From fragrant body creams to candy-sweet lip balms, bananas are sweeping through the beauty industry one formula at a time
Beauty has gone bananas. Fragrances smell like banana daquiris, lip balms taste like Nesquik milkshakes, and moisturisers call on the fruit’s colour-correcting hue. It’s surprising – bananas don’t exactly scream high-fashion – but, in today’s crowded beauty landscape, formulas must do more than just work. In order to stand out, products should look beautiful, smell beautiful, even taste beautiful. A product must stimulate all the senses. For this, the humble banana is an obvious recruit.
From Prada to Ole Henriksen, here is our guide to the best of bananas in beauty.
Taste it
A decade ago, Glossier’s Balm Dotcom swiftly achieved cult status as a hydrating hero for lips and dry skin, thanks to its hard-working cocktail of lanolin, castor oil, beeswax and antioxidants. Meanwhile, New York’s Magnolia Bakery is visited from far and wide, famous for its Banana Pudding. Today, the two brands have joined forces to bottle the taste of fresh bananas, vanilla wafers and fluffy vanilla in a delicious collaboration. The resulting salve is clear, nourishing, not sticky – and it tastes like the Nesquik milkshakes of our childhood. Use with gleeful abandon wherever your skin needs rescuing.
For quick on-the-go lip care, the Prada Balm in banana yellow is an unexpected ode to Prada’s Spring/Summer 2011 collection, cocooning lips with a hydrating complex of bifidus extract and jojoba oil – all in a clean and bright yellow bullet. The subtle banana scent smells nostalgic, but the balm’s real allure is in the sheer golden lustre it leaves behind.
Spritz it
27 87’s Hakuna Matata is unconventional. At first spritz, top notes of bergamot and green banana pierce the senses with an artifical, sweet soapiness – like aldehydes mixed with foam banana sweets. Initially disconcerting, it peels away to middle notes of ripe banana, jasmine and orange flower, landing on honey and labdanum base notes. The resulting juice is musky, warm, creamy and addictive – it’s the perfect company all year round.
Nanatopia by Borntostandout is, like traditional sweet gourmand perfumery, much sweeter – but this is where the orthodox approach begins and ends. Spliced by spicy cinnamon with nutmeg top notes, met with rum and melted caramel, Nanatopia smells like a boozy banana bread, fresh out the oven – warm and light.
Wear it
Working to mimic the effects of makeup, Ole Henriksen’s Banana Bright Eye Crème uses banana powder-inspired pigments and vitamin C to brighten and blur dark circles. It smells medicinal and sweet, like old-fashioned sun cream or children’s medicine, and the pleasing pastel yellow formula is as thick as custard and yet absorbant and intensely moisturising, leaving behind no heavy residue.
