Beauty Pie Makeup Haul Vol.1 - Review and Swatches

Be warned. This is long. And there's loads of pictures. Belt up folks, we'll be here for a while.

You might have seen a new brand starting to emerge on the blogosphere recently - that brand is Beauty Pie, and promises to give us beauty addicts enthusiasts a whole new way to buy "makeup without the markup". Beauty Pie is essentially a buyer's club for makeup. You pay a monthly fee (£10 a month, with a minimum of three months' membership) and this gives you access to Beauty Pie's products at their factory prices, with a maximum allowance of £100 (of full price, not factory price) makeup per month. If you don't use that allowance, it rolls over to next month. The makeup is packaged very simply to minimise costs, and each product has a detailed ingredients and cost breakdown.

 So, essentially, you are cutting out the middleman; buying makeup with a detailed cost breakdown, at ridiculously low prices per item. Intrigued? I was. In the name of obsession  science and maths, I took out a 3 month membership. Here's haul no.1, my thoughts, and the deets on costs.

Numero uno - Beauty Pie's Futurelipstick Matte in Hush Now. This is a nude nude. Almost concealer-lips on me, but just warm enough to be wearable. It has a light vanilla scent, and a very similar formula, lasting power and feel to my super-all-time-fave Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution lipsticks - I'll definitely be picking up another of these next month. These cost a dizzying £2.24 on Beauty Pie's website - with the cost helpfully broken down in to costs for postage and packing, warehousing, testing, and VAT. So far, so excellent.

Next - Beauty Pie Quantum Bronzer. Don't be fooled by the terrifyingly shiny appearance - it's a (slightly unnecessary) shimmery overspray. The bronzer beneath is a lovely, smooth, finely milled texture - definitely on the warmer side, but very wearable for light-medium skin tones. It blends very nicely, and lasts for a standard 6-ish hours before fading.

Moonlighting Balm Radiance Powder in Celestial is next up. It's a sheeny, fine, oil-infused powder which leaves a very believeable glow on the skin. In the world of mega-watt highlighters (my favourites are here) I'm not totally sure how I feel about this. It is balmy, for sure, and not at all powdery on the skin - though its so soft that there's a lot of kickback in the pan. A really lovely bonne-mine option, but it's not going to change your life if you're more of a blind-them-with-my-cheeks person.

The eyeshadow palette - The Ten Best Smoky Eyeshadow Shades - is, indeed, a pretty, smoky palette. The shade selection is good - on the shimmerier (is that a word? it is now) side, but they blend well together, and apply smoothly. I'd say pigmentation is about average - not necessarily a bad thing with deeper, smokier shades, but if you're used to the likes of Zoeva's Matte Palette or Anastasia Beverly Hills shadows, these may not be your cup of tea. The matte shades are pretty pigmented, and easy to use. The shimmer is fine, not at all chunky, and has very little fallout. I get about 6-7 hours' wear before creasing, over my trusty NARS Pro-Prime Eyeshadow Base. I've swatched them below for you - one-swipe, as ever, except the matte purple which wasn't playing ball and was double-swatched.

Almost there. Promise. The Beach Gloss in Sugar Rush is a lovely, nude-pink gloss - it's not changed my life, but no gloss ever will. It is a bit of a Lancome Juicy Tube throwback (remember those?!?) so it's on the stickier side - but it does give a super-plump lip effect.

L-R - Moonlight Radiance Powder, Quantum Bronzer, Beach Gloss in Sugar Rush, Futurelipstick in Hush Now

Finally - the star, honestly - is the Superbrow Precision Pencil. Waxy, a tiny nib, easy to use, and an included spoolie - I am a huge fan. The shade Perfect Brown is a good mid-tone medium-dark brown, and the formula and packaging means it's a breeze to apply without hitting Scouse-brow territory.

Overall? There's some super hits (the matte lipsticks and brow pencils, namely) and everything else is.. well.. nice. Not overwhelmingly life-changingly amazing, but nice. I think if you're a mega-makeup maven, the Beauty Pie concept is well worth having a look at.

However. One issue. I'm not entirely sold on the "retail price" advertised for some of these products. I'm not sure I'd be parting with £35 for the eyeshadow palette, when for that I could buy something I know I'd love and treasure from Tarte or Urban Decay. I certainly wouldn't hand over the dolla for the highlighter - I like it, but I don't like it enough to spend £20+ on it. 

I feel like I have discovered a few gems without breaking the bank, however, and I'm looking forward to next month's order.. I just have to decide what to try out next!

Have you ordered from Beauty Pie? What did you think?

Some links above are affiliate links. All products mentioned bought with my own money.