A K-Beauty Review: The new Covericious bases from Banila Co

Foundation

Jul 23

Just when we thought that the K-beauty base hype has died down, something new and shiny came along and piqued our curiosity. The spotlight is on Banila Co’s recently released Covericious Power Fit line, which promises long wear, buildable coverage, and high skin adherence. What really intrigued me is that these beauty bases are formulated with hydrolized collagen for additional hydrating properties that cling better to the skin than regular collagen. As someone with dry skin that’s prone to flaking, I definitely needed to test that out!

The Covericious Power Fit Foundation (P1,795 for 30ml) comes in a luxe-looking glass pump bottle and has five shades to choose from. The formula feels light on the skin and dries with a slight tackiness that reminds me of how Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation feels on my skin. It has medium coverage that can fully cancel out the redness near my nose in just 1 to 2 passes. However, it doesn’t quite cover up blemishes and dark circles, so concealer is still a must. The finish is a satin matte. After setting it with some translucent powder, the foundation fades fully from the tip of my nose and my chin at the 5-hour mark, but stays on the rest of my face all day.

There are a couple things that I want to point out: first, this particular foundation does tend to emphasize dry patches on my cheeks. It’s very important to prep and hydrate skin well before applying the foundation. While the additional sun protection of SPF45 PA++ sounds good in theory, it unfortunately creates a white cast under bright lights and with camera flash. The formula also tends to look a little awkward on the pores during application then settles into them and gets patchy as the day goes on. I find that using a pore refining primer can help smoothen things out, and the Banila Co foundation brush (P895) is ideal for buffing the foundation on.

Next up is the Covericious Power Fit Cushion (P1,795 for 14g), which is recommended as an easy retouch for the Power Fit Foundation. It’s honestly quite pricey for a retouch compact, and there are no refills available. But worn as a base by itself, I found the formula to be light, comfy, and luminous with a dewy finish that doesn’t feel greasy. It doesn’t cover up redness or blemishes sufficiently even with 2 passes, so a concealer is needed for coverage. Because of its luminous appearance, the cushion compact wears more naturally through the day, versus the foundation formula. There was less obvious fading on the tip of my nose at the 5-hour mark.

Wearing Power Fit Foundation on the left, and Power Fit Cushion Compact on the right

Now, I wanted to discuss the shade range available because this is a common concern about Korean face bases. The foundation shade options are: Cream (peach-toned fair shade), Rose (pink-toned light-to-medium shade), Vanilla (yellow-toned fair shade), Peanut (yellow-toned medium shade), and Cinnamon (beige-toned shade and deepest color option). The shades are exact matches for the cushion compacts, except for Vanilla which doesn’t have cushion compact counterpart.

Swatches, from left: Rose, Peanut, Cinnamon, Vanilla, Cream

During the swatch session at the launch event, I noticed that the foundations tend to oxidize a bit. I recommend doing a thorough test before purchasing by wearing the shade closest to your skin tone for a good 15 to 20 minutes to see how the color settles. At first, I thought that my NC15-20 skin was matched to Cream, but Vanilla proved to be a more seamless match for my face and neck.