As Beauty Pie marks a decade in business and opens its first permanent retail space at Liberty London, chief new product development officer Saskia Lankshear explains how the brand is balancing accessibility, membership value and product innovation.

When Beauty Pie launched, it looked to challenge one of beauty retail’s most entrenched ideas: that high-performance formulas must come with luxury mark-ups. Ten years on, the member-led beauty business is broadening that model, opening itself up to non-members and stepping into physical retail through its first permanent space at Liberty London.

For Saskia Lankshear, Beauty Pie’s chief new product development officer, the fundamentals of the brand’s product strategy have remained consistent.

“We’ve always worked with the world’s leading beauty labs, from skincare specialists in Switzerland and Japan to colour cosmetics labs in Italy and fragrance experts in Grasse,” she explains.

“That gives us access to exceptional formulation expertise, while our business model lets us make those formulas accessible at very different prices from traditional luxury beauty.”

Beauty knowledge

There has also been a shift in the sophistication of the customer. Lankshear stresses that beauty consumers are more ingredient-aware; more globally informed; and more willing to scrutinise claims than they were a decade ago.

“Our customers are incredibly beauty-literate, so the bar is high, which is exactly how we like it,” she says.

The rise of Korean beauty is one example of that shift. Beauty Pie has worked with Korean labs on recent launches including Unlipstick, Wrap Star Tubing Mascara and Silk Dip Liquid Blush. This reflectes a market in which consumers increasingly understand the origins, textures and performance cues behind products.

For Lankshear, that means product development has to be both global and disciplined. The brand’s promise is not simply to source from respected suppliers, but to translate that expertise into ranges that meet member expectations on performance, price and discovery.

Open access

The membership model has also evolved. Beauty Pie’s original structure included different tiers, a system Lankshear says reflected the realities of scaling up: “As a startup, managing inventory was crucial, so our original model had different membership tiers and monthly shopping limits.”

She adds that it has adapted “as we’ve listened to how people actually want to shop”.

“As we grew, we were able to remove those limits, so people can shop for what they need whenever they need it.”

The brand also recognised that not every consumer “wants to join a membership before they’ve experienced the products”.  

She stressed that the membership model was never based on “artificial exclusivity”.

“The products have to convince people. If someone discovers us through a lipstick, moisturiser or fragrance and thinks, “I want more of this”, membership becomes a very natural next step,” notes Lankshear.

In 2024, Beauty Pie opened up for all shoppers, while reserving membership prices.

Additionally, Beauty Pie’s move into Liberty London this year marks a huge step for a brand built primarily online. The permanent Beauty Hall space allows existing members to shop at their usual prices, while non-members can buy at standard prices or sign up in store.

Liberty gives Beauty Pie a new kind of feedback loop

For the product team, the value of stores is not simply sales. “Beauty is incredibly sensory, so physical retail gives people something digital simply can’t: the chance to feel a texture, try a shade or smell a fragrance before deciding,” Lankshear says.

It also gives Beauty Pie a richer view of customer behaviour.  She adds: “Online, we can see what people browse, buy, repurchase and review.

“In store, we can see what they pick up first, what they compare and the questions they ask. Those small behaviours can tell you so much.”

That combination of digital insight and physical discovery could prove increasingly important as Beauty Pie moves into its second decade.

“Having both perspectives is incredibly valuable. Digital tells us what customers do, while physical retail gives us another layer of understanding about how they discover, experience and choose products,” she concludes.

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