Join the Conversation: What Beauty Pie Products Do You Recommend?

ByLiz CadmanSep 2, 2020 | 68 comments

I first discovered Beauty Pie items thanks to Box of Style, and after listening to founder Marcia Kilgore’s How I Built This podcast episode, I became a little obsessed! If you aren’t familiar, Beauty Pie works with the same labs as luxury beauty brands, but with complete price transparency (no markup, no middleman, etc). Similar to Costco, you pay for a membership subscription to get access to these beauty products at cost. (Memberships start at $10 a month.)

Beauty Pie has a lot of products and they are launching new items every month, so I'd love to hear if you have any recommendations for what I should try next!

And here are two of my favorites I've reordered and highly recommend:

Image via Beauty Pie.

Flawless Foundation Blending Sponge Duo - Member Price 2 for $6.77

This is the BEST BeautyBlender dupe I've found - I really can't tell a difference at all between this makeup sponge and the original BeautyBlender. And of course, the best part is the price: $3.39 instead of $20 per sponge!

Image via Beauty Pie.

Triple Hyaluronic Acid & Lipopeptide Serum - Member Price $19.61

This may be the most hydrating serum I've ever used. It's made with three types of hyaluronic acid and it is so lightweight. I went through a complete bottle then noticed my skin felt didn't feel as dewy after I stopped using it, so I immediately ordered 2 more bottles so I wouldn't run out again!

Have you tried Beauty Pie yet? Any products you love and recommend?

Liz Cadman

Liz is the founder of My Subscription Addiction. She's been hooked on subscription boxes since 2011 thanks to Birchbox, and she now subscribes to over 100 boxes. Her favorites include POPSUGAR Must Have, FabFitFun, and any box that features natural beauty products!

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68 comments

Amanda Grace

The absolute worst company I’ve ever dealt with in my life. They continue to charge me after I unsubscribed, telling me I did not unsubscribe, saying I MUST subscribe for 3 months, despite me sending them the email. I told them I’d file a chargeback and since they call me a liar, stop emailing me.I then left a review for them at which point I received FOUR emails telling me I was lying and repeating how they would not refund my money.
For $30.
Desperate company, EXTREMELY rude and unprofessional.
My bank refunded my money and I removed my authorization but its really not worth the DRAMA they want to give when someone doesn’t like their rip off.

Tori

Love BeautyPie!!! Discovered it around a month ago. Shocked to read the same 2-3 users commenting negatively re: BP- but hey it’s your loss! More for me and the products I love won’t sell out as quickly LOL.

Marie Lacanlale

I signed up for the free introductory box on 8/5 and never received my package. I was billed for the second box today. I sent an email to customer service, I’ll give an update when the respond.

Shannon A.

I just joined last month and so far am impressed! I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this before now. It really feels like Marcia Kilgore is trying to make great beauty accessible to anyone. I chose their new Mandarin scent and have to say that I really love it. Very fresh but perfect balance of sweet, fresh, woody. I also got the physical exfoliator and eye brightener (Undereye Genious) and have to say I am not at all disappointment! I did also get the sample pack of the perfumes and have to say that the mandarin turns out to have been the best for me.

I am very very excited about this subscription. The cool thing is that I can be really choosy about what I purchase instead of building up a collection of things I don’t really use. And the quality so far does seem all that it is hyped up to be. I would recommend for sure.

Carrie

I really appreciate this review– I’m so curious! I just ordered from them for the first time and some of the “complaints” here are benefits to me (like there is no scent– I have terrible eczema and that’s great news to me!) I normally try a sample of every product before purchasing it from Sephora to see if I break out. But now, obviously, I won’t be trying any samples during the pandemic, so this seemed like a fun way to try some new stuff and a low-cost way to try retinol which I likely won’t be able to tolerate anyhow! At first, I found the spending limit annoying, but I have to say it was probably for the best, since I should only be introducing a few new skin care items into my life a month anyway, as well as limiting my spending. I’m trying the retinol night cream and two non-retinol eye creams. I also got two lip glosses. Not bad for $58 with shipping and subscription fees! (No. This isn’t an ad– I have no idea if this stuff will even work.)

Heather

Well, I watched some youtube video reviews and it was enough to get me interested in trying it out. I just placed my order. I figure I’ll try out for 3 months and see what I think.

Thanks!

Carol

I just can’t bother with any of these companies that require or incentivize membership just to allow me to shop (Beauty Pie, Just Fab/Fabletics, Savage X Fenty, etc.). Yes, I have a Sam’s membership and Amazon Prime, but somehow those are different to me lol (Sam’s is my pharmacy and is cheaper than my copays and Amazon provides a service with video and stuff).

Shannon A.

I wouldn’t think of it that way… I think of the membership as the money they actually make since the makeup/skincare is coming to us at their cost. There really is no hassle, once you sign up that is it and then you just go in and put things in your basket at incredible cost.

I know, I have Prime as well and it does feel different except that when I thought about it, I get a LOT more from my BP membership (access to MUCH lower cost items, while I feel Prime just gives us access to a decent selection during this crazy time).

I’ve only been a member one month, but am only saying something because you shouldn’t miss out on a good thing if you look at their site and they have things you need/want.
From what I am seeing and experiencing, the quality really is all that. Marcia Kilgore talks about the freedom they have in the products they choose because they don’t have to worry about the profit margin. Having had a little experience in the beauty industry, I can totally see why that would be freeing for them and also exciting.

Britt

“They don’t have to worry about profit margin” are you really that naive? The whole point of running a business is to profit as much as possible.

Betsy Dobrick

I agree. Just joined but the range of high quality options and low prices really are exciting to me. The first couple of months will be the most expensive for me but if you buy makeup brushes, you don’t have to buy for a long while and the orices for high end brushes are so reSonable. Also found delivery charge was reasonable too. I will be happy to try and some might be a zero but through researching what others like, many will be heroes. Can’t wait and longing to a long relationship and besutiful skin!

Amy

Okay first of all they require a 3 month membership – that’s $30 minimum.
Plus – $8.27 shipping?!?!?!?!? That’s crazy expensive shipping, and there aren’t any ways to get free shipping that I can see. So basically you’re paying product cost plus $9 extra an item since it seems like on average you can get 2 items a month with the “allowance” you get on a $10 membership

Second of all, they have a lot of similar skincare products and ingredients to normal brands like ELF, or other brands you’d find easily online or at Walmart or Target.

So IMO the real savings would be to ditch the membership with the shady 3 month minimum, and pricey shipping, buy cheaper, limitless, similar items from ELF for skincare and NYX for makeup, with free shipping on a $15 purchase from ELF or $25 purchase from NYX.

They say they’re “saving us from the cosmetics industry” but they really don’t seem to be the best value in town.

julie

I read that shipping is a flat $8. So if I’m reading this right… I’m interested in the serum they claim is worth 100 and the perfume they claim is worth 125 I wouldn’t be able to get the perfume till at least month two and would have to pay $8 shipping for the serum and it’s the only item I would be allowed to purchase that month or otherwise wait for months at $10 a month to save on packaging and shipping costs to be able to buy the few items I’m interested in trying? Errrrrrr I’ll stick to sub boxes and Sephora sales, thanks. Don’t have the patience to make this work.

Anna

The first month has a $100 extra allowance, there’s a code you can add for an extra $50 allowance. I was able to check out with $250 limit yesterday.

Linda

The retinol hand cream, retinol eye cream are both favorites. The body cream in the tub, the vitamin c capsules. I’ve bought back ups of all 4 of them.
I’m more into skin care now than makeup. I have tried lots of the skincare and like it all.
I haven’t wore makeup since in a couple of months since I’m staying home. Throw on a mask and I’m good! 😷 Then as soon as I get home I shower so no makeup.
I ordered some of the new hair care products and they arrived today! I’m letting the box sit a few days before I dig in it. I should have the new shampoo and one of the new hair treatments for frizzy control.
Their warehouse is in New Jersey. A hot spot. They use priority mail. I have been letting all my boxes sit a few days before opening.
Liz, I first learned about BP from your Christmas post. Thank you!

Hali

Beauty pie grossly exaggerate the quality of the products on a daily basis. According to them they all smell good when there is barely any smell. Other companies have managed a fantastic job at making their products smell good at a cheaper price. Beauty pie also add perfume to the products they claim smell good. But they don’t get it right. Very weak smell. The results of their skin care are not good. The only place they have hit the jackpot is their beauty blenders. Their foundations are orange. The palettes don’t have good reviews. The body butter absolutely stinks. The perfume smell more watered down than cheap EDT. I left a review for the butter
and it was not published. The lipsticks in a bullet are good. The retail price they claim it would sell for is grossly exaggerated. There are better companies out there that sell much better products for not much more than the members price. The website is the worst I have ever seen. To date they haven’t managed to get an accurate colour of their lipsticks to translate on their web page.

Tiffany

I decided to use a trick Liz shared in one of her posts. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but something along the lines of adding products to a wishlist or cart instead of purchasing them right away. Someone else mentioned holding off on purchasing a BeautyFix box until late in the month when there is a lull in shipments, too!

I’m going to add things to the cart and shop around all month, then make my final purchase at the end of the month to combat that lull. 😀

Beth

I can’t add anything to my cart above the $200 (original, not members,) price limit. So I can’t add and then whittle down later before checkout. That’s really unhelpful, and discourages browsing.

Tiffany

Sorry-I missed the “not member” part.

Tiffany

I know! I just moved everything into the wishlist instead. There’s an option to do this for each item in your cart or on each item’s individual page. You can access your full wishlist from the icon that looks like a person in the top right corner.

AmyM

So excited to see Beauty Pie getting some MSA love! I’ve been a member for about 2 years and I love it. Some products are better than others, of course. But that’s true of any brand. Right now I’m very into their shower gel and body cream, which is super rich, but light. It’s almost like a gel/creme hybrid; soaks in right away but moisturizes very well. I also really like their transparent finishing powder (can’t remember the exact name and I’m too lazy to get up and check). The Fresh Glow setting spray is great, too. All in all, if you’re curious, I say go for it. The brand founder is the same woman who founded Bliss, Soap & Glory and Soaper Duper. She knows her stuff.

Beth

Their lash primer is awesome!!! Waiting to order more next month! New holy grail!! Athe sponges are great too!

Liz Cadman

Thanks for the heads up on the lash primer. I will add it to my next order!

Shari

I am eyeing those Beauty Sponges. The price seems reasonable. I usually change my sponges monthly, and it can get a bit costly.
Is there a membership charge to this subscription?
I would think you would have to add in the cost of the membership, to decide if your really getting value for your money.

Liz Cadman

Yes, there’s a cost per month. It starts at $10 a month to get a $100 spending limit. (That’s on what the typical prices would be.)

So for example, they list the typical price for the sponge set (a set of 2) as $20. So you could buy 5 sets (10 blenders total) with your spending limit for one month. That means you’d spend $10 for the subscription, and then $33.85 for 5 sets of makeup sponges.

Which works out to $43.85 or $4.38 a sponge (compared to the $20 a sponge cost of a beauty blender.)

I hope that makes sense!

Stephanie

plus shipping and tax

Bonnie

It didn’t impress me, and I suppose I might be a brand hound. ( I don’t like the other word).

I don’t like generic foods at the grocery store, I don’t like the reviews of generic type skincare and makeup here either.

I think you should do a survey asking ” Do you like certain brand names over a no name brand”, actually.

Sandy

I’m not a brand snob but this particular brand is just not great. It seems weird for msa to suddenly be giving them publicity.

amber

Different things work for different people, and we all discover new things we like at different times. I think it’s weird that people pee their pants over Tatcha, as I think it’s overpriced and you’re just paying for the pretty packaging. But that’s just my own opinion.

Sharon in SE TX

I’m not a fan of this brand either, but I first read of it here last year. If you do a search for it, you will find an article about Beauty Pie’s “introductory limited edition box” from October 2019. I wish I would have paid more attention to the negative comments, because I feel like I wasted my money buying their stuff.

Luna

Hi Liz! Have you, or someone else on MSA, ever thought of reviewing Beauty Pie? I think it’d be fun to hear your guys’ thoughts on the products, and especially to hear how you feel they compare to other products that are priced similarly to Beauty Pie’s non-member prices, and maybe which products the reviewer feels they dupe. 🙂

Liz Cadman

Yes, it’s on my list but right now I feel like I haven’t tried enough of their products yet to do a thorough review. It may need to be a team effort! 🙂

Zoe

Liz, thank you so much for this post! Is there any promo or discount code for MSA’s readers who would like to try it?
Apparently minimum 3 months membership is required ( payments are monthly although) and Im not sure if I would like to pay 3*10=30$ just to try?
But you and everyone else seem to enjoy it. So if there’s a discount, why not?
Thank you so much for bringing beautypie to our attention 🙂

Anna

CAROLINESENTME gives you an extra $50 spending allowance. It can make it easier to add items you want with the lower tiers.

Liz Cadman

I couldn’t find a discount offer, but here’s a coupon for a free mascara:

Join thousands of members at BEAUTY PIE today and get our bestselling ÜBER VOLUME BOOST MASCARA (typically $24) for FREE, by adding BPWELCOME in the PROMO BOX* when you checkout.

Anna

You can add extra allowance by using one for Caroline Hirons

LAUREL SALLEY

I absolutely LOVE Beauty Pie. I did one of the foot peels a couple of days ago. They are every bit as effective as Babyfoot, and the “sock” is actually made better. I also love the cleansing cloths. They have a high quality muslin cloth on one side and a beauty eraser style microfiber cloth on the other. The makeup brushes are great, the candles smell awesome, and the Jeju mist is wonderful. I try every new product I can, and I have rarely been disappointed.

Liz Cadman

Awesome recommendations! I’ve been so curious about those babyfoot-like foot peels!

Luna

Oh yes… the candles! I was a member for one year a couple of years ago, and I saved up most of my spending “allowance” for most of that year and ended up getting every candle they had at the time (plus duplicates of some scents) for Christmas gifts, and they were such a hit! Not only did I feel that the quality rivaled those that have luxe pricing, but my giftees (whom I’ve gifted luxe candles like Jo Malone & Diptyque before) felt the same. 🙂

Allison

Not hardly! These candles are nothing close to luxury. What an insult to true luxury brands

Sandy

Not even kind of close to the luxe brands. The candles are ok but let’s not go nuts. Anyone who has actually had a luxe candle wouldn’t say these are in line with them.

Sara John

I just placed my first order. Thanks for the tip!!

Jaime

Is… Is this an ad?

Amy

Yeah I’ve never heard of this brand before here and now, and while the whole site and its premise have an advertising component, to launch into “what is your recommendation” on a brand we’ve never seen reviewed is just odd.

A community post like “What holy grail have you found through Ipsy?” or “What are your favorite Universal Yums snacks?” would make total sense, those are favorite brands many subscribers know and love, but “what do you love about this brand we’ve never interacted with before?” feels… off

I have almost no tolerance for ads anymore, but I still choose to view MSA advertising and even purchase with their links because there is value to me in the curation and reviews, and while even total crap gets a silver lining, the reviews seem legitimate.

A post like this cheapens the MSA reputation in my book, and while I won’t discredit them on this one since to my knowledge this is a first, I think community based posts should focus on frequently reviewed brands.

If only we could upload photos, I would love to have a “What is your dog’s favorite Bark Box toy or treat?” post with some fab photos 🙂

Angel

Respectfully disagree. One of the fantastic things about MSA is being introduced to new brands/ boxes/ etc that we may not have tried/ heard of before, and being able to get honest feedback on it. Just because you, personally, have never heard of Beauty Pie before, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be reviewed/ shared!

I, like several other ladies on MSA, have tried products from Beauty Pie. I have some absolute favorites, and some that disappointed me. My skincare routine consists heavily of LaMer, with some Shiseido and SK-II. I also use Beauty Pie’s Moisture Shot Serum, and their Super Healthy Skin moisturizer several times per week as a night cream. However, a lot of their makeup feels very ‘meh’ to me. And the fact that they recently raised the prices on all of their items, right in the middle of all of this coronavirus stuff going on, felt like a total slap in the face. I haven’t bothered to order from them since they did that, and if they don’t fix their price increase I will not renew my annual membership.

But I, and many others, appreciate opinions/ reviews/ discussions about brands, subs, and companies (both old and new); and all of the time and effort that MSA puts in to bring us the info.

Liz Cadman

Hi Amy,

Thanks for the feedback and sorry if this post came across as an ad – it’s not! I brought up Beauty Pie in my gift guide picks for the holidays, and based on the comments from MSA readers it seemed to me like people were interested in learning more about the subscription and products. We’re trying to figure out the new ways to review subscription services that offer a large catalog of products you can pick from, and this was one case where I realized I haven’t tried nearly enough of their products to write a lengthy review, but I thought hearing from MSA readers who have sampled products would be a great way to help everyone out. (And I personally love that I’m getting recommendations on products from readers I know and trust, too!)

We definitely plan on doing more community-focused posts on some of the most popular brands, too. Thank you for that feedback! (And I’m excited to share that our first MSA Insiders review will feature one of the most popular brands on MSA!) We’re striving to get a good mix of discussions around brands that everyone may not know about, and brands that most people on MSA are familiar with. I hope that makes sense and sorry for the confusion!

And I LOVE the idea for a Barkbox pet photo round up! Uploading photos is on our backlog for sure!

Sandy

Right?! I thought the same thing.

Sharon in SE TX

None! I tried Beauty Pie last year and nothing impressed me. Everyone one should know that you have to be a member for 3 months before you are allowed to cancel without any penalties. You also have to email or call to cancel. Once you cancel, they delete your account immediately and you can’t see your order history.

Tiffany

Perfect timing! I signed up earlier today and was wondering what to order 😀

Liz Cadman

Glad to hear it! Let us know your thoughts after you try the products!

Their Super Retinol Eye cream and some of the other Super Retinol products are my favorites. I subscribed for about a year and a half, from their beginning. Their brushes are actually pretty nice. I am a brush junkie and I found those similar to Marc Jacobs’ brushes (the individual ones). However, I found that the quality started to go down, ergo, I cancelled. I continued to get billed for months after formally cancelling, but they were good about refunding the improper charges. I don’t know if the brushes and the Super Retinol products are the same quality as a year or so ago, but those were my faves.

Did not have much success with their pink J-Beauty fusion line. Their transparent finishing powder was very nice. Their foundations (I tried all) were a total miss for my particular skin. I suppose it was a real hit-or-miss, frankly. Probably the biggest fail was the face palette. It had barely any pigment, despite looking nice in the pans.

Kristin

I wish they said what the products are dups for, then I’d be all over it. I get enough stuff with subs but would love to buy my favs at a fraction of the price.

Jeannie

I haven’t made the leap to try it, though I have been looking. The membership and monthly limits are a little confusing. Thank you for telling us about your experience with the products 🙂

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Join the Conversation: What Beauty Pie Products Do You Recommend?

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