When MERIT Retrospect L’Extrait de Parfum launched, I wrote about it as a new release: a first fragrance from a beauty brand entering a category that looks deceptively easy from the outside. A year later, I can review it with better evidence. My bottle is finished.
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A first impression can tell you whether a perfume is interesting. A year of use tells you whether it actually belongs in your life. Retrospect was not the rarest perfume I wore this year, or the most complex, or the most emotionally charged. It was the perfume that worked, quietly and repeatedly, more often than I expected.
I bought Retrospect at launch, and over the past year it became one of those bottles I stopped thinking about in a critical way and simply used. It went into my bag. It came with me when I traveled. I wore it on dates and during ordinary days. It worked across seasons, which is not as common as perfume marketing likes to pretend. Some fragrances are too sweet in heat, too sheer in cold weather, too dressed up for daytime, or too casual for evening. Retrospect sits in that useful middle space: pretty enough to feel intentional, easy enough to wear without planning your whole day around it.
Opening and Composition
The scent itself is not difficult to understand, and I do not think it needs to be made more profound than it is. It opens with juicy pear, fresh and slightly sweet. Then it moves into a soft musky floral texture with a little powder from the orris. The rosemary gives it a faint green lift, and the drydown settles into musk, moss, and vanilla. The vanilla is not dessert. The moss keeps the base clean. The musk makes the whole thing feel smooth and close to the skin.
Retrospect is a modern perfume, and yes, it has that contemporary musky architecture. It does not smell harsh to me and is not screechy, or have a metallic quality. It is clean, pear-bright, softly powdery, and lightly sweet.
The part I love most is the vintage makeup feeling. I have always loved the smell of an elegant cosmetic bag: powder, lipstick, face cream, clean skin, and something faintly floral left behind on a scarf. The pear keeps Retrospect fresh, but once the orris, musk, violet, and soft florals come forward, it has that cosmetic softness I find beautiful.
That is what makes the perfume more interesting than I expected. It is easy and practical, yes, but it also carries a memory. It reminds me of women getting ready, of makeup compacts, lipstick cases, face powder, and the kind of scent that feels feminine before it feels trendy. The moss and vanilla in the drydown keep it clean and wearable, so it never becomes dusty or old-fashioned. It stays modern, but the soul of it is vintage beauty.
The Bottle
The bottle is part of why I used it so much. I genuinely like the size. It feels good in the hand, fits easily in a handbag, and travels without becoming annoying. More brands should pay attention to that. Not every perfume bottle needs to be a heavy decorative object. Sometimes the most luxurious thing is a bottle you actually want to carry.
Pro Tip: The cap is a little tricky at first, but once I learned to turn the top half a turn, it became easier to open, especially with slippery fingers that have lotion on them.
Performance
Performance was good on me, but not enormous on me. It lasted, especially on fabric, but it did not project far. I never got the full 12-hour experience on skin, though I rarely do unless a perfume is extremely heavy. Retrospect gave me enough: a soft personal aura, a clean trail, and the kind of presence that feels appropriate for daily life.
What surprised me most is how wide its appeal turned out to be. My daughter’s friends, who are around twenty, liked it. I liked it at 53. That does not happen with every perfume. Retrospect has enough pear and musk to feel fresh and current, but enough powder, moss, and polish to keep it from feeling juvenile. It is not a masterpiece, and it does not need to be. It is a good perfume with a good sense of proportion.
The Price and Sizes
The price feels fair to me because I used the bottle. This is where many fragrance reviews become too theoretical. A perfume can have an impressive concept, an expensive note list, or a dramatic story, but if it sits untouched, its value becomes abstract. Retrospect earned its value by being worn.
Would I replace it? Yes. I would replace it because sometimes I want a pretty, practical perfume that smells good, works all year, fits in your bag, and makes getting dressed easier. Retrospect did that for me.
Tell us what you think, have smelled it yet?
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