Discover MERIT’s First-Ever Fragrance: A Q&A With Perfumer Fanny Bal On Crafting Retrospect

MERIT has entered the fragrance world with Retrospect, its debut scent launching October 22. Developed over two years with French master perfumer Fanny Bal, Retrospect defies trends with its evolving, rich complexity. This nuanced fragrance opens with clean notes, followed by a delicate floral heart and a warm, second-skin finish. We spoke with Fanny to explore her inspiration, the creative process, and how Retrospect redefines fragrance as the perfect everyday accessory. —Noa Nichol

Retrospect has been in development for over two years with more than 200 iterations. What was the most challenging aspect of perfecting this fragrance, and how did you know when you had found the final formula? 

Funnily enough, we went through many versions but the final formula is very similar to the original creation. We made a lot of little tweaks to get it just right – amping up the pear, playing with the floral bouquet. The fragrance has 22 total notes, so finding a unique interplay of these working together was a welcome challenge for me. The final formula strikes a perfect balance of vintage notes with a modern composition.

MERIT describes Retrospect as a fragrance that evolves as you wear it, making it suitable for any occasion. How did you balance the different scent layers—clean, floral, and warm—to achieve this unique, transformative quality? 

Part of what gives Retrospect that evolving, long-lasting quality is that it’s an extrait de parfum – the most concentrated format, at about 30% perfume oil. This allows it to wear throughout the day, giving time for the different notes to come through as it dries down and plays on the skin.

We wanted to create a fragrance that had a little bit of something for everyone – so you can feel more clean and fresh in the morning, and darker and sexier in the evening. It took a lot of time to achieve the right amount of each note at every level of the fragrance, resulting in that beautiful journey. 

In a world where many brands release multiple fragrances for different seasons or events, Retrospect stands out by being a singular, versatile scent. What inspired you to create a fragrance that defies the traditional “fragrance wardrobe” approach? 

In my conversations with MERIT, we spoke a lot about our lifestyles as 30-something women who lead busy lives, and often don’t have the time to change our scent throughout the day. We liked the idea of creating something that could stand on its own and be a few things at once, without the need for a full “wardrobe” to complement it – for me, this was a very exciting brief! 

Retrospect is described as having a rich and nuanced profile. Can you share the story behind the specific notes and accords you chose for the fragrance, and how they align with MERIT’s overall minimalist and effortless ethos? 

At the beginning of the collaboration, we started off talking about our childhoods, and scents that reminded us of specific memories. While the notes were different, the feeling of familiarity and nostalgia they evoked was the same, and I knew that was what we needed to make people feel with Retrospect. I spent time thinking about vintage notes that were used in classic perfumes worn by our grandmothers, which you often don’t see today, such as aldehydes and orris concrete. I combined these with more modern ingredients like pear and musk (we used 4 different vegan musks), which married into that effect we were hoping to achieve: a scent that is distinct but familiar, vintage with a modern sensibility.

As a master perfumer with extensive experience, how did collaborating with MERIT’s beauty brand, known for its clean, uncomplicated approach, influence your creative process while designing this fragrance? 

I am a MERIT user myself, so it was an amazing experience to collaborate with them. We were very aligned on what the fragrance should be like, that it should be clean, and that we wanted to take our time developing it. I feel lucky to have been able to take a slow, deliberate approach to creating Retrospect, because MERIT understood that process and wanted to put craftsmanship at the forefront – as the artist, that’s all you can hope for!