We’re quite sure you’ve heard of Mary Kay.
Of course, it has been in the cosmetics industry long before the majority of you were born.
Mary Kay Cosmetics isn’t a snoozer; it’s on par with the top names in the cosmetics business in terms of status.
So today, we’re going to review Mary Kay to see if it really is the best makeup / MLM company out there.
We’ll talk about whether MLM is the right online business for you.
And at the end, I’ll answer some of the most frequently asked questions regarding Mary Kay and MLM in general.
But most importantly, I’ll show you the exact system I used to build my own internet marketing business to over $40,000 a month in mostly passive income.
This system made me swear off MLMs for good, because it uses some of the same skills but in a much more powerful and profitable way!
Mary Kay Company Quick Overview:
In 1963, the late Mary Kay Ash launched the company in Texas. It is a cosmetics company established in the United States that sells its products through multilevel marketing (MLM) business model.
To date, Richard Rogers has served as Executive Chairman. He is also Mary Kay’s son and a co-founder.
David Holl serves as President and Chief Executive Officer.
Independent distributors, often known as beauty consultants, are hired by Mary Kay to sell and distribute products to people in their circle.
The company operates in over 35 markets across five continents. Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, China, and Australia, to name a few.
Mary Kay Products
Mary Kay’s product line includes, of course, makeup, as well as skincare, body and sun creams, fragrances, and even “men’s grooming.”
The Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover and the TimeWise® Miracle Set® are two of their most popular products. A moisturizer, a cleanser, sunscreen, and a night solution are all included. The most popular Mary Kay products are those stated above.
Is Mary Kay An MLM?
According to some reviews, Mary Kay is not into affiliate marketing and does not appear to be providing services for an affiliate program.
Mary Kay Inc., as previously stated, is a privately held multilevel marketing company based in the United States.
So, right off the start, Mary Kay states that it is a network marketing company that offers cosmetics and beauty products.
Mary Kay beauty consultants sell and distribute the company’s products directly to those in their communities in MLM businesses.
These beauty consultants are not paid because they are not employees. The company’s business strategy has recently come under criticism.
Several media outlets have looked into multilevel marketing companies and their get-rich-quick schemes. They thought it was troublesome and resembled a pyramid scam.
According to Direct Selling News, Mary Kay was the world’s sixth-largest network company in 2018, with a $3.25 billion wholesale volume.
That’s a lot of money in the extremely competitive beauty industry, and it’s obviously a million-dollar operation. Perhaps this qualifies them to be referred to as cosmetics giants.
Mary Kay Ash probably had no idea when she started the firm that her skin products would be so popular!
Pink Pyramid Scheme Rumors
However, despite Mary Kay’s enormous success, rumors abound about the company being a pink pyramid scheme.
Is Mary Kay a pyramid scam, then?
And that this company, founded by Mary Kay Ash with an initial investment of $5,000 USD, is more concerned with recruiting women in what is known as a pink pyramid scam than with empowering them, offering services, or providing business opportunities.
Is that really true?
How could a company with a history of more than half a century become suspect? Let’s take a closer look into it.
What Is A Pink Pyramid Scheme?
A pink pyramid scheme is mostly used to take advantage of salespeople.
The company’s sales staff is encouraged to buy the products and then sell them to their clients under this business model.
The financial rewards for many Mary Kay consultants are often insignificant — a far cry from the large sums of money that the company promises women may earn by selling their products.
As a result, many people wonder if Mary Kay is a pyramid scheme or is Kay a pyramid scam.
Pink Pyramid Scheme Report Of Virginia Sole-Smith
Virginia Sole-Smith wrote this report to share her Mary Kay experience.
“Pink Pyramid Scheme – How Mary Kay Cosmetics Preys on Desperate Housewives,” is the title of her report.
Smith explained how she came across Mary Kay products and got involved in the business in the report.
She went into detail about how members were pressured to sell the items.
She also stated that this is not a business for the faint-hearted.
Other studies suggest that, despite Mary Kay’s claims of a $3 billion yearly sales revenue, her salespeople are in debt with boxes of unsold face creams, lipsticks, and other cosmetics.
A handful of them make a profit, but the majority do not.
It appears that the sales director receives a larger portion of the pie, while the sales team receives only crumbs or none at all. It’s understandable if people ask if Mary Kay is a pyramid scheme or if Kay is a pyramid scam.
A business in which just a few people make a respectable living while the rest pay to play sounds suspiciously like a pyramid scheme.
The Federal Trade Commission distinguishes between recruiting salespeople to promote a product, which is ideally legal and collecting money solely through some form of participation fee, which isn’t.
Although the amount of the fee is uncertain, the FTC has charged several multilevel marketing companies with pyramid schemes.
Some Mary Kay customers are baffled as to how they could have fallen for the company’s tricks. Despite this, many of them continue to defend their specific recruiter or sales director as not being part of the scheme.
Mary Kay denies this, claiming that it is simply a basic business model in which a person enters an agreement directly with the company, buys products at wholesale prices, and sells them to her customers at a suggested retail price.
She gets to keep the profit. It is a person’s decision as to how much product she wants to purchase from the company and sell to customers.
It should also be noted that, contrary to popular belief, Mary Kay does not engage in affiliate marketing.
As a result, we come up with the next question—
How Does One Join Mary Kay?
The ‘Mary Kay® Starter Kit’, which costs $100 USD, will get you started as a Mary Kay beauty consultant.
It includes retail-sized products to show to friends at parties, samplers for potential clients, and business supplies and brochures with sales tips.
There are two ways for Mary Kay distributors to make money. One comes from direct customer sales, and the other comes from a commission based on sales made through their downlines.
When Mary Kay consultants sell products to customers at full retail price, they can earn up to 50% gross profit, according to one review.
This is referred to as an “earned discount privilege.” However, if you read the fine print or details, you’ll be asked to ask the following important question —
Can You Really Make Money Selling Mary Kay?
At first, the company will never tell you that in order to receive the substantial 50 percent gross profit, also known as an earned discount privilege, you must maintain an active status and qualify for it by placing a $400 retail order every quarter.
Mary Kay distributors, like all other networking companies in the cosmetic industry, sell their cosmetics and skin care products through a party plan, pop-up stores, or online services via exclusive VIP Facebook groups or social media ads.
As a result, many people deal with lots of negative things that come with Network Marketing.
In fact, check out our Top 5 Reason Why Most Network Marketers Fail.
Don’t get me wrong…
You can absolutely make money with Network Marketing, but if you’re going to put in the time and effort required to learn the ropes (which, believe me, isn’t simple), you might as well make some real money while you’re at it.
The program that helped skyrocket my online business to $40,000+ per month is so simple that making money really does become second nature.
How Much Commission Do Mary Kay Consultants Make?
As previously stated, Mary Kay pays a hefty 50 percent commission on all products.
This is a gross income percentage that does not include the consultant’s marketing and business administration fees.
Personal earnings or income will vary, but a typical beauty consultant who is eligible for commissions or incentives can earn up to $5,569 in sales each year.
That’s really not bad for Mary Kay’s consultants.
Again, if you read the fine print, you’ll notice that these numbers exclude business and other related expenses. That sounds like a red flag, and it should be checked further.
How Much Do You Have To Sell To Get A Mary Kay Car?
Yup. Getting a Mary Kay car is obtainable.
Beauty Consultants who reach the position of Mary Kay Independent Sales Director or higher can earn a Mary Kay career car or incentive travel.
As per their website, “As of December 31, 2019, 62% of the 485 Independent Sales Directors and Independent National Sales Directors participated in the Career Car Program, and 42% attended an incentive trip,”
When it comes to cars, you’ve surely heard of Mary Kay Pink Cadillac, right?
An extravagant pink car is sure to appeal to a typical woman.
According to a review, this is typical of multi-level marketing companies such as Mary Kay.
They rely on a constant stream of new consumers purchasing inventory packages to drive sales and income from the bottom to the top of the pyramid.
It’s almost as if it’s a device to draw individuals into the company. As a result, the following question continues…
Is Mary Kay a Dual-Marketing Company?
Mary Kay aims to disassociate itself from the MLM label. And they came up with the name “dual-level marketing” to describe their business model.
Mary Kay created that lingo, and you’re probably wondering how she came up with it.
What is dual-level marketing, and how does it work?
So the idea is that the fact that there are two sales of the product (from the company to the consultant and from the consultant to the customer) somehow qualifies it as “dual-level.”
When you get down to it, it’s just a multi-level marketing plan.
Maybe it’s the reason for this next question.
Why Are Mary Kay Products So Expensive?
Most likely because its products are of average quality and, well, expensive or overpriced. Aside from that, women have a lot of options both online and in stores.
There’s no need to waste time hunting for a Mary Kay consultant who will most likely want to recruit you into her downline.
Is Mary Kay A Global Brand?
Yes, it is technically correct. Their products are sold in more than 35 countries throughout the world. From the US to China, Mexico, and Russia.
What Is Our Top Recommendation For Making Money Online?
Our review team has come across a program in the real estate industry that is next level!
Although it’s not real estate in the traditional sense, it’s all digital.
Where Mary Kay falls short is in scalability.
There’s only so much time in a day and there’s only so many people you can reach to sell by yourself.
MLM companies know this! Which is why they push so hard for you to recruit for your downline…you can’t get rich with it as a one man/woman show.
But what if you could make even more money off of little local websites without having to spend hundreds of dollars on overpriced products and a bunch of time recruiting people to sell under you?
With this digital real estate program, you can make recurring monthly income without constant sales to your friends and constant recruitment!
Sound too good to be true?
Of course it does!
But it isn’t…in fact, business owners wish they had this skill!
All you have to do is build and rank a LOCAL website and forward the jobs off to a business owner in town, you could even email it to them!
This works for literally any service based business, tree service, plumbing, towing, etc.
So, how much money can you make?
Simple, after you forward the jobs off to a business owner and he makes some money off of them, you simply ask to make the deal beneficial for each other.
A fair price to charge per lead, depending on the industry is 10-20%…let’s just use the tree service industry for example and go by worst case scenario.
Let’s say you build and rank the site and only 10 jobs a month come in. The average tree service job is anywhere from $500-$2000!
That means at bare minimum you have an asset worth $500 a month!
See why they call it digital real estate now? That’s a rent payment.
The great thing is how easy it is to scale. You don’t have to worry about:
- Your upline getting paid before you
- Begging your friends and family to buy from you
- Recruiting people all the time
But as it is with Mary Kay… You only get what’s left of the pie if you meet a monthly quota…
The course we recommend actually allows you to collect HUGE FLAT RATE DEALS.
Truly passive income!
The training program takes making money online to a whole other level. The owner of the program walks you through how to build and rank a site hand in hand, with the occasional voice over when he is sharing his screen.
You will learn the importance of keywords, website name, how to send call notifications via email, backlinking, etc.
Once the training program is completed you will also have access to a Facebook group much better than the Mary Kay group in our opinion. This group is much more active.
Unlike Mary Kay, where you’re getting maybe $10 per sale, you could be getting 50-100X THAT.
A business will always want more leads and another job. In fact it doesn’t even matter that the job isn’t coming from their website name…they see it as it is…expanding digital real estate.
Unlike Mary Kay, more people have been able to walk away from their 9-5 job as well.
Digital real estate allows you to have total passive income with most of your day being spent WITH your friends, NOT selling to them.
Now, I know you probably have tons of questions…