In 2016, the Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Katherine Power posted a video on Instagram depicting her five-minute morning make-up regimen. “I would do it in the back of the car,” she recalls. “This was the height of the fully baked faces, and I had hacked together this routine that involved a concealer stick and an old Mac lip tint that I would use as blush.”
The response was so “crazy” that, in 2021, she founded Merit, a “clean” beauty brand with seven “impossible to mess up” products designed to simplify everyday beauty routines. The range has since expanded to include skincare and a fragrance, but remains tightly edited: there are now 18 products, all free from hormone disruptors and comedogenic ingredients that can trigger breakouts. Customers have come to love Merit’s trademark lightweight textures, smart packaging and accessible price points; Power “deliberately priced [products] about 30 per cent below traditional luxury brands,” she says. The foundation-concealer stick The Minimalist (£34) is the bestseller, closely followed by the cheek tint Flush Balm (£26).
Merit Flush Balm, £26, The Minimalist Perfecting Complexion Stick, £34, and The Uniform Tinted Mineral Sunscreen SPF50, £34 © Harry Lawlor
