/CC Cream/Cushion/Foundation is really justified by the ingredients, and since Lancome has just launched its Miracle Cushion, it seemed like the perfect time to compare a Western Cushion to several Asian ones, and see if there was really any difference!
