Beauty Pie: Is It Worth The Hype?

You might have landed here because you’ve been googling Beauty Pie and like I was, are keen to know what all the fuss is about? If you’re looking to discover great skincare and makeup, but are fed up of beauty subscription boxes that just don’t quite cut it, then it’s certainly worth trying them out to see how they compare. If you fancy attractive, expensive looking pots that will look lovely on your bathroom shelf, then look no further…

I had always ‘considered’ joining after their marketing campaigns seemed to suck me in every now and then and I’d briefly take a look and then get myself confused about what the subscription service entailed, then I’d swiftly move on. Well after the year we’ve just had, I decided that I wanted to have some luxury items in my life, that didn’t cost the earth…and so my subscription started in November 2020.

So what does it all mean?

In a nutshell, you need to pay a subscription with Beauty Pie to be able to order their high end products. They have a monthly subscription service that starts from £5 a month, which allows you to spend up to a certain amount on their products. £5 a month sounds pretty reasonable doesn’t it? However, that £5 only allows you up to £50 of spending credit. Now £50 will buy you a decent amount of things from Beauty Pie at the ‘member price’, but you will be spending from your allowance of the ‘typical retail price’ of that item. For instance you would be able to purchase a sunscreen/primer for £10.14 but the typical price is £45, which would leave you with £5 of your allowance left to spend. Or you could pick up some powder blush for £7.82 when it retails for £25 – leaving with enough allowance to perhaps buy another item. If you don’t use your allowance one month, then it’s rolls over to the next month, so the idea here is that you can forego a month or so of spending if you want to save your allowance for a big ticket item.

So for instance, if you want to buy some fancy cream that might possibly be a pretty good dupe of Creme de la mer, then it will use up a large part of your allowance with its typical price being an eye watering £100 – but you get to snag it for £13.81! If you’re on the £10 a month subscription (which gives you £100), then you will be spunking your whole allowance on that one jar of cream. I got it this month as I had £250 allowance as a bonus offer for becoming an annual VIP member, so I’ll let you know what I think further on in the post…

What do I think of it?

Well after taking advantage of their ‘first month free’ offer last November, I quickly realised that the products from Beauty Pie were definitely worth finding out more about and I decided to jump in and ask for a VIP membership for Christmas from my husband. This allows me £100 of spending credit every month for a year and also entitles me to some perks, such as access to Pie Days where you can purchase products that don’t get taken from your existing allowance.

Beauty Pie

I did a fair bit of research before I chose my first few items, as I wanted to make sure that I was picking out the most useful products for my skin. There are lots of items that sell out quickly and have been hailed as miracle creams, so I knew it was important to find out what ranges would offer me the best results, so that eventually I’ll end up trying a variety of things before I decide on my absolute favourites.

What did I buy?

For my first ever order I started with a couple of items from the Japanfusion range that always seems to receive great reviews and has pretty packaging to boot. I went for the Pure Transforming Cleanser and the Power Elixir Moisturiser. The cleanser has a gel to oil to milk formulation, which means you rub it all over your face like a balm and then when you rinse it off it turns milky. It’s actually really good at dissolving away makeup and is pretty effective with removing eye makeup too (even though I remove mine before using it). It feels lovely on the skin and I reckon that my skin is a little clearer since I’ve been using it.

The moisturiser is perhaps my favourite buy so far. It’s a fairly thick silky gel like cream that sinks into my skin beautifully and has a very subtle scent that I love. It’s quite rich but my skin seems to drink it up and it leaves my skin with a healthy sheen for a while. I know a lot of people aren’t keen on fragranced creams but I always prefer mine to have a nice smell and this one is just right for me. I actually prefer it to the expensive one I bought after this.

Beauty Pie

Although I mainly joined Beauty Pie for the skincare, I wanted to try out some of their makeup too and with my first order I picked up a Superbrow Luxe Precision Pencil and a Foundation Sample Set. The eyebrow pencil is superfine, so it’s fab for mimicking hairs and for getting a more defined look to my eyebrows.

I haven’t even tried the foundations yet, mainly because I’ve just not been wearing it – you know because of face masks and not going many places! It’ll be handy though if I do decide to try one of their foundations out at some point, as I dread trying to work out what tone I need to opt for when buying online.

On my second order I picked up a Wondercolour Cream Eyeshadow Stick which certainly seems to be a favourite buy with subscribers. I couldn’t decide on a colour to try so I opted for black because I knew that I could work with it for a smoky eyed look. I’ve noticed that it’s really long lasting stuff and doesn’t easily rub off. Then to go with my non existent foundation wearing days, I added a Foundation Buffing Brush to my order. I’d seen this recommended by The Pampered Wolf on You Tube and thought it would be a good idea to add one to my collection for future foundation wearing. It’s super soft yet firm and it’s brilliant to work with.

Beauty Pie

The big splurge item for my second order was the coveted Super Healthy Skin that people save all their allowance up for. It’s packed with loads of ingredients to make it a goody, but so far I’m not thinking it’s amazing like I was expecting. I’m not sure what I was expecting to be fair, but I don’t feel that my skin feels like you’d expect an expensive to cream to make it feel. The Japanfusion cream gets my vote over this one at the moment.

Beauty Pie

Which makes me move onto the Super Retinol Night Renewal Moisturiser which is part of a range that I was keen to try. Beauty Pie recommend that anyone over the age of 35, needs to be incorporating this range into their regime. The retinol serum is infused with lactic and hyaluronic acids, and a concentrated, barrier-repairing ceramide blend to help protect, brighten, hydrate, smooth fine lines and soothe your skin. It certainly feels lovely on the skin and very nourishing and it’s one that I’ll continue using as I like to use separate creams for day and night, night being the cream that works all the magic – I hope!

Beauty Pie

Since I’ve hit my forties, I’ve become more fixated on my dark circles under my eyes and more recently how concealer creases under my eyes. When I was younger I used to always use eye gel and then somewhere along the line I just stopped using it and I wish that I had kept up with that. Now I’m all about my eye creams and finding a way to smooth out the skin under my eyes, so I opted for the Uber Youth Peptide Infusion Cream that promises a whole host of benefits. It’s actually my favourite part of my cleansing routine at night as the cream feels so nice under my eyes and a little goes a long way and I actually see the difference since I’ve been using it. This is a keeper but I also might try the Super Retinol Anti Wrinkle Eye Cream when I next place an order.

Beauty Pie

Finally I decided to try the Dr Glycolic Multi-Acid Micropeeling Pads that I’d seen some people recommend on Instagram. I’ve been using them about 2-3 times a week and they leave my skin with a slight rosy and shiny glow until the following morning. They don’t feel harsh on the skin and I’d definitely say that they’re helping with the breakouts I’ve been getting with my skin when wearing face masks at work. I imagine that these will be become a repeat order when they have run out.

Beauty Pie

It’s very much a process of trial and error to find the lotions and potions that are right for you and because you are capped with your monthly allowance, it means that there is only so much that you can try at once. I’ve never been a big spender on beauty products, certainly not on a monthly scale, so you have to treat it like you would do when you buy any essentials – you generally only buy more when you’re running out of something. There is the temptation here to want to BUY IT ALL, but unless you’re on a mega pricey monthly subscription, you’re not going to be able to do that!

What are the negatives with Beauty Pie?

One drawback for me is the slow delivery times. When we live in an age where we can get next day deliveries and in some cases, same day deliveries, Beauty Pie definitely fall short on their promises. You’ll pay a flat rate of £3.36 for every order that claims to take 3-5 working days via Royal Mail…but you probably won’t see your order for about two weeks. Admittedly at the time of writing this, Royal Mail have still been dealing with a backlog of parcels, however, my December parcel took two weeks to even be dispatched from their warehouse – and it’s only in Milton Keynes. Edit – since Christmas has passed, delivery is now super quick at 2-3 days, so I can’t complain!

Their customer care is brilliant though and for every query and problem I’ve had, the staff there have always been very responsive and helpful. I only wish that they’d use a different delivery service. It’s obviously not enough to put me off using Beauty Pie but I’m certainly aware that I need to order ahead if I’m starting to run low on something. More than anything, I’m always excited to receive my new items and I just want the damn parcel to arrive within a few days of ordering!

I’ll be placing my third order soon and will definitely follow up on this post and let you know how I get on with my next choices. So far I’m really impressed with the quality of everything and I’ve yet to order a dud item and feel that I’ve wasted my money – or should I say allowance – yet I realise it’s early days. Fingers crossed.

See my thoughts further down the line here.