It opens with aldehydes, bergamot, pear, and ambrette, shifting into a bouquet of heart notes that include rosemary, orris, jasmine, and rose. The base notes of vanilla, musk, and moss are an especially gentle anchor, and the musk makes itself known right away. I think that’s why the very first word I used to describe my initial impression of Retrospect was “friendly”—it’s familiar but exciting, the quiet-luxury pal who always knows when your favorite band is in town playing at a low-key venue, the expensive throw blanket that you’re not sure you’re allowed to take off the back of the couch and actually use but you’re rewarded with so much comfort when you do.
“Despite Retrospect’s richness, it wears close to the skin, which allows for a nuanced experience throughout the day with a beautiful sillage, without overpowering,” Bal tells Allure.
And reader, I’m unexpectedly obsessed. I immediately wanted it to become my daily scent. I looked forward to spraying it in the morning and experiencing what had become of its story arc at the end of the day. And because of how Bal formulated it, it actually does last that long.
“Retrospect is an extrait de parfum, which is the most potent form of perfume you can get, as compared to the more common eau de parfum or eau de toilette,” Bal says. “While those formats typically have around 15% fragrance oil, extraits have closer to 30%, which makes it last much longer and allows for a nice evolution throughout the wear time.”
Will it remind you of other clean, floral, comforting fragrances? Perhaps. But it also brings something abstrusely new to the fragrance space that forgives it for trespassing into a very crowded room—a fire hazard that Merit’s chief marketing officer, Aila Morin, is well aware of.
“The fragrance space had gotten oversaturated and ruled by trends and viral single-note scents, and there was nothing being created that was nuanced, clean, and sophisticated,” Morin says. “As a minimalist brand, we saw this as an opportunity to slow things down and bring a sense of complexity back to fragrance. Our own gut instinct was bolstered when we conducted a consumer survey in 2022—when fragrance was already in development—that showed fragrance was the number-one category our customers wanted to see from us. It really felt like a natural next step in the way we develop intentional, timeless products that will be on your vanity for years to come.”