Full Face MERIT BEAUTY! Fresh, Fall Makeup over 40!

In today's video, we're doing a full face of Merit Beauty and I wanted to create something that felt very fall-like. So I hope you guys enjoy this tutorial. Let's get started. Okay, let's go ahead and get started. I do wanna kick off by telling you guys that I already prepped my skin with the Merit Beauty Great Skin Priming Moisturizer. I have been talking about this product since it launched earlier this year. I love this moisturizer as a primer for makeup. It's a two-in-one, so it's gonna hydrate and moisturize the skin, but it also plumps the skin and preps it for makeup, and it truly does perform like a primer. I love, love, love this product. Pretty sure this was in my favorites video either last month or the month before. It is a phenomenal priming moisturizer. So this has already been done off-camera because I did apply my tinted SPF on top of that. But let's go ahead and go in with complexion. I'm gonna be using the Minimalist Complexion Stick from Merit Beauty, I'm the shade Ochre. And you guys, I teamed up with Merit for this video because they are having their only sale of the year, and I have an early access code for you guys. So I'm gonna have my code here on screen. I'm also gonna drop it down in the description box so you guys can shop before their big sale. Keep in mind, they have one sale a year, you guys, so you can get 20% off site-wide. That is huge. Let's go ahead and get to applying this foundation, and then I'm gonna share another fun little gift that you get with Merit Beauty during this early access Black Friday sale. So when I'm applying this, I like to just do kind of little stripes on the face. And it seems like I'm doing a lot, you guys, but what I love about the applicator of this is it's actually pretty tight. It's not like a big, wide foundation stick. So it's really great to use as a foundation stick. You can also use it as concealer. I'm gonna go ahead and apply a little bit on this concealer as well. So for that reason, it looks like I'm doing more swipes, but in terms of product, it's about the same amount of product that I would use from any other foundation stick. Okay, and I'm gonna do this little trick that I've been loving. I'm gonna take my foundation brush, I'm using the N17 from Nikila Rose, and I'm gonna spray it with a little Hydra Mist from Jane Iredale. This is a setting spray that's very hydrating. And I'm just gonna kind of work that into the bristles so that when I go to blend this out, it just really just like helps. What's the right word? It just really gives this very skin-like finish to this foundation. It's so beautiful. It helps me spread the foundation. It's a good little trick to use on cream stick foundations or cream stick bronzers or blushes just to help you kind of spread it. When I'm using the N17, you'll notice that I am spreading it versus like patting or buffing it into the skin. I love this brush for when I'm trying to kind of sheer out a foundation or just really spread a product. I'm even gonna kind of work this underneath the eyes. I'm gonna blend out that underneath the eye area. Look at that. So quick, so easy, so beautiful. Oh, that looks so good. Do you guys see this? It looks so good. I mean, the skin is even. I've got great coverage, but it's not heavy. It's a very natural finish. Like, it looks like my natural skin. It does not look like makeup. It is so nice, you guys. I love this. This product is buildable, too, so you can really get a sheer natural application or you can build it up, add more where you need more coverage. I'm gonna go in and kind of re-spritz my brush to do the other side. Oh, I love this. I love this little trick. It really helps kind of spread the makeup and it feels so good, especially if you're having like a dry skin day. This is a great little hack. Oh, it's so good. What I love about this foundation stick as well is that it just, it stays in place all day. It's not heavy. It doesn't get shiny. Just really looks beautiful and natural all day. Oh my gosh, that looks so good. I'm having a good skin day today. Perfect. Okay, so we have the foundation on. Before we move to the next step, I also wanna mention that every order ships with a mini signature bag in blue. So it's super cute. It has these little ties right here. You can tie it like this, put your little touch-up product in here, your lipstick, your lip gloss, maybe a small little powder, but every order, no minimum required, is gonna get one of these. Let's move on to brows. So I'm gonna be using the Merit Beauty Brow Pencil. It's a nice little fine micro tip pencil. It's got a really, really fine tip to it. So it's really great if you are someone that likes to create the look of hair with your brow pencil. So I'm gonna go in first and just kind of brush my brow hairs in place, get them all going one direction. And then we're gonna go in here and shape the brow. Now, I don't have much brow right here in this front area of the brow. It's really bare. I did microblading years ago, so you can kind of still see a little bit of that, but there's not a lot of hair there. So I really kind of take my time to focus in that area and create that shape. It's also important that I have a very light hand with this because I don't want it to be heavy looking there. I don't want it to look heavy or fake. What I like about this brow pencil is it's very natural. It's kind of more of like a sheer, buildable brow pencil. So you can get a really soft look from it and you can kind of layer it to get more color. But right off the bat, you're not gonna get this really strong brow. So it's very easy to work with. It's very user-friendly. If you ever feel like the brow got a little heavy, just take the spoolie side and kind of comb through. That's gonna just soften the look of it. I'm gonna come up here to where my arch is and we're just gonna kind of emphasize that arch a bit. A nice fine tip is really good for the tail of the brow too. I'm gonna keep that real nice and thin. I'm just going here and kind of fill out the bottom. So I've created a shape. Let's go into the other side. Now, if you're trying to get a real natural brow look, like a natural hair look, have very, very light pressure. You're noticing I'm just really softly kind of sketching the hairs. I'm not putting a lot of pressure and I move my hand a lot. My hand is a lot of movement. When I get here, I like to extend it in a more upward motion so it looks like the brow hair is growing upward there. And then as I get to the arch, I'll do more of this motion where I'm pulling it to the side. I need to get my brows done. I haven't gotten them done in probably six or eight months just because they don't grow much. I don't wanna really remove much, but there's like little areas that need to be cleaned up. So now that we have the brows shaped, I'm gonna go in and add a little brow gel, a colored brow gel, and I'm gonna go in with the Merit Brow Gel. This is the shade Taupe. This wand is a little bit larger than other brow wands, but it's still small enough to give you some good control. I love the color of this brow gel. It's also gonna lighten if you use a darker brow pencil and you wanna go with a lighter brow gel. The two will kind of balance them out. But you definitely wanna make sure that you don't go too strong or too dark on your brows. And I'm just combing these up and in place, but it's also gonna give a little color. So if you're someone that has a really good shape to your brow and you don't need to go in and create that with the pencil, you'll find that the brow gel alone will probably be the only product that you need. Okay, next we're gonna go in and warm up the skin. And I'm gonna go in with the bronzer stick. This is the shade Fienne and the Bronze Balm Stick. And what I like about this is it's got kind of a nice satin finish to the skin. So it gives a little bit of a glow to the skin. I'm going to take this directly to the face and kind of layer it a little bit. Cause I do want, I really want good payoff with this. And what I love about Merit products is they really are buildable. So you can get a very minimal, no makeup makeup look if you want from them, but you can also build them and layer them and get more color pigment. So I'm gonna kind of apply this in the areas that I want that definition. I am gonna go down the side of the nose with this. I'm not really contouring the nose, but what I'm doing is I'm just kind of bringing that warmth in the center of the face. Cause it just gives a more cohesive look. If I have warmth, not only on the perimeter of the face, but also in the center of the face. And I'm gonna take that same brush, the N17, the one that I use for foundation. And I'm just gonna go and kind of work this product into the skin by pressing the brush into the skin. And you can see that it just blends out so easily. It's a very blendable product. When I get to the hairline, I'm gonna kind of work it into the hair and then go back and forth, back and forth to really sheer it out. What I love about all of Merit Beauty products too, is they're not gonna clog your pores. Very good for your skin. It's a really great brand for that minimalist. So if you are someone that likes a very minimal, kind of no makeup makeup look, you can achieve that with Merit products. If you want something that's quick and easy to apply, you'll find that a lot of their products are very quick and easy to apply. In fact, their blush balm, or even this bronzer, you can blend out with your fingers because it's that blendable. And then I'm gonna kind of work the brush down here in the center of the face too, again, to bring that warmth. We're not contouring the nose, we're just adding some warmth in the center of the face. It looks so good. I'm actually gonna go in and add a little bit more though, because I wanna kind of layer it. So I'm gonna come back here. And what I like about the stick is, you can see that it's wide here, but you can get a very like wide application, or you can get more of a narrow. So if you want wide, just turn it on its side like this, and apply it this way. If you want something a little more narrow and sculpted, turn it this way. Add a little bit more here. I'm gonna go and blend this out. But when I blend this out, I'm gonna be careful not to over blend. And tap, tap, tap, press, press, press. And I'm gonna stop right there. You can see that warmth, you can see that definition, but I don't wanna over blend it. Oh, it's so pretty. I love this color. It really is the perfect like amount of warmth. It's not too orange. It just really gives the skin that sun kissed glow. And it's so natural. So pretty. Okay, next, let's go in and add a little cheek color. These are one of my favorite products from Merit, and this is definitely one that I would recommend picking up if you're new to the brand. This is the shade Beverly Hills. These are the little cheek flush balms. And these are nice. They're also very buildable. You can get a really sheer application, or build it and get more. And I'm gonna kind of layer it quite a bit, because I do want you to see some color from this. Now, this is a product that truly you can blend out with your fingers, you guys. I'm gonna, of course, use the N17 brush. I'm the brush lady. I pretty much use brushes for everything. There are some skin tints that I think do work better with your fingers, but I prefer a brush. Oh, so pretty. Look at that. So pretty. These also layer really well. So if you ever want to use it kind of as a first layer of cheek color, and then apply like a powder blush on top, you can do that. They give the skin a really beautiful glow. These are also great on the days that you don't want to wear a foundation. So if you are someone that skips foundation, or you just wear a tinted SPF, sometimes it's difficult to find the right bronzer and blush products, because they are too pigmented. And it just looks a little odd when the skin looks so natural, but then you have this like clearly blush and bronzer on. So these products are really nice for those of you that like to skip foundation, because you can blend them out with your finger to where they really look just like a natural flush to the skin, like a natural warmth to the skin. And they're really, really natural and beautiful. I'm gonna add a little bit more. We're gonna go in and build a little bit more. I also like the size of these. These are great for travel. Look at that. Perfect. And then we're going to just tap, tap, tap. So pretty. This is my favorite color. The shade terracotta is a really good one if you want to just have one product on the cheeks and you want a little blush, but it could also double as a bronzer. Terracotta would be good for that. Okay, perfect. Ah, look at that. So pretty. Next, I am gonna set the center of the face with powder just to kind of cut down some of the shine in the center of the face. I'm gonna be going in with the one size translucent powder. This is a really great powder if you have very oily skin or if you live in a humid climate, or if you just have trouble with your makeup lasting all day. Whatever, if it's an environment or your skin, this powder locks in your makeup and it really doesn't budge. I'm gonna use the same brush, the N17. I'm gonna use the darker fiber side and I'm gonna really work this powder into the brush, tap it in the palm of my hand, remove any excess. And I'm just gonna go and place this kind of in the center of the forehead, down the nose a little bit, and then just kind of right here underneath the eye and right here before I kind of get to the apple of the cheek, like just right there. I'm not gonna set over the cream products because I don't wanna lose that glow. So I'm just gonna kind of tap it around the perimeter of those cream products and around the mouth a little bit. It's actually a cooler day in Austin today. It's not humid for once. I think we're finally starting to get that fall weather. So I don't really need a whole lot of powder products to set the foundation. Oh, it looks so good. Look at that. I got just great coverage underneath the eyes too. But remember, I did not use a concealer. I used the Complexion Stick and it's actually named that because it can be used as a concealer and a foundation. It's not just a foundation. So next we're gonna go in with the eyes and I'm gonna use a Solo Shadow. And this product has been one of my most used products of the year. I'm actually planning a video to come out soon where I'm talking about the products that I've used the most this year. And the Solo Shadow is going to be in that video because this is so, so good. It's a cream eyeshadow, but there's something about this that just makes it different and unique from other cream shadows. It's got a little bit of a silkier formula to me than other cream shadows, but just like cream shadows, you know, that give you time to manipulate and blend and sheer out, this gives you that. But once it dries, it sets and it stays in place. You have about 20 seconds with this. My favorite shade is the shade Vachetta and I left it at home. Okay, that's my favorite shade. I want you to mark that one down to pick that one up. It's this really beautiful neutral shade. It looks beautiful on the lid by itself, but it also works great if you want to throw a shade in the crease. Usually when I wear these, I wear these as shadow, meaning I don't wear them as primer. I don't layer a lot of shadow on top of them. Today, I am going to be playing with a Dior eyeshadow palette and we are going to kind of add a little powder on top of this, but I do want to give this product a moment of its own so you guys can really see just how great these are, just how simple they are and how easy and quick they are to apply and how you have a full eyeshadow look with just a swipe of this. This is the shade Mid-Century and this is a bit warmer. It's like a really beautiful kind of warm chocolate brown. Do you see that? So, so pretty. You can use your finger to apply this. I'm not. I'm going to go in with my favorite brush to apply these, which is the N16 by BK Beauty. What I love about this brush is I love the shape of it. You can see that it's kind of tapered here to have this point. This point fits perfectly in that inner corner of the eye. I love how this just spreads out a liquid or a cream eyeshadow. This also is really great for concealer, especially if you're using like a full coverage or heavier concealer, you can really spread it out and sheer the product out. So I'm going to use the flat side of this brush and I'm going to load it up into the product and I'm going to start in the inner corner and we are just going to sweep this across the lid. And with this, you can really get a sheer wash of color, just like all of Merit products, you can get a very sheer wash of color or you can layer it and get a heavier opaque finish. I'm going to keep it kind of sheer though. And I'm going to take the tip of this brush and then kind of blend this into the crease. This is so pretty. On lighter skin, this is obviously going to be a little deeper and on deeper skin, this is kind of going to be more of like a nice kind of neutral base to your lid. And now that we have that on, I'm going to take the brush, kind of wipe it off, take the longer fibers and just kind of sheer out the crease before it has time to set. So I love the color of this. Do you see, it's like this perfect fall color, kind of reminds me of the spicy neutral shade. I'm going to go into the Dior palette and I'm not going to cover this entirely. I love this color. I want to keep it there. I'm just going to use a few shadows to kind of bump the look up a little bit. Certainly can pop on eyeliner, mascara and be done, but I am going to go in and add a little bit of definition in the crease and a little bit of highlight on the lid. I'm going to take the N13. I'm going to take this shade right here. You could also use your bronzer. If you have a powder bronzer, you can use that in lieu of this. And I'm just going to create a little bit of definition right here in the crease. It's not really adding a whole lot of contrast. It's just shaping that crease just a little bit more, giving a little more structure to the eye. Oh, okay, so good. All right, and then I'm just going to add one little shadow just to highlight the lid a little bit. We're going to do this light shade right here. I'm going to use the BK Beauty 209. This is a little mini shader brush. It's got a tiny little flat brush head. I'm going to use the side of this to pick right up here. It's basically like if my fingers were this small, it would be a tiny little finger. And I'm going to just kind of pop this right here in the center of the lid, starting at the lashes, kind of blend up to the middle of the crease. I've got that little highlight in the center of the eye. And then I'm just going to take my finger and kind of sheer it out. That way you get a little bit more of a seamless blend and you don't just see like a strip of lightness in the center of the lid, but you see a little bit more of a diffused highlight. You still see that beautiful color of the solo shadow, but you have a little lightness and dimension now on the eye. So, so good. I'm going to go back to the solo shadow and I'm going to go in with the Nikkie La Rose N12 brush. And I'm going to work the brush into the product. And we are going to use this to kind of give a smoky lower lash line. I also love doing this trick with this product, taking the N12 brush. They work really great as eyeliners. They're creamy, they don't irritate the eye and they just stay in place once they dry. And then last for the upper liner, I'm going to use the shade Bourbon by Urban Decay in the 24-7 Glide-On Pencil. And we're going to do a little definition right here in the outer corner. I'm going to create a little bit of a line here. We don't need to worry about this being too perfect because what I'm going to do is I'm going to take that N12 brush. I'm not going to add anything to it. I'm just going to take it and I'm going to work it on this eyeliner before this eyeliner sets to kind of smudge it out a little bit, have it blend in with the shadow a little bit because I had some of that Solo shadow on it already. It just helps the liner blend into the eyeshadow a bit more. What I love about this trick is you don't have to worry about getting a perfect line. I mean, it can really be messy and it doesn't matter because this little brush right here is going to fix everything. If you don't own this brush, you guys, this is a must-have. This is one of my most used brushes. I love it. Still good. Okay, perfect. There we go. Next, we're going to apply mascara and I'm using Merit Beauty's mascara. I'm going to place it at the root of my lashes, wiggle back and forth and then pull up. Mascara gives length and volume, gives you a really beautiful, full-looking lash without looking heavy. Just a classic, beautiful lash. It reminds me kind of of my Bobby Brown smoky lash mascara, to be honest. It really does. It gives that same beautiful, fanned-out, full lash look without being clumpy or heavy or crispy, you know? I think when you, do you get a visual when you say crispy eyelashes or crispy mascara? Like, I don't like that. We're going to avoid the crispy mascara look. Like, having dramatic lashes is one thing, but having, like, crispy lashes is quite another. I love drama, I love volume, I love length, but I want my lashes still to look like natural hair, you know? Oh, it's so good. Look at that. That's no lash primer, you guys, and I didn't even curl the lashes. What I love about this formula is it's not a heavy formula. It's also not real drying. So, like, this tube of mascara that I'm using, I was actually worried about it because I've had this one for so long, but it's still a beautiful formula. Like, it's not dried out, it's not heavy. You know how some mascaras, over time, you know, four or five months later, they just get real thick and messy and they're difficult to apply. It's not like a fresh tube of mascara. This still performs like a fresh tube, and this is not a fresh tube, you guys. Oh, so good. I don't know why I don't use this more often, you know? One thing about my job is I try a lot of products, and so, you know, I find favorites and then I try other products and I kind of forget about them, or I put them in a bin or I put them in a drawer, or I organize them, and I just come back to them, you know, months later, and I'm like, oh my gosh, why is this not in my daily rotation again? This is a product that I'm gonna take and start using in my daily rotation. It's so good. Like, so good. For me to compare this to my favorite mascara, I mean, that's huge. Look at this. This is so good, you guys. Wow, look at that. I love the look of this lash. For those of you that have been with me for a while, you might remember I had lash extensions back in the day. I haven't been tempted to get them back. You know, there was a while where I was like tempted to get them back, but I just love applying mascara. I really, really do. I love the application process of mascara, and I also love, even though I love full dramatic lashes, I still like a more natural lash, and it's really nice on the lower lashes too. Not all mascara formulas, I think, look great on lower lashes. If they're too heavy, even the smallest little swipe will give a heavy, weighed-down look on the lower lashes. This doesn't. This gives a really pretty, soft look on the lower lashes. Oh, so good. I'm loving this look. This look is very, very fresh, sophisticated, simple, very fall. I love it. Okay, let's go ahead and finish and wrap up on lips. I'm gonna line the lips with the Charlotte Tilbury Iconic Nude Lip Pencil, and I'm gonna line, but I'm also gonna fill in a little bit. I had a little bit of lip balm, so you're probably seeing a little shine on my lips. I'm gonna go in with the Merit Beauty Lipstick in the shade Mason. Kind of a really pretty, deep rose shade. It's a nice, neutral shade. Slightly deeper than I usually wear, but still within my comfort zone of lip colors. Very buildable. You can get full opacity from this. If you want something a little more like sheer and feathered out, just do one layer and then tap it with your finger. We're gonna go in with the Lip Oil in the shade All Natural. And this formula, I feel like, is really unique for lip oils. You know, there's a lot of lip oils on the market, and I feel like there's a big range in texture and viscosity of them. Some of them are heavier, and they feel more like a gloss. This doesn't feel like a gloss, but it gives shine. It gives shine, but it's very lightweight. Not thick at all. As far as color of these, I'll show you guys. You do get some color, so you can wear them by themselves if you want. If you do sheer it out, though, you can get a really sheer layer. So, you can sheer it out so it's just like a tint on the lips, which is nice when you wanna pair it over a lipstick. But if you do want more color, you can apply it and layer it, and you're gonna get full color, meaning you don't have to wear a lipstick underneath it. So, this is the finished look. I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial. I'm gonna have all the products with the shades that I used listed and linked in the description box. Remember, you can use my code now through the 24th. My code will not work after the 24th, you guys, and you can get 20% off site-wide. This is huge. Again, Merit Beauty does not do sales like this. This is like their once-a-year sale. So, it's really huge. If you have anything on your list, now's the time to stock up. And remember that with every purchase, you get the signature little bag in blue, and it's super, super cute. So, I'll link everything down below. Thank you so much for watching this video, and I'll see you guys in my next one. Bye.