With the Sephora sale creeping ever so close I needed to get my overview about the new makeup brand MERIT Beauty up. MERIT Beauty is a minimalistic beauty brand that recently launched. I was lucky enough to receive the whole line to test out. I'll start with my favorite The Minimalist Perfecting Complexion Foundation and Concealer Stick. I think this is honestly everyone's favorite from the brand based on the reviews I've seen. It's a twist up stick so it has easy portability. I love the ease of use, I just add a few swipes then blend it out with the Tapered Blending Brush. The finish of the foundation is satin-matte, it has medium coverage. It has a nice skin like finish that blends nicely into the skin. No dry patches and no separating throughout the day (such as around the nose) plus it lasts well throughout the day. Honestly as a concealer it kind of reminds me of the iconic Cle de Peau. I tested them out side by side and they feel fairly comparable. I wear shade Bisque in MERIT. The blending brush is super soft I love it. It's synthetic with a round tapered shape. It blends the foundation in seamlessly with no streaks. I'm not normally a synthetic fan but this one is really nice, has a great feel on the skin.
The Flush Balm Cream Blush has a cool dome shape. It's a sheer creamy blush that's meant to let your skin show through. It definitely does that part. It's pretty emollient so it doesn't have long lasting power but it does add a nice dewy soft tint to the cheeks. I received shade Terracotta which is a warm nude. It's not my all time favorite cream blush formula as I prefer a more pigmented less emollient style, but it's nice if you like a light tint plus the packaging is fun. The Day Glow Highlighting Balm is a dewy, slightly glossy, sheer highlighting stick. I have shade Bounce which is a rose gold shimmer. It's sheer for sure with a dewy, glossy finish but I quite like this product. It's easy to use and adds just a light glow and moisturizing sheen to the skin. It does not have glitter so it's more a glossy balm style highlighter with a moderate amount of shimmer. Most dewy gloss style highlighters have more of a sheer, almost translucent appearance on the skin. This one has a good amount of actual color and shimmer, it doesn't look just like a clear glossy balm on the skin as some can.
The Clean Lash Lengthening Mascara is a defining, lengthening and separating style mascara. It doesn't give me clumps, builds up fairly well and best of all I find no flaking or smudging. Now granted I don't have oily eyes so I can't speak from that aspect. It does seem to be a tubing style mascara and it feels like that on the lashes. I'm not a huge fan of tubing mascaras but I like this one so far. It takes a little extra work to remove it fully, though micellar water does work. It also does a good job at separating and defining. I wouldn't call it a voluminous formula if you like volume only, but it has more volume than typical tubing mascaras I've tried in the past. Next up is the Brow 1980 Volumizing Eyebrow Pomade Gel. This is a pretty basic tinted pomade gel for the brows that gives flexible hold without flaking. I wear shade Blonde which is more of a cool taupe kind of color. It could potentially be a bit too dark for red hair or really light blondes. It has mineral pigments and kaolin clay for color and it seems to last all day, remain flexible and doesn't flake. It's not the most pigmented or wet formula, some of my others I use leave more product on the brows, this seems to leave less. I wish I had full brows to test this out on but alas I have sparse and thinning brows so this really doesn't give me any volume, though I don't look for that anymore. I basically look for color and hold without flaking which this does great at.
Lastly I tried the Shade Slick Tinted Lip Oil in Marrakech. This is described as a bright peach but it's really more of a muted peach. I normally don't like lip oils but this one I actually really love. Lip oils ted to dry my lips out, but this one does not. It has shea butter and rosehip oil. I like the moderate color tint and it has a light glossy finish. The product is hydrating enough for my super dry lips (seriously most lip oils I can't do as they dry me out) which is a miracle it seems. I want to try Au Naturel but I think Marrakech will be the more universal shade that many seem to gravitate towards. I would definitely steer you towards the foundation/concealer, brush if you don't have one already and Lip Oil. I like the brow product but I need a bit more time playing with it to see if it compares to my two holy grails (Hourglass and Milk Makeup). The highlighter is nice if you like glossy and slightly sheer.
Top to Bottom-Bounce, Bisque, Terracotta, Marrakech, Blonde:
*Products gifted by brand with no obligation to post. All thoughts are my own.
