I'm Obsessed With Merit Beauty—Here Are My Honest Thoughts on Every Product

The Uniform is one of our team's favourite tinted SPFs—ever. Coming in a range of diverse shades, it has a silky texture that offers just enough coverage to even out skin pigment without feeling heavy or cakey. It leaves you with a healthy-looking, radiant glow and is great worn alone or with concealer on top. Trust me: The Uniform is the ultimate everyday base.

There are few cream blushers I don't like, but it wasn't until I tried this one that I realised the common gripes I have with many of my existing favourites. For starters, you don't have to worry about getting your fingers mucky in a compact—just dab the product onto the apples of your cheeks right from the pot and blend out with a fluffy brush. The other thing that sets it apart is its highly blendable, outstandingly creamy formula. Whereas most of the other stick blushers I've tried require a fair amount of patting and rubbing to blend, this stuff disperses into a glowing, watercolour-esque flush in seconds. It is, hands down, the best cream blush in existence.

I'm a total snob when it comes to brow gels. My brows are thick, coarse and very dark, so whenever I'm presented with a teeny-tiny spoolie on the end of my brow wand, I feel like giving up. This one, however, has a brush thick enough to get to the root of unruly brow hairs, but small enough to work for finer brows, too. It sets them in place without turning them crispy and crunchy; another winning point. In fact, this is probably my most-used brow gel ever.

What is better in the world of makeup than a blurred, bitten-looking lip? This blurring lip blush is the only lipstick I have ever used that truly delivers the sort of "bouche mordue" (French for "bitten lip") finish I crave without turning my already dry lips uncomfortable and flaky. I'm never without a bullet of Signature Lip Blush in my handbag.

Merit Retrospect is just as chic as you'd expect. On first spritz, you're met with notes of juicy pear and fresh bergamot, before rich jasmine and rose take centre stage. Base notes of moss give an earthy feel, whilst vanilla and musk add a warm, sensual edge.

Merit introduced a serum as a precursor to its complexion products, but it looks great worn alone, too. "I've been testing out the serum alongside The Minimalist stick (below), and I love that it primes my skin with a dewy glow," says Who What Wear UK Beauty Editor Eleanor Vousden. "It contains skin-brightening niacinamide and four types of hyaluronic acid, leaving skin looking radiant and feeling hydrated. I feel like I can get away with wearing less makeup when I use this," she says.

As someone who doesn't particularly like foundation, I consider this product to be a game-changer. You see, there are a few things I don't like about foundation, mainly the way it takes away the skin's natural "flaws" and leaves my face feeling tacky and greasy. Because of this, I try to avoid foundation altogether, instead opting to apply concealer just where I need it. This product, however, is the best of both. 

With the coverage of a concealer but the creaminess of a foundation, it's a hybrid product that you scribble onto skin only where you need it. Blend it out with fingers, and you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much it livens up your complexion. With nourishing fatty acids, it delivers ample hydration to the skin, meaning you never have to worry about your base looking cakey.

There are plenty of bronzing sticks out there, but none quite like this one. It is so creamy and blendable that you'll never have to worry about applying too much. The shades are skin-like, so you don't have to fret about your bronzer looking muddy, either. Whether you want to use it as a contour or a sun-striping bronze, it provides the perfect "no-makeup makeup" glow.

Let me caveat that I'm not much of a highlighter person. Something about shimmering highlights makes me feel as though my makeup doesn't look natural. Don't get me wrong; I love twinkling cheekbones on a night out, but for day-to-day life? I can't help but feel as though a striking highlight gives the natural-makeup game away. This stuff, however, is a little different. It's jam-packed with nourishing oils, meaning it glides on with unparalleled ease, leaving behind a skin-like sheen. The pearlescent pigment is somewhat diluted by these hydrating oils, meaning the intensity can be built up to whatever level your heart desires.

If you're after an everyday mascara that doesn't deliver too much impact but makes lashes look a little bit longer and more defined, this one is for you. It adds subtle but noticeable length without causing lashes to clump, and the best bit is that it uses tubing technology, meaning if you struggle with under-eye smudging, you needn't worry. By coating every lash with a "tube" of mascara formula, it won't smudge or run until you actually want to take it off at the end of the day. You're not going to get drastic before-and-after results, but that makes it kind of perfect for everyday wear.

Solo Shadow is a cream-to-powder eye shadow that comes in four wearable sheens and eight wearable mattes. "These fuss-free eye shadows blend beautifully with your fingertips for a wash of all-over colour," says Vousden. "I've been wearing the shade Studio, a brown taupe, all over my lids when I want to make a statement with my eyes without the faff of blending multiple colours."

Come winter, my lips turn particularly dry, making lipstick almost impossible to wear. This formula, however, is the exception. The creamier, sheenier, more intense version of the aforementioned Signature Lip Blush, with squalane and sunflower seed oil, delivers ample hydration that leaves lips looking plump and moisturised, whilst papain enzyme also helps tackle dryness. The result is a nude lip that looks beautifully natural, making it the ultimate way to pull your final makeup look together.

When I first caught wind of the fact that Merit Beauty would be launching in the UK, this was the product I was most excited to try. It is, after all, the product that U.S. beauty editors and influencers rave about the most. Richly pigmented, it delivers a wash of juicy colour to lips whilst hydrating and moisturising with rosehip oil, fatty acids and shea butter to leave them enviably soft. It gives gloss-like results without any of the stickiness, and there are four more translucent shimmery shades, four opaque classics and four gelées.

"This is my ultimate brow pencil—I can't use anything else now," says Vousden. "The microfine nib is nimble enough to create realistic brow hair strokes to naturally fill in sparse areas without it looking stark. The pencil formula itself isn't too soft nor too hard, so it glides onto the skin and can easily be diffused with the spoolie brush on the other end for a seamless result. Plus, the shades are amongst some of the most natural I've seen. I find it hard to find brow pencils that match my dark brown eye colour (I find that most of them are too warm-toned), but the Dark Brown shade is a perfect match for me."

Another relatively recent addition to Merit Beauty is the Signature Lip Liner, which the brand describes as a sheer liner. These aren't your traditional lip liners, however. Rather than providing a crisp, defined line, these have a soft-focus finish that adds a blurred finish to the lips with a comfortable satin finish. They're the ultimate low-maintenance lip liner to scribble on and go for a naturally defined lip. They're also retractable, so you don't need to worry about sharpening them either. I keep three different shades on me at all times.

Merit has added to its skincare offering with the launch of the Great Skin Double Cleanse: a bi-phase cleanser that mixes to melt away makeup and cleanse your skin without leaving it feeling stripped. PHAs gently exfoliate, whilst the oil-free formula gently removes impurities with oat-derived surfactants that leave your skin feeling comfortable.

A newer addition to the Solo Shadows, the Sheen formula is a creamy formula with a sheer glow to it, which creates the perfect soft (read: not glittery) gleam to the lids. It's easy enough to pat onto your lids without a brush as an easy way to elevate your eye makeup for the evening without feeling like you're putting anything on.

A complete kit of Merit icons.

A concise edit of Merit's favourites that allows you to streamline your morning makeup routine. Think a full face in five minutes flat.

Housing Merit's complexion favourites, this set is ideal if you want to try the brand's serum, complexion stick, bronzer, blush and highlighter. It also comes with the versatile Brush No.1 Blending Brush, too.

If you're looking for some Merit products that are guaranteed to slot into your everyday routine with ease, this one is for you.

They're best-sellers for a reason—this is a tight edit of the best Merit has to offer.