The Interview: Aila Morin, founding CMO at MERIT, on marking five years of a minimalist beauty trailblazer

Aila Morin is founding CMO at minimalist beauty brand MERIT. She was invited to join the business in 2020, by founder and entrepreneur Katherine Power, to work on its proposition and GTM strategy. Then the pandemic struck.

This understandably caused delays with production, but the founding team pressed ahead regardless with their vision of creating multi-tasking products for women aged 30-plus. In 2021, with the pandemic still in full swing, MERIT launched with seven carefully considered products, including its signature 'Minimalist' foundation and concealer stick, which still sits at the heart of the brand.

Amid a sea of beauty brand launches targeting Gen Z and/or led by celebrities, MERIT stood out for its hard-working line-up designed to fit into women's everyday lives. The range has gradually been built out to include skincare essentials and fragrance, while the make-up line-up has been augmented with launches, such as the new Lip Blush range, which was released to coincide with the brand's fifth birthday.

MERIT arrived in the UK, its first market outside of North America, in 2023, and last year signed a distribution deal with Sephora UK. Sales have been strong and new global markets have been added.

Morin, who formerly worked on the roll-out of accessible luxury jewellery brand Mejuri, talks to TheIndustry.beauty about MERIT's five-year milestone, what it was like launching during a pandemic, its NPD approach and cadence, and the ambitions for the future.

Congratulations on five years of MERIT! Looking back, what has been the biggest highlight for you during that time?

Five years feels quite surreal – they say that’s when brands lose their way, so it’s made me more aware than ever of the discipline we’ve had to our founding principles. The initial idea behind MERIT – that beauty had become overwhelming, and consumers were looking to simplify – has resonated in a way we never could have anticipated. Seeing the continued consumer response to that ethos, and to every product and campaign we launch, continues to prove the strength of our brand promise. For me, it’s the testimonies from consumers about how MERIT has positively impacted their getting ready routine that is most fulfilling – it’s the reason why we do what we do. 

The Minimalist foundation and concealer stick is the MERIT hero and was inspired by a ballpoint pen

MERIT launched when the world was in turmoil, due to the pandemic, what was that period like? What were the particular challenges you had to overcome?

I signed on to build and launch the brand in early 2020; signing my contract a month before the Canada-US border closed and at a time when people stopped wearing many of their makeup essentials. We were originally intended to launch in 2020, but production delays pushed back our debut, which gave us time to really work on both the business and brand in a meaningful way; and to witness how quickly consumer preferences could change. It meant that by 2021, people were buying makeup but in a much different way than 2019; and it gave us a clear space to launch a meaningful brand for millennial and Gen X women that actually suited the lived reality of their everyday lives. Skincare took off in 2020, and when the world largely returned to business as usual in 2021, makeup took off too; and that overwhelming feeling of being marketed things we don’t need became even more present in our daily lives. In that way, the ethos behind the brand has only proven to be stronger – our refusal to be swayed by trend and speed to market has been the stabilising force of the business. 

When the brand launched, what were the key products in the line-up and why were they chosen as the launch proposition?

In January 2021 we launched 7 products – all makeup. We had already begun planning our skincare and fragrance launches, knowing our ambition was always to be a tri-axe brand. We’re now at 18 products; so we’ve launched 11 in five years, roughly 2 new innovations a year (a very different pace from most of the industry, which averages one every 6-8 weeks). 

We chose to launch with a narrative that has remained constant for us – the five minute morning. It was a curated lineup of essentials designed to simplify what it takes to get ready. The founding premise was based on what we could give back to our core demographic – what mattered most to them. It wasn’t payoff, or trendiness; it was time and ease. Time to invest in other things in life, and an ease to getting ready where instead of causing stress, it’s an enjoyable process. The Five Minute Morning Set included seven products: The Minimalist, Brush No 1, Flush Balm, Day Glow, Brow 1980, Clean Lash, and Shade Slick, and continues to be our top-performing set to this day.

It was refreshing to see a brand that wasn’t either over-complicated or solely targeting a very young consumer, did you have a particular demographic in mind when you launched or was it more about point of view than age, for instance?

Based on our own lives, we’ve always been focused on speaking to women who are millennial and gen-x; we also have a large baby boomer contingent. It was always about speaking to women after age 30, when you’ve established who you are and have many other life pressures to balance. It’s where we saw the white space – there weren’t new brands speaking to us, only to gen-z with trend or influencer driven launches. We wanted makeup for people for whom makeup is a utility, not a hobby; and that psychographic need is what has driven MERIT from the beginning. 

MERIT set out from the start to be a tri-axe brand with makeup, skincare and fragrance

Can you please give us an outline of the product line-up as it stands as you have moved into fragrance and skincare since launching the make-up? Was it always the intention to be more than make-up?

We always knew to build a legacy brand with an intentional philosophy, going across the vanity early would be fundamental to our vision. We also knew that if we waited too long, people would know us as a “makeup” brand. We launched skincare 1.5 years after launching the brand, and fragrance 3.5 years after launching the brand – projects that were in the works from the very beginning. We always envisioned and intentional routine; skin prep, complexion, color and fragrance. We’ve never intended to be a special occasion brand or “hero product” brand; it was always about being a multi-category service brand that is designed for everyday. 

Today, we have 18 products across skincare, makeup and fragrance. Every product, regardless of category, is developed with the same intention: to become a classic product you reach for for years to come. 

Can you sum up the MERIT philosophy for us? I love how everything is pared back but hard working.

MERIT is makeup you can live in. 80% of makeup consumers say they don’t know how to use it – this is a huge disconnect between peoples’ lived realities and what the industry is offering them. We take the stress out of figuring out a routine and getting out the door in the morning, simplifying routines with essential products that slip effortlessly into your existing routine. Our North Star is that intentionality; effortless products that don’t sacrifice on quality or results. It’s beauty with intention - doing less, but doing it better.

How long typically does it take you to bring a product to market and how do you prioritise your launch schedule?

Our development process often takes years rather than months. We move slowly and deliberately, from ideation through formulation, testing and execution, always asking whether a product truly earns its place in someone’s everyday routine. Many of our recent and forthcoming launches, like Retrospect and The Uniform, were products we always knew we wanted to make, but we took the time to perfect them rather than just launching to launch something new. We prioritise launches that add real value for the customer rather than responding to trends, which is why we introduce newness thoughtfully and at a slower pace.

You appear to put as much effort and thought into formats as you do formulas. I love that the foundation stick is so portable and even the fragrance (though it lasts all day) is small enough to carry around in your bag all day. How much research and trial goes into that side of things?

The Minimalist was actually inspired by a ballpoint pen – we drew a lot of inspiration from functional objects, because we want our products to be viewed similarly. We design every detail with real life in mind, products that fit into your bag, textures that feel effortless on skin, and formats that make application intuitive. That requires extensive testing and iteration to ensure each product works beautifully without friction. The goal is for everything to feel natural, portable and easy, no matter where or how you’re getting ready.

All MERIT products are designed to be portable multi-tasters

Am I right in saying the UK was the first market you launched in after the US and Canada? What was the response you received here when you launched and did you find that the UK consumer wanted the same things as the North American consumer?

Yes, the UK was one of our earliest international expansions in 2023, driven largely by community demand. In our first two years in North America, we quickly realised that feeling overwhelmed by beauty routines was a universal sentiment. UK customers immediately connected with MERIT’s emphasis on simplicity, quality and intention, and the response reinforced that our philosophy translates seamlessly across regions. We actually doubled our Y1 UK revenue projections and the market has continued to perform very strongly for us.

You moved into retail with Sephora in the UK last year, how has that worked for you? Are you looking at other distribution channels here?

The Sephora UK partnership has been incredibly important for our continued growth. We started with Sephora in North America, and they were such an integral partner for us to bring our approach to more customers. Retail has allowed us to connect with customers in a more tactile, personal way and helped us grow awareness while maintaining a thoughtful, community-driven experience. In the first month of our launch at Sephora UK, we grew to #6 makeup brand, which was such an exciting milestone for us. Right now, we’re focused on continuing to grow our Sephora relationship in the UK as they chart their growth plan.

One of the latest launches, the Lip Blush

What about global distribution? I saw the brand recently launched in Australia, which markets are you in now?

Our global distribution is a very intentional strategy that we’ve ramped up over the past year.  We started in the U.S. and Canada, then expanded to the UK, and those markets were really our bread and butter for the first three and half years of the business. Australia was on our roadmap because we saw such a natural synergy between their approach to beauty; we launched there in late 2024 to a great response. In 2025, we focused on Europe, expanding via our DTC site to France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Being in 10 countries now and seeing the local responses has been incredibly affirming, but for us, expansion is about relevance and trust rather than speed.

You have covered so much ground the past five years, what are the ambitions for the next five?

Our ambition for the next five years is to continue building a brand that endures. That means expanding thoughtfully into new global markets, deepening our presence within categories, and continuing to create products that people genuinely use – and finish. We’re focused on staying true to intentional, considered beauty that fits into our customers’ lives rather than competing with it.