Beauty Pie Will Forever Change the Way We Buy Cosmetics

The beauty industry is constantly evolving to bring us new products, more Instagram-worthy packaging and swoon-worthy innovations. Amen for that. But the way we buy beauty products hasn’t changed much. We either spend happy hours wandering the isles of beauty retailers or order online—both involve visiting a retailer and paying for that retail markup (which averages around 12 times what the actual product cost). But Beauty Pie is about to change all that. Think of Beauty Pie as a Netflix-level disruptor that brings in the same kind of feel-good-about-your-product transparency as Everlane. Rather than pay for crazy retail markups and luxe branding, with Beauty Pie you can buy high-end cosmetics at cost—like, under $5.

The game changing cosmetics company comes from the savvy beauty brain of Marcia Kilgore—the founder of industry kingpins Bliss and Soap & Glory—who, inspired by the radical cost transparency of e-tailer Everlane, which publishes exactly how they determine the price of each item, wanted to bring the same savings and tell-it-like-it is ethos to good quality cosmetics. With Kilgore’s killer resume, she was able to call on the best of the best in luxury and high-tech skincare around the world to get the best quality products and low manufacturing costs. So what exactly does that mean? Basically Beauty Pie grabs makeup from labs around the world and then slaps the Beauty Pie label on it. “I love the ease that comes with total transparency, because the focus is then on doing the very best in product development, formulation, ingredient engineering and skincare, and bringing the best quality product for our customers—no budget barred,” Kilgore told Allure. “It all becomes really simple. It’s not about margins, it’s about marvel.”

With Beauty Pie, you have two ways to buy. First, you can pay retail price, which is pretty competitive ($38 for a highlighter, $24 for a range of mascaras, $25 for a luxe lipstick). Or for a $10 a month subscription, you can become a member and buy all your goodies at cheaper cost (that’s $5.84 for that highlighter and under $3 for both the mascara and lipstick). Both buying options practice the cost transparency the brand was founded on, showing exactly how much it costs for the product and packaging ($1.83 for Uber Volume Boost mascara), warehousing the product ($0.22), and the rounds of product safety and testing ($0.01). “Let’s just say I’ll never pay $30 for a mascara again, because ours are just as good, if not better,” says Kilgore.

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To understand how such sorcery is possible, you have to look at how makeup is made. In the beauty industry, there are only a handful of makeup manufacturers, which produce cosmetics for huge ranges of brands, from high-end splurges to cheap steals (which is exactly how we get so many drugstore dupes)—the designer lines might use a little more pigment or some higher quality ingredients, but the formulas used by each manufacturer are pretty similar.

There is one catch: Subscribers are slapped with some spending restrictions. To keep beauty fanatics from scooping up the whole beauty pie and opening their own Kylie-inspired retail pop-ups, subscribers are limited to spending the equivalent of $100 in retail prices—that’s only for lipsticks a month, for example—which, for beauty addicts, might actually be a wallet-friendly blessing in disguise. The good news is, if you don’t hit your max, the difference rolls over to your limit for the next month. “If you do the math, you’ll see you’ll be saving a bundle,” says Kilgore. “And it is SO. MUCH. FUN.” With an easy deal like that, signing up for a full year (though you can do month-to-month memberships) is a no sweat last minute gift option. No judgment if you keep the free bag of goodies you get for signing up as a gift for yourself.

If Kilgore’s history is any indication, this is just the beginning for Beauty Pie. The company is planning to launch 300 new products next year, and Kilgore says they have a string of collabs in the works. But at the end of the day, she answers to the cool girl social club she’s helped to create. “We’re launching new categories, working on accessories and beauty tools and hair care,” Kilgore says. “We’re getting our members involved, listening to what they want, and bringing them a bigger piece of the Beauty Pie!”

Now check out this cool no-makeup tutorial: