Merit Is Here IRL, Face Shaving 101 & Why Kelly Owes A Youbie An Apology

You Beauty

The episode covers Merit's official in-store launch at Sephora Australia, featuring an interview with Global Head of Brand Vanessa Krooss about the brand's minimalist approach and

Key takeaways

• Merit officially launched in physical Sephora stores across Australia, solving the online swatching barrier for complexion products.
• Global Head of Brand Vanessa Krooss identified the minimalist complexion stick and Flush Balm blushes as consistent global bestsellers due to their blendable, multi-use formulas.

Main topics

• Merit brand retail expansion & product philosophy
• Simultaneous eye patch dispenser releases by major brands

Notable quotes

"I think it's pretty obvious that we all got screwed over by the same packaging supplier."

Conclusion

Listeners receive actionable beauty shopping strategies for major sale

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:00) This spring, Unleashed is throwing me the formal I never had and you're all invited. Because we're going back to the 80s and 90s for a night of Madonna, Mariah, George Michael, big hair, shoulder pads and a lot of dancing. So grab your girlfriends, get your best 80s or 90s look ready and come and dance like no one is filming you. Saturday, October 10 at the Oxford Art Factory, Sydney. Tickets to Unleashed Spring Fling are on sale now. Don't miss out. Head to www.mamamia.com.au forward slash spring fling to purchase. Speaker 5 (0:44) And welcome to You Beauty, the show for your face, hair and bathroom cabinet. I'm Leigh Campbell. I'm Kelly McCarran. And are you Leigh Campbell? Who knows under here? I have had a week. I have a migraine either coming or going. I've taken the medication. I don't know if you ever get them. They're new for me. Perimenopause. Excellent. Speaker 4 (1:02) Oh, fun. I used to when I was a lot younger, but touch wood. I haven't had one for... Where's some wood? I actually need to... Speaker 5 (1:08) I don't think I've ever had a real one and now I've had like five in 18 months. They're not good. But after this I'm getting on an aeroplane to Vietnam. Hence, sunnies are to help my eyes. Also, I'm half not here, half here. So Kelly's going to basically run the show. I'm going to have a pina colada. Speaker 2 (1:23) I'm Speaker 5 (1:23) not really. Not now when I get there. Speaker 4 (1:25) When you get to the airport. Before we get into the show, I have a potential apology I need to make. Last Thursday during netball, I body slammed. slash crash tackled someone. Obviously, I didn't mean to. Kelly, this is in your diary. We don't care about netball. I know. Just wait because I play with so much gusto that I just, you know. I can imagine. Anyway, after I obviously apologised to the poor girl and X, Y, Z, and then I was looking at her and I was like, oh, God, I'm 95 % sure it was the same girl who had came up to me. like six weeks ago and said like after the game oh my goodness by the way i love the show i'm Speaker 5 (2:07) a Speaker 4 (2:07) you Speaker 4 (2:09) Kelly. So if I crash tackled you and you're a UB on Thursday. I do apologize. What Speaker 5 (2:17) if she's not a Yubi? It's still not great. Well, then she won't hear this apology. Then you could also kind of disappear into the ether and maybe she'll never see you again. But if she's a Yubi, she knows where to Speaker 4 (2:25) find you. She will also see me regardless because we play the same at Wilco every Thursday. Speaker 5 (2:29) Okay. Well, that's lovely. I hope you don't do that again. Can you get... disqualified, a red card, a yellow card, I don't know. If Speaker 4 (2:35) you did it on purpose, you can't get in trouble for doing something, an accident. Okay, good. Anyway, Yubis, welcome to this very unhinged Friday. It will get a little bit more normal. Well, we're unsure. We're unsure. Lee's on the way to Vietnam. I am. You know, crash-chackling people apparently, so. Speaker 4 (2:51) Today we've got some exciting Speaker 5 (2:52) news. It would not be Friday at the moment without some Speaker 4 (2:55) Advent calendar news and my goodness me, I'm so excited to tell you a few things. Later on in the show we have our spendy savey. Lee swapped everything out so I've got absolutely no idea. Speaker 5 (3:05) I swapped them out and I've got almost two identical products from completely different brands and price points. Speaker 4 (3:10) I shall explain. Okay, well that'll be later in the episode. And in Q &A we have something about the Amazon Day sales which are currently on. And we have a follow-up question from our skin prep little segment last week about shaving thy face. But first. Speaker 4 (3:28) Can I do Christmas yet? No. No, but you. Is also Speaker 5 (3:32) that Merit Speaker 4 (3:34) is in Speaker 5 (3:34) Australia. Speaker 4 (3:35) Oh, Speaker 5 (3:35) my Speaker 4 (3:35) gosh. Merit launched. Speaker 5 (3:35) I packed some Merit for my trip, by the way. It's a very good multitasking brand. It is. It is. The Flushy Bars. Compact. Speaker 4 (3:41) So in case you missed it, we did announce that it was launching like a month ago. Yes. But Merit has officially launched in store at Sephora. Now, why is this exciting when you've been able to buy it online for the past couple of years? Well. People want to be able to swatch things. So to be able to go in-store to Sephora, actually play around with the products and then also not have to wait for weeks to get the product, huge Speaker 5 (4:05) plus. Also, Speaker 4 (4:06) they're not super Speaker 5 (4:06) cheap. Like even at Priceline and Chemist Warehouse when I can't play, I'm like, I don't know if I want to buy it. So Speaker 4 (4:10) buying online is a risk, you know. Especially when you're swatching things and you don't know what colours you want. If you're Speaker 5 (4:17) not familiar with Merit, it's not your fault. It kind of came out of nowhere a couple of years ago. I'd never Speaker 4 (4:22) heard of it the first time at... was available to purchase and everyone's going, oh, Merit. And I'm kind of like, yeah, Speaker 5 (4:28) you're like, yeah, I know. So her name's Catherine Power. So if you haven't heard her name, you may have heard of Merit by now. And the whole premise was kind of like that five minute makeup. I think the brand's been around five years or so now. And it's kind of like the essentials you need that are still beautiful to use and not boring. And you can kind of do your face with multi-use products in a couple of minutes. Speaker 4 (4:46) Yes. It's not. insanely bright fuchsia pink blush it's all like really wearable colors yes but not cheap like the Speaker 5 (4:55) formulas are Speaker 4 (4:56) still there Speaker 5 (4:56) the pigment's Speaker 4 (4:56) still there it's just very like your skin but better and all of the packages and like the houses for the products are very ergonomic like they're a little Speaker 5 (5:04) dome for the cheeky even i can do that they're Speaker 4 (5:06) designed to be held in the hand nicely i assume that was intentional so very exciting it's Speaker 5 (5:12) in sephora as of Wednesday. And we got a special treat. The head of beauty here at Mamma Mia Alley got the exclusive podcast interview to ask all the goss, the best products, where it all came from and what's coming Speaker 2 (5:23) next. Speaker 5 (5:24) So take a Speaker 2 (5:25) listen to this. Vanessa Cruz, welcome to YouBeauty. I'm so excited that you're able to join us on your whirlwind trip to Australia. You are the global head of brand for Merit. Thank you for joining Speaker 3 (5:37) us. Thank you so much for having me. It's such a delight to be here and in Sydney. I mean, we're really, really thrilled. Well, we've turned the weather on for you at least. But Speaker 2 (5:45) I know we wanted to get you in the studio to get a little bit more information from you given the brand Merit's launch into Sephora. Tell us a little bit about why you chose Sephora and how exciting this is for a brand to have this kind of retail bricks and mortar footprint. Yeah, absolutely. Speaker 3 (6:05) I mean, I'm amazed at anyone who can shade match and buy beauty products online without trying them first. And Speaker 4 (6:12) thankfully, Speaker 3 (6:12) we've had a really dedicated group of people in Australia who were very early adopters, and maybe they'd heard about it from friends or they tried it in the States or, you know, any, any, you know, which way. But really, Sephora is going to be the first opportunity for people to be able to feel, see our formulas in person, which I think is really important. important because our formulas tend to be really creamy, really blendable, easy to use. And it's really hard to communicate that online. Speaker 2 (6:41) Absolutely. It's kind of amazing that you guys have had the success. And I don't know about anyone else's Instagram feeds, but I feel like I've seen your stuff everywhere on social media. So well down to your marketing department. But the fact of not being able to, as you say, like touch and feel a product and makeup product, especially complexion products. and still buying it is really a credit to the brand. But also, can you tell me what was the best selling thing from? the Australian market for you so far before you actually have a retail. Yeah, absolutely. We actually see this as pretty consistent Speaker 3 (7:11) around the world in all of our different regions. So really the minimalist complexion stick is probably the one that everyone has seen. It's, you know, I think really precise, really flexible. It can be full coverage. It can be pretty much no coverage. You can spot conceal. You can really build it up however you want. And I think that kind of flexibility is one of the things that people look for. really, really love about it. And then our flush balm blushes. I mean, they look like little candies. They're very irresistible. But also I think the fact that they're really, really buildable, blendable, you're going to be hearing a lot of the same Speaker 4 (7:47) terms. We Speaker 3 (7:48) really try to make sure everything's really flexible and able to be used in a way that people are going to find, you know, really works Speaker 2 (7:55) for whatever their routine is. Yeah, definitely. I think the fact that this stuff is designed to be used with your fingers is really nice because it's just like simplifies. I think there's a lot of beauty consumers and a lot of our listeners as well who just want to be told what's good and make it easy and make it simple. Yes. January 2021. Now, Catherine Power, if you're a fashion nerd, you will know that she's one of the co-founders of Who What Wear, which is an American sort of fashion style celebrity website, like editorial website. Anyway, she's a bit of a big deal. She's an entrepreneur. She has an organic wine brand with Cameron Diaz as well, just as well as being a beauty entrepreneur. And I think that it's really interesting that. She launched this brand which really seemed to speak to a certain kind of consumer who wanted something simple but also it wasn't targeting trends and it wasn't about an age category as well. It wasn't about chasing youth. You know, there's no anti-aging stuff in the range, even though you guys do do skincare. I think that that definitely for an Australian audience, I think that seemed to really resonate. And then it... You know, you launched into the UK in 2023 and then Australia, we could buy it online in 2024. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we talk Speaker 3 (9:07) a lot about really trying to think about beauty, less so in terms of a trend or a category or even, you know, a specific demographic. Speaker 4 (9:17) And we really try to think about it in terms of an approach. to beauty, a mindset around beauty, and also a problem that Speaker 3 (9:24) we can solve. So, you know, we really think about time a lot. How can we save our customer time? How can we give her more time back for her to be able to spend with her family, at work, sleeping in a little bit, which is Speaker 4 (9:40) how I would Speaker 3 (9:41) spend the five minutes that I might get back by simplifying my routine. But really, I think that is what we really saw in the beauty is that. industry is that there was this disconnect between the way people were viewing their routines how they what they wanted out of the category and then what was being sold to them which was a lot of times over complication you know something that you needed to watch a tutorial to be able to figure out how to use yeah Speaker 2 (10:07) no 12 steps systems in this whatsoever Speaker 3 (10:10) no no Speaker 2 (10:11) really just as many steps as you want Speaker 3 (10:13) what Speaker 2 (10:14) products do you think are like what's the one product that everyone should try i know that we talked about the complexion stick outside of that is there something that's like If you're going to go into a store and you're going to play with something, play with this. Yes. It might be unexpected. Speaker 3 (10:29) Yeah. I mean, I think there's two. So I'm going to cheat a little bit. One, because I think it's quite unexpected for a brand that really started in color is our serum. So our great skin serum. It's also very possibly something you've seen online. It's really unlike any product I've tried before. It's oil free, but it's really, really. beautifully hydrating. It sinks into the skin really, really easily. It really, I think, surprises people because it's quite light and viscous and it looks like it might be this kind of heavy, inclusive oil. But Speaker 2 (11:05) like Speaker 3 (11:06) everything we do, you know, we're really focused on it being safe for all skin types, including acne prone skin. It's certified non comedogenic. So it's really going to give you that really beautiful, healthy, dewy glow without breaking you out. Which I think a lot of people, especially who have a combination or acne prone skin type, are quite scared by those kinds of very dewy shine products. Speaker 2 (11:29) And the serum, Speaker 3 (11:29) when Speaker 2 (11:29) you look at it in the bottle as well, it's kind of like brown. It's kind of like a tan color and it looks viscous. It looks like an oil. So like it doesn't. Yeah, I agree with what you're saying. It looks a bit scary. It looks really like luxe and beautiful and like quite sort of like special. But if you do have acne prone skin or are prone to congestion, you'd be like, ugh. I Speaker 3 (11:48) mean, I think Speaker 2 (11:49) that's Speaker 3 (11:50) also just goes back to one of the founding principles of merit is really making sure that everything that we make is suitable for acne prone skin type. So we really want to make sure that our products are safe for sensitive skin or something that aren't going to be irritating to you. I mean, I personally suffer from rosacea and have very, very sensitive skin. I get very. I get very nervous to try new products. Speaker 5 (12:16) And Speaker 3 (12:17) one of the things that I really love about Merit that really made me join the brand is the fact that, you know, they're focused on, you know, of course, really beautiful colors and formulas, but also really making products that are going to be safer. you know, really whatever kind of skin you have. And when it comes to color, we really brief that in differently rather than benching from other brands or really trying to, you know, go into what are trending shades. What we really do is we pull from real life. uh inspiration so we'll look at old vogues from the 90s or we'll watch a movie and take a still and be like oh exactly the way that nicole kidman's cheek looked in that you know scene of practical magic is something that we want to try to embody and use as a um as a jumping off point. So I think we're a bit of a nightmare for our manufacturing partners because we're sending them mood boards and video clips rather than, you know, specific benches. But I think it really means that we are able to create something that feels different in a market Speaker 2 (13:22) that might feel a little bit saturated at times. Well, I think that Australian and New Zealand UBs will be really excited to experience the difference of merit when they can go install and play with it. In real life. Thanks so much for coming in. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Speaker 3 (13:37) I really appreciate it. Speaker 4 (13:39) So if you want to hear what our favourite merit beauty picks are, you've got to let us know and we can maybe talk about that next week or the week after. Why are you looking so sad? Oh, my Speaker 5 (13:48) God. My migraine actually hurts. They're really painful. Would Speaker 4 (13:51) it help? Would it make you feel better if you could start talking about your advent calendars now? Speaker 5 (13:56) It would a little bit. I mean, yes, that's what I'm here for. I was not missing it. Okay. Let's do it. It looks like a gift. It is a gift. It's a gift with gifts inside. Now, look, my vision isn't great, but I know it's from the body shop because I arranged it to be here. I can't tell you much more. I think that says something with 50. 50 years of gifting. Whoa, happy birthday, Speaker 4 (14:18) body shop, if it is that. That is so cute. The body shop, when I was young, the chokehold it had on me, Speaker 5 (14:24) there was like Speaker 4 (14:24) a peach fuzz. Perfume oil. Oh my gosh, they were so good. Speaker 5 (14:27) Anyway, so this is their classic beauty advent calendar. It is a 24-dayer. Even I know that, even though it's blurry. So let's open a couple. It's $200. Oh, my gosh, guys, it's $99. I thought it was $200 and something. Under $100. Whoa, I'll take three. Value of $200 and Speaker 4 (14:43) something. Speaker 5 (14:44) Would you like to open a number and are we going to go with our theory? Speaker 4 (14:46) Yes, please. I'd like to open number seven. Great. Oh, good number. Speaker 5 (14:50) Could you get out number 16 for me? Speaker 4 (14:53) Oh, that is a good number. So if you're tuning Speaker 5 (14:57) in new, you haven't been here for the last few weeks, Kelly and I have a theory Speaker 4 (15:00) with advent calendars. But we are yet to be proven correct. Speaker 5 (15:03) Where is number? The first week was pretty good. You start strong. We think the brand's like, here's an amazing treat, and then they're like, mm-mm-mm. That's sick. And they're like, ooh, they might be getting bored now. This is heavy. And then they give you another amazing product. Speaker 4 (15:14) So we've just got a theory that all – oh, okay. Speaker 4 (15:19) Coconut hand cream in number in day seven. You Speaker 5 (15:22) know what, though? That's great. In my mind, the Body Shop products are kind of all equal in their goodness. Speaker 4 (15:27) Yeah. Okay. Speaker 5 (15:29) I'm going to have a tube of Speaker 4 (15:30) something. Speaker 4 (15:31) The hand cream. Wait, is that the hand cream? Let me do the reading. It Speaker 5 (15:34) might be a Speaker 4 (15:34) box of hand Speaker 5 (15:34) creams. Speaker 4 (15:36) Okay, it is another hand cream, so let's open another one just to make sure it's not just. Not that there's actually, no, there is something wrong with that. No one eats 24 hand creams. It might say that. No, that's not a hand cream. Definitely not. What is that? I Speaker 5 (15:49) don't know. I can't see a thing. That is Speaker 4 (15:50) milk, so it is body milk. Oh, delicious. I just will try one more in a different shape. Speaker 5 (15:55) Can you see? Kelly's getting into it. I am not. She sent me a video. There was like decorations where your coleslaw is. Kmart. Oh, wow. I literally was like, it's September. Do you know where I was going to pick up two Christmas trees? All right. This is Speaker 4 (16:11) British Rose Body Butter. Oh, that's Speaker 5 (16:15) cute. And that scent, it's beautiful. This is a really good, I think, value pack, but also a great one to split up if you're doing little gifts, like little treats, even if, you know. Speaker 4 (16:22) Exactly. I like to buy these in the sales if they're not sold out and then you've got hens and stuff and you're kind of divvying them up. Speaker 5 (16:27) Okay, that's beautiful. We love that Australia. But the one I love every year