One of my bigger makeup regrets is not having my finger on the pulse when it comes to Asian Beauty. Specifically K-Beauty, which has a huge following here in Australia. But even my ignorant ass couldn’t escape the virality of the Tir Tir Mask Fit Red Cushion Foundation. This red disk was all over social media. And for good reason. As they were one of the few Korean owned beauty brands that were making the steps to expand their range to as many different skin tones as possible.
Now, inclusivity is always a reason to celebrate. And it was truly heartwarming to see so many different people try and find their perfect shade of this foundation. The only question I had was ‘but how does it wear throughout the day?’ And I guess I’ll be the one to answer that! I’ve been wearing this for the last few weeks and I have plenty of thoughts. Let’s get into it!
TIRTIR MASK FIT RED CUSHION FOUNDATION – $40.00 – nudieglow.com.au
*40 Shades Available*
We’ll begin as we always do with the packaging. The Red Cushion Foundation is housed in a metallic red, ovular compact. There is mirrorised silver detail on the lid of the compact. But otherwise, the packaging is very sleek and chic. The plastic is lightweight and it’s comfortable to hold. One thing I will say is that the compact is slightly larger than many of the cushion foundations that I’ve seen in the past. But I do also know that there is a mini version of this out there too. The Red Cushion Foundation is cruelty free and contains 18g of product.
When you open the compact, inside you will find an ovular sponge that is your way of applying the foundation. It sits on the cover that protects the foundation from drying out. The sponge is small with the application side being black and the other side being red with a black band to slip over your fingers. There is a good amount of flexibility to the sponge which allows me to use this all over the contours of my face.
Let’s chat about the shade range for the Red Cushion Foundation. When it initially launched in Korea, there were only three shades in the range. 17C Porcelain, 21N Ivory, and 23N Sand. Which is fairly limited even for a K-Beauty brand. They then expanded the range to nine shades as the Red Cushion got more and more popular online. But it was the Beauty Youtuber Miss Darcei that really got the ball rolling with TirTir’s shade expansion.
For those who aren’t familiar, Darcei is a WOC content creator with a massive affinity for K-Beauty. Earlier this year, she made a TikTok asking them to call her if they ever want to chat about expanding their shade range into deeper skin tones. And I guess that conversation really went somewhere. Because as of today, Darcei is now TirTir’s Global Ambassador and the Red Cushion Foundation has a whopping 40 shades, With more coming out all the time.
As for the current shade range, there is still a strong lean towards the lighter shade categories. And there is a stark jump from the light-medium shades to the deep shades. I have to imagine that TirTir will expand on the deeper shades over time. One thing I will credit them for is the range of undertones available. There is a good split between cool, neutral, and warm undertones available for each shade range.
As for me, I wear shade 17N Vanilla. Which I did initially think would be too light for me. But because this shade does oxidise slightly, it ends up being a pretty spot on match for my neck and chest.
Now, I legitimately thought the hardest part of this foundation was going to be picking the right shade. But applying this foundation took a lot of trial and error on my part. The idea of this cushion foundation is that you’re mean to do a single dip of the finger sponge into the product, press it against the cover to make sure the product is evenly distributed, and then blend out the product by tapping the sponge around the face. For me though, I found that the finish I got was very heavy looking. And it looked especially cakey around my nose and chin. Even worse, the more I tried to blend, the more patchy it came across.
After speaking to a few friends that I knew had experience with this foundation, I eventually found my preferred method. I do the first two steps as normal. But instead of blending, I dot the sponge directly onto the face, making four oval shaped dots. I then use either a brush or a beauty blender (which was my preference) to blend the product out. The resulting finish was far more natural. It still covered up my dark spots, but my skin still looked like, well, my skin.
The Red Cushion Foundation is described as being a full coverage foundation with a blurred, semi matte finish. I’ve spoken about the coverage already. But I do like the finish overall. Like I said before, it’s very skin like. Natural, with a hint of radiance.
But now we have to get to the reason why I’m this this foundation in the first place. The wear test. And oh boy, did I ever pick a day to do this. We have been hitting highs of 41° as of late. And the surrounding bush fires have kept a thick blanket of smoke around Mount Isa. Making it feel much hotter than the temperature suggests. Despite all of that, this stayed on like a charm! I was sweating up a storm at work. And yet, I had no fading, no transfer, no nothing. I very easily could have powdered and kept wearing this well after I finished work.
Having said all of that, I do believe that the skin prep I did had a serious hand in how well this performed. I tried a ton of different primers underneath this foundation. And my preferred primer was actually the Brightening Youth Glow from Charlotte Tilbury (WHICH I AM JUST NOW FINDING OUT IS DISCONTINUED!!!). It added a good amount of nourishment to the skin and made it an ideal base to apply the foundation. I also liked this foundation with the Milk HydroGrip. But a primer that really didn’t work was the Glossier FutureDew. I think the oil based nature of that primer caused the foundation to break down in a way that I didn’t experience prior. So, if you’re using this foundation, definitely stick to more hydating, non oil based primers.
All in all, the TirTir Mask Fir Red Cushion Foundation is well worth the hype and gets an enthusiastic thumbs up from me. I will definitely continue to wear this as I love the way it looks on my skin. And the fact that it can stand toe to toe with the Mount Isa heat is a huge bonus. Have you tried the TirTir Mask Fit Red Cushion Foundation? Let me know in the comments.
Cheers and love
Emily xo
*Em’s Note* If you’ve read this far, first of all, thank you! You rule. But a quick bit of housekeeping. By the time you’ll be reading this, I’ll be on a short holiday. So no new post on Tuesday. But stay tuned for Thursday where I’ll have a fun, spooky surprise post!