I don’t know how any makeup wearer lives without setting spray, but for oily skins I do recognise it has pitfalls as well as many benefits.
Setting spray keeps makeup in place when warm weather might otherwise melt it away, and allows for creamier, more flattering products to be used in place of powders. But it also cuts through the dusty look of any powdery makeup to give it a softer, more youthful finish.
Great news for dry, dull or balanced types; less good for oilies likely to be most in need of longer-lasting makeup, for whom this radiant finish reads as shiny, even greasy.
Enter the newer, better, matte setting sprays that bring all the benefits of their predecessors, but with a soft, velvety, blurry finish that flatters everyone – even me, and I have about as much naturally occurring oil as gravel.
Pat McGrath Labs was recently saved from rumoured closure, and I’m delighted that among other terrific products, its Skin Fetish: Sublime Perfection Longwear Blurring Setting Spray (£36 for 100ml) will endure for another humid summer at least.
This is brilliant, performing exactly as a setting spray should, only with a totally shine-free finish that never looks flat or dehydrated. It’s wonderful for the oily skinned, active or perimenopausal – I wear it frequently.
Charlotte Tilbury’s original Airbrush Flawless setting spray is among my most used, but nowadays I’m just as likely to reach for the less dewy version. Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray Matte (£21 for 34ml, £33 for 100ml) is a great day-to-day option for oily and combination wearers, as well as for everyone else when it’s hot. I choose it when I have a long day ahead (it’s the perfect choice for a wedding, for example) and it never dries up or causes makeup to crack.
For a finish almost entirely devoid of shine, Milani’s Make It Last Matte Charcoal Spray (£15 for 60ml), which is based on their superb regular formula, absorbs oil as it sets and has an ever so slightly powdery finish without the caking and colour change that comes with layer upon layer of face powder. This is not suitable for drier types, but a godsend for the more oily.
If you can get past the sensation of applying hairspray on your face, One/Size’s On ’Til Dawn Mattifying Waterproof Setting Spray (£18 for 46ml, £32 for 143ml) will repay you with a surprisingly unsticky, very long lasting result. This spray is not here to play. With this on, your foundation could probably survive a heptathlon.
