Dive Brief:
- Beauty brand Merit is expanding into the fragrance category with the launch of Retrospect on Oct. 22.
- Described as a nuanced scent, Retrospect is made up of almost 30% fragrance oil, which the brand claims is double the concentration of most perfumes on the market, per a news release.
- A bottle of Retrospect retails for $92 and will be available in the continental U.S. on Merit’s website, all Sephora retail stores and Sephora’s website in North America. The brand will include a sample of Retrospect with all Merit website purchases and have scent strips in Vogue and Real Simple, per the company.
Dive Insight:
Merit’s move into the lucrative yet crowded fragrance market has been in the works for the last two years and took over 200 rounds to develop, according to the company. The brand, which is less than four years old and known for its makeup, always intended to expand into categories it felt were a complement to its core products.
“We never viewed Merit as strictly a makeup brand – that's why we launched skin care only two years in, and we began working on Retrospect only six months after launching back in 2021,” Aila Morin, chief marketing officer, said in an email. “Instead of abiding by strict categories, we think through the everyday experience of our customer and try to identify where they aren't being properly served.“
Morin added that “after surveying the market and thinking through our own experience with fragrance, it was clear that there was an opportunity for us to do something differentiated in the space. That impulse was validated by a 2022 survey, which confirmed that fragrance was the No. 1 product our customers wanted to see from us.”
Merit has been on a fast track since launching in January 2021 with its “minimalist, clean, luxury” approach to the makeup category. Pioneered by industry veteran Katherine Power, Merit rapidly expanded from selling on its website to forming an ongoing partnership with Sephora. In 2022, the company expanded into the skin care category and followed that in 2023 with a cream-to-powder eyeshadow.
Looking to maximize a continuing upward trend, several companies recently expanded into the fragrance space, including accessories brand Kendra Scott and beauty brand Beautycounter, which launched its Clean Eau De Parfum in March of this year.
For the first half of this year, fragrance was the fastest-growing prestige beauty category, with dollar sales up 12% versus the same period in 2023, according to an August report from Circana.