Just when you thought the sun had set on beauty subscription services, one company has found a whole new way to separate you from your money each month. Instead of a box that magically arrives at your door full of products that you never asked for (and might never actually use), BEAUTY PIE allows you to shop for what you want according to your pre-set spending limit. More on that spending limit stuff later, because that’s one of the fine print things that this company isn’t really interested in you harping on. The advertising gold for Beauty Pie is in its membership perks and how much said members actually pay for products whose claimed quality match the standard industry markup.

Here’s the breakdown: Beauty Pie claims that its products match the quality and performance of top  brands on the current market. That means that if a Guerlain Foundation runs about $45, so does the Beauty Pie brand… for non-members. If you’re a member – for a monthly fee – that price drops to less than $9. Beauty Pie will still let you pay full price if you don’t care for a membership, but the obvious question is why would you do that? This company is counting on you to ask and answer that question by opting for the subscription, and further sweetens the pot by giving you the first month (of a three month commitment) free.

A quick perusal of the site shows you the typical breakdown between makeup and skin care products. The risk of buying from either category online is not lost on this company, so Beauty Pie keeps the language light and the presentation clean to keep you from skipping away to the next online shopping experience. And at such low membership prices, they wager that even if you end up with a dud you won’t make a fuss. Global reviews of Beauty Pie products fall into two distinct categories: Must Have or Must Skip. Most of the product reviews are from influencers in the UK, and they seem universally positive. US reviews (from those who’ve actually purchased from the site) register closer to underwhelmed. Makeup seems to take the brunt of the criticism, with most arguing that the quality is closer to drug store than luxury. Skin care fares better, but not by much.

A personal buy from this website included the highest available spending limit and a cart full of the highest end skincare Beauty Pie has to offer. Our selection of mostly skincare and one makeup item arrived beautifully wrapped and packaged in less than a week. It also included an offer for more potential spending capital if we posted our hauls on social media. Our one beauty item, the Everyday Great Skin Foundation, left us wanting. We found the formula weightless, but the chalky finish (due to lack of warm undertones in the pigment) was problematic. Even with the online color match based on current foundation colors, we ended up with a dud. But at $9 we’re not crying a river, and Beauty Pie is counting on that. The skincare was much more promising, with the new JapanFusion line offering the most potential. Built for drier skin types, the small collection features enticing ingredients that rival current big K-Beauty brands. But for all its hype, the skincare barely passes muster in terms of efficacy. There’s no real wow factor. Even the effects of the company’s Retinol products (laughably named Super Retinol) barely register on the skin. So while these skincare products won’t make your skin worse, they may not make them better either.

JapanFusion aside, the unfortunate reality is that there isn’t really anything in the Beauty Pie collection that warrants a monthly subscription fee. The fee gives you a set spending limit (at suggested retail prices), although you actually pay member fees for each item. And while your balance rolls over to the next month, you’ll actually have to wait that long to re-up on your spending limit to shop for additional products, provided they’re available. We hear the candles are nice, but the choice scents are perpetually out of stock so there’s no way to confirm. It’s one of many reasons to pump the brakes on this beautifully packaging offering. So when our two additional months are done, we’re breaking up with this lovely company that promises so much, but delivers so little.

#beautypie #superretinol #japanfusion #beauty