When Merit Beauty has its once-a-year sale, you can hear a pin drop in the Vogue offices. Where are our editors, you ask? Dutifully adding items from the Merit Black Friday sale to cart. The 2024 sale started on November 25 and will be live until December 2, with almost every product on the site discounted by 20 per cent.
Wondering what to buy? Scroll through the Vogue beauty archives, and you’ll find lots of love letters to our favourite Merit products. From a glowing review of its first-ever skincare product – aptly called the Glow Serum – to an ode to the Minimalist complexion perfecting stick, and from the must-have blush for a “strawberry-girl” flush to the new perfume that puts a modern spin on vintage notes, every product in Merit’s collection has a loyalist on Vogue’s beauty team.
Vogue’s top Merit Black Friday sale picks:
Celebrities also swear by the clean, famously foolproof line of skincare, make-up, and brushes. Impossibly dewy at 83, Martha Stewart recently took to Instagram to share an all-Merit-beauty routine that gives off the a beautiful glow, ideal for the festive season. (The five-minute regime is, she declared: “easier than making a pot of soup.”)
Ahead, find Vogue’s must-have products from the sale, ranging from Stewart’s go-to serum to festive gift sets, a miraculously approachable red lipstick, and more.
Five-Minute Morning
- Why we love it: For those with hurried weekday mornings, the gift of a five-minute, flawless make-up routine is tough to beat. Merit’s streamlined set offers key tools for achieving an everyday beauty look in minutes. In less time than it takes to brew a pot of coffee, your eyes can be defined with a volumising brow gel and a lengthening mascara; your lips can be tinted with a glossy wash of colour, and your cheeks can radiate a healthy glow that suggests you’ve just returned from a leisurely stroll in the sun. (Monday morning chaos? Certainly not you.)
- What’s included: The seven-piece set holds all of the items that make up Merit’s core collection, including The Minimalist, Flush Balm, Shade Slick, Brush No. 1, Day Glow highlighter, Clean Lash Mascara, and the Brow 1980 pomade.
- How to use: Perfect a mere-minutes make-up routine by covering imperfections with The Minimalist, then wake up the complexion with the Flush Balm and a touch of Day Glow. Define the eyes with a few swipes of mascara and a touch of brow gel, and call it a (beautiful) day. Fun fact: I put the set’s claims to the test by setting my timer for five minutes and whizzing through an application of each product. I added a supplemental spritz of Retrospect and set the look with my go-to setting spray, and I finished with 20 seconds to spare.
The Minimalist
- Why we love it: The Minimalist is a lightweight multitasker that can serve as a concealer, a foundation, or a contour. Made with sea daffodil extract to even out the skin tone and fatty acids for moisture, it also falls into the make-up-as-skincare category. With Merit’s signature, lightweight feel, the cream-to-powder formula comes in 20 shades and has a second-skin finish. As ever with Merit, application is a breeze. “The small rounded bullet is about the size and shape of a finger,” Vogue contributor Katie Becker says. “It allows you to draw on coverage like you’re using a skin-perfecting stylus.”
- Key ingredients: Sea daffodil extract, fatty acids
- How to use: The versatile tool can be applied in one of three ways. To use it as a spot concealer, dot it over blemishes, then blend it out with a finger or a brush. It can also provide all-over complexion coverage; or, pick a hue three shades darker than your natural skin tone and swipe it on to contour the cheeks, jawline, forehead, and chin. “This changed the game for me,” Vogue contributing editor Celia Ellenberg wrote when the product launched in 2021. “The shade matching is spot on, although it’s the targeted or all over, natural coverage you get from this nourishing stick that really sold me.”
Shade Slick Tinted Lip Oil
- Why we love it: Softening, conditioning, and tinted with just enough colour to give lips a natural flush, Merit’s oils come in 12 glossy shades. The Classic hues range from the creamy, clear “Bel Air” to the orangey-red “Cara Cara,” while the selection of “Gelées” features sheer shades of pink, red, and brown. Those hues are just a baseline, though: Rather like a glossy mood ring, the colours change according to natural pH levels in the lips, and look different on everyone who wears them. (My go-to shade, the deep-berry Sangria, dries down on my lips with a sheer, plum-coloured hue that will help me embody sugarplum-fairy chic this holiday season.) The formulation is infused with moisturising ingredients ranging from shea butter to jojoba oil, while fatty acids protect the delicate skin on the lips.
- Key ingredients: Rosehip oil, omega-3, -6, and -9 fatty acids, shea butter, grapeseed oil, jojoba oil
- How to use: The tube comes with a small, doe-foot applicator that makes it easy to apply the product precisely. I prefer using the pointed end of the tip to line my lips, then I fill them in using the wider side of the wand before using a finger to blot.
Flush Balm
- Why we love it: Berry-stained beauty has a hold on the TikTok cohort, and it’s easy to see its sweet appeal. Merit’s creamy cheek colour –a cult classic for the brand– is key to achieving that just-back-from-a-berry-patch flush. Available in nine hues ranging from the soft-peach Beverly Hills to the sheer-red Rouge, the blush swipes on directly from its rounded stick, leaving a sheer, lit-from-within finish in its wake. The formula is buildable, so you can pick your colour intensity depending on the day. But if it’s the viral “strawberry girl” flush you’re after, keep reading for Vogue’s recipe for achieving the look.
- Key ingredients: Vitamin E, microfine pigment powders
- How to use: To get a strawberry-glazed beauty look inspired by the likes of Hailey Bieber, create a base with a tinted moisturiser or a lightweight, dewy foundation. (The Minimalist would be a safe bet.) After applying a face base, sweep the Flush Balm along the apples of the cheeks and over the bridge of the nose, where the sun naturally hits. Blend it in with a finger, a brush, or a sponge, and voila: a summery, outdoorsy flush to keep ashen winter skin at bay.
Great Skin Instant Glow Serum
- Why we love it: Merit’s first-ever skincare product, launched in 2022, made its debut on the New York Fashion Week runway. That season’s Altuzarra models were the first to experience the glass-skin-making effects of the serum, which blends four types of hyaluronic acid with niacinamide, skin-tightening cacao seed extract and Japanese goldthread root. (Since its launch, the serum has become a staple in Stewart’s pre-make-up regime.) “We wanted something that made your skin just look instantly plump, awake, really well-rested, and hydrated,” Aila Morin, Merit’s chief marketing officer, previously told Vogue. “That was the genesis for the formula.”
- Key ingredients: Hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, cacao-seed extract
- How to use: Morin shared that the serum was developed as a base for the Minimalist, the brand’s beloved foundation-slash concealer (more on that below.) “We all know that it’s so much easier to have great make-up if you have a great base, right?” Morin said. “Hydrated, healthy, and glowing skin is so much easier to do make-up on.” Apply the serum and give it a moment to sink in before applying the Minimalist (or any type of skin coverage) for easy, frictionless application.
Great Skin Priming Moisturiser
- Why we love it: Merit’s new moisturiser also primes the skin for make-up, turning it into a smooth, silky canvas for colour. Infused with a complex of peptides, spermidine, and barrier polysaccharides, the formulation strengthens the skin barrier. Of course, it also moisturises the skin, flooding it with nourishing oat extract, squalene, and jojoba oil. It became an instant favourite for Vogue’s senior beauty shopping writer Kiana Murden, who shares: “I’ve been reaching for this because the texture and finish are sublime. The rich cream sinks quickly into the skin, creating a nice, supple glow without being overly dewy. Merit likens this to a ‘cashmere’ finish, and I couldn’t agree more.”
- Key ingredients: Peptides, spermidine, barrier polysaccharides, oat extract, glycerin, jojoba butter, squalene
- How to use: Though the moisturiser doubles as a make-up primer, it can also be used on its own as a salve for winter dryness. “[It] leaves the skin radiant, bouncy, and smooth,” Murden wrote.
Retrospect L’Extrait de Parfum
- Why we love it: Merit’s first-ever fragrance – a warm, musky, floral with a second-skin finish – is the olfactory version of a chic vintage dress. The first time I spritzed it on, I imagined myself in a hotel powder room, surrounded by Grace Kelly types powdering their noses and dotting on lipstick. With notes of pear, aldehydes, jasmine, rose, vanilla, and musk, the perfume comes in a smoky grey bottle with a gilded top. The design was inspired by modern jewellery, and fittingly, the bottle makes for a striking vanity accessory.
- Notes: Bergamot, ambrette, pear, aldehydes, jasmine, rose, orris, rosemary, violet, vanilla, musk, moss
- How to use: Spritz it on in the morning, and enjoy the fragrance as it evolves throughout the day. “It opens quite soft and fresh,” perfumer Fanny Bal previously told Vogue. “Like what you would want in the morning. By midday, when you are at work, it’s hitting the floral notes and is more traditional. Then, by evening, it’s turned sexy, with a little moss, a little musk, a little vanilla, a little wood.”
Signature Lip Lightweight Lipstick
- Why we love it: Merit’s Lightweight Lipsticks stay true to their name, coating the lips with a featherlight finish and a light tint that makes any colour approachable. To wit: “I rarely wear a red lip but when I do it’s the Merit signature lip in the shade Tiger,” Vogue’s Irene Kim once wrote. “It’s such a subtle red that I’m not intimidated by applying the lipstick perfectly. Plus I get compliments every time I wear it so that must be a good sign.” Infused with lip-loving ingredients such as squalane, sunflower oil, and papain enzyme, the formulation also moisturises, soothes, and conceals the appearance of fine lines. What’s more, it comes in 17 shades with both matte and satin finishes.
- Key ingredients: Squalane, sunflower oil, papain enzyme, vitamin C
- How to use: Merit declares its make-up “impossible to mess up,” and this lightweight lipstick is no exception to the rule. It can be applied directly from the tube, and it blends out easily with a brush or a finger. It’s also buildable: One coat will leave a sheer wash of colour, while added layers will enhance the colour payoff.
Bronze Balm Sheer Sculpting Bronzer
- Why we love it: Merit describes its sheer, buildable balm as “the easiest bronzer ever,” and I can attest to that. As someone with very fair skin, and as someone who gravitates more toward the aforementioned berry-stained vibe than a fresh-from-the-beach glow, I rarely wear bronzer. However, Merit’s light-touch formulation has given me the courage to contour without fear of creating too harsh a look. The balm swipes on like silk, leaving just a hint of luminous, sun-kissed colour in its wake. (I chose the Quince hue, which the brand describes as “bone-dune.”) A cinch to blend, the breezy formulation bathes the skin in a candlelit kind of glow. What’s more, the bronzer is infused with fatty acids to moisturise the skin.
- Key ingredients: Microfine pigments, fatty acids
- How to use: To add a touch of warmth to the face, take the wide side of the dome-shaped stick and swipe it along the places on the face where the sun naturally hits, such as the temples, the cheekbones, and the bridge of the nose. For a more sculpted look, use the narrow side of the bullet to apply bronzer more precisely to the hairline, jawline, cheekbones, and any other areas that call for some contour. Blend the bronzer in with a finger or a brush – the brand recommends using its tapered blending Brush No. 1 for all complexion products.
