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Luxury Makeup: Where Does Your Money Go?

Sunday, 29th January, 2017

Luxury Makeup: Where Does Your Money Go?

A few weeks ago I received a surprise parcel in the post from a brand called Beauty Pie. At first glance the make-up looked like a high end luxury brand but as I opened the booklet there was a little more to it…

What is Beauty Pie?

Beauty Pie is an online community which allows those who love high priced makeup to get it at factory prices. That means the typical £20 lipstick is only £2.24. What’s the catch? Apparently there is none. Beauty Pie have simply found a way to cut out the middle man, allowing you to buy direct from the factories that also supply the majority of make-up of high end luxury makeup. So no longer are you paying someone to design the packaging, market the product, package it and then store it in the warehouse, you’re buying it straight from the factory.

So to give you an idea of what you are paying when you purchase that £20 lipstick for £2.24; £1.61 product and packaging, 8p on safety and testing, 17p on warehousing plus £0.38 VAT and a little on posting.

Seems too good to be true right? But apparently, it’s not!


Beauty Pie vs Luxury Brands

I do love the idea that I’m paying a fraction of the price for a luxury lipstick but there’s just something missing. I’m all about high street makeup however If I want to ‘treat’ myself there’s something exciting about visiting a beauty counter, having the item wrapped up in branded tissue paper, popped into a bag and sealed with a sticker. It feels much more luxurious and more of a ‘treat’. But I suppose if you buy luxury make-up on a regular basis, maybe that doesn’t bother you?


What’s great about Beauty Pie? 

Beauty Pie are fragrance and cruelty free, their packaging is lightweight as they’re trying to make it as eco-friendly as possible with plant based inks and recyclable plastic. So not only are they saving you money they’re also saving the planet. But what are the actual products like? It’s funny because knowing that these products could be a high end dupe, I was a little more scrupulous when ‘reviewing’ them.

Beauty Pie Product Review

The ‘One Powder Wonder’ is very finely milled, applies like a dream and leaves a matt-dewy finish similar to my £15 powder but you can grab the £26 powder for just £3.68 on Beauty Pie (I know, I was just as surprised too!). The lipstick and lip glosses had a very similar formula to my high end lip products, really smooth and moisturising and would definitely be more expensive than a handful of change. The foundation was a little harder to compare as it’s a little too light, sheer and dewy for me but I’ve read that it has a very similar formula to the Chanel Luminous foundation. For just less than £5 you can definitely tell it’s not a ‘cheap’ formula, it doesn’t have that acrylic scent and it sinks into the skin better than some popular high street brands.

Where does your money go when buying luxury beauty products?

Packaging aside it does make you wonder if luxury brands do have higher quality ingredients than cheaper alternatives or just a higher mark up because of the marketing and product design? Yes, high end brands have more money to spend on advanced technology to select ingredients that some high street brands may need to remove to fit the budget however does that account for the hefty price tag?


If Beauty Pie can provide you with higher quality beauty products for less money just by skipping the middle man, how much money is really going into the production and how much is going into the brands back pocket?

Higher price tag does not mean higher ethical standards 

Another thing to remember is that a higher price tag does not mean higher ethical standards. A lot of high end makeup brands tend to import their products as it’s incredibly cheaper to get it made outside of the EU. Why? Because they have a lower legal minimum wage for workers in Asia, (for example) than the EU. Not only that but a lot of high end brands (sadly) aren’t cruelty free and do test on animals.

Food for thought


So if there’s one thing that Beauty Pie has given me (aside from being able to purchase a luxury £20 lipstick for £2.24 or a £30 foundation for £4.88) it’s food for thought about where my money is actually going when I purchase my beauty products.

Beki Xo

(*) As part of this post I was gifted the Beauty Pie makeup however I was not asked to publish my thoughts in a blog post and all opinions are my own

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