Katherine Power, cofounder and CEO of Who What Wear and founder and CEO of Versed, wants to help women simplify their beauty routines. Finding herself disconnected from the bronzed, sculpted makeup looks popularized by Instagram and wanting something slightly more professional than Glossier, Power sought to create a line of products to help women look like themselves — but better.
Merit Beauty is the result of Power's work: seven carefully curated products essential for the five-minute makeup routine. Merit, positioned as "the antidote to the 50-[pan] eyeshadow [palette]," is clean beauty with a pared-down ingredient list, and each product comes in at $38 or less. With the exception of a couple of products that are made in South Korea, the line is made here in the United States.
Inspired by the idea that less is more, Merit's philosophy is to highlight every woman's natural beauty without covering it up with heavy, cakey formulas, to embrace the no-makeup makeup look that doesn't make it obvious that a woman is even wearing makeup at all. And with the skincare craze going stronger than ever (especially in the last year when so many of us were working from home while fine tuning our skincare regimens), Merit helps put the efforts of all of those masks, oils, and moisturizers on display rather than hiding them.
Back in November, Merit reached out to me and generously offered to allow me to try their products prior to their upcoming January 12, 2021 launch. They provided me with two of their products for free, which I've been using for a few weeks now. Here are my impressions, free of bias despite being gifted these items.
Day Glow Highlighting Balm in Cava
This highlighting stick has, as you may have guessed from the name, a creamy balm consistency. Cava is described as a champagne color, though when swatched on the back of my hand I don't really see a very strong champagne color. It's almost colorless, but provides a really beautiful, natural sheen — and in fact looks almost exactly like what my face looks like after about an hour of doing my makeup, when I'm already starting to get oily. Except that this looks better because it doesn't look oily at all, it's just glowy without being sparkly and reflects light really nicely.
The balm is scentless, for those wondering if these products are scented. Be warned that the balm, when placed on top of the blush (I'll get to that in a minute), picks up the color of the product it's used on top of. Interestingly, it doesn't transfer that color, you can just see on the balm itself that it's slightly stained with the color of the product it lifted. So if you wanted to wear this alone and are worried that it might show up on your face as a mix of whatever product it lifted plus its own color, don't worry. It hasn't happened to me.
I found this product to be longer lasting than the blush, at least on my super oily skin. Maybe it played better on my face because it somewhat mimics that natural sheen I already get anyway as a very oily-skinned person, but after several hours of wear I could still see the sheen on my skin. This is a very nice product, and one of the better examples of this type of "lit from within," natural glow highlighting balm that I've used.
Flush Balm Cheek Color in Terracotta
I have some mixed feelings on this product. This was the item I was most looking forward to because of the color. Terracotta is such a warm, pretty, flattering brown, and as you may have been able to guess from previous blog posts and my Instagram posts, I'm all about nudes in my beauty routine. However, the lasting power of this product leaves something to be desired.
The first swipe of the cheek color has nice color payoff. Definitely obvious it's on your face. Blending out the product is the issue: it doesn't blend so much as it... disappears. Layering doesn't seem to help much either. Much like the balm, this product likes to lift, and it winds up lifting itself when you try to layer too much. I've found myself swiping, blending, swiping again, and seeing not much of a difference after the second or even third layer. The product is a solid dome that you have to rub or tap onto your face, so it's hard to avoid this issue. But I absolutely love the creamy formula and how glowy it looks on the skin.
Unfortunately, this cheek color just doesn't last long on me. I think me being so oily is an issue, but this product fades from my skin pretty fast, which is doubly disappointing given how subtle it is to begin with. I wish so much it had better staying power. The color, when freshly applied, gives my cheeks such a healthy flush and pairs nicely with my skin tone. When used with the highlighting balm, my face looks bright and dewy without going overboard or making me look greasy. But my skin type seems to be an issue for the longevity of the cheek color on my face.
Let's Talk Packaging
No detail was spared by Merit. The cardstock used for their product boxes is of thick, good quality, with their logo emblazoned in gold on the pretty French country blue they've chosen for their boxes. But more impressive is the incredibly cute and chic mustardy-brown, corduroy clutch you get with your order. Merit claims you "only get one," and that your subsequent orders will ship in sustainable packaging. Not sure if that means they won't replace it if you lose or damage it, but maybe try to take care of it all the same just in case. Care sounds simple enough: according to Merit, it can be machine washed on cold.
This little bag holds a lot, ties shut, and is a versatile piece that went naturally with my existing style and wardrobe. I've already incorporated it into some outfits and just absolutely love it. You could of course just use it simply to store your Merit products or any other makeup, but the point is that, true to the brand's goals of sustainability and minimalism, the little bag can be used a number of ways and has a very streamlined, simple silhouette.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, Merit's opening act is a very strong one, albeit not without room for improvement. Their creamy, glowy formulas are beautiful and sit so nicely on the skin, and the colors are natural and complimentary. Merit has delivered on its goal of highlighting your features without hiding them behind layers of product. I've personally always had a minimal makeup routine, so Merit is a natural match for my relationship to makeup. The quality shines through in both the components and the packaging, and the idea of giving customers a stylish little purse with your first order is something I wish more brands did.
However, as noted previously, the lasting power of the cheek color just isn't up to par, at least not for my oily skin. I really wish it was because it's a great color and great consistency, but not being able to last more than a few hours on my face without disappearing, as well as having issues with the initial application even before my face becomes oily, is disappointing. If you have normal to dry skin and don't really get oily on your cheeks, you may have a much different experience than I did. But on the flip side, the highlighting balm is wonderful and looks so beautiful in natural light, and lasts throughout the day. When paired together with the cheek color, your face looks glowy and flushed without looking over the top.
Merit has other products I want to try, so when they launch on January 12 I hope to be able to grab a couple. While not perfect, I do recommend checking them out; I had mixed results, but the positives were very positive and have me curious about the other things they'll have available at launch.
As noted at the start of this blog, Merit gifted me these items but that had no influence on my opinions. I only work with brands that I actually use or could see myself using, and only recommend what I feel is worthwhile.
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