Earlier this week, I received my IOPE Air Cushion XP Matte Finish in the mail. I had been pretty excited to try this new offering from the IOPE Air Cushion line, since it was the cushion compact that had started it all — selling a unit every 30 seconds in Korea at the height of its popularity — and I had found the original too dewy for my tastes.

The trend in Korea for the past couple of years has been dewy, bordering-on shiny skin. As such, I held off on buying a cushion ‘pact at first because they would only leave my combination/oily skin a greasy mess by the end of the day. So imagine my delight when both Innisfree and Laneige released matte (at least by Korean standards), long-lasting versions of their popular cushions last summer: the Innisfree Long Wear Cushion and the Laneige BB Cushion Pore Control.

And since I already own both, I decided to face them off against my new IOPE Matte Finish!

As you can see from the photo above, all three cushion compacts are of similar sizes. (And although I haven’t a picture to show you, they’re similar widths too.) However, I have read that while the Laneige and IOPE refills can fit in each others’, as well as in other cushion compact cases made by their parent company AmorePacific, the Innisfree refill can not.

Just based on product packaging alone, I would crown Laneige the winner. The case is sturdy and feels luxurious, and although the IOPE case is just as fancy, I personally prefer the light blue, incased-in-glass look of the Laneige.

Open the cases and you won’t notice much of a difference either. Each compact comes with the typical blue cushion applicator. (I clean my sponges weekly with the Daiso Detergent for Puff and Sponge. Nothing else gets these sponges this clean for so cheap!) The sponge holder acts double-duty as a snap-on lid for the makeup-soaked cushion.

The texture of the cushions may look different in the photo below, but please be assured that they’re very, very similar. The Laneige cushion looks a bit weird because it was upside-down in my bag, and the texture of the IOPE cushion is what’s typical of a new cushion ‘pact. (In other words, it will look more like the Innisfree cushion with continued use.)