New Gen: The Essence of Cili Bling
Beauty · 24 June 2026
Discover the cushion foundation behind our June BAZAAR New Gen cover, featuring Cili Bling and essence's Brighten Up! Cushion Foundation.
- Words
- Alisha Azuddin
The Essence of Cili
Few creators embody the joy of beauty quite like Cili Bling. As our June BAZAAR New Gen cover star, she approaches beauty as a form of self-expression, embracing colour, creativity and individuality in a way that feels entirely her own. Behind every statement look, however, is the same essential starting point: a fresh, natural-looking complexion.
That is where essence’s Brighten Up! Cushion Foundation comes in. Bringing together comfortable coverage, subtle radiance and on-the-go practicality in one compact, it creates a lightweight canvas that enhances your natural essence, allowing every look to feel authentically personal. Designed for everyday wear, it focuses less on heavy correction and more on creating skin that appears naturally brighter, smoother and more even with minimal effort.
What makes cushion foundations so enduring is their balance between practicality and finish. They are typically more lightweight than classic liquid foundations, yet still capable of delivering enough coverage to unify the complexion. This particular formula offers medium, buildable coverage that can be adjusted depending on how much product is applied, making it equally suited to quick daytime touch-ups or a more polished evening base.
For our June BAZAAR New Gen cover star, Cili Bling, beauty is ultimately about self-expression. A lightweight complexion product such as the Brighten Up! Cushion Foundation provides the ideal starting point, creating a fresh, radiant canvas while allowing her creativity and personality to take centre stage.
Importantly, the foundation avoids the overly flat effect that some long-wear formulas can create. Instead, it leaves behind a natural brightness that gives the skin a fresher quality that allows her to truly reign free creatively when it comes to make-up.
The formula is also vegan and free from oil and gluten, reinforcing essence’s wider approach to accessible beauty products that prioritise both comfort and wearability. Like much of the brand’s offering, it feels designed for real routines and real women.
Perhaps that is ultimately the appeal of the Brighten Up! Cushion Foundation. It does not attempt to completely transform the skin or cover every trace of texture. Instead, it focuses on making the complexion look fresher, brighter and more polished in a way that still feels effortless. Much like Cili’s approach to beauty itself, the emphasis is not on perfection, but on creating a base that allows personality, creativity and individuality to shine through.
To learn more and to shop the essence Brighten Up! Cushion Foundation, click here
Credits:
Photography: Edmund Lee
Videography: Jackie Mah
Creative direction and
Beauty
Director: Alisha Azuddin
Art direction: Khairani Ramli
Styling: Amalina Anuar
Hair: Mei Choi
Make-up: Kevin Lee
Production assistants: Syazrel Boharin and Elyca Casmad
Clothes: Zalora, Urban Revivo and Khoon Hooi
- Filed under
- cili bling
cushion foundation
essence
NEW GEN
