Merit Beauty Retrospect

Broken record. Rain for the next two weeks … at least. So far, no new storms. Just pitter-patter with sun in between. I am not complaining about the sun. We’ve got the potholes from hell on our roads – in some places you get a gaggle of holes all together so have to slalom hither and thither around them in the car.

I bought a few things late last month (January blues retail therapy) which all arrived safely and are all lovely but the whole process was a reminder that it’s really silly to shop outside the UK right now. Just accept that you don’t want to do anything where customs is involved. I thought I’d learned this with the Heretic sample order. The UK did this to itself with Brexit. But the tariffs twiddle isn’t helping. Ah, well.

Among the parcels was one from Merit, a US clean cosmetics brand that is stocked here at Sephora but also has its own something system that ships into the UK at a bearable price. I have been using a few Merit items (foundation/concealer stick, some blushes) consistently for a bit now. Sephora was out of the foundation thing in my colour and I seem to have little patience at the moment so I used the Merit system. As I was scrolling through it occurred to me that the brand released a perfume recently and if I like their other stuff I might like this. So, I tossed a travel size into the soup.

I was a bit twitchy about getting this (oh, why is a cosmetics company offering a perfume?) and then I remembered Chanel and shut up.

The guff on this is revisiting the classical perfumes of the past that aren’t just passing fads etc. Thus, the name: Retrospect.

Released in 2024, the faff is a fruity floral gourmand. Yeah, sure. Be everything to everyone. Notes include pear, ambrette, aldehydes, bergamot, orris, jasmine, violet, rose, rosemary, musk, moss and vanilla.

Up top this is pear on me, a note that can be annoying (I can be annoyed by?) but this ain’t half bad. I think I really am getting pear and ambrette, fruit but not sweet with some spicy aromatic thing. Plus, a ‘feeling’ of fresh green as well.

After a bit it gets aldehyde-y but not to the extent I can manage it (I’m not great with aldehydes – make my nose itch).

This moves on to be a gentle, aldehyde-centric thing where I can smell the violet and orris most of the flowers. Very little sillage, but as ever that could be my low body temp.

Further along, this takes on a lovely, musky undertone – an interesting skin scent. And in the drydown, I get pear and vanilla but not sweet. And longer lasting than I thought it would be when I first put it on.

All in, I like this (yes, I know I’m repeating myself). It wears easily, is interesting and nuanced and a bit surprising – in that it really does have complexity. Not weird, not pedestrian, not trying too hard.

It goes with the sophisticated (as opposed to just being) cool girl, clean cosmetics vibe but is different enough to be engaging.

The company offers this in bottles that reminded me of something … after a while I realised it was sort of a riff on that wonderful Halston bottle. It’s not nearly the same but has a similar ‘feel’ … maybe. I read that the bottle is supposed to be organic and jewellery like. There’s a 60ml for £118, a 30 for £79 and what I bought, a 9.5 travel thing for £30.

I think my travel size will do for me but I really do like those bottles …

Does this sound worth your time? Do you use any other Merit products?

Pics: mine, pexels