July 31, 2024

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Photo Credit: Kitty Guo. Kitty Guo on a tropical vacation in full makeup set by Green Marble spray.

For over a year, I’ve been loyal to Urban Decay’s setting spray. In reporting a story for the best setting sprays, however, I heard whispers from makeup artists of another, even hardier setting spray. It’s called the Green Marble SeLr Spray, and it’s distributed by the cosmetics manufacturing company PPI Premiere Products. According to PPI’s About page, the brand creates products for “the health care, hair replacement, medical, make-up and special effects industries” — a.k.a. professional makeup and VFX artists who outfit actors for the stage and screen. The spray is made up of isopropanol, 2-propane, acrylic resins, and silica, and it forms a thin film over your face to seal makeup and prevent it from rubbing off on costumes. It’s also supposedly resistant to alcohol when dry, allowing artists to overlap makeup for layering effects. 

You can tell the Green Marble spray is a professional-grade product because you can’t just walk into your local Sephora and grab it. Rather, it’s carried at retailers with names like Camera Ready Cosmetics and Stage Makeup Online. Luckily, it’s also available from Amazon, so I placed an order in late spring, right when the weather began to tip from delightfully balmy to unbearably muggy. Harrowing is not a word I would typically use to describe applying a beauty product, but in some ways the experience of using Green Marble was strongly reminiscent of downing a vodka shot: a burning sensation, an overpowering scent of alcohol, squeezing your eyes shut, and trying to get it over with. But once you’ve weathered the unpleasantness, the spray certainly performs. 

It kept my makeup intact and perfectly preserved throughout a full day of brunching, hanging in the park, and running errands. But using it for everyday activities is overkill, akin to renting a U-Haul to pick up groceries; it’s really meant to be broken out for high-intensity situations like music festivals (or the occasional underwater photo shoot). With a trip to Bermuda on my calendar, I decided to see how the Green Marble spray would stand up to a tropical vacation. 

Now, I did feel a bit ridiculous wearing a full beat in sun, sand, and surf. But being the intrepid reporter I am, I soldiered on. Every morning, I applied foundation, contour, glittery eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara. (None of the formulas was waterproof, by the way.) 

The first day, I spent most of my time lounging around on a beach chair sipping a piña colada and making my way through John McPhee’s The Control of Nature. I took a quick dip in the resort pool, though I mostly kept my face above water. So far, so good — my makeup showed a slight amount of wear but remained basically intact. When I took a predinner shower, I went three rounds of cleansing my face to ensure everything was scrubbed off.  

The next day, with the weather app reporting 98 percent humidity, we explored the town of Hamilton, visited the botanical gardens, and toured some underground caves. I spent about seven hours in total walking around, and I noticed a bit more wear on this day, with my cat-eye flick losing its crisp precision and becoming more of a smudgy rocker-chic look. It wasn’t a major meltdown, though, which I counted as a win. 

On the third day, we snorkeled, and Green Marble was foiled. The jostling of the snorkeling mask, plus a good half-hour of sticking my face directly into salty seawater took its toll. When I emerged, my eye makeup was smeared, though I could still feel flecks of mascara clinging to my lashes. I wiped it all off. Overall, Green Marble setting spray is not a miracle worker; it’s not going to keep your makeup looking freshly applied for a full 12 hours. However, it stands up remarkably well to sweat and exertion and keeps even non-waterproof formulas from budging in high humidity. I’m definitely planning to reach for it on occasions that call for extra durability, like an outdoor concert or a day at an amusement park. For daily use, however, I’ll stick with my Urban Decay.

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