LONDON — Eighteen months of R&D (that’s still ongoing), a debut on December 8, 2016, and two whole months of sustained press and chatter. That’s what life has been like for Marcia Kilgore’s new cosmetics upstart Beauty Pie over the last year and a half.
The metrics: As if that busy start to life wasn’t enough, Marcia also tells us that the company recently reached 10,000 members (of those, around 3,000 are monthly subscribers), and membership numbers are growing around 40 percent month on month. Exceptional numbers, if true as claimed.
The concept: Beauty Pie is a subscription-based cosmetics operation, but take note: it’s not a subscription box service. It’s a brand selling its own custom-developed makeup products to subscribers at factory prices. Here’s one great explanation:
The concept is simple, but genius: Kilgore works with the chemists and manufacturers behind prestige companies and has them create formulas for Beauty Pie. If you sign up for a $10/monthly (or $120/annually) subscription, you’ll get access to these beauty products at factory price. For example, a Beauty Pie…mascara would cost you $24 if you bought it without subscribing, but if you are a member, you’ll only pay $2.
Why we’re paying attention: The beauty industry is on fire right now. Glossier and Stowaway are two examples that stick out most for us, but rest assured there are countless other emerging cosmetics and beauty brands just like those two. From where we stand, Beauty Pie is right up there. Brilliant concept, and clever, innovative thinking on Kilgore’s part.
Seems like she’s onto something here — either that, or her PR firm is killing it. Regardless, the press can’t stop chattering about Beauty Pie. Some highlights and insights:
- The Telegraph: “Lots of beauty brands manufacture their make-up products in the same factories and formulas can be incredibly similar, especially when it comes to lipsticks and mascaras which only have around eight ingredients. Beauty Pie is taking out the added extras, including the heavy luxe-feeling packaging, to cut down on price.”
- NY Mag: “[I]t’s an Everlane-like start-up for cosmetics. . . . Kilgore and her team test formulas from factories in cosmetics capitals such as Italy, Korea, France, and Japan to make cosmetics that rival most prestige brands. The BeautyPie dream is to offer quality luxury products without the markup of having fancy name attached to them.”
- Evening Standard: “Kilgore believes detonating this model will be a triumph for women, who will finally be “liberated” from huge outlays on something as pedestrian as their daily routine. She sees herself as “democratising” the industry. She has no brand ambassadors.”
- The Guardian: “When I first heard about Beauty Pie, I momentarily dismissed it as yet another beauty box company, with sexier branding. Pleasingly, it’s nothing of the sort.”
