Over the years I’ve shared quite a few honest reviews of beauty brands. I personally enjoy reading reviews from people who have actually tried products AND are not being paid to post about them.
Two years ago, the MERIT Beauty team got in touch when they were launching some products for the first time. I won’t lie, I was teased wrong when they demanded a whole list of demands in exchange for a free product. I decided to pass and continued on my clean beauty path (we all know I have way too many products already!)
But last December, a friend of mine insisted I try her cream blush. She said it was the best thing she’s ever tasted, so I got some from Sephora. WOW. I was really impressed with how creamy it was and how it lasted all day. From there, I decided to explore more MERIT makeup on my own terms, with no demands for free labor or free products.
So it goes without saying, but This post is NOT sponsored. I bought all of this with my own money and have spent the past few months trying out and writing down my MERIT Beauty reviews. You can find detailed product reviews below, but first, let’s take a look at the brand.
What is MERIT Beauty?
MERIT Beauty was founded in early 2021 by entrepreneur Katherine Power (founder of lifestyle website Who What Wear and Versed Skincare). The inspiration came from her when she shared her “5 minute makeup routine” and minimalist approach to makeup.
The idea caught on, and by 2021, MERIT Beauty was sold in all US Sephora stores. They are available now from Sephoras in Canada and the UK, as well as on their homepage.
MERIT makeup ingredients
MERIT Beauty prides itself on its minimalist approach to both makeup look and ingredients.
All of their products are EU compliant and free from over 1400 potentially unsafe ingredients. Certified by Leaping Bunny. They are also certified cruelty free and vegan.
For the fight against acne, all products are developed in collaboration with the famous beautician Biba de Sousa safe for acne prone skin.
MERIT beauty products
At this point, Merit Beauty mainly focuses on makeup products. They recently launched a skincare serum (which I haven’t tried yet) so I’m assuming a bigger push into skincare is on the horizon, but for now here are their product lines:
Below I describe each of these Merit products in detail.
My overall rating of MERIT Beauty
Overall, I really like the MERIT products. Not all of these are my favorites (read the individual descriptions below), but if you’re looking for a minimalist beauty brand with clean makeup products, I think you’ll really like MERIT Beauty.
However, if you don’t like cream products, this probably isn’t your brand. I also think they could benefit from a setting powder product, but I usually just turn to another brand for that instead. I would definitely recommend some of the MERIT products if you want to try something new, but apart from a few products I wouldn’t say everything is a hit.