Review: A’Pieu x Rilakkuma Air Fit Cushion Blusher in ‘VL01’ and ‘CR02’.

Oh, look. Another collaboration on the K-Beauty front. I’m a more than just a little skint, at the moment.

 

THE BACKSTORY: A’Pieu is a Korean cosmetic brand that offers a wide variety of makeup products at a very affordable price. They have some skincare products as well but their makeup line is more extensive and popular.

 

Recently, A’Pieu unveiled a collaboration with an extremely popular Japanese fictional character, Rilakkuma. There are eyeshadow quads, tints, cushions, cushion blushes and mascaras in this collection, I believe. I’ll link stores that sell this collection at the end of the post, like always.

 

Whether or not you want to get suckered into these collaborations is completely up to you. You can either be a fan of these characters or you can just wish to try out some new products, with Limited Edition packaging.

 

Let’s open ‘VL01’ together! \(^.^)/

 

 

WHAT IS A CUSHION? : If you’re unfamiliar with the whole concept of cushions and how they work, let me explain it to you. Cushions come with the product, be it your BB Cream or blush, soaked in a sponge-like thing. For base products or blushes, you get a state-of-the-art air puff for application, making it a sponge-on-sponge application. What you essentially do is pat the air puff on your face. You must not drag it. They are meant to be travel friendly (most include a mirror)  and extremely handy for touch-ups.

 

 

THE PRODUCT: By now, I’m sure you are all aware of how cushion products work and that explanation was unnecessary.

 

These, essentially, are liquid blushes. I say liquid because these are a lot wetter than the other cushion blushers I’ve tried to date. Depending on your how bright you like your blush to be, you may find them to be quite sheer. They may look pigmented and opaque in their swatches but once you start blending them out, they settle into a barely-there flush of colour. Even if they are on the sheerer side, they can be built up to your preference. They are extremely glowy and dewy looking; imparting a very healthy gloss to the cheeks the moment you dab the air-puff.

 

One thing you’ll notice right away is how lightweight they are. Even if you build them up to suit your taste, you won’t be burdened by a huge layer of liquid blush, sitting on top of the cheeks. They are very airy and feel weightless. (Compared to the Missha cushion blush, these are softer and a lot more lightweight.)

 

They do have a tendency to slip and slide if you don’t set them. If you want to ensure they last a good amount of time, you can set them with a powder blush of a similar hue or with a translucent powder. If you have dry skin, you can skip this step.

 

Anyway, this cushion product is your usual soaked-sponge type (unlike the Missha cushion blush, that disposed product through a net). The packaging is adorable; it is made of a very sturdy plastic and it even contains a nice mirror inside. . Every different shade has different photos of Rilakkuma on top. It’s much smaller than BB cushion compacts. The air-puff they provide with it is a lot stiffer than the ones you get with BB cushions. And, of course, it’s a lot smaller in size too.

 

 

SHADES AVAILABLE: There are 5 shades of this cushion blusher available with this LE packaging. Cushion blushes with the regular packaging come in the same 5 shades.

• PK01 – A warm toned pink.
• CR01 – An peachy coral.
• CR02 (shown in this post) – A true bright coral.
• VL01 (shown in this post) – A soft pinkish-lilac.
• BR01 – A muted brown shade, meant for bronzing/shading.

 

 

SWATCHES: Like I mentioned before, if you swatch them the traditional way, you’ll be blown away by how opaque and pigmented they look. However, once you blend them out, they will appear more toned-down and look like a natural flush. That is, if your natural flush is lilac. Hahaha. No? Okay.

 

 

PRICE AND QUANTITY: $5 – $11 (depending on where you buy it from) for 10 grams of product.

 

AVAILABILITY: testerkorea.com ($5.87, regular packaging available here), ibuybeauti ($8.80), twofacemall ($10.95), jolse ($9.90).

 

♥ Overall, I like this cushion blush just a smidge more than the Missha one. It’s lighter and looks prettier. As for the insane number of collaborations these K-Beauty brands are producing, it’s completely your choice – as in, you get to decide whether or not you want to get swayed by the cute LE packaging. If you’re someone who’s interested in Gudetama, Rilakkuma (I definitely am not), it’s fine if you cave. At the end of the day, the choice is yours.