blk K Beauty To Go (Lunchbox) Bundle: Real K Beauty or Nah?

When blk cosmetics released a second iteration of their K Beauty collection, I was waiting with bated breath. I was excited to see this fairly well-reviewed, mostly-under P 500 brand come up with their interpretation of a K Beauty look. I am pretty protective of the K Beauty aesthetic, and find that Filipinos miss so many details and nuances to it, brushing it off as simply too light.

As a collection, I think the second blk K Beauty collection didn’t religiously adhere to Korean beauty, but this isn’t completely bad. I am all for the textures they achieved in this collection (particularly with the Soft Matte Mousse and the Sweet Lip Duo,) conflicted about the color curation, and hated the All Day Lip and Cheek Water Tint. To be fair, I hate most water tints for their inability to apply evenly on my dehydrated lips.

I have swatches and first impressions of the full collection in my Project Vanity article and a Youtube video. Here, I’m just going to go more in depth about the products I have, which is a variant of the To-Go bundle.

blk K Beauty-To-Go Bundle (PHP  1499)

The Intense Color Liquid Eyeshadow in Jasmine (PHP 299) is pretty neat! It’s liquid, but not thin enough for me to worry about it getting into my eyes. At the same time, it settles pretty flexible so I don’t really get crumbling or caking with it. Working with it is pretty easy as well. I just press and pull the product to dab on the color and diffuse the edges. I like the shimmer particles in this product. It looks metallic on the hand swatch but settles into a nuancedb shimmer when diffused on the lids. Sam has asked me if it dried up faster – because hers from the previous collection did. I didn’t find the texture to have changed much (it’s been two months) but I am worried about the stability of blk formulations, because their water tints evaporate like La Mesa Dam in El Niño.

Another shade is Daisy; a matte, medium pink.

My absolute favorite item in the collection is the Soft Matte Mousse in Carnation (P 397.) It has that velvet lip texture just right – soft, creamy, and dries flexible on the lips. It also diffuses my lip texture a bit, which is great! My only nitpick, and I admit this is personal, is that I find the rose blush color a bit intense. This is where most people may like it, because Pinays are fond of bold lips and pigmentation is definitely not a bad thing. I’ve just loved nuance of a slightly translucent lip color paired with a fluffy lip texture, which I find in most other Korean velvet formulations. 

The other shades are: Rose (rose), Plum Blossom (nude), and Hibiscus (deep nude).

One of the completely new items in this collection (aside from the gimmicky foundation and the two tone matte lip bar) is the Sweet Lip Duo in Tulip (P379.) Tulip has a pink scrub and an MLBB balm. I don’t find lip scrubs particularly useful, but the balm this comes with is very pretty! It has a thicker, waxier texture, which feels nourishing on freshly exfoliated lips. I was also pretty surprised to see really strong and even pigmentation on the balm!

The scrub itself is Japanese sugar suspended in a slightly wetter base than the balm. It has powdery particles rather than crystal ones. It’s easier and comfier to apply on the lips (vs sugar granule scrubs) but still won’t get those flakes of skin off.

 Another shade is Snowdrop, which has a white scrub and a mocha-colored balm.

I was pretty sad to see more of the All Day Lip and Cheek Water Tint in Pink (P299.) Though they applied much more evenly than I expected, they are still not even and the appeal of water tints will forever be a mystery to me. They may have nice fruity flavors, but they never apply evenly on even slightly dehydrated lips. They suck out moisture. They fade pretty fast. This one, in particular, is a hot mess for how quickly it evaporates. I have had mine for about two months and only dipped in like three times, but already there’s a sizable dent in the level.

Aside from evaporation, a problem with this product is that it apparently leaks (as I heard about the previous collection.) However, I took mine to Korea and had no problems at all carrying it in my luggage and purse, so at least this product solved that issue.

Other shades are Red and Cherry. 

This set sells for PHP 1499 comes in a cute lunchbox case worth PHP 249 and ordinarily comes with the Creamy All Over Paint (PHP 399) instead of the All Day Lip and Cheek Color Tint (PHP 299), which would have been waaaay preferrable.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about the collection. It’s not real K Beauty because all the nuance is just gone and replaced with in-your-face color. Maybe this amount of color is more wearable for Pinays, but even for the average morena I see these colors as being too dark-blue pink and not warm enough. Local companies will forever have a hard time with blue bases in their pinks and will never learn to experiment with the level of yellow in their color cosmetics (as Style Nanda and Club Clio have successfully done.)

I would have been more receptive if these were labelled differently. These are great products and the colors are enjoyable. But as it stands, I had certain expectations on color for a K Beauty collection. These are good products to have (and so affordable!) but they’re not really true to that K Beauty aesthetic.

blk cosmetics has free shipping for a minimum order of P 1999 at blkcosmetics.com.ph