Breaking Beauty: Do Setting Sprays really work?

Be it over-the-top-clickbaity-instagram beauty gurus or mainstream YouTube beauty gurus, they ALL love their setting sprays ranging from Morphe to Make Up Forever to MAC fix plus. Setting sprays have been quite the craze for a while now and, being a make up lover, I had to own the MAC fix plus and have been using it for years now but I’m not too sure if it actually lives to the hype or to its claims. 

I have oily to combination skin and usually after a long day without touch ups, my foundation would have smudged over my T zone and around my mouth and, this has been happening for years. So this got me thinking, if I’m using a setting spray it should keep my make up on and smudge proof for the entire day but that’s not the case. 

Maybe it’s the type of foundation I’m using or the primer? I usually use the Maybeline FIT ME foundation and the Benefit porefessional primer. What if the setting spray *only* works with MAC products? And so, I went and bought myself the MAC prep plus prime moisture infusion and their studio fix foundation, all in the name of science!

I tested this combination out for a span of 14 days. The foundation really did not mesh well with my skin, it was quick to oxidize and made me look like Annoying Orange for 2 whole weeks. 

 On the other hand, the primer was nice, it felt highly moisturizing and did not make my full face of make up look cakey. And now,  to address the elephant in the room- Did the setting spray do its job!?No. It was disappointing but I did anticipate the result. 

This led me to research the ingredients used in MAC setting sprays and what I found will leave you shocked. Here are the list of ingredients and what purpose they actually serve:

Water: Moisturizes your skin

 Glycerin: Moisturizes your skin

 Butylene Glycol: Holds moisture

 Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract: Refreshes your skin

 Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Extract: Natural Moisturizer 

 Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract: Anti Oxidant: really helps mature skin

Tocopheryl Acetate: AKA Vitamin E: reduces signs of aging

 Caffeine: A vasoconstrictor, reduces inflammation 

 Panthenol: An alcohol that helps with wound healing, eczema

 Arginine: Anti aging properties

 PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil: Used as an emulsifier

 PPG-26-Buteth-26: Reduces appearance of flaking by providing a supple touch to the skin

 Disodium EDTA: Used to reduce effects of metal ions, if any from further reacting 

 Phenoxyethanol: Anti bacterial, potentially harmful

So if you went through that long and boring list, you know that there is no ingredient in there which makes your make up long lasting. The main function of the MAC setting spray is to hydrate your skin and leave a dewy finish. So if you’re thinking of buying this setting spray, my suggestion would be not to, because it’s not really a setting spray it’s more in the alley of a facial mist – like the Mario Badescu rosewater mist. I’d rather invest in a powder such as the Mac Studio Fix powder which keeps my make up in place and mattified. 

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