Should You Get Your Piece of the Beauty Pie? An Honest Review

If you’re on social media, you’ve probably been bombarded with ads for Beauty Pie – the innovative mail-order only cosmetics company.

Since I fall prey to tons of social media advertising, I quickly clicked over to check out what Beauty Pie was all about – and then I get totally confused.

I’m not a newbie to different types of subscriptions. I’ve signed up for more than my share of bundles, packages, subscriptions and more. But, no matter how hard I tried – I could not figure out how to get my piece of the Beauty Pie.

So, after finally figuring out how it works – and trying some of their products myself, I am here to give you all the deets – in case you want to take a bite out of the Beauty Pie, too.

Oh, and by the way, this is unsponsored and I am not an affiliate. Every person who uses Beauty Pie can get a referral link – if you use mine, or anyone’s, you can get your first month of membership fees free.  Other than that, this is just good old-fashioned investigative reporting for the beauty-obsessed woman.

1. What Is Beauty Pie?

Beauty Pie’s schtick is that they offer “luxury skincare and beauty products without the luxury prices”. Because they are online only, you get the high-end product without paying additional fees to cover: middlemen, shop fits, retailer markup and celebrity marketing.

I like all those things.

But, here’s where it gets dicey: you pay a monthly fee just to be able to access their products and then have to pay an additional fee for the product itself, while staying inside your spending limit. 

Did I lose you?

Don’t worry – I struggled with it, too, which is why I filled up my Beauty Pie cart a few times, only to abandon it, because I still wasn’t sure it was a good deal.

Well, I finally committed to my first Beauty Pie box and I am here to tell you all about my real experience.

2. How Beauty Pie Works:

If you take one look at their site and you’re like – yes, I’ve got this down – then God bless, you probably don’t need to read this section.

For the other 98% of you, stick with me here.

1. You start by picking a membership with a monthly fee. The monthly fee is charged whether or not you use your spending limit.

However, if you don’t use your entire spending limit, the remainder rolls over to the next month.

Here’s a screenshot of what the monthly memberships cost and how much your spending limit is:

I started with the $10/mo membership which gave me a $200 spend for the first month and $100 for subsequent months. 

2. You start shopping – but pay attention to two things:

• How much they estimate the product WOULD cost at a store like Sephora, which comes out of your spending limit
• How much the product will cost YOU, as you will pay this in addition to your monthly membership

I have some screenshots of what this looks like with some products I wanted to try:

 

You can see here that they have crossed out the estimated prices of what this would run in a retail store. Then, the membership price you will pay.

This is where I kept getting stuck. I couldn’t figure out why I had to pay more in addition to my $10. Then, it clicked that the membership fee is just the cost to have your piece of the Beauty Pie club – like paying for a gym membership or Costco card, then what you buy once you are in the door – you still pay for.

While their “typical price” is alluring – I did wonder if these were fair prices for the products and that was only something I could determine by trying them out.

3. What I Bought With My Beauty Pie:

I was able to get 5 products within my $200 first month spending limit. This makes me think I’ll average 2 products in future months with a $100 limit.

The boxing is beautiful and the products are wrapped securely in a soft pink tissue paper. It’s beautifully done.

These 5 products cost me an additional $50 (including shipping), which if you add my $10 membership fee means I spent a little over $10 per product. 

In some cases this is a deal, even by drugstore prices.

But, it’s only a deal if I loved the products. Let’s take a look at each one:

Related: You can read my second Beauty Pie unboxing post here. 

A. Triple Hyaluronic Acid & Lipopeptide Serum:

I have not been shy about my love for hyaluronic acid on this blog. It is my favorite skin care ingredient because it works.

I couldn’t wait to try this bestseller serum and I’m here to tell you that it’s good, people. Really good.

The serum is the perfect texture so that it isn’t too runny ( which means too many fillers) or too thick ( which can cause breakouts and irritate sensitive skin). The combination is gentle, but effective. It doesn’t leave your skin sticky or heavy. You can layer it nicely under a night moisturizer without it pilling.

Verdict: I would definitely use this again. 

B. Pro Eyeshadow Palette:

I’m a firm believer that you can usually tell a lot about a brand by trying their eyeshadow. In this case, the palette itself is well-made and has a nice size and weight. There’s plenty of each color to last awhile.

However, pigment was pretty light compared to eyeshadow by Bare Minerals, Christian Dior and even some drugstore lines.

Now, before you say – but Beauty Pie isn’t like those lines – hold on a second.

They clearly refer to their products as “luxury skin care and makeup”. So, I feel it’s fair to compare them to other luxury lines and in the case of this eyeshadow palette, it’s not keeping up.

Verdict: Pass

Related: Read my July unboxing review with an eyeshadow palette that I definitely recommend!

C. Jeju Daily Multi-Phase purifying Cleansing Milk:

I really needed more face wash, so I read the reviews for all of their face washes and settled on this one.

My skin in combination, super prone to breakouts, and super sensitive. Plus, I wear makeup and have no attention span for multiple washes, so it needs to remove all makeup in one pass.

This one is really something special.

The texture is not like normal milk cleaners – it’s a bit richer and thicker, which I think means less fillers. The light scent is not obnoxious and the cleanser is so soothing on the skin.

It gets almost all my makeup off and a quick rub of a makeup remover towel around the eyes finishes it off.

This one absolutely feels like a luxury product and not something you would pay more for than $10-$15.

Verdict: Stock up

D. Super Healthy Skin Nourishing Body Wash:

I really wanted to love this. They really talk it up online and the reviews are solid, too.

But, I couldn’t get past the strong perfumed scent. It’s just too strong and my sinuses flared up. I have light fragrance allergies that don’t respond to light scents and this was a no-go for me.

If that’s not a thing for you, maybe you can try this and tell me how lovely it is.

For me, I’ll be sticking to my industrial-sized, essential oil fragranced, creamy body wash from Costco.

**Update 4.10.2020 – I gave it to my cousin and she really liked it, fragrance and all. So, to each their own.**

Verdict: Fragranced out

E. Supercolour Eyeliner in Soft Black:

Y’all know I love me some eyeliner. With Sjogren’s Syndrome it is no easy task to find one that doesn’t irritate my constantly irritated eyes, stays put without running, and washes off without removing eyelashes.

This soft black is really lovely, gentle, applies nicely, and has a really well-made feel to it. Also, it’s dual-ended with a little sponge-tip on the other side, for smudging.

I like those extras. That’s what says luxury to me.

Verdict: Solid eyeliner

****

For all five items, here’s what my spend looked like:

I do think that Beauty Pie has a really cool membership design that can, in some cases, be a killer deal.

I also think that it will take some trial and error (and money spent) to find the key products that are really going to be a deal for me personally. 

And, what works for me – may not work for you. So, you’ll have to commit to spending the time finding your perfect piece of the pie.

I am happy to report, though, that it is not a scam, Beauty Pie is very real, and with products like the Jeju Cleansing Milk, they’re well on their way to disrupting the beauty and skincare industry.

Have you tried Beauty Pie? Tell us your favorite products in the comments below!

More Beauty Posts:

There are tons of beauty posts on the blog! Here are just a few you might like:

• Beauty Pie Unboxing 2: What I Got & Was It Worth It?
• I Tried Custom Skincare and I’m Telling You Everything
• The 5 Best Beauty Subscription Boxes
• How To Use a Face Roller & 20% Off
• The Tria SmoothBeauty Undereye Laser Review

Have a fabulous day!
E