Merit Beauty Review: All Aesthetics or Worth The Hype?
Why Merit Beauty is On Everyone’s Lips
Merit Beauty is a testament to the power of great products and super cohesive branding. Founded in 2021 by Katherine Power, Merit has risen to the top of the ranks when it comes to clean, minimalistic beauty brands. Unlike other (great!) brands like Tower28 and Glossier, Merit embraces a more sophisticated aesthetic more in line with what Saie Beauty is doing.
Merit aims to simplify your makeup routine, offering multi-use products that are both easy to use and effective. Less is more, and the brand ethos is focused on minimalist beauty, appealing to people—like myself—who want to emulate that “cool girl who did her makeup on the train in 5 minutes and looks better than I ever have in my life” vibe.
It’s obvious that Merit Beauty nails the aesthetic it’s going for, but are the products high quality? In short, yes. There’s a lot of good stuff happening in the Merit Beauty product lineup, but not without a few “mehs” in my opinion.
Read on for a detailed Merit Beauty review, covering which products are worth the hype and which ones you might want to skip.
A Closer Look at Merit Beauty Products
The Highlighting Balm
The Day Glow Dewy Highlighting Balm is not only one of my favorite Merit Beauty products, but one of my favorite highlighters of all time. I purchased the shade Cava, a golden-leaning champagne shade for $32 at Sephora. What I love most about the Merit Beauty highlighting balm is that, although it gives you a glossy, glowing finish, it’s not actually greasy on the face. One of my big no no’s is glitter in my highlighter, and the Merit Beauty highlighting balm is sparkle-free. The one caveat, it’s not the longest lasting highlighter—expect around 5-6 hours of wear time before you need to reapply.
Final Rating: 9.5/10
Review: The Shade Slicks
The Shade Slicks by Merit Beauty, their take on lip oil, come in two different formulas: The Classics and the more recently launched Gelées. Here, I review both Merit Beauty’s The Classics and The Gelées, which both retail for $24 each.
The Classics
The formula on The Classics is such a unique delight. The texture can best be described as a hybrid between mouse and balm. Best of all, they are not sticky nor are they drying. They sit smoothly on the lips, offering a slight sheen and moderately opaque color. When it comes to the shade range of the Classics, the name says it all. The range of shades features softer, neutrals from peach to brown. You won’t find anything super playful here.
While I love the fact that these aren’t sticky, the lack of tackiness does mean the lasting power is shorter than a true gloss. Without eating or drinking you might be looking at 2 hours at most. But hey, reapplying gloss is chic, right?
Final Rating: 8.5/10
The Gelées
The Gelées are Merit Beauty's answer to those who crave a pop of excitement in their lip game. Unlike The Classics, The Gelées bring a jelly-like texture and a few brighter shades to the range.
They glide on with a translucent, tinted finish and leave a minor stain on the lips after the texture has worn off. Just like The Classics, The Gelées also have a limited staying power due to the non-tacky formula—around 2 hours without eating or drinking.
Final Rating: 8/10
Breaking Down The Great Skin Serum
Alright, let’s chat Merit Beauty’s one and only foray into skincare: The Great Skin Serum. This is a very interesting addition to Merit’s product lineup, existing as a hybrid between makeup and skincare. It’s interesting that the brand didn’t take the opportunity to up the price, as most consumers will pay more for skincare these days. Retailing at $38, the Great Skin Serum is by no means cheap, but not eye-watering for a serum.
The key ingredients are fatty acids and antioxidants like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, cacao seed, and goldthread root. Ultimately, the goal of The Great Skin Serum is to even, brighten, and soothe the skin while also operating as a primer for The Minimalist (review below) to stick to. So, how well does it do all of this?
In regards to prepping the skin for makeup, it does a great job. The key is to let the serum sink in for a few minutes before applying makeup, otherwise it can feel like it’s sitting on top of the skin all day. The texture of this serum is “soft” for lack of a better word. It’s not one that feels weightless on the skin, but it’s not heavy or greasy. A lot of Merit’s face products are made with lots of waxes, so the slip in the texture is designed to help those glide, blend, and soften on the skin.
What stands out the most to me is how the serum offers immediate results, almost more like how makeup operates. Imagine the effect of putting a clear balm on the skin—it’s kind of like that. But keep in mind this isn’t actually your skin improving in front of your eyes—it washes off when you wash off the serum.
Overall, I really enjoy The Great Skin Serum by Merit Beauty as an immediate boost to the appearance of my skin, but I’m not quite sold on it as a true groundbreaker in my skincare routine.
Final Rating: 7/10
The Minimalist Concealer: A Detailed Look
On the Merit Beauty website, the Minimalist is described as “not a foundation and not a concealer” but in reality it is very much a stick foundation in a chic little tube.
Coverage-wise, the Minimalist offers medium coverage when used heavily and a light, sheer coverage when intentionally blended out. In line with the rest of Merit’s products, the texture is somewhat waxy and very creamy. There are 20 shades total in the range, which feels less than what you typically see these days, but is probably fine considering the application is quite sheer and flexible. Personally, I wear the shade Cream, which is a perfect match for light skin tones with a warm, yellow undertone.
As far as performance goes, The Minimalist easily covers up redness and evens my skin tone out. The finish is not as glowy as you might expect from Merit, instead it offers a satin, skin-like finish. I do, however, find that a heavy application settles into fine lines. When I’ve blended it out more sheerly, this hasn’t been an issue. So, if you have a lot of discoloration to cover, this might not work if you also have fine lines.
While this hasn’t won the title of my everyday base product, it has become my touch-up staple. The small tube makes it perfect to toss into your bag and go.
Final Rating: 7/10
The Brush No. 1
The Brush No. 1 is a very chic addition to your vanity, but very unnecessary if you already own brushes you like. At $32, you’re paying for the Merit Aesthetic and not much else. Mine came in The Prep Set—a set containing the Great Skin Serum, The Minimalist, and The Brush No. 1—for $96 (vs. $108). I would not have purchased it on it’s own.
Final Rating: 6/10
The Signature Lip Lightweight Lipstick
Merit makes a lot of claims about the Signature Lip Lightweight formula. From their site, the Signature Lip has “the nourishing formula of a balm, the color payoff of a lipstick and the sheen of a gloss.” So, how true is this?
I own The Signature Lip Lightweight Lipstick in Slip and I’ve repurchased it twice! This is one of Merit’s top-rated products for a good reason. Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say “the comfort of a balm” but it is comfortable and slightly hydrating on the lips. The “sheen of a gloss” claim is where I get a little confused. This Signature Lip Lightweight Lipsticks come in a decidedly satin finish with great opacity.
Because they’re not overly glossy, the lasting power of these lipsticks is great. You can expect around 4-5 hours without eating or drinking, and they leave a lovely stain to the lips as they wear off. A must have from Merit Beauty in my opinion.
Final Rating: 9/10
The Bronze Balm: Yay or Nay?
Aaaaand now we’re on to my least favorite Merit Beauty product that I have tried so far. The Bronze Balm Sheer Sculpting Bronzer, in theory, is everything I want in a product. It’s a cream-based, in stick form, and blends out like a dream. So what don’t I like about? Even the lightest shade Quince, meant for fair skin tones, makes me look like an oompa loompa. It is SO. ORANGE. Truly a devastating development in my Merit Beauty journey. I’d also like to say, don’t name your product “sculpting” if all of the shades have a warm undertone. Warmth isn’t going to sculpt anything.
Final Rating: 5/10
A Full Face of Merit Beauty
Now that I’ve reviewed all of the Merit Beauty products that I own, I feel the need to speak to something you might be wondering. That is, how do all of these products work together?
Because all of Merit’s face products are cream-based, you might expect that you will need a little powder, something that curiously, Merit doesn’t offer yet.
But powder isn’t enough to fix the fact that, because all of Merit’s products feature lots of waxy, fatty compounds, your face just feels heavy when you pair them all together. In the process of writing this review, I realized that although Merit Beauty is on heavy rotation in my beauty bag, I never wear a full face. I did just that for this review and couldn’t stand the way my face felt.
So, while I love the intended value prop of Merit, which is a minimalist, cream-based approach to makeup, there’s something to be considered about how all of these “extra-nourishing” formulas play together.
Wrapping Up: Is Merit Beauty Worth It?
If you’ve made it all the way through this Merit Beauty review, props to you. Ultimately, Merit is a great new brand, offering something in makeup that I feel like we haven’t seen before. The product line is very curated, you can tell that Merit doesn’t launch products to keep up with the constant demand for newness. Almost all of the products are innovative in some way, and the price is right at the aesthetic level that the brand operates at.
So, is it worth it? I think so.
Looking for more beauty reviews? Check out My Fall Beauty Essentials Guide.
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