New vs Normal: NYX Matte Finish Long Lasting Setting Spray

In this series of posts, I will be pitting new products against the ‘normal’ or standard product/ideas seen in its place.

For this example, the ‘new’ will be the NYX Matte Finish Long Lasting Setting Spray and the ‘normal’ will be the well-known technique of using a light misting of hairspray to set makeup.

DISCLAIMER – Putting hairspray on your skin is not a thing you should be doing on the regular, by any means. It’s often used by makeup artists on occasions when the makeup must be set perfectly for a long period of time and, as much as you want it to, your daily face should not incorporate it. If you do choose to implement this, however, be very careful of your eyes. Agony is not the look.

Setting sprays are definitely making a little name for themselves on the market as of late, especially the Urban Decay All Nighter, Chill and De-Slick sprays. However, after looking into it and seeing mixed reviews for both sprays and price tags around the £30 mark, I went to the next popular option, which was NYX. With just as mixed reviews but on their UK website for a far more affordable £8, I quickly headed to the checkout and had the bottle in my hands in a matter of days.

When I mentioned to a friend, who coincidentally has a degree in make-up and is also the reason I now consider blush as essential, that this spray was on the way, she told me she wasn’t interested as she used hairspray for the same purpose.

I did a little research then and saw setting sprays share the main ingredient of vinyl copolymers, which is a synthetic ingredient that is meant to adhere to surfaces and form a film to keep hair/faces protected from elements. They keep humidity and sebum at bay by doing this, which are the things most at liberty to smudge up that pretty face of yours. The copolymers used in setting sprays are far gentler than those used in hairspray and some can be more flexible than others.

I decided to put the hairspray and setting spray to the test.

I put on a quick face (hence wonky eyeliner) and decided to spray one half with a light mist of hairspray and the other with the NYX Matte Setting Spray. My hairspray of choice was the GOT2B Happy Hour 24 Hour Hairspray, which smells delicious. (+1 point?)

Here is my face with just the make-up (concealer, foundation, liquid eyeliner, blush, highlighter, contour powder) and fresh out the shower hair:

And here is my face after spraying, the left side in this picture with NYX, the right with hairspray. It looks darker on the right side but I think that may have just been the lighting, it looked perfectly even in person:

One big noticeable point was that the hairspray instantly dried, while the spray was a little wet. This is something to be anticipated as the instructions on the bottle indicate to blot the excess product or let it air dry, which is what I did.

I then went and scrubbed my entire bathroom. Very attractive, being ankle deep in foamy tile cleaner and full make up, right?

After examining my face after, I noticed that even though I had worked up a sweat, the NYX side was still entirely matte! My skin was fine and had no reactions:

The hairspray side fought the good matte fight, however it did feel as though there was a weird film very close to the skin, almost waxy? It’s difficult to explain. I also noticed the hairspray side of my face had a fair few  tiny bumps raised on my cheek, which were definitely not there before and a surprise as I do not have sensitive skin. But then again, was it really a surprise my skin wasn't happy about me spraying hairspray on it?

For removal, I took 2 baby wipes and wiped down the face. The hairspray side came off a lot easier than the NYX side, perhaps not great in case your hairspray’d face comes into contact with moisture.

After all my make-up was completely removed, the hairspray side felt a lot dryer and tight and thankfully the bumps quickly went away. The NYX side felt supple and soft, especially my eye area!

So in this case of New vs Normal, I think although Normal is a long time industry standard, it may be time to make way for the New!