The Mastery of Merit
The beauty industry has reached a saturation point — with new brands and products popping up on the regular. With all the noise, it’s challenging for brands to cut through and make an impact, and for consumers to keep up with the dizzying array of choices.
There’s been one exception as of late and it’s the third brainchild of serial entrepreneur Katherine Power and the new “clean” makeup brand on the block: Merit Beauty. By the way, for us beauty obsessed folk, Power is a master magician in the art of the beauty business. And Polina should do a profile on her.
After launching blockbuster skincare brand Versed two years ago, Power released Merit in January 2021, after enticing us with dreamy campaign imagery on Instagram. The brand’s positioning is about less-is-more, enhancing natural beauty, and luxury for less. While this may sound like the ethos of other brands, Merit’s debut feels directly linked to recent, transformative events in our personal lives and the world of beauty.
After months of going bare-faced or having minimalist makeup routines during quarantine, Merit's value proposition of “well-edited essentials'' captures the zeitgeist of the current landscape all too well. And with the rising trend ofskinminimalism, the timing of the launch was nothing short of genius.
Merit also promises a 5-minute makeup routine and launched with just seven SKUs: a buildable brow pomade, tinted lip oil, balmy cheek stain, mascara, highlighter, perfecting complexion stick, and a blending brush. If you want a “me, but better” beauty look that makes you feel like a dewier version of yourself, you’ll find everything you want in Merit.
What we love:
The sheer convenience. All the formats are easy-to-use, no-mess formulas. You don’t have to worry about powder spilling or liquid dripping everywhere. Just throw it all in your bag and go.
Luxury for less. With accessible price points and premium packaging (the cheek tint is an exception; the packaging here doesn’t match others in terms of quality), Merit’s products feel like the definition of affordable luxury.
The Clean Lash Mascara and Day Glow Highlighting Balm are stand out formulations. Staying power and overall formula finesse can be a challenge when developing some clean mascaras, but this one doesn’t budge, clump or flake thanks to a proprietary blend of film-formers like PVP and Acrylates Copolymer. It also gives you a perfect, soft glam look. The highlighter is innovative and unique simply because it is sans glitter, and gives you a wet, lit-from-within glow courtesy of base ingredients squalene (plant-based) and olive fruit oil.
Sustainability is a key tenet of the brand. They aim to eliminate as much virgin plastic as possible from their products and operations, and their shipment packaging is recyclable, reusable or biodegradable.
What we don’t love:
Merit states that their formulas are EU compliant, "free from over 1400 potentially unsafe ingredients." The EU Directive has banned over 1600 ingredients from cosmetics, but if you take a closer look at the list, many of the molecules are not even used in cosmetics. Not to mention the ongoing comparison between what the FDA has banned and the EU has banned is a fear-mongering tactic used by beauty brands and influencers.
The Minimalist Perfecting Complexion stick — while marketed as both a foundation and a concealer offering light to medium coverage — was a major let down. First off, we’re all for foundation sticks, but with the likes of Hourglass’ Vanish Seamless Foundation stick in the mix (although at a higher price point), the bar is set pretty high. While Merit’s formula imparts a semi-matte finish, it’s drying and slightly tacky and cakey. The reason for this is mainly the overabundance of heavy waxes: Carnauba Wax, Synthetic Wax, and Microcrystalline Wax, coupled with thickeners like Polyethylene, and a plethora of gooey oils/esters/emollients such as Hydrogenated Polydecene and Hydrogenated Polyisobutene. Plus, highly absorbent Silica in the formula contributes to the dryness.
As a side note — in case you’re wondering why an eco-conscious brand like Merit chose to use Polyethylene (micro-beads) in this product, it may have been used to provide rigidity to the stick structure or to provide a soft-focus blurring effect. We don’t think this causes an environmental issue, but Merit may want to justify why they chose to use this ingredient.