Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Marine Boosting Mist Review

Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Marine Boosting Mist ($25) bulletproofing your makeup since 2016. Whoa! Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Marine Boosting Mist is a new four-in-one facial mist that acts as a primer, makeup setting spray, hydrating mist, and skin refresher which launched with the Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Collection exclusively available at Sephora.

No secret, I love a good hydrating facial mist so I was excited about this mist but it’s actually more of a makeup setting mist for me versus a hydrating primer.

Here’s the deets.

Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Marine Boosting Mist is a product that won’t be loved by many dry skin lovers but will be embraced by the oil skin ladies and lads out there. This comes housed in a colorful purple bottle that’s 2.5 oz in size.

At first I thought, “Oh I can happily mist this all over my face!” Don’t. Contrary to the fact it is marketed as a “hydrating mist” I would avoid just misting this willy nilly all over your face. This mist excels at acting as a makeup setting spray but it isn’t a product I’d use as a “skin refresher” or hydrating facial mist.

That being said, I will say it is amazing as setting spray and I don’t say that lightly as I’m a person who dislikes makeup setting sprays.

Here’s a few things you should know first.

It does contain alcohol denat 40 as the second ingredient and citrus peel oil as the third. The citrus peel is used for fragrance as this has a strong, sweet orange fragrance that could prove irritating to sensitive users but also citrus oils in general might irritate skin. Alcohol denat 40 is gentle enough on skin but if you avoid alcohol in skin products or you have drier skin you’re not going to want it appearing as the second ingredient in a facial mist. On that note, I will say it is part of the reason that the product is so great at mattifying shine and oil.

Tarte says to “mist a few times throughout the day to quench dry skin. Please don’t do this. It’s a very drying product. You don’t want to mist this on your dry skin a few times a day as it will likely dehydrate you versus hydrate you.

But here’s the good news…

As I mentioned above this excels as a makeup setting mist. I don’t typically like setting mists because I feel like they soak my face and end up ruining my makeup. Not the case with Tarte’s formula. Almost instantly on contact with skin this sets almost immediately. It tightens a little as it dries down but nothing too uncomfortable. I use a few mists in the AM after my complete makeup application and I swear it adds about 10 hours of wear to my blush and foundation. I tried it with both cream and powder blush. Cream was the true test here since I haven’t found many cream blushes that wear long on my drier skin. I was able to maintain cream blush wear for a solid 8 hours without it fading or losing intensity. At hour eight it looked as fresh as it did when I originally applied it. The mist just creates an invisible veil over skin that locks in foundation and makeup beautifully without soaking you or smearing makeup. It does soak up any and all oil so if you’re extra oily or shiny this will mattifying your skin for several hours. For us dry skin folks, well, this isn’t necessarily a good thing as we don’t exactly have a ton of oil to around and the oil we do have we likely want to keep. The good news three spritzes in the morning didn’t do too much damage but me (I cannot do more than that otherwise my skin feels very tight) and I was able to maintain the wear of my makeup all day with those three simple spritzes.

Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Marine Boosting Mist promises a little TOO much for what you do get. If I were Tarte I’d simply say this was a makeup setting mist as tacking on hydrating mist, refresher, etc…can prove not only confusing but disappointing to those of us with drier skin. I wouldn’t say this is the four-in-one wonder it promises to be but it does excel at setting makeup and is one of the best setting mists I’ve had the pleasure of using to date.

Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Marine Boosting Mist is available now exclusively at Sephora.com and at Sephora stores March 14th.