Over the years, I have shared quite a few honest reviews of beauty brands. I personally like to read reviews from people who have actually tried products AND don’t get paid to post about them.
Two years ago, the MERIT Beauty team reached out when they introduced some products for the first time. I’m not going to lie, I got annoyed when they asked for a full list of lawsuits in exchange for some free product. I chose to pass on and continued with my clean beauty style (we all know I have way too many products already anyway!)
But last December, a friend of mine insisted that I try his cream blush. He said it was the best he’d ever had, so I bought some at Sephora. WOW. I was really impressed with how creamy it was and it lasted all day. From there, I decided to explore more MERIT Makeup on my own terms with no demands for free work or product.
So it goes without saying but this post is NOT sponsored. I bought all of these with my own money and have spent the last few months testing and writing my MERIT beauty reviews. Full product reviews are below, but let’s dive into the brand first.
What is beauty MERIT?
MERIT Beauty was founded in early 2021 by entrepreneur Katherine Power (founder of lifestyle site Who What Wear and Versed Skincare). Her inspiration came from her sharing her “5 Minute Makeup Routine” and her minimalist makeup approach.
The idea caught on, and by 2021, MERIT Beauty was sold in all Sephora stores in the US. They are now available at Sephoras in Canada and the UK, as well as on their website.
MERIT Makeup Ingredients
MERIT Beauty prides itself on its minimalist approach to both the makeup look and its ingredients.
All of their products are EU compliant and contain no more than 1,400 potentially hazardous ingredients. Leaping Bunny Certified. They are also certified cruelty free and vegan.
For this fight against acne, all its products are formulated in collaboration with the famous beautician Biba de Sousa to be safe for acne prone skin.
MERIT beauty products
At this point, Merit Beauty is mainly focused on makeup products. They’ve recently launched a skincare serum (which I haven’t tried yet), so I’m assuming a bigger foray into skincare is on the horizon, but as of now here’s their product line:
Below, I review each of these merit products in detail.
My Overall Review of MERIT Beauty
In general, I really like MERIT products. Not all of them are my favorite (read each description below), but if you are looking for a minimalist beauty brand with clean makeup products, I think you will really like MERIT beauty.
That being said, 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 turn to another brand for that instead. I would definitely recommend some of the MERIT products if you are in the market to try something new, but other than a couple of products I wouldn’t say everything is a huge hit.
