This past month I have completely changed my beauty routine. Most of this is thanks to an amazing blog that I stumbled upon, Maskcara. Cara Brook is awesome! She taught me all about the wonders of highlighting and contouring, blending eyeliner, and wen. I have already recommended this blog to many friends. Even my sister, the makeup artist was impressed. Without further ado, here are some of my favorite beauty discoveries from the past month.

Pictured above : Maskcara IIId foundation in light (open) and medium, It Cosmetics dual ended brush, Tiger Balm, Lush cosmetics Aqua Marina face and body wash, and coconut oil.

IIId foundation highlights and contours while providing medium coverage. The darker colors are cooler and the lighter colors tend to be yellow based, which worked great under eyes and in any areas with redness. I have dry skin and this stuff was not drying at all. For oily skin I would recommend finishing with a mineral powder. Now, at first I was using this over my regular foundation, but I found that I just didn’t need that much coverage. It works better alone, over primer in my opinion. Now be forewarned there is a bit of a HAC learning curve involved with this product, but Maskcara does a great job of explaining how to use IIId with video tutorials. Practice makes perfect!

The It Cosmetics brush was a suggestion from Cara. It is an awesome foundation brush. My only gripe is that it seems to suck up the foundation and I feel that it wastes much more product than applying with fingers or a sponge (i.e. Beauty Blender). This is an issue because the IIId foundation in medium seems to be perpetually sold out on Maskcara.

I’ve been using Tiger Balm for sore muscles after skating. Perfecting my routine for Nationals right now, and I’ve taken more than a few dives. I actually wasn’t planning on including this, it just happened to be on the table.

Aqua Marina is a face wash that I’m glad I stumbled upon. I was perusing the local Lush store when this caught my eye. I originally bought it as a body wash, but it is better suited for the face. You mix a little with water and it ends up with a creamy-muddy texture. I still need to use makeup remover wipes, but this stuff is great in the morning. I’ve even tried using it as a mask with decent results. Here is a close up for texture:

It is a mud-like substance wrapped in seaweed. I think that I like this cleanser so much because it is not over-drying, oh, and it reminds me of mermaids.

Finally, the coconut oil. Okay, why didn’t I try this stuff out sooner? So far I have used it as a hair mask and split-end treatment with great results and I’ve made coconut lavender lip balm, which was super easy. There are so many great uses for coconut oil!

Well that was the April beauty breakdown. I have actually tried many other products this month. I’m planning to post more if I can stick with the blogger thing this time. I guess we will see!