Merit's tinted sunscreen had a 20,000 person wait list and is finally available: Why it'll be your new fave

Cosmopolitan

22-05-2025

When it comes to base products with sun protection in it, I'm a tough gal to please and in all honesty, I have never found a tinted SPF that has worked out for me. They are always a bit too claggy, the pigment is too thick and reads a bit grey – I know this is to cover the white cast that the SPF can leave, but I end up looking like a greasy, 2D mess. I much rather pop on my regular SPF and then deal with my makeup coverage afterwards, layering up rather than trying to kill two birds with one stone. Then the Merit The Uniform Tinted Mineral SPF50 dropped on my desk. Despite loving the brand, I did a little eye-roll – when will brands learn that mineral sunscreen will always leave a bit of a cast on darker skin tones? But I tried it in the name of beauty research, aka my job. Never have I had to eat my words so quickly, I was highly impressed. Fans are already clambering to get their hands on this, with the waitlist hit over 20,000 pre-launch. So before you part with your pennies, lemme tell you the tea on the best tinted SPF I have ever tried, which took 2 years to create...
If you aren't familiar with Merit yet, it's the brand that's It girl-approved to its core. White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood recently waxed lyrical about her fave Merit products, which she brought with her to Thailand to film the latest season of the hit show. It's a brand that speaks to you if you want beauty products that just enhance your natural, minimalist vibe. Take their Flush Balm, for instance, it's the easiest lazy girl blush that you draw on your cheeks and blend for the prettiest, natural-looking flush or the Solo Shadows, a cream-to-powder eyeshadow that is extremely hard to mess up. This brand is effortless beauty to the bones.
I began testing the Merit Tinted Mineral Sunscreen a month before it launched. It gave me a chance to see how it fit in with my day-to-day life, as someone that normally opts for separate sunscreen and base products. I noted things like how easy it felt to apply, wear time, whether it transferred, the shine breakthrough throughout the day and whether I noticed any changes in my skin.
Shades: 15 Coverage: Light to mediumFinish: Natural dewy
I applied two pumps on the back of my hand as I always do when applying a base product. I'd already done my skin care and primed so, 'here goes nothing' I thought ready to test The Uniform for the first time. I just never like tinted sunscreens and one that is 100% mineral? Nope, 0% success for me. Mineral sunscreens are notoriously tricky when it comes to leaving a white cast on any skin tone with melanin, not just deep, dark skin colours, so I have basically given up on them and tinted minerals are products I have typically found even worse. This is because they overuse pigment to cover the white/grey cast of the SPF in the formula and end up being way too opaque for me. This one is unique, it uses an ultra fine zinc oxide with a plant-based SPF booster so these meshed with thei clever 'proprietary pigment dispersion technology' (so much science) allows for a formula base with a lower mix of both ingredients so they could scale the pigment load across the shade range, reducing the likelihood of a white or grey cast to nil.
Ok, so, to applying. First impressions? A blendable dream. The colour match was impeccable (I'm 6, for reference) and with a few buffs of my blending brush it was honestly imperceivable with absolutely no pilling. The finish was exactly what I look for in a base product; natural and breathable but not shiny – I'm way too oily for a super dewy finish. It blurred my pores and did a decent job in covering some of my pigmentation, but I topped with a concealer when I was going for full face beat.
For the first wear, I tried it without powdering (risky, I know) to see how quickly I become a grease ball, and I have to say, it wasn't too bad. After about four hours I was shining like a literal beacon, but that's pretty standard for oily skin types like mine. When I topped it was my go-to powder on following days, it stayed set all day bar the tiniest breakthrough of shine on my forehead.
The only thing that I am ever so slightly dubious of is using this as your only form of SPF in sunny, hot climates. Knowing how much SPF you need to apply for sufficient coverage, I would gag at the idea of applying that much foundation. For this that would equate to about four or five pumps and that's way, way too much product for me. It's an SPF50 which is ample coverage but if you aren't loading it on, then it's not going to protect you properly and the same goes for reapplying when in the sun. To cover all bases during the heatwave I used a SPF moisturiser and then applied this on top, it kind of became my Uniform – geddit?
Keeks Reid is the Beauty Director at Cosmopolitan UK. While she loves all things beauty, Keeks is a hair fanatic through and through. She started her career in beauty journalism in 2013 as editorial assistant at Blackhair and Hair magazines working her way to Acting Editor of Blackhair magazine at 23 years old. She spent much of her career working in trade hairdressing media at Hairdressers Journal, Salon International and the British Hairdressing Awards. Which is why she is a regular contributor to Cosmo's Curl Up franchise. Now, alongside her Cosmo work, she presents, creates content on social media and works with a range of beauty companies; from magazines and websites to beauty brands and salons.