This Martha Stewart-Used Beauty Brand Just Launched Its First-Ever Fragrance & It’s Absolutely Divine

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I think it’s safe to say that most makeup lovers know about Merit Beauty by now. The chic minimalist beauty brand has been loved and used by plenty — from all sorts of celebs like Cameron Diaz, Nicole Richie, and more recently, Martha Stewart to viral content creators on every platform. As they continue to grow and branch out into new spaces of the beauty world, more fans have flocked to them like never before, especially after their latest innovation. Introducing Retrospect, Merit’s first-ever fragrance that this shopping writer thinks smells absolutely divine. 

The new fragrance is a L’Extrait de Parfum, so it’s more concentrated and as pure as perfume can get. To help create Retrospect, the brand tapped Fanny Bal, a master perfumer who worked on coveted designer scents from brands like Dior, Givenchy, Lancome, and many more. Together, it took over four years to develop what is now one of the most alluring and luxurious scents to hit the market. 

Merit’s Retrospect has an intoxicating combination of subtly sweet and floral aromas blended with warm, musky notes that create a long-lasting scent that changes throughout the day. It opens with top notes of bergamot, pear, ambrette, and aldehydes that blend into a beautiful jasmine, rose, rosemary, violet, and orris bouquet. Finally, it finishes with vanilla, musk, and moss bottom notes. And since Retrospect is an extrait perfume, it’s made with nearly 30% fragrance oil — which is practically twice the amount of other eau de perfumes — so it’s long-lasting and changes and develops more throughout the day. 

I was privileged enough to have the opportunity to wear Retrospect before it officially hit Merit’s site. Over the past two weeks, thanks to Merit, I have fallen in love with fragrances all over again. At first, I felt that the fragrance was a bit mature for me, but for the sake of journalism and wanting to give it a fair shot, I decided to try it again — and let me tell you, I’m so happy I did. Once the perfume settled on my skin and moved with me, I started to sense the wonderful combination of all the notes. 

To me, Retrospect smells sophisticated yet youthful. It brought back two distinct fragrance scent memories — one from when I was a little girl and another from when I graduated college. At first, it really reminded me of a more calm and neutral version of CHANEL’s iconic Mademoiselle fragrance. I received it as a graduation gift, and I remember being told that it was relatively mature for a 21-year-old, which is true. The CHANEL fragrance is perfect for the more established woman, which I’m not, although I would like to be. 

But then, after wearing the Merit perfume a few more times, I was transported back to being a nine-year-old girl who had just received her very first fragrance for Christmas. It was American Girl’s Truly Me eau de toilette spray by Bath & Body Works, and it was the first time I remember taking pride in how I smelled. Both of the fragrances have fresh florals like jasmine and sweet fruits like pear, but Merit’s Retrospect made me feel as if it was an elevated version of a very playful combination and made it for the modern woman. 

The new Merit Retrospect L’Extrait de Parfum is available now only on MeritBeauty.com.

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