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Lifestyle

Makeup-Setting Sprays vs. Life

It’s a well-known fact that living life often gets in the way of beauty. (The nerve!) Long days, sweat, humidity and the inability to stop touching your face will win out over even the best makeup… without a little help. 

Setting sprays promise to be invisible heroes, firmly securing cosmetics to prevent fading, smearing and smudging. Some even claim to moisturize skin while they’re at it. 

Do these products sound too good to be true? I put four sprays to the ultimate 12-hour test to find out if they could take me through the daily grind of commuting, work and nighttime events without a complete makeup meltdown.

After applying my makeup (I used the same primer, foundation, blush and eye products each day for a fair comparison), I sprayed each product on my face and allowed it to dry, then went about my usual routine, with one exception – I resisted the urge to -retouch. The only product I reapplied throughout the day was my lipstick. I photographed the results -approximately 12 hours later.

The rating system is as follows:

NNNNN Can withstand anything short of the apocalypse

NNNN Strong enough to survive the daily grind

NNN A solid product, but not perfect

NN Leaves something to be desired

Not worth your money


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Contender: 

Kat Von D Lock ‘N Load Makeup Setting Mist 

($30, Sephora)

Results: This product sprayed evenly and had no scent. I had quite a bit of smudging around my eyes by early afternoon and ideally would’ve liked to touch up my look. My blush seemed to disappear, and my skin didn’t appear any more balanced. It was a slight improvement on not wearing any spray at all, but this product didn’t pass the 12-hour test.

Rating: N


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Contender: 

Make Up For Ever Mist & Fix

($35, Sephora, 220 Yonge, 416-595-7227, and others) 

Results: This spray had no scent and took a bit longer to dry than some of the others. It definitely improved the staying power of my makeup, but I still noticed some slight eyeliner smudging at the end of the night. Despite my promise not to retouch, I caught myself wiping away a couple of dark smears around my eyes (near midnight, to be fair). This product claims to hydrate, and I do feel it helped keep my skin radiant without looking shiny.

Rating: NNNNN


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Contender: 

Hard Candy Fast & Fabulous Makeup Setting Spray

($6, Walmart, 1000 Gerrard East, 416-461-8778, and others) 

Results: Hard Candy’s spray was significantly cheaper than the other test subjects and surprisingly effective. The bottle sprayed the most evenly out of all the products, coating my face with a very fine mist rather than large drops of liquid. It had no scent and was weightless.

The spray succeeded in helping my makeup last longer than it would otherwise. However, there was some slight smudging of my eye

makeup by nighttime, and it didn’t have the added benefit of preventing dryness.

Rating: NNN


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Contender: 

Kryolan Fixing Spray

($24.49, 110 Lombard, 416-968-6212)

Results:  The non-aerosol-spray pump bottle made it a bit hard to apply the product evenly. It also had a pretty intense smell at first, but it dissipated after a few minutes. Do not get this in your eyes. It will sting… badly. I could feel the product gripping and forming a filmy layer over my skin as it dried, but it wasn’t sticky or restricting afterwards. The day I tested Kryolan’s spray was extremely hot and I was pretty overdressed (read: I perspired a lot). Despite that, it definitely held my makeup together, and I didn’t even feel the need to retouch once. The product was a bit too shiny for my taste, so next time I would apply a bit of translucent powder on top to counteract that.

Rating:NNNNN

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