A:Concept Make Your Concept Black Set Review

Merry Christmas everyone!! This year we've decided to spend Christmas in a more quiet chill-day style. I honestly thought it'll be dull at first, but surprisingly a nice and quiet family bonding session over toffee nut frappuccino followed by grocery shopping was actually quite enjoyable. Plus, mom made wagyu beef burgers + salad for dinner!

Anyways Christmas aside, today I'm here to share another makeup review! By now ya'll probably know how much I love finding quality multipurpose makeup products that I could bring along with me when I travel right? So if you're into "space saving" products, be sure to read this review! :D

Today's review is on this Make Your Concept Black Set from the K-beauty brand A:CONCEPT. I've previously heard of A:CONCEPT but have yet to try any of their products before so this'll be more of a first impressions on the brand + full review on this set. In this set you get 4 products, and it retails on Althea for RM106 so let's see if it's worth it or not!

Upon opening, you'll see 4 products nicely packed in the box.

From left to right you get:
1. All-in-one brightening A:Cushion (RM66) (casing + cushion)
2. Everything in A:Coral Lip&Cheek (RM27)
3. A:Red Orange Lipstick (RM23)
4. All-in-one brightening A:Cushion refill pack (RM26)

so if you were to buy the products separately you'll be spending RM142.

q u i c k    m a t h s     w i t h     c a n d a c e    

hahaha pls keep reading.

Before opening it kinda just looked like a fun set of makeup products but after opening it feels like the perfect Christmas gift for a K-Beauty fanatic!

Sometimes I'm a #21 and sometimes I'm a #23. Most of the time, I'm in between hahaha. Though for this set #23 matched my skin tone pretty well. It may be a tad bit darker than my neck but I'm sure if I were to get a #21, it'll be way too fair for me.

A:CONCEPT All-in-one Brightening A:Cushion #23 Natural Beige (RM66 incl. casing // RM23 refill only) 

This is the first product I'd like to talk about as it's the main star of this set. For starters, I'm quite satisfied with the simple product design but I'm not a fan of its material. The material used doesn't look cheap or anything but it looks pretty obvious when dust settles on it :( Small matter though and as long as I keep it in my makeup pouch/bag, it'll be fine.

After peeling off the usual hygiene seal you get the cushion. So in this set you technically get 2 cushions. Scent wise this BB Cushion does have a very very faint pleasant scent to it.

By the way, this BB Cushion does have SPF 35, and PA++. It also claims to help in whitening, anti-wrinkles and provide UV protection.

I've already done my brows and eye makeup so here's a look on my current skin condition. (Only face products applied is my moisturizer + Benefit Porefessional primer) If you've read my previous blog posts ya'll would already know that for the past 2 years my skin has been quite prone to acne. Although it's getting better now, I still have acne here and there but most of what you're seeing on the pic above are acne scars :(

Here's one layer of A:CONCEPT's All in one brightening A:Cushion #23 Natural Beige.

Two words. I'm impressed!

Although the darker spots are still peeking through the foundation, overall coverage is still pretty good for a first layer. The BB Cushion puff felt more firm compared to other puffs I've used previously but application wise I don't feel much of a difference. Blending the foundation onto my skin was fairly easy. From the shade name Natural Beige, I do agree that the foundation does seem more of sandy-yellow tone.

Closeup unflattering angle shot. You can still see the bumps on my face when you zoom in this close but because this foundation has a dewy finish, it's less drying compared to matte finish BB Cushions. Personally I prefer getting dewy finish BB cushions and then get rid of the dewy-ness myself with a loose powder. That way it's less drying lol. Cause I can assure you if I were to get a matte finish foundation, I'd still powder it and it'll dry my skin like cray!

How not to fake-model-pose 101. Anyways, finished up the other half of my face and honestly I think for a simple outing, this amount of coverage is more than enough.

But for the sake of this review, I did a second layer to see how far the coverage goes and how it feels on my face. From here you can see that it did hide a little more of my acne scars but they're still peeking a bit. So for coverage I'd say this is a medium coverage BB Cushion. 

As far as how it feels, it's very lightweight. Almost feels as if I have nothing on my skin. But hor, when I smile, you do see the smile lines area looking a little dry.

Jeng jeng jeng! Apart from the formula of this BB Cushion that I'm quite happy with, I'm even happier with it's travel-hack concept hoho. Not just for packing wise but for touch-up, this is also pretty handy. By keeping your lipstick/lip&cheek stick together with your BB Cushion, you won't lose it easily!

A:Red Orange lipstick (RM23) // A:Lip&Cheek Coral (RM27)

Amount of product you get in the A:Red Orange lipstick.

Amount of product you get in the A:Lip&Cheek Coral.

Here's swatches on my hand. Both products has a different formula to it. The Red Orange lipstick was more of a matte lipstick formula and the Coral lip & cheek one had a creamy formula.

Even though the A:Red Orange lipstick wasn't marketed as a multipurpose lip + cheek product like the coral one, I still blended out to see if it works haha. So although it is blend-able, I personally wouldn't recommend it haha. Cause if you look properly, you could see that it's not blended out nicely and fyi I've been blending with my finger for about half a minute?

Since the A:Lip&Cheek Coral is a creamy formula, it blends out easily to a natural peachy blush.

Couldn't decide on an eyeshadow for this look and I wanted to go for something simple so I applied the A:Lip&Cheek Coral on my eyelid then blend it out with my finger. After that I topped it off with a burgundy eyeliner and that's my eye makeup. So y'know how if you use cream shadows you'll have to set it with powder? Surprisingly despite me forgetting to set it with powder, this A:Lip&Cheek product didn't crease on my eye :o You can now re-name to A:Lip,Cheek&Eye

Here's how A:Lip&Cheek Coral looks on the lips + cheek. The camera isn't picking up the blush but A:Lip&Cheek Coral gives you a very natural peachy flush as a blusher that I really like!

Other than that I also really like how the colour looks on my lips in photos but not a fan of how it sits on my lips :(

The formula of this lipstick feels very thick on my lips and you could also see my lips peeking through slightly. From far it's actually ok one, but up close, not so. This issue aside, I still really love the colour!

 definitely not kiss proof.

Finally we have A:Red Orange lipstick. This one has a matte formula and it's not drying either. I also like how it sits on my lips. The formula was pigmented enough that my lips aren't peeking through like the coral one. Didn't manage to snap a picture but this red orange lipstick isn't transfer-proof either.

From first glance you could tell that it's a really sharp red-orange colour. It's a very christmasy shade and although I don't see me wearing it on an everyday basis, I certainly find this red stunning!

Another angle!

By the way the A: Red Orange lipstick does leave a slight stain after removing.

Overall what I love most about this set would be the cushion, and also the A:Lipstick. If red-orange is too bright for you, you could always opt for another colour here~ 

The A:Lip&Cheek Coral is a gorgeous colour, it worked great as a cream blush & eyeshadow but for a lipstick, I still can't get over the part where my lip peeks through ever so slightly T_T

One last thing, personally I feel that from a "beauty on the budget" perspective, I think this BB Cushion really makes the cut. For RM66 (and only RM26 for a refill) I think it's really worth the buck lo. It doesn't give a full coverage but the coverage is decent and light-weight enough for every day wear.

If you're interested in getting a set for yourself, you can purchase it from Althea HERE.

Ciao ciao!

Merry Christmas!!

{{ 31/12/17 - Update }}

I went on a one day trip to Genting the other day and brought this set along with me to see how it fairs as a legit mini travel makeup kit and here are my thoughts on it.

1. In terms of space saving it's great because I can keep one lipstick + the BB Cushion in my handbag at all times leaving more room in my makeup bag lol.
2. As long I exfoliate my lips, I could use the coral lipstick properly by patting it on my lips with my finger. That way the product doesn't sit horribly on the cracks of my lips.
3. Mixing both coral + red gives a very nice colour that is not too sharp
4. The BB Cushion was quite long wearing. I half expected nose area to be missing a patch cause I've been blowing my nose all day from sinus allergies but surprisingly I didn't need to touch up my foundation all day.
5. Also did the same "coral lipstick eyeshadow" trick and it lasted the entire day too!
6. Lipstick needed touch up after half a day.


* This product is sent to me for a review but all opinions stated are 100% mine *