Merit Meets Vintage Perfumery

A Complex Love Letter to Fragrance's Golden Age

In a world of viral, fleeting fragrances, MERIT Beauty stands out by embracing slow luxury and timeless artistry. After two years of meticulous development, their debut fragrance, Retrospect, introduces a fresh perspective to the clean beauty space—infusing complexity, longevity, and a sense of heritage often missing in today’s market.

Crafted by award-winning master perfumer Fanny Bal at Paris's oldest fragrance house, Retrospect went through over 200 iterations before it reached perfection! This highly concentrated extrait de parfum, with nearly 30% fragrance oil, opens with bright, uplifting notes of bergamot and pear. As it develops, layers of jasmine, rose, and violet reveal themselves before settling into a warm, comforting base of vanilla, musk, and moss—a nod to the complex scents of vintage perfumes.

What makes Retrospect revolutionary is its layered complexity. While many contemporary fragrances follow the trend of single-note, layerable scents, Retrospect defies this by creating a fragrance journey that evolves beautifully throughout the day.

It’s the answer to clean beauty enthusiasts who crave more substance; in consumer studies, 86% of users reported they could still smell Retrospect 12 hours after applying it—solving a common pain point in the clean fragrance market.

The experience of Retrospect extends beyond the scent itself. Leading up to the launch, MERIT wiped its social media clean and teased the new fragrance with mysterious blue boxes captioned, “Our next launch is all about perspective.” In an industry-first approach, they invited their community to contribute their thoughts on fragrance—reinforcing the deeply personal connection between scent and memory. This community-first launch also featured a book collaboration with The Gentlewoman, an exclusive collection exploring fragrance’s role in art, identity, and memory.

The bottle’s design mirrors the fragrance's ethos. It features a minimalist, ergonomic shape topped with a 14K gold-toned cap inspired by the sleek curves of vintage jewelry. Nestled in a case reminiscent of a vintage watch box, the presentation is as much a work of art as the fragrance itself—a piece designed to linger on the skin and your vanity.

To celebrate Retrospect, MERIT collaborated with @floomofficial to create a limited-edition floral arrangement inspired by the fragrance’s nuanced layers, balancing classicism and modernity with blooms like calla lilies, kangaroo paw, and anthuriums. With each order, customers receive a complimentary sample of the fragrance, making it a perfect gift for someone special—or a treat for oneself.

On October 22, Retrospect officially launched online at meritbeauty.com and in select Sephora stores across the US, Canada, and the UK. We can't wait to purchase one! In our eyes, it's the fragrance of the year.

To sum up, Retrospect is more than a scent; it’s an invitation to revisit fragrance as it used to be—an art form that tells a story, evoking emotions and memories in every drop. With Retrospect, MERIT has created not just a fragrance but an olfactory journey, proving that in a fast-paced world, some things are worth the wait. Well done.