Comparison | 5 Korean Cushion Foundations

I love Korean cushion foundations, but finding the write shade for my skin tone with the coverage and finish that I like is pretty hard. I haven’t tried many, but when I go back to Korea I’ll definitely be hunting for the perfect Korean Cushion Foundation.

I like warm tone foundations with medium to full coverage that are buildable and have a healthy glow kind of finish.

The 5 Korean Cushion Foundations I have tried are:

• Hera UV Mist Cushion Ultra Moisture SPF34/PA++ Shade #23 Beige
• IOPE Air Cushion Cover SPF50+/PA+++ Shade #23 Beige
• Mamonde High Cover Cushion Perfect Liquid SPF 34/PA++ Shade #23 Beige
• Elensilia Escargot Original Repair Essence Foundation SPF50+/PA+++
• DPC Pink Aura Cushion SPF 50+/PA+++ Shade #21 Pink Beige

In this post, I will compare the shades, coverage and finish of these foundations.

I wasn’t able to take clear enough pictures of the foundations swatched on my face, as my camera couldn’t pick up the differences I could see in the mirror, so instead, in the picture below, you will see that I have swatched each foundation on a sheet of lined paper to see if the lines are still visible under the foundation (coverage test), how they look on the paper/ feel and look on my skin (finish test), and also how close in colour each shade is.

Shade

As you can see, at first they all seem pretty similar shade-wise, but if you look closely you may be able to tell that the Elensilia and DPC foundations have more of a pinky peach undertone whereas the Hera, IOPE and Mamonde ones have more of a warm yellow undertone (which is more suitable for me) – It makes sense as the DPC is #21 which is a shade lighter than what I usually wear, and the Elensilia only comes in one shade, so I guess it’s catered towards fairer skin tones. Now in terms of the 3 shade #23 Beige foundations, I would say that on me the Hera one is warmer with a light golden yellow undertone (so closer to my skin tone), whereas the IOPE and Mamonde actually look a little lighter on my skin.

Out of the 5 foundations, I prefer the shade of the Hera UV Mist Cushion Ultra Moisture SPF34/PA++ Shade #23 Beige. The DPC Pink Aura Cushion does come in a shade darker so I’m going to try that out sometime in the future and see how it goes.

Coverage

As you can see in the picture, they all seem a little patchy on the paper apart from the Mamonde one which definitely has more of a full coverage concentrated in the middle. On my skin, however, none of these foundations are patchy, instead, they are buildable and blend well. I would say out of the #23 Beige foundations, the IOPE one has light to medium coverage, the Hera one has medium coverage and the Mamonde has medium to full coverage but seems to settle in the pores. As for the DPC #21 Pink Beige, I’d say it is medium coverage, whereas the Elensilia definitely sits on the skin as sheer/light coverage.

Out of the 5 foundations, I prefer the coverage of the Hera UV Mist Cushion Ultra Moisture and the DPC Pink Aura Cushion. I would have also liked the fuller coverage of the Mamonde if it hadn’t settled in my pores and made them super visible.

Finish

You can’t really tell what the finish is like in the picture above, so I will just describe them here. The Hera foundation has a smooth almost satiny finish and gives my skin a nice glow without looking too shiny or caked on. The IOPE foundation gives a smooth glowy finish – you can’t tell by the picture but there is a slight thin greasy residue ring around the IOPE swatch that is seeped out from the foundation. The Mamonde foundation gives a smooth matte finish but also seems to clog pores and make them look more visible over time. The Elensilia foundation has a dewy essence like finish but not necessarily in a good way, on my combination skin type it seems more greasy and doesn’t blend as easily as the others – you can’t see in the picture but after a while an oily residue started to seep out of the foundation and form quite a large ring around the Elensilia swatch that extended all the way up to the bottom of the IOPE swatch. Finally, the DPC foundation has a nice smooth dewy glow finish that makes my skin look quite healthy and more alive.

Out of all 5 foundations, I prefer the finish of the Hera UV Mist Cushion Ultra Moisture and the DPC Pink Aura Cushion. 

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I did swatch the foundations on my arm in natural lighting but please note that my face is a shade darker than my arms (naturally tanned by sun exposure over the years) so it isn’t an accurate representation of what the shades look like on my face. I’ll still share the pictures below as it might be helpful. The natural lighting is a little different in each pic because of the sunlight coming through the window and the shades are more noticeable in person.

Have you tried any of these foundations? what did you think of them? If you know of any Korean Cushion Foundations that give good coverage with a nice dewy healthy glow please let me know in the comments 😀