Ben Nye Banana Luxury Powder is basically savior, my makeup messiah if you will! As you know I adore Skin Food Salmon Dark Circle Powder but for reasons unknown to me Skin Food discontinued it! Skin Food Salmon Concealer, Eye Cream, and Serum are still very much alive and kicking but the powder has disappeared completely.

Sadness.

I’ve worked hard at finding a few replacements and some worked, some not so much! Many readers have asked me if I ever tried Ben Nye Banana Luxury Powder but they were referencing my face not a replacement for my beloved Skin Food Salmon Dark Circle Powder.

So I recently purchased Ben Nye Banana Luxury Powder and I was delighted that it ended up being a fairly nice replacement for Skin Food’s version!

I specifically purchased Ben Nye Banana Luxury Powder after reading about it and seeing swatches to replace my Skin Food Salmon Dark Circle Powder and I’m delighted that it does a beautiful job doing the same thing that Skin Food’s formula did!

This is considerably a darker yellow compared to Skin Food’s version and the texture is slightly different as well but it does a beautiful job brightening up my eyes and setting my concealer almost as well as Skin Food’s formula so I’m not complaining too much!

It comes in a 1.5 oz shaker jar for around $10-$20 depending where you purchase it. I believe Ricky’s carries it but I haven’t had a chance to hop into Ricky’s recently because I’ve been running crazy so I just got it off of Amazon for $15 bucks and with Prime the shipping was free (it isn’t sold by Amazon but it was sold by a seller who supported Prime Shipping).

The packaging is a little goofy as you’ll be sprinkling into the lid and buffing onto your eyes or face. I have a few back ups of Skin Food Powder so a near empty one I dumped into another and just used the now empty jar to shake some of the Banana Powder into! Ah much better!

It’s understandable why people swear by this for use on their face as it is a talc base which means it does wonders for shine. For those of us with drier skin the powder is finely milled and fairly silky so it’ll blend out very well without clinging to drier areas of our face. Your best bet though is proper prepping and priming prior to applying anywhere on your face.

But as I said I didn’t purchase it for setting my makeup and rarely do I use setting powder! This one was for concealer use only. After applying my cream concealer I follow up with my eye makeup and finish up my entire face. I typically dust on Salmon Dark Circle Powder as the very last step in my makeup application even after I apply lipstick so I did the same with Banana Powder.

I used a small blending brush to simply sweep a little under my eyes and done! It sets my concealer for an all day finish and most importantly it isn’t completely transparent so it does have a little brightening power to it. And since it is yellow it diffuses the look of darkness while brightening so you can use it on bare, concealer-free eyes as well!

Absolutely loves it.

If you never tried Skin Food Dark Circle Powder this is an excellent replacement because you won’t know what you’re missing! If you have used Skin Food Dark Circle Powder and are missing it this isn’t an exact dupe BUT it is a fairly great replacement.

If you have issues with an oily under eye area that has issues with creasing concealer or even if your concealer simply won’t last all day or even if you have drier eyes don’t be scared of this! You’ll love it! Promise!

Awesome stuff.

Muse Approved!

The post Ben Nye Banana Luxury Powder Review & Swatches appeared first on Musings of a Muse.

Read ahead to find out if it was a trash or a stash.

Ben Nye Red Neutralizer is specially designed to conceal intense redness due to bruising, acne, broken capillaries, etc….so of course it was a rather a silly idea to purchase it for use as an under eye concealer.

I unintentionally purchased this off of E-bay after hearing the wonders of Ben Nye products as a concealer. Little did I know that the concealer was used for treating redness not dark circles. Considering the E-bay description was completely wrong describing the product I ended up with a white base that’s almost gray in color which was definitely not something which would turn out useful as an under eye concealer.

The E-bay seller said that this particular shade could be used to brighten the eye area and could be used as a base prior to foundation for brightening the face and concealing problem skin. Considering I don’t have a problem with my skin aside from icky puffy, dark circled eyes I wasn’t looking to conceal much but turns out that the product works quite well at brightening up my completion when I use a very tiny dab!

The product is nice and creamy plus has a nice rich pigmentation. It smooths under eyes fairly well to brighten the eye area up. I took note that it kinda sorta works like the white powder that comes with the Bobbi Brown Concealer Palette or the mineral finishing powder in the Laura Mercier Camouflage Pot.

Interestingly enough I thought the product worked as a great prep prior to applying concealer or foundation. Remember though a simply dab will do otherwise you’ll be ghastly white looking if you go overboard. I use a tiny amount under my eyes followed up with my own concealer and it seems to do well at covering up my puffy eyes and my dark circles. A little dab around the sides of my chin and under my upper lip brightens my face up and hides any dull, darker areas on my skin. Follow up with foundation where ever you apply so the finish is more natural.

The product is slightly drying under my eyes so I have to be sure to prep and prime well prior to use as although it has a nice formula that’s soft and silky, it still manages to feel a tad on the drying side.

Although the product is meant to neutralize red I made as much use of it as possible for a few other things and I think I’ll consider purchasing it again should I run out as I’m starting to like it more than my normal skin whitening routine! I only paid $8 USD so of course I’ll be going back to try out a better shade for use under my eyes as I’m positive I’ll be able to find a more suitable color to use.

Have you tried Ben Nye concealers?

Loves it?

Leaves it?

Tell the Muse!

The post Ben Nye Red Neutralizer Review appeared first on Musings of a Muse.