Meet Merit, Katherine Power’s Minimalist Clean Beauty Line

The collection launches today.

Katherine Power, founder of the Who What Wear fashion empire and Versed skincare, enters the makeup market with Merit: a clean, super-edited beauty line featuring only the products you need to get ready in five minutes, tops.  “Merit is the antidote to those overwhelming, saturated beauty brands with too many steps and 50 shadow pallets being dropped every week,” says Power of the brand, which launches today. “I wanted to create a brand that would reimagine luxury beauty for modern consumers like myself, by making it cleaner, well-edited, and accessible,”

Vibe-wise, we consider it Glossier for grownups. “As I saw the clean beauty landscape starting to grow, I tried a lot of great products, but always felt like they were for a younger customer who was looking for newness and excess,” she adds. It’s makeup designed to make you look like you, minus the obvious sparkle.

The collection debuts with just seven products: Brow 1980, a buildable brow pomade, Shade Slick, a tinted lip oil, Flush Balm, a cheek stain Power calls “impossible-to-mess-up,” Clean Lash lengthening mascara, Day Glow highlighter and the Minimalist complexion stick and blending brush.

“We created Day Glow because I just couldn’t find a highlighter that was truly appropriate for daytime lighting,” says Power of the highlighter. To get a balmy sheen minus the glitter, Merit uses plant-based squalene, olive fruit oil, and an amino acid complex, which adds moisture to the skin.

The complexion stick, launching in 20 shades, is both a foundation and a concealer: use it how you wish. Acne-prone individuals will love that the ingredient list for the product excludes everything on L.A.-based celebrity esthetician Biba de Sousa’s “no” list of ingredients. (Some of the fresh faces she’s worked with include Miley Cyrus, Emily Blunt and Mandy Moore.)

Sustainability is another key tenet of Merit. First orders come with a reusable makeup bag (which easily doubles as a cute purse) while second orders onward ship with packing peanuts made from corn starch, which completely dissolve in water. Shipment boxes include 35-percent previously recycled material, and are fully recyclable when you are done with them.

If you’re looking for makeup you can put on after a year of makeup-free Zoom calls and still feel like yourself, try Merit. Click through the slideshow below for your first look at the debut Merit beauty collection.