Merit will launch its second fragrance, New Wave L'Extrait de Parfum, on Oct. 22, priced at $92, direct-to-consumer. The release signals that fragrance is becoming a durable pillar for a brand best known for makeup and skin care.

Merit founder Katherine Power built the label on minimalist face products. Now chief executive officer Philippe Pinatel says the category is doing exactly what the company intended.

Who created New Wave?

Master perfumer Dominique Ropion developed the scent with his protégé Meabh McCurtin. Ropion framed the composition as a modern reinterpretation of classical amber perfumery.

"Some fragrances become references because their construction is so precise and enduring," Ropion said. "With New Wave, I wanted to capture the spirit of classical amber compositions, such as Ambre 83, while reinterpreting them for today. The challenge was not to recreate the past, but to preserve its strength and sophistication in a fragrance that feels more radiant, and relevant to a modern audience."

The fragrance opens with pink pepper and angelica, moves into a heart of orange blossom and creamy ylang-ylang, and settles into a warm, musky base. The bottle takes its shape from Surrealist art and is meant to evoke the movement of a wave, which the brand calls a symbol of continuous motion and change. Merit cites travel, nature and Surrealism as inspirations, and describes New Wave as a solar scent built around personal power, optimism and sensuality.

Why is Merit adding a second fragrance?

The business case rests on Retrospect, Merit's first scent. Also an extrait, it debuted two years ago and became a repeat-purchase engine for the brand.

"To expand into fragrances was for us an expression of a facet of the brand that is very creative and design-led, and so we didn't really know what to expect with Retrospect," Pinatel said. "It turned out to be a very nice success for us and is our number five sku and we see a very high level of repeat purchases. On average the customer has bought it four times in the past two years."

Retrospect now ranks among Merit's top five products. Customers have purchased it four times on average over two years, an unusually high repurchase rate that justified a second extrait.

With New Wave, Pinatel said the brand looked more to the external world because "we felt more confident about us as a fragrance-maker."

Will fragrance carry more weight in the business?

Pinatel said yes, in line with the original brand plan. "It is exactly where we want it to be, which is that Merit was designed as a lifestyle brand," he said. "We always saw that we will be multicategory, while we are very strong on everything that is face."

What role does Semcap play?

In July, Merit gained a minority investment from Semcap, led by managing partner of wellness and beauty Vasiliki Petrou, the former head of Unilever's prestige beauty business. Petrou joins Merit's board.

"What we very much appreciate is the experience she's bringing. She's someone who has a lot of experience in the market as a brand developer. She sees the potential in Merit. She understands the vision we are going after, and she's also bringing some capabilities and some point of view that we didn't have, and so that compliments what we have," Pinatel said. "It's going to be a new acceleration of our business."

With a proven repurchase rate on Retrospect, a second extrait from Ropion and a prestige-beauty veteran now on its board, Merit enters the holiday season positioned to test whether its fragrance business can scale beyond a cult single SKU.