Rankings

• Poor
• Fair
• Good
• Very Good
• Excellent

First Impressions

Masckara (aka Cara Brook), crazy talented beauty blogger and queen of HAC-ing (don’t for a second even THINK that it’s Kim Kardashian) has a makeup line and despite a few difficulties, I can’t help but like it.

This is a far cry from traditional foundation that can make your face look one dimensional and meh. The theory and application process are completely different and there can be a bit of a learning curve, especially when figuring out your own face shape and where exactly each shade needs to go. Luckily Cara is way ahead of the game and her charming and informational tutorials make it super easy (in theory).

The travel-friendly palette comes with two cream foundations (one highlight and one contour), a blush, and pearl highlighter. The coverage is light/medium and the creamy formula doesn’t feel greasy. It takes some getting used to but once you have the application method down it goes much quicker.

I loved the contour shade, but there was something about the lighter highlighting foundation that I could never get quite right. If I didn’t blend meticulously (often times I was a little too thorough and blended it away, completely defeating the purpose) it seemed to sit on top of my skin and never quite mesh. The blush and pearl highlight shades were beautiful and made the foundation pop.

Cream formulas are tricky on my combination skin (this scorching October isn’t helping), so unless you’re pretty dry, make sure to set this with a finishing powder. Without it I found that the foundation was pretty much gone by lunch (#fail).

As for the brush, I really like it but wish it was a bit denser for picking up the product. It feels luxurious and the fact that it’s double sided makes life much easier.

So basically during this testing period I’ve run the spectrum of loving this and borderline hating it. After much experimentation I think this product is worth trying as long as you can remain patient during the trial period. This isn’t as game-changing as I hoped but is still a solid product.

Side Note: If you’ve never been on her blog (what are you even doing all day?) go there now. It is a beautiful time-suck of gorgeous before-and-afters, killer tutorials and good vibes.