In Retrospect

Sit back and take a minute to rewind. Toast and butter in the morning before school, the seaside on family holidays, the leather of your grandma’s sofa… all these memories have distinct scents attached and smelling them again can instantly transport us back to a singular moment. And so for a beauty brand’s first ever fragrance, we were curious which nostalgic moment would be bottled up given an overcrowded market with a lot to say / sniff! 

Minimalist beauty brand Merit has gone the way of clean…minimalism for its debut scent. ‘Retrospect’, leaves everything to your imagination, self-described as a nuanced scent, its contradictions of nostalgic vintage notes complimenting the balance of modern sensibility, familiar and yet difficult to describe. Developed in Paris with expert nose Fanny Bal, whose name is attached to fragrances by Givenchy, Lancôme, and Penhaligons to name a few, it avoids any single category and prefers balanced complexity.

With a market littered with overly literal scents due to mass popularity, Retrospect goes against the grain. With this fragrance it’s about the journey instead of the final destination, opening with soft and clean notes of bergamot, pear, and aldehydes, followed by a more subtle and floral heart of jasmine, rose, rosemary, violet, orris and finally settling into a base of musk, vanilla, and moss. Yes, a lot goes into making something minimal.

Continuing its contradictions, Retrospect “embodies the meeting place between old and new, softness and depth – it’s not just a fragrance for right now, but something you’ll keep coming back to for years to come.”

With a concentrated extrait de parfum, Retrospect is nearly 30% fragrance oil, which is double the concentration of most perfumes on the market and results in needing just one spray to last all day. Minimal smell, minimal effort, and a whole lot of room for the imagination.

Retrospect launches on the 22nd of October, sign up to the waitlist here