Setting spray

A setting spray is a fine mist for the end of a makeup routine. Most are water-based, with some alcohol to help them dry quickly and a film-forming polymer — an acrylic, say, or PVP, the resin that replaced shellac in hair spray^[1] — which dries to a thin, flexible film over the makeup.^[2] Glycerin and other humectants make a spray dewy; a matte spray adds ingredients that take up oil. Misted over a finished face, it softens the dry, powdery look of the layers beneath, melts them together, and is sold to help the whole face last longer.

It is not the same thing as a face mist, which is skincare water with no film-former and does little to hold makeup, and a “prime and set” spray is sold to go on before makeup as well as after. Nor does it replace setting powder; the two do different jobs.

Choose by finish and by what the day holds. A matte or oil-control spray keeps shine down and suits oily skin and heat. A dewy or hydrating spray adds a sheen and takes away the dusty look powder can leave on dry skin. A long-wear spray is built to hold a face through a wedding or a long shift, and is often sold as transfer-, sweat- or water-resistant; those claims, and every hour-count on the bottle, are the maker’s. Theatrical sealers, made for stage and screen, are sold to stop makeup smudging or running at all; they suit a performance or a hot day outdoors more than an office.

Some sprays carry a sunscreen. They are a convenient way to add a layer through the day without disturbing makeup, but the SPF on the bottle is the maker’s figure, and in the United States it is measured on a layer of two milligrams to every square centimetre of skin,^[3] far more than a few spritzes leave. Treat it as a top-up, not as your sun protection. If alcohol stings or dries your skin, choose an alcohol-free formula.

A spray and a powder solve different problems, and many faces need both. Powder is the answer to shine and to creasing: it absorbs oil and fixes cream products where they sit, under the eyes and around the nose. A spray is the answer to a face that looks powdery, or one that has to last through heat, humidity or a long night: it takes the dry edge off the layers and helps them wear as one. On dry skin, a hydrating spray may be all the setting a face needs. On oily skin, press powder onto the places that shine first, then mist over everything, so the powder does the absorbing and the spray does the holding.

Shake the bottle if the maker says to, since some formulas separate. Close your eyes and mouth, hold the bottle at arm’s length, and mist in an X and then a T, so the spray lands evenly rather than in drops. Two or three passes are enough; for the lightest veil, mist into the air in front of you and lean into it. Let it dry without touching, which takes a minute or so; fanning or pressing the face while it is wet leaves marks.

Makeup artists use setting spray in other ways too: misted between layers to help each one grip; sprayed onto a brush or sponge to lay powder or shimmer on more intensely; or over powder that looks too dry, to melt it back into the skin. A pump that spits rather than mists will spot the makeup, so hold it further away, or change the bottle.

Setting spray is one of the youngest products on the dressing table. When cosmetics went into aerosol cans in the 1950s and 1960s, the successes were hair sprays and shaving foams; makeup, in the words of the historian James Bennett, “was a noticeable omission”. The first hair sprays were shellac dissolved in alcohol, soon replaced or joined by PVP.^[4]

By the time makeup setting sprays were on sale, they looked much like hair spray for the face. A patent granted in 2015 to the company Skindinavia, from applications its founder Allen Goldman began filing in 2010, describes the setting sprays of the day as “polymers (e.g., acrylics) dissolved in a solvent (e.g., alcohol)” that leave “a clear, lacquer-like coating on the make-up” and tend to stiffen it; its alternative relies on a cooling agent that evaporates slowly over the makeup.^[5] By Goldman’s account, his spray had reached the American chain Ulta Beauty by 2008, having spread first among professional makeup artists, and a meeting that year began the partnership behind Urban Decay’s All Nighter.^[6] Skindinavia says it made All Nighter from 2010 until July 2025, when Urban Decay, owned by L’Oréal, ended the partnership and relaunched the spray with a new formula.^[7]

By then the field was crowded: by 2019, in Goldman’s words, “the category of setting sprays was no longer just ours”.^[6] In 2020, a year in which prestige makeup sales in the United States fell by a third, setting sprays and powders were among the few face products to take a larger share of what was sold.^[8] What had been a professional’s trick had become an ordinary last step.