Read MNers reviews of BEAUTY PIE’s service and products

[EmmaMumsnet]

25 Mumsnetters recently tested out BEAUTY PIE – a beauty subscription service where you can buy luxury beauty products at factory costs. Testers had a free membership to trial BEAUTY PIE’s service, a boosted spending limit, 50% off their total basket, and 2 weeks to test out the products they bought.

Here’s what BEAUTY PIE has to say: “BEAUTY PIE – a revolutionary brand where you buy luxury beauty at factory costs - is the first ever buyers club for beauty addicts. Members shop for luxury products from the world’s leading beauty labs and save up to 85% on the regular price. Members get a monthly spending limit (dependent on membership tier), calculated by the typical price, that lets them buy up to 5x more for their money! It seems too good to be true, but it’s not! You get the same quality cosmetics and high performance skincare without paying for the middlemen, the celebrity marketing or the retailer costs. So YOU get a bigger piece of the BEAUTY PIE.”

Testers please answer the following questions:

• How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?
• Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?
• Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?
• What was your favourite product and why?
• What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?
• What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

Everyone who leaves their feedback as required will be entered into to a prize draw to win one of three £100 vouchers of their choice.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Terms and conditions apply

I really enjoyed testing Beauty Pie’s products and service. I honestly think the products are absolutely excellent, and although the concept/business model is a bit complicated (and will be off putting to some) I’m a convert and have signed up for an additional 3 months after the trial.

How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?

Very easy - the website is clear and simple to use. You just put the products you’re interested in into your basket and a 3 month membership is automatically added too (if you’d rather not sign up - and are happy to pay ‘full price’ then you can remove the membership charge)

Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

I did. I did feel that the ‘regular’ prices were a little on the expensive side - certainly a lot higher than I would usually pay for makeup or skincare, but I guess they’re in line with what luxury brands charge.

Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

Yes, although I’m on a limited budget (currently on maternity leave) so a spending limit isn’t actually a bad thing! I imagine it’s more annoying if you’ve got a bigger budget for luxuries than me!

I can actually see how the membership/spending limit system keeps people interested and enjoying the brand - it’s certainly quite addictive planning what you’re going to spend your next ‘allowance’ on and looking at the soon to be released products on Instagram etc...

What was your favourite product and why?
I focused more on the makeup side of things because my makeup bag was in major need of a refresh, and because the skincare is more expensive so I wouldn’t have been able to try as many products. With the ‘boosted’ £200 regular price spending limit I was able to try the tinted moisturiser, a blusher, a highlighting powder, an eyebrow pencil, a mascara, and an eyeshadow stick.

Honestly, I was very impressed with all of the products, and the tinted moisturiser is the best I’ve ever tried. It’s one of the only things I ever splash out on as I wear it most days and have struggled to find one that lasts and is the right shade. I’ve been using an Origins Ginzing one for a while, but I much prefer the Beauty Pie one. I also think the quality of the powders (the highlighter and the blusher) is genuinely far better than what I was previously using.

(In my second order I tried the nail polishes and lip oil - both also excellent!)

What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?

I’ve already signed up for a 3 month membership- it’s an extravagance for me but I can justify it in the short term by cutting back on other treats (I should probably have less coffee and cake anyway!) - but I think it’s just too expensive for me to be a member for the long term. I’m not usually someone who spends a lot on makeup or skincare though so membership is a treat for me, not a way of saving money. If you’re a high end skincare or makeup addict then the membership would probably make far more sense (although I guess part of the fun of being ‘into’ beauty products is trying different brands - so you might find it restrictive to be tied to one brand)

What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

I’d be interested in bath and hair products - and I think there’s a facial oil and some perfumes due to launch soon, which I’m keen to try.

I have one other piece of feedback - the website is very good, but I don’t think that there are enough photos of each product in use, especially on a range of skin types. It can be very hard to choose makeup without testing it in person, but more product pictures would really help.

Oh, I forgot to mention (as if that wasn’t wordy enough!) I also tried the day moisturiser and japanfusion cleanser, both of which I love! I’m usually fairly basic when it comes to skincare, but I’m in my 30s now and I’m looking rather grey and tired after having a baby, so I think it might be time for me to up my game. The skincare is more expensive but I’m going to try a few more things because it seems (to my non expert testing..) very good.

How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?
Very quick and simple.

Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?
Yes, although I was confused at first, I think it could be made clearer earlier on, before sign up etc.

Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?
Yes, there was so much more I wanted to try.

-What was your favourite product and why?
The Super Retinol Ceramide-Boost Anti-aging Face Serum, it's really brightened my complexion, and faded some old scarring where I had a brief outbreak of acne from changing contraceptive pills.
I also tried the everyday great skin foundation and am a convert, it has brilliant buildable coverage, is light, non greasy and doesn't clog into fine lines etc.

What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?
I would like to stay purely for the face serum, it such an excellent price for a product where I can see that it is making a difference.

What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?
Hair care products would be of great interest.

• How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?

Very easy, very smooth process.

• Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

Yes. The prices were quite clear although I'm not convinced they're the value they claim to be.

• Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

Yes I did. I wasn't all that impressed by the limit. I could only order 2 things and that was me not buying what I wanted to buy due to this ridiculously limit. I contacted mumsnet about it. I could have easily spent a large sum of money on this website and wasn't impressed by the restrictions.

• What was your favourite product and why?

Out of the 2 products I ordered, I liked the youth serum. It felt nice when it went on although did cause a few spots on me so I could only apply it to certain areas on my face. It felt nice and light and it felt lovely under make up. It had a lovely smell so it was very pleasant to use.

I would have loved to have tried the make up but could only fit 2 things in my basket.

• What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?

To stay - A higher limit, the option to be able to put a set of products or a selection of products in the basket, free delivery.

To leave - it would be because of the low limit and I couldn't try the products I wanted to.

• What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

I would be interested in bath items, body oils, organic products but I doubt I would pay for this service due to how restrictive it is which is a shame because I did really like the products I bought.

• How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?

Really straight forward, it was very easy and intuitive. The website is bold and I had no problem finding products and signing up.

• Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

The members pricing is very clear, you can tell from the quick view what the price is for each product

Non member pricing is less clear as it states ‘typical’ price which sounds vague. I understand the concept, this is the typical price you would pay for a product of similar quality on the high street but If you were just browsing I think this concept could get lost.

• Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

Yes. I did notice that you can up your membership and pay £20 a month and get an increased spending limit though, the choice is a great idea.
I love skin care rather than make up and the spending limit is quite restrictive as skin care is more expensive. I would have to ‘save’ a couple of months allowance to get a skin care set and I know I’m going to get the best results from using a set of products.

• What was your favourite product and why?

I ordered products that I thought might be similar to items I use and love but would work better with my mat leave budget.

My favourite product was the APRICOT BUTTER CLEANSING BALM. I use Darphins aromatic cleansing balm and thought this might be similar, it is but is slightly less hydrating and more exfoliating which I liked and would suit more skin types.

You get lots! I use this once a day in the evening and this will last me months and months so great value. Packing is nice, the glass makes it feel luxe. You get a tiny spoon for application which means you don’t over use the product. It smells lovely but not too over powering. There is a cloth that you use to remove with warm water, the cloth is slightly exfoliating and I use it more on congested areas. My skin felt wonderfully soft and clean after. Really pleased and would definitely swap products.

• What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?

The quality of products and adding body care products would make me stay.

Restricting spending limits any further would make me leave.

• What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

Good practical body care that is tailored as the skin care is.

Increase in face masks as it’s currently quite a small offering.

How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?
Very easy, no issues at all.

• Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

Yes, it was easy to understand.

• Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

That's my only downside to the whole thing, I really struggled to stay within my limit as there were so many things that I wanted to try, it was quite frustrating.

• What was your favourite product and why?

I bought the enzyme face mask and that felt great, for a quick 5 minutes I looked like I'd had a good nights sleep afterwards, even DH said I looked radiant, which isn't something he'd normally say!!
I also loved the nude cowboy lipstick, perfect colour and went on great too.

• What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?

The spending limit is what puts me off and frustrate me. I've signed up to the 3 month mini membership mainly because there were skincare bits I want to try but on that you can't buy just one item of some of the better skincare, it would be good to be able to pay a one off fee to temporarily bump up the limit or just remove it all together. I'd stay because the skincare seems good and something I'm very interested in.

• What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

I'd be interested in body care, such as body creams for issues like slight scaring on legs from ingrown hairs etc.

• How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?

I found it easy to sign up and use the website.

• Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

Yes, I understood the differences between regular and member prices.

• Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

Yes I did feel a bit restricted by the limit. I managed to buy 4 products within the limit but I’d have liked to try a couple more.

• What was your favourite product and why?

I love the Super Healthy Skin Daily Vitamin C Defense Serum. It makes my skin feel lovely! I also loved the Uber Youth Hyaluronic sheet masks, they really plumped my skin.

• What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?

I haven’t signed up yet as I’m waiting for a product I wanted to try to come back into stock but if the spending limit was a bit higher (say £150 instead of £100) then I’d be more likely to sign up long term.

• What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

More sheet face masks and bath products. Travel sized products would be great too.

I have always just made do with a basic or no cleanser and moisturiser and was a pioneer of the ‘hot cloth technique’, ie have always washed my face with a hot flannel since the 1970s.
I haven’t worn makeup since I was a raver in the 90s apart from about odd occasions when going to a 70s night or weddings or a brief stint working as a podium dancer.
Now I’m in my early 40s I need something to make me look less dead – but as you can see from the last sentence have never worn nude/natural makeup and usually end up looking clown/harlot.
This trial was a great opportunity for me to get a bunch of stuff to test out. Although not as much stuff as I’d expected due to the limit.

- How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?
V easy.

- Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?
Yes. Although before I signed up and read the info I thought I had a spending limit of actual money £200, this turned out to be about £20!!
If anyone is considering membership and wants to work out the ‘real’ cost of items, factoring in the membership, this is how it works out;
Your membership buys you 10x that much spending allowance (in ‘typical price’): So if you have a £20 membership, you can buy items which sum to £200 in ‘typical price’. If you factor this into the price you are paying, you are paying ‘members’ price’ + ‘typical price/10’.
For example, the blusher is ‘members’ price’ £4.02 and ‘typical price’ £18.00 so actual cost to you is £5.82 (4.02+1.80).
However, even with the membership price factored in, everything seems very reasonably priced – the most expensive thing on my want list is a face cream which works out to be about £21.

- Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?
Yes, very! At first I couldn’t understand why they would have items with a ‘typical price’ beyond any membership spending limit. These are things that you cannot buy unless you are a member and have ‘rolled over’ unspent allowance from previous month(s).
But, as they have explained this is part of their business model. I guess that having this model means that people are coming back for more and they can wave new items under their noses, hoping that they continue coming back. (Apart from the obvious sign ups who forget to cancel!)
Obviously this trial has worked out great for them as I have seen multiple things I want to try and will get a few months’ membership at least and I bet other triallists feel this way too.

- What was your favourite product and why?
I loved the Super Healthy Skin Deep Purifying Cleanser. As I said at the beginning I am not a makeup/skincare junkie so maybe a bit naïve but I have never had a cleanser that seemed so gentle but made my skin feel as if it’d had a full exfoliation. Witchcraft!
I also loved the Shine Up Lip Colour Balm Stick, although I might not have picked the best shade for me, and the Superbrow Fine Precision Pencil – they have a perfect shade for blondes – I used to use a benefit product (gimme brow?), but find this one a bit quicker.

- What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?
Hmm, well I guess the spending restriction would keep me locked in for a few months so I could actually buy what I wanted... Long term, there would have to be new products added regularly to keep me going back.

- What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?
I would like there to be small travel or sample size kits of things that you could buy in one month’s allowance. I thought this would be what was on the ‘gifts’ section, but not, just multiple packs of things.
I was going to say would like there to be more tones of primer but have just seen there is a ‘translucent’. I bought the primer duo – maybe I misunderstood how this is meant to work but can’t imagine both being useable by the same person. One is light and one dark – I gave the 2nd to a Pakistani friend.

I have really enjoyed trialling Beauty Pie's service and it's given me the opportunity to buy products that I wouldn't normally have bought.

• How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?

I found signing up to Beauty Pie very easy. The website is well laid out and very easy to navigate.

• Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

Yes - the website was very clear with the members price and the typical price. Some of the typical prices seemed a bit on the pricey side but it does make you feel like you are getting luxury items for a good price.

• Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

Yes, I did feel a little restricted - there were quite a few products I wanted to try although I did manage to buy 6 items which was great.

• What was your favourite product and why?

I really like all the products that I ordered but my favourite product is the Ten Best Smoky Eye shadow set. The colours are lovely to blend and achieve a day or night time look that lasts well. I have been using it every day since it was delivered!!

• What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?

I would stay for the quality of the products. However, I think there would need to be regular new products added to keep my interest. I also might get a little frustrated if I couldn't buy the items I wanted within my monthly spending limit.

• What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

I would like to have tried more of the skin care products so a trial size set, that I could have bought within the spending limit, would have been good. Hair products would be something I would be interested in too.

- How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?

Very easy to sign up, good instructions supplied.

- Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

I had researched this previous to the trial as I had been intrigued by Beauty Pie for a long time. I think initially I had to read it through a couple of times before it made sense! But it is quite straightforward.

- Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

I feel restricted by any spending limit! It meant I had to think about what products I wanted/needed right now. The £200 limit was great but I understand that is not the norm. I suppose it makes things difficult if you can only buy fewer items at a time. I bought the Japanese range but couldn't 'afford' the cream. There must be some benefit to trying all of the items together. If I had to buy them over a longer period of time, the overlap time between the products would be shorter.

- What was your favourite product and why?

My favourite product was the Japan Fusion Deep Treatment Serum. The first time I used it, I applied it too liberally and it was a bit heavy for my combination skin. After this, I used 2 pumps which when applied felt very luxurious, absorbed quickly and left my skin very smooth to touch. I have been trying to use a combination of serums (using 3 at the same time) from another brand but struggle to find the time. This has been brilliant to use on those busy days.

-What would make you stay or leave?

I will probably sign up for a longer period of time. I would like to give these products a bit longer before I make a final decision on them. Accessing Korean and Japanese skincare without having to order via Amazon is great as we know what we are buying. Continuing to provide products like this would make me stay. If newer products were not brought in frequently enough, this would be reason to leave. I don't know how frequently this is currently.

- What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

I am more in to skincare than make up so would like to see a wider range in these products. There is nothing else I would expect to see. The candles are an nice alternative however.

Thank you for choosing me for the trial. I was really happy to be a part of it!

• How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?

Very easy, no problems at all

• Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

Yes, I thought the website explained this very clearly

• Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

Very much so! But any sort of spending limit is frustrating..... I wanted to make use the opportunity to try a variety of Beauty Pie products, so I selected mostly make up, which is cheaper. In general, I buy more skin care, but the restriction meant I couldn’t fully explore this. I did try the Japanfusion Pure Transforming Cleanser and I really liked it, but I would have liked to try the Japanfusion set. I can see why the restriction is there – but I think I would find it frustrating to have to wait several months in order to “save up” enough spending limit for a set of skincare. It would be helpful if the website let you pay extra for a month to temporarily increase your limit.

• What was your favourite product and why?

I tried a lot of products and there wasn’t anything I didn’t like, which is great because I’m quite fussy! I think my favorite was the Futurelipstick Matte, which was very similar to a much more expensive branded one. I also tried and liked the Oil Free Micro-Mineral Serum foundation and the One Powder Wonder.

• What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?

I’m not sure whether to sign up or not to be honest, still deciding but I probably will. On the plus side, I really liked the products I tried, and there were plenty of others on the website I liked the look of. But the spending limit puts me off a bit – I’m not patient enough! Also, I paid extra for next day delivery and the products weren’t delivered for a few days. DPD delivered the day after they were sent out, but dispatch was slow. (I often work away from home so it’s much more convenient for me to be able to pick a next day service as this way I can choose a day when I’ll be in for the delivery). Also, one product I ordered was out of stock – I got a nice email apologising but overall the delivery wasn’t as impressive as the products.

• What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

I’d like to see travel sizes of skincare products. Partly because I travel a lot and find them very useful, and also because although ordering a set of skincare isn’t a risk in terms of the amount of money you pay for it, it would use up a lot of spending limit. I didn’t have an adverse reaction to any of the Beauty Pie products I tried, but my skin can be very sensitive, and I’d like to be able to try travel sizes before committing to full size ones. Also, I tried and really liked the Wondergel Lip Liner, but I couldn’t see a “matching” lipstick on the website, and it would be good to see links from lip liners to lipsticks on the website as it can be hard to be sure of the colours on screen.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to try the products

-How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?
I found it very easy to sign up to Beauty Pie

• Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

Yes I found the information on the website very easy to understand

• Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

No the spending limit was probably a good thing as I could have spent a lot more

• What was your favourite product and why?

I have 2 I love the lip oil I’ve already nearly used all of it already it’s by far the best one I’ve used, also the black Clay mask it leaves my skin feeling amazing afterwards.

• What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?

I think Beauty Pie is great I will be signing up as soon as I get back from holiday

• What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

More colours of lip oil would be good maybe a red one, bath & hair products

Hi MN, thanks for letting me be a part of this test - I'd been hoping to try Beauty Pie for a long time so this was ideal for me!

How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?
Very easy. It's a nice looking website and very user friendly.

• Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

Yes, but I can see how confusion can happen.

• Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

Initially no, but as I was filling my basket I realised I was having to be more selective about the things I was picking up. I couldn't afford all the things I wanted to try and it certainly made me want to join up in order to do so!

• What was your favourite product and why?

I thought it was going to be the JapanFusion cream as I'd read really good things about it - and it's fantastic, and feels very luxurious, but surprisingly it turned out to be the Triple Beauty Liquid Luminizer which I added as an afterthought because I'd run out of my usual highlighter. It's gorgeous, not glittery, and catches the light beautifully. I love it.

• What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?

I want to try more things - I've started following on Insta so I can get more recommendations as well. Turning forty has made me take the products I'm using more seriously.

• What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

As others have said, HAIR - my kingdom for a paraben and silicone free shampoo and conditioner that work. Also fragrance - I'd love to see some perfumes appear, particularly with notes of woodsmoke and palo santo. Basically, make me a perfume please.

How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?

Very easy

• Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

Yes. Though regular price feels like a marketing gimmik

• Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

Yes, there were more things I would have liked to try.

• What was your favourite product and why?

I liked the lipstick trio set (lipstick, lip liner and lipgloss). Picture attached.

I also liked the foundation. Better consistency than my usual nars one.

• What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?

I would stay to repurchase foundation and try out some more products.

I would leave because there isn't enough I would want to buy to justify monthly purchases. I'd probably sign up for 3 months at a time.

• What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell.

I can't think of anything.

Just to give a few more details. I bought the following:

• lipstick trio (really liked)
• eyeshadow stick (really liked, better staying power than my Rosie @ autograph version)
• everyday skin foundation (really liked, better consistency than my usual nars version, although a bit more yellow-based)
• wonder powder (liked, but I'm not sure if it did anything- could be emporer's new clothes)
• super stem cell moisture serum (liked, but again, not sure whether it did anything)

Total cost to me was £20 including postage. If I hadn't been on the mumsnet offer, it would have cost £56. Still quite a good deal for everything I bought.

In terms of quality, I'm not sure if it is quite luxury but it's a least quality high street. The lip trio was good, but possibly not as good as the Laura mercier trio I recently bought. Then again, that cost me £36 (note though, this is significantly lower than the £54 Beauty Pie quotes as regular price).

The foundation was as good quality as my nars, which costs about £30. Plus you get the pump with it, whereas you have to buy this separately with nars.

The eyeshadow stick is better quality than my Rosie @ autograph which costs about £12.

The thing you have to consider is that the price you pay is effectively the price quoted plus 10% of the "typical price" as that accounts for the share of the monthly subscription that you can use for the product. So the foundation is £10 (£7 + 10% x £30).

I'd prefer it if the prices were a bit more honest and quoted £10 with no subscription rather than a subscription and a lower price. But the subscription model gets you hooked for a period and you feel you need to spend to take advantage of the lower prices once you have committed the subscription. Plus, if you cancel your subscription, any unused spend us effectively extra cash for beauty pie.

This is my order, so you can see individual costs (remembering I got a free £20 subscription plus 50% saving on member's price)

Oh, one final thing (I realise I have waffled on a lot!). The packaging is lovely when it arrives. The products themselves are nicely packaged, plus it is wrapped nicely in tissue paper. So they would make a nice gift for someone.

Even though they don't add weights / magnets to the product packaging, things like the serum are in heavyweight glass bottles.

How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?
I’ve signed up for full membership & found it very easy - the test membership process was less clear - confused me somewhat as it added a shipping charge for a virtual item! That disappeared at full checkout but it had me flummoxed for a bit.

Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

I understand it now but didn’t to begin with (I believe I wasn’t alone!). I found the concept bit absurd to begin with, but I guess that as the profit is made from the membership fees & the products come at cost-price, then the business model wouldn’t work if spend was unlimited.

Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

I did - I was keen to try one of the collections (Retinol) to get a real feel of its efficacy, as well as a wider range of products such as makeup, but the limit didn’t cover it. That was a disappointment!

What was your favourite product and why?
I want my favourite to be the Retinol hand cream, as its something I’ve been searching for & is not a product that’s widely available at a decent price! Sadly 2 weeks isn’t enough to say if it’s really working, but I think I can see a difference...

What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?
It would be great to have the chance to do a one-off payment to boost a spending limit, rather than a 3-month commitment, but that might not work commercially. So possibly frustration might kick in at having to wait for sufficient spending limit to accrue to buy collections - & not being able to buy and enjoy a wider range of products might cause me to leave. We’ll have to see! I’ve bought a £10 a month membership & having bought a couple more products I’ll now have to wait 2 months to buy anything else, i.e. that Retinol collection! £20 a month is too much for me sadly.

What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

Others have mentioned haircare & that would be something I’d be interested in too.

I do have one more point to add about packaging. It all came beautifully wrapped and most of it was recyclable, but the container for the 15ml Retinol eye cream I bought was fully twice the size of my other eye cream with the same amount of contents. I have no idea whether that’s the case across other collections and the Retinol hand cream by contrast filled its own container, but we’re trying to reduce plastic waste its worth raising!

And a product request! I don’t like rinse-off or foaming cleansers, so a cleansing cream would be snapped up by me immediately (limit allowing of course)

MathsFiend, your teeth are amazing!! (and the lips do look good! what was the name of the lip trio shade??)

Hi raaaaasss, thanks, though I think it might be the photo! The set I got is 123 pink. It's not as bright as the picture on the website. I've tried taking a photo of the set, but to be honest, it's coming out more pink in the picture than it looks in real life.

Hi, I really enjoyed being a product tester, thanks for choosing me.
Here's what I bought [with the members price:

One Powder Wonder™ £5.28
Pro-Glow™ Superstrobing Drops £5.51
Wondercolour Longwear Cream Shadow Stick £3.61
Futurelipstick™ Luxe Shine £4.45
Futurelipstick™ - Matte £3.68
Moisture-Lock Wondergel Lip Liners x2 £2.84
Futurelipstick™ Luxe Shine £4.26
Everyday Great Skin Foundation £6.72

I researched BeautyPie a lot online and tried to choose some of the products which had good reviews and others that I wouldnt normally go for.
I was aware that there were few truly independent reviews out there - most were shills from the beauty bloggers. I think its great that Beauty Pie have decided to use Mumsnet as I ended up feeling quite distrustful of the Bloggers raving about their freebies!

• How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?

It's straightforward if you are used to shopping online. I did have a few issues with losing my basket if I took a break though.

• Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

Yes, although I am very cynical about the "regular price."

• Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

Only in terms of it was impossible to get to the limit and feel you had had value - I had a surplus which because it was a trial I couldn't roll over and I couldn't do a one-off top up to enable me to buy another item. A way of searching for items by price could help here. I also found the high cost of the skincare too restrictive within the allowance and after googling the ingredients decided to focus on the make up range instead.

• What was your favourite product and why?

I really liked the lip liners which had great online reviews, so I bought two! They were worth the money and I will use them a lot. The Superstrobing drops were lovely and an unexpected favorite, something I hadn't used before but would repurchase.

• What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?

I would leave BeautyPie because of the difficulty in getting a good colour match due to the online website swatches. I wanted to try 3 different lipstick types and ended up with 3 basically of the same pink shade! Even the Bruised Berry - which I feared would be too dark a burgundy was actually a mid pink! I was really disappointed by this. The foundation - which is very nice - is way too light for me, despite me being very pale and normally using the lightest in the Bobbi Brown range. The wild violet eyestick is not very purple - but I actually liked the shade. To me the colour swatches make it way too risky to buy this makeup online - I've bought other brands without issue. I can see some of the website reviews also make this point. If I were beautypie I would be using website content via a blog to show the makeup colours on actual skin shades [different ones!] to improve the customer's selection process. Not being able to select the colours properly meant I wasted a lot of money - I don'y need 3 nudish pinks! I think the quality is fine - it is on a par [and the packaging is very similar!] to Kiko which is my go-to budget range.

• What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

Bath oil!

• How easy did you find signing up to BEAUTY PIE?

Very easy - just added the membership to my basket and I was off! It's very clear how you sign up and purchase products.

• Did you understand the difference between regular price & members price?

Yes. I appreciated the breakdown they provided as to how they calculated this, and think it shows a real effort to be transparent on their part. That said, I do think it's important not to get too hung up on it and think that you're getting the exact equivalent of, for example, a £20 lipstick for £4. First you have to factor in the cost of membership and delivery, plus to fact that the packaging is nice but basic (and not equivalent to high end) etc.

• Did you feel restricted by the spending limit?

Yes, I wanted to be able to spend more! For the trial I wanted to try a range of products, so I didn't buy any of the skincare that I wanted/had seen recommended as it used up too much of my budget. That said, this wouldn't be the case if I was a regular member which I might be so I can access more monthly allowance - so I suppose the restrictions work for the business model! :)

• What was your favourite product and why?

The matte lipsticks were superb! Everything I've wanted in a matte lipstick but have never been able to find. Creamy but still matte, easy to apply even without a mirror, gorgeous colours.

• What would make you want to stay or leave BEAUTY PIE?

The simplicity of being able to access good products for good prices without trekking to the shops makes me want to stay. With kids I find it impossible to get out and buy make-up/beauty products and the time to try/test stuff. Although I chose carefully, I wasn't gutted at one of the lipsticks not being my shade because I'd not paid heaps for it. I imagine it would be different with a more expensive item like foundation though. I would switch from high-street foundation to BP foundation if I didn't have to pay for a product test and it was easier to find the equivalent BP foundation to my Revlon one. Like PP have suggested, BP would do well to produce some vlogs showing these products in more detail so consumers know which product to switch to if they use a certain one eg. "this foundation is roughly in like with Revlon's ivory".

• What other products or ranges would you like BEAUTY PIE to sell?

Anything hair and beauty related that I have to get from Superdrug! Particularly hair creme, specialist shampoo and conditioner etc.