Before you think that banana powder is what you add to milk to make a Nesquik banana milkshake, think again.  The Ben Nye banana powder was made popular by Mario Dedivanovic, the make up artist behind the masterpiece that is Kim Kardashian’s face.  After the now infamous picture of Kim donning what looks like tiger stripes went viral, contouring as we knew it went bananas (literally) as units of this wonder product flew off the shelves.   Mario gave away the secret of the uniquely bright under eye triangle which has been imitated and duplicated across blogs and YouTube alike, and thus a phenomena was born.

I picked up a budget dupe for original Ben Nye product, the W7 Banana Dreams Loose Powder*.  The likes of MUA, Kiko, ELF, MAC & Stila all offer colour correcting powders in their base collections.  These powders are either individual coloured powders designed to target the specific areas above or a mosaic powder which combines them all for an all over correcting powder.

It’s all well and good to talk about colour correcting, but was it exactly?  Isn’t that what concealer is for?  Well, kind of.

• Green (Concealers & primers): cancels out redness
• Orange/Salmon (Concealers) : brightens dark under eye area
• Purple (Concealers, primers & powders) : brings life to dull yellow/sallow areas
• Yellow (Concealers and powders) : brightens areas where applied

Banana powder has a yellow tone to it which as per the above gives brightness where it is applied.

Typically a highlighting concealer is applied in an upside triangle beneath the eyes and then the powder is usually pressed under the eyes, left to “cook” on the skin for 5-10 minutes and dusted off with a light fan brush (I use the one from the Real Techniques Sculpting Set).  This is called “baking” and is favoured by drag queens and celebrities to achieve a dramatic contour.  The banana powder is also applied to the centre of the face.

The ingredients of the W7  Banana Dreams powder differs from the Ben Nye Luxury Powder in that this notes Silica as an ingredient.  Silica  not only helps with oil control but is also proven to provide a blurring of pores and fine lines, as well as being extremely comfortable to wear – its an ingredient found in the likes of the Make Up Forever HD Powder which contributes to achieving flawless skin.  This finely milled powder is velvety in texture, which when applied as a dusting under the eyes or on the t-zone as a highlighter provides a non cakey setting.

So how does the Banana Dreams powder which I picked up for £3.99 from the Beauty Outlet at Freeport Talke fair as a setting powder?  I like it.  It’s much finer in texture than loose powders I’ve used in the past, in fact it’s very similar in texture to the Bareminerals powder foundation. Instead of altering the shade of your foundation or giving your base a cakey finish, this powder only adds a smooth as a babies butt finish to the skin and does magically brighten sallow looking skin.  I’ve not yet tried out the baking technique, but I’m sure I’ll pull out all the stops once I have an occasion worthy of a contour fit for royalty…or Kim K.