Mary Kay Cosmetics: Multi-Level Marketing Scam

I've heard about Mary Kay for years, and thought that they were pretty benign. But it's actually a pyramid scheme, where money is made based on recruiting others to sell product. It is virtually impossible to make money in multi-level marketing. The only way to profit is by convincing others to make big inventory purchases, so they have a supply available to sell. But the constant introduction of new products, and changing inventory renders most of it obsolete. Also the women promote a faith-based, bible-passage quoting lifestyle, seducing many vulnerable, single mothers..

Have you known anyone who has fallen for this scam?

Pinktruth is loaded with brutal testimonials from women who have been driven to bankruptcy because of Mary Kay.

Numerous people - an uncle/aunt for a while, as well as a close neighbor and family friend. I was pretty surprised.

How did they ever convince Project Runway to promote their overpriced products for one season a couple years ago?

I know a decent-looking woman with natural D cups, and a former sex addict who is deep in the throes of Mary Kay right now. It's funny because for the last couple years she was blogging all this city girl/, modern gal jargon. And now she's the Bible banging, God first, Bible passage quoting shrew who is insufferably promoting herself and trying to convince other women to be part of her "team."

Frau here.

Tried the products. Mediocre at best. Won’t listen to bible claptrap.

Bloom County was aware of their evil.

What about Ronan and Fields or whatever it is called. I have some facebook friend who is constantly posting about it and showing pictures of how she is actually aging in reverse. Then she puts up some photo with no make up and a sad face then one with full makeup and smiling and thinks people will think she looks younger.

They have a technique called "warm chatting" where women are approached mostly in Targets and Starbucks, under the pretense of just being friendly. Then they go in for the hard sell.

Not only are the articles good on pinktruth, but the comments from former Mary Kay saleswoman after the articles are epic.

I don't know how you could visit that website and continue selling that crap.

My aunt got suckered in years ago. She spent several thousand dollars buying inventory that sat in her basement unsold. She’d give out Mary Kay shit as Christmas gifts and it all sucked.

NOOOOOOOOO! That. Wasn't. Part.of. the. Bargain. George.

It's got to be embarrassing after you leave since most women hit up their family first, and end up paying out of their own pockets in order to qualify for benefits, such as the revered pink Cadillac.

It's so odd and rare to come across a MK or Avon lady. How are these brands still in business when cosmetics are sold damn near everywhere these days? Hell, "Influencers" don't even hype up MAC anymore.

Mary Kay's biggest markets are actually overseas. In China it's considered a prestige brand, mostly due to their skin whitening products.

Oh so they're like Amway and Kirby Vacuums?

Mary Kay, Amway, NuSkin, etc are what you get in a country that cannot produce good quality jobs for its citizens.

My mom has worn Mary Kay for over 40 years.

I've no idea about the current state of Mary Kay products, but back in the day, Day Radiance was faaaabulous.

If you're not cut out for selling and don't know how to do it, don't go near Mary Kay. But if you love selling, then you can sell this as well as anything else. I know that Mary Kay is primarily about giving a bunch of women who are lonely and bored a group of friends and some hope. Years ago, I went to pick up a friend who was selling this stuff at her monthly district sales meeting. Gah! There were 200 women in there singing Mary Kay fight songs. "I've got that Mary Kay enthusiasm down in my heart... " They were all wound up. Maybe they don't make any money, but while they are there and while they still believe, they have a great time.

And does it cost more than church?

I was in Houston for a work conference and was accisted by a Mary Kay saleswoman in full makeup that did the "warm" chatting technique with a twist of Evangelical Bible thumping. (((Shudder)))

Barf. And their products are horrible.

There are a ton of videos on YouTube of women telling their stories about quitting Mary Kay

Does Mary Kay hire women with shenises? I'm about to finish Wellesley with a B.S. in post-colonial studies. I though about selling Mary Kay to support myself during a year or two of poetry-slamming in North America and Europe. I'm a lapsed Zoroastrian practicing Zen Buddhist, non-binary, and sexually fluid. Bad idea? Thanks, dolls.

Sephora has made Mary Kay irrelevant

If you can't make a profit selling the products, it's a pyramid scheme.

R24 In urban America, yes: stores like Sephora and Ulta way outsell Mary Kay, Avon, Arbonne and their ilk.

However, in rural America, and in certain urban ethnic communities, Mary Kay and Avon are multi million dollar companies that depend on housewives and other women seeking to supplement their income.

Is Avon the same type of multi-level marketing bullshit as Mary Kay?

Not sure about Mary Kay, but a female family member of mine was an Avon lady. From what I remember, she had a pretty good experience with it.

I'm an academic (gay male) and my former dean's wife used to sell the stuff. They'd have dinner parties and the wife would try to tell the stuff (tacky on so many levels). The wife pestered one of my colleagues (a beautiful, smart woman who did not suffer fools and had a professional acting career for a time, including with Goldie Hawn's back when they did summer stock) until my colleague finally said, "I don't buy cheap, poorly made cosmetics." That shut the wife up and my colleague no longer had to do duty dinners (she was tenured, full professor, and fearless).

BTW, Dean and wife were Orthodox Jews, so the Jebus part of it may be regional or a more recent development (the incident I describe was tintype years or so ago).

Twenty not tintype years ago--she's not THAt old!

You could make decent money selling Mary Kay and Avon back in the day (I had relatives do both as side gigs growing up). I am sure it is different now. My mom still wears and it and sometimes I borrow it, and I bought some recently from a struggling friend.

It's when your cousin starts selling Nerium that you RUN AND DON'T LOOK BACK. That shit is a cult. My aunt and cousin did very well right when it started and each got Lexuses, but now they've gone past cosmetics and doing pseudo-science shit like saying they can cure ADHD and heal concussions and it's just icky.

So if one of the Pink Ladies approach me with warm talk at my local Starbucks or knitting shop, the best tactic is when they say, "Would you be interested in a career selling high quality products to good Xtian women"?" I should answer, Oh, fuck yes! Christ on a cracker I need some money because I can barely keep myself high with the prices of Oxy and blow these days?

I don't know about Mary Kay, but I'm a big fan of Lila Lee!

Mary Kaye had important hair.

Every woman wants to be as glamorous as Mary Kay.

She looks like Harvey Fierstein in drag

She also looks like Jan Crouch and Tammy Faye's long lost sister.

Everyone knows Avon was always the better of the 2. Mary Kay could never compete with them.

Avon and Mary Kay are still in business because their independent sales force is comprised primarily of Baby Boomers and the Gen X'ers who hold a nostalgic fondness for these brands. There's a sprinkling of women under 40 who often get indoctrinated into it through their mothers, aunts, or deacons/pastors or some other influential older women. The awareness of these brands decreases with each new generation. Most women can all too easily hit up Sephora, Ulta, Target, and even CVS for their cosmetics. No one wants to deal with desperate, pushy women peddling mediocre products through an antiquated sales model. If eCommerce is putting brick and mortar retailers out of business, you can just imagine that direct sales companies are running on fumes.

My friend's husband got on the phone with me one day and tried to sell me on how wonderful Amway is. After he gave his speech about how his wife will be able to retire within 10 years and he would retire within 20 (they are in their mid-20s) He went on about how a strong christian faith will help you get everything you want (even though he knows I am atheist - raised atheist by atheist parents and atheist grandparents). After he finished, he asked me what I thought and I told him that it sounded like a cross between a Ponzi scheme and a religious cult. He was pretty hurt and upset.

They ended up wasting tons of money and giving it up after a year or two.

I know a 30 year old woman who has been selling Mary Kay for 2 years. Until recently she would post pictures of herself on Instagram with lots of Mary Kay hashtags, like #MK #MyMKLife #MaryKay... One day she stopped all of them. You're not allowed to advertise Mary Kay, so someone must have contacted her. She refers to herself as a "business owner" but she can't even advertise her own "business."

You can't advertise Mary Kay if you sell it... That is so bizarre to me.

I had a friend back in the nineties who sold Avon. We worked together, Avon was her "side gig". She didn't try to recruit, she just left Avon magazines in the company lunchroom and got a commission off what she sold.

I think Mary Kay wants to be 100% in control of their public image, and likely pay millions of dollars to professional advertisers to create that image. They don't trust the fools who fall for their scheme.

Designing Women did an episode on a Mary Kay like enterprise and while it started by damning it as a Ponzi scheme, it ended being pro-MLM.

By showing it was not *really* MLM...

They try to make women buy an introductory package that cost almost $2,000. There are videos on YouTube of women with boxes and drawers full of makeup and inventory. There's no way that anyone is going to buy that stuff now. Mary Kay deliberately changes the names and packages of their products, so the women who work for them have to constantly buy it to have more inventory and to be up to date. It's sad that that's how they actually make profit.

I had a coworker who sold Arbonne and roped a younger coworker into selling it as well. They were pretty hardcore about it for 2 years, went to some convention in Vegas, had parties, everything. Then it stopped. They still use the protein powder and supplements, but I guess they exhausted their base and no one wanted anymore.

A lady approached my mom and I at an Albertsons of all places.

She asked if I would be interested in hosting a party for MK. I think I said yes or I gave her my info.

Anyway, my mom invited her friends mostly and she sold some stuff but she wanted me to commit to selling stuff as well but I told her no. She called for a while after but she finally got the hint and went away.

[quote] Mary Kay wants to be 100% in control of their public image, and likely pay millions of dollars to professional advertisers to create that image.

Really?! Can you even remember the last time you saw an ad for MK or Avon? One of the reasons why these companies are able to stay "afloat" is because they keep their overhead very low. Direct Selling and MLM's require their sales force to advertise and market the brand. But there are stipulations. They can't sell off Ebay or Amazon. Their website has to be through Avon/MK Corp (so they can charge them of course...). Business cards, signage, bumper stickers, etc., all have to be purchased through the company. MK goes so far as to dictate how their people dress and that they can't wear any other cosmetics but theirs.

The woman I know who sells Mary Kay now wears this peachy, fruity colored makeup. You can tell she spends too much time putting it on, and uses several different shades. She actually looked better before she started working there.

It makes the women who sell it load on way too much, and you notice their makeup.

I think the Avon Lady job was pretty legitimate. I grew up in a small town in the 70's/80's where most mom's were stay at home and there were not a lot of part-time job opportunites. A couple of ladies sold Avon part time, and it largely consisted of them stopping by with the Avon bag and catalog and basically drinking coffee and shooting the breeze and leaving a magazine. Sometimes my Mom would buy and sometimes now.

Do they have Tupperware parties anymore? That was one thing my Mom avoided, because she felt there were only a few pieces she needed and after that there was pressure to buy expensive items she really did not need. This was before the day when you could by Rubbermaid at the grocery store or Target.

The skank addict who lived next door for me for a time somehow got sucked into Mary Kay. I was sure it was just a front for her to explain to her grandma (who she lived with) why she was out at all hours, carrying a briefcase. I mean, she was dealing drugs as well as her ass, so you wouldn't think that type would fall for a middle-class MLM. Well, I guess she did. After her mom went to court and got restraining orders on her daughter and her daughter's ex-con schizo boyfriend to force them out of the house, she told me the basement and garage was full of cartons of Mary Kay crap. She said her daughter had spent the last of her life savings on buying all that merch and it sat unused, and now they had to clean out the house and garage and get rid of it.

Skank daughter would periodically run over to the neighbors and hit them up to buy Mary Kay, but she wouldn't approach the women, she'd approach the men, and after making the pitch, suggest they come over to her house and 'party' with her. So you can see why we all thought it was a front.

Shades of the Orient was a MUCH better product!

I had a neighbor who got into this for awhile and earned enough to get the car. It was really sleazy because she made her money by selling to her high school students. A parent finally complained and then a few days later a tow truck came and hauled off the car for some reason. It was pretty funny watching her screaming and crying in the front yard with her Mary Kay cosmetics melting and smearing all over her face.

R26, every once in a while, some woman on the Upper East Side will try to sell me some shit. The biggest shocker was this pushy cunt who tried to get me into Rodan and Fields. Unbelievable. And some of the stupid yentas here actually bought her garbage. She knew I wasn’t ever going to buy it and every time I was forced into contact with her, she’d aggressively ask me “Did you try those samples I gave you? you look like you could use a little exfoliation. It’s miraculous stuff!” Oh fuck off.

The one product I’ve ever used from an MLM that actually works is the Norwex cloth. My sister in the burbs gets hit on constantly by her coworkers, to buy their MLM shit. That microfiber is the best.

R52, I don't think they actually get the car, they just get to lease it. And if they don't keep up enough sales, they have to pay the lease.

A Facebook friend is a R+F dealer and attended the marketing symposiums. Every post is posed as a question. Every. Single. One. Even the ones about her kids, who all look mortified to be the subject of a post or shilling for a product. The constant before & after pictures of satisfied clients are tiresome. The “so proud of the empowered members of my team!” who basically help pay for her extravagant vacations are obnoxious.

Aging lesbian here - back in the day (and I mean WAY back in the day, late '80s!) I was best friends with a gay man, John. John worked with this utterly straight woman in his office who sold Mary Kay and of course was doing terribly. At the time, they had a line of men's products called "Mister K" (not sure if they still do). Anyway, John felt sorry for her and offered to host a "party." This very straight woman arrived with her sample case to find five gay men and one lesbian at the "party!" She was a tad nonplused at first, but she warmed right up, giving facials to three of the guys. We ended up having a really good time, and four of the guys actually bought the entire four step line of "Mister K" products - (not me - I bought the tube of mascara which was the cheapest thing on the list!) She told John afterward that it was the most lucrative party she had ever had. You haven't lived until you've sat around a dining room table with five queers applying moisturizer and mascara!

After that, periodically, when we were out in the bars, once in awhile we'd notice someone and say, "There goes Mister K!"

In college nearly twenty years ago, I went to a Mary Kay "party" hosted by one of my classmates.

She served cheap fruit punch and stale Wheat Thins. And the house stunk like rotten meat because they hadn't changed their poor cats' [yes, plural] litter box in months. I felt so bad for the poor things I actually stayed behind and changed the box for them!

I think I bought a lipstick off her, but that was it.

Someone wrote on pink truth that when the pink Cadillacs are taken back for a lack of sales quota, they're passed along to others. Some some of the Cadillac models are outdated and decades-old.

Anyone know why the big intersection between MLM and Mormons? Like, every MLM company is headquartered in Utah.

As far as Jessica Fletcher's fondness for Lila Lee, Jayne Meadows did look quite a bit like Mary Kay Ashe.

When you deduct out-of-pocket job expenses and leased car payments, some of the women driving the pink cars are making about 25 to $30,000 a year.

[quote]She served cheap fruit punch and stale Wheat Thins.

What a cunt!

[quote]Anyone know why the big intersection between MLM and Mormons? Like, every MLM company is headquartered in Utah.

Two reasons: (1) Mormons are very clannish and "we take care of our own," so they find it easy to find other suckers to sell to. (2) Anyone who believes the crap that is the foundation of their religion is obviously quite gullible and will buy just about anything.

(Disclaimer: I feel the same way about more mainstream religions as well.)

I have two former coworkers who sell Scentsy and always post all over Facebook about it. I mean, I guess I admire the pluck, but I'm really not their target customer.

Is Avon as bad?

Because a co-worker sells Avon, and as far as I can tell her efforts consist of leaving the sales catalogue in the break room, and delivering any orders she receives. She keeps doing it, has for years, so she must be making at least a little profit.

r65 Avon didn't used to be MLM, but now it's "semi-MLM," you can just sell the products if you want to but they do incentivize recruiting into the cult.

Avon has offered some really good products. Everything I’ve bought from MK was, I dunno, blah.

R56, that party sounded fun.

Did someone mention MonaVie?

My frau sister in law briefly sold Pampered Chef. It’s all a racket, of course your friends and family will buy something from you to be polite but no one will ever make a real full time income selling this shit.

R69 My Republican frau niece (auto corrected to 'fraud', haha) "sells" Pampered Chef so she can write off her home office on her taxes. AND she's a full time accountant!

My babysitter brought over a bunch of Avon products one day, and I remember it being a lot of fun since she whipped out all this random stuff. She got nowhere with my mom though, because she was a serious makeup queen.

Hot older girls in my high school who ignored me would even ask my mom to do their makeup.

MK is old school MLM, where reps have to buy inventory and then sell it to customers. They've been in business for decades, even with a frumpy image. I guess it's big in Texas. Avon seems more casual. Both product brands offer women in smaller towns in flyover states opportunities for socialization and a little side income. MLM companies have a built-in stream of revenue with the reps, because the reps are continual customers and have to be to buy their own products.

r72 there is no little side income. 99% of people in MLMs lose money.

What the fuck is an MLM???

R74 Multilevel marketing. AKA Ponzi/pyramid scheme

The business model is being revamped for young women who did not grow up with MK or Avon and have virtually zero connection to those brands. The company is still resting on new success and the fans (and fans adjacent) don't quite realize that this is practically the same model as MK/Avon. It's Glossier!

That full season sponsoring Project Runway must have been major for them. I wonder how they swindled them into that?

I've fallen into a rabbit hole reading the Pinktruth site ... that Warm Chatter shit is hardcore.

They did candle parties at my office. And young living essential oils.

After reading this thread and not having heard of this thing ever before i googled and found

Hell on Heels

Shirl MC-unt Laine,Shannen Doherty, made for tv

sounds camp fun

I used to work for the company that provides them with the cars. The have or had their own paint shop at GM which would run their vehicles through once a month. In the 90s, they also had pink Grand Prix’s as a level below the Caddy.

In Canada, we actually convinced them to go to pink wraps because of the disastrous resale on the pink paint, let alone huge Cadillac’s. The cars are generally new though. Not decades old.

They have these huge, elaborate conventions that our staff had to attend. They would staff our “career car” booth. The convention was as you can imagine.

R78 Exactly! Pinktruth is like datalounge for Ex-Mary Kay employees.

[quote]She was a tad nonplused at first, but she warmed right up, giving facials to three of the guys.

Not the kind of facials I would've been looking forward to receiving!

my mom used to swear by that shit. i got her into clinique so thats what she uses now.

There's an anti-mlm group on Reddit that's both sad and hilarious. No one makes any $ on them but have to keep up the image.

Apparently the worst is lularoe clothing. Huge entry cost and oversaturated market.

Every woman i know who’s gotten into that shit follows the same pattern: ASSAULT and then RETREAT.

They spam FB with posts and then all of a sudden you never hear from them again. Fortunately I have only had one woman pester me in person and thankfully she moved away.

Has anyone heard of Doterra essential oils? The company has headquarters in Utah. I think this is a MLM scam.

Same with Longaberger baskets. When things were good, it ran well and made sales people money. But now the well is dry.

[quote]Has anyone heard of Doterra essential oils?

My cousin was doing it for a while, and it definitely sounded like some MLM nonsense. I mean, the oils smelled good, but she spoke of them as if they were life changing. Peppermint gets rid of headaches and bunions! Rosemary can be used for cooking! It was harmless, and she wasn't aggressive about it, but I definitely felt like she herself was being duped by being a part of the system.

It doesn't surprise me that their headquarters are in Utah. Aren't MLMs big with Mormons?

Lynn Ransome Starks sold Mary Kay. She’s a first class cunt. She sells houses now. Don’t buy anything from her.

Are there any MLM's for college studs who sell compression wear and jockstraps? I would invite one to my home and buy a few.

The only Mary Kay for me.

r94 I'd rather have this one.

[quote]Same with Longaberger baskets. When things were good, it ran well and made sales people money. But now the well is dry.

I guess I missed my chance to buy their HQ building.

I don't know how I missed that Parker Posey and Shirley MacLaine movie, but that is hilarious.

[quote]Pinktruth is like Datalounge for ex-Mary Kay employees.

I love it when Mary Kay truthers/shills try to troll them for being "loosers" and they set upon them like a pack of wolves.

My sister tried selling it very briefly but soon realized she didn't have that go-getter entrepreneurial spirit. She got stuck with two huge boxes of product that she ended up just giving away.

[quote]You can't advertise Mary Kay if you sell it... That is so bizarre to me.

Not really. They don't want you to know how many distributors might be in your town, your neighborhood, your street. If you knew then you would realize you were all going after the same market.

Stella & Dot is another MLM company, they seem to be able to avoid the stigma that MK and Amway have.

It doesn't make sense at all. If you recruit your friends and neighbors to sell it with you, then who will be left for you to sell to?

It must be a headache sending out the checks to people in the uplines when one of their recruits buys a starter kid. Imagine IDing everyone in the upline and then calculating how much each gets based on their spot on the pyramid and then sending out hundreds and hundreds of $10 checks a year.

A former co-worker of mine is a senior distributor for Young Living, which is a head-scratcher for me because YL is super woo-woo/New Agey and owned by Mormons, and she's a hardline fundie Christian who's married to the pastor of an Assemblies of God megachurch.

Not sure if Cindy Crawford's beauty line is MLM, but it's junk.

I'm a frau, and a total makeup whore that has several drawers of cosmetics, and I don't own a singe May Kay product.

yes, the movie star Robin Wrights mother was one of the top salespeople for mary kay in the country in the mid 80 s in los angeles, I have a friend who was her PA for a short while.

Has anybody heard of Monat? It's an MLM haircare line that's supposed to grow back thinning hair, but numerous users have complained of not just hair loss but scalp burns and oozing sores. What the hell is in this stuff?

[quote] It doesn't make sense at all. If you recruit your friends and neighbors to sell it with you, then who will be left for you to sell to?

Exactly! MLM's con people into believing that you can make a lucrative income from commissions on other people's sales. Meanwhile the "team" is making very little and cannibalizing because their pulling from a small consumer market. Plus, the company pressures its consultants to carry inventory, with no concern whether it's sold to an end user customer or not.

I remember when I was a preteen (girl) and my mother had a friend that sold MK. they did up my face and my pores bled. I thought it was some one time freak reaction but it happened again when I was pregnant and a few years later. I can wear wet n wild, avon, the cheapest shit on the planet. MK makes me have a bloody face.

The current one people are selling is limelife and that shit is obnoxious. 5-10 posts a day, videos, constant overly enthusiastic raving about it. I am so grateful that sephora is online so I can just order stuff without dealing with people.

The worst are the fraus that try to sell Herbalife. An ex coworker got into it and it was all over her social media. She posted a picture of her new truck and how it was all thanks to her Herbalife sales. A mutual friend is her cousin and said she forgot to mention a tree fell on her last truck and she got a big insurance check to buy the new one.

As far as I'm concerned, the people who get into this stuff are the lowest of the low. As much as we demonize sex workers, MLM types are far more abhorrent.

I have a relative (by marriage) who has sold something or another the entire time I’ve known her. Her latest is essential oils. When my brother had a baby, she sent him a congratulatory text that included a pitch for essential oils, complete with a link to her site if he were interested

Amway is the most sinister and cultlike—a prominent deprogrammer actually lists them alongside the Moonies, Scientology, etc. They practice mind control and encourage their distributors ("independent business owners") to cut "negative people" out of their lives. Plus Betsy DeVos is married to an Amway heir, adding to its aura of evil. And the thing is, their products are mediocre and unremarkable.

Hell, R110, at least whores sell something people actually want!

R85, that anti-MLM subreddit is fascinating. They even have their own term for obnoxious MLM fraus: "hunbots."

[quote]Not sure if Cindy Crawford's beauty line is MLM, but it's junk.

It's not MLM - it makes its profits off of shipping & handling and they bury the fact your first mega-cheap infomercial order enrolls you in a very expensive auto-ship program. To their credit, when my elderly mom got sucked in and I challenged them - they cancelled the auto-ship and refunded the second shipment without making her send it back. That should tell you what the product is worth.

R115 Same thing happened with my 84 year old mother.

I have a friend who sells Mary Kay. She used to do it part time when she lived in Dallas and made a little money but nothing to write home about. She moved to North Carolina due to her husband’s job transferring him and now she is raking the money in selling Mary Kay. She said that MK makeup is super popular in the area. She has quite a few people on her team now and has the pink Cadillac and is a Vice President with Mary Kay. All this in about 5 years time. Her husband has quit his job and is now working for her full time. I don’t understand it since the make up is junk. I guess super Christian area and since MK is a “Christian” company, they buy into it.

R110 I don't think it's that they're the lowest of the low, but more that the companies prey on vulnerable groups of women. A lot of military wives, stay-at-home moms, etc. They really push the work from home angle to make them think they can make piles of money while being home with the kids. Very predatory, taking advantage of people who don't understand pyramid schemes.

[quote]She moved to North Carolina due to her husband’s job transferring him and now she is raking the money in selling Mary Kay.

Would she consider taking a detour south of the border? I could use some new foundation tips.

Since it was in the Detroit newspapers that Pink Cadillacs were welcome in Aretha Franklin's funeral procession, I'm sure some Mary Kay sales gals slithered in there with a trunk full of crap they tried to sell along the way.

I tried to look at the Pink Truth site, but all I get is the sitemap page, with every link leading back to it.

Joanna Kerns was in a Mary Kay commercial that was olayed a lot in the 80s

My mom has worn Mary Kay for over 50 years.

I wonder about all those couples and families leaving the country to go live in Mexico and Central and South America. I wonder when those shows were filmed and I wonder if the current climate her in the States had anything to do with the exodus going on.

Back in the 70s we were sort of surrounded by Pat Robertson 700 Club types in suburban CT. My mother did buy Shaklee from one of the housewives. There was a toothpaste that was runny and unsweetened and we kids wasted an awful lot of it, because mom said we could get Aqua Fresh when the Shaklee stuff was finished. (And Aqua Fresh had three stripes!)

This is slightly OT, but one of the 700 Club moms used Dr. Bronner’s peppermint Castile soap, but would soak the label off the bottle because it was filled with outlandish rants about Egyptian methods of birth control and such. I fell in love with that candy cane soap and it wasn’t until my 20s that I encountered it again. And the proselytic blue label that was unseemly to have in a good Christian home.

But Shaklee was okay to sell because there was some Christian connection. Off to Google.

r127, my mom was the same way. i and my dad were forced to take fist fulls of shacklee vitamins everyday and use their other products.

R127 The Mary Kay Cosmetics founder has appeared on the 700 Club numerous times over the years.

I wonder if any of the pro-choice women who try to sell that stuff realize that they are helping turn back women's rights & everything else the repubs dream about?

R129 women have a right to kill babies?

I'm all for birth control but once you become pregnant unless it's an EXTREME circumstance, (rape), you shouldn't just abort it like it's no big deal and then claim that it's a "woman's right". NOPE sorry

And the hardcore liberals are taking more women's rights away than any republicans nowadays, their endless love of Muslims and Sharia Law and forcing women in hijabs know no bounds

You fags have no idea...

r130 who gets to decide what constitutes an EXTREME circumstance? You?

It was pretty shocking when Hillary forced the "all women must wear hijabs" plank into the official platform in 2016.

Did Aretha’s planning group contact Mary Kay for the pink Cadillacs?

They sure got some free advertising during Aretha's motorcade

The opening scene of that Mary Kay movie doesn't exaggerate the tackiness and cultishness of their annual convention.

Ah... multi-level marketing... the fastest and most efficient possible way to make your friends & family members hate you.

FF r130. Fuck off, frau. Damn, DL is infested with these cunts

Some people are asking if Avon is different. I asked my aunt who sells it and she says that reps don't have to keep inventory and don't have sales quotas. There are incentives for recruiting but if you just want to sell, that's fine. So even if they are MLM-ish, they seem more on the level than others out there.

These hos are part of the reason why there's a billion dollar cosmetic industry. And all the cruel animal testing as a result of tarting up these trampy two-timing temptresses.

MK eye shadow was the worst, it used to be some water color mess. Yes you need to wet the eyeshadow brush to get the pigment to work, just like those cheap watercolor sets for kids.

The same thing happened to me with Lady June.

[quote]Did Aretha’s planning group contact Mary Kay for the pink Cadillacs?

from what I heard on NPR kit was organized by a Mary Kay rep in Detroit who sent out the call for pink Caddies, and received a much bigger response than she anticipated.

Half my company drive for Uber in their spare time. They are sitting ducks for this kind of thing.

Gag: That Mary Kay Semen-Hour video. ALMOST as bad as the tacky Affiliates meetings that KOMEN had, with Nancy Brinker fannying around and all the C-Level Execs drunk off their asses and dancing with umbrellas on tables. (Hi, PAT T!!!) Gross waste of donor (or any) money.

[quote]Some people are asking if Avon is different. I asked my aunt who sells it and she says that reps don't have to keep inventory and don't have sales quotas. There are incentives for recruiting but if you just want to sell, that's fine. So even if they are MLM-ish, they seem more on the level than others out there.

I have a cousin who sells and she has said the same thing. She also works as a nurse so she doesn't have to rely on Avon too much.

[quote]I had a friend back in the nineties who sold Avon. We worked together, Avon was her "side gig". She didn't try to recruit, she just left Avon magazines in the company lunchroom and got a commission off what she sold.

I remember those days. They didn't pressure anyone into buying. Social media is what made MLMs worse. These days some MLM reps post about the products multiple times a day. I have a friend who sells Scentsy and she only posts about it maybe once a week and that's it. She hasn't tried to recruit anyone either.

It's not only for women, lots of men sell Avon and Mary Kaye.

In the past few years, a several men that I know are into selling MLM "nutrition/supplement" products like ViSalus, Herbalife, and JuicePlus. There's a documentary on Herbalife called "Betting on Zero". They interviewed former reps and a few of them were men.

Also, soap actor Steve Burton was involved with MLM juice company called Monavie. The company is no longer in business. Anyway, asswipe Burton sold a lot of it to his fans who would show up to meet and greet events and IIRC, he recruited some of them into selling.

Yeah, he had a shitty racket going where if you wanted to meet him at a meet and greet without a long line, you had to attend a sales pitch for Monavie. He even got GH to work Monavie into a storyline.

Multi-level marketing can be your ticket to the very lucrative American Way.

Being a republican influencer also helps us shape your world whether or not you buy our products.

We win.

Shaklee!! I remember that! My mom bought stuff from this lady, mostly I think because she was a single mom and my mom wanted to help her out. This was in the late '70's, early '80's.

I remember the vitamin C tablets. They were delicious!!

r152, I once knew a Mormon drag queen by the name of Shak-Lee.

We had a young neighbor in grad school who sold Amway. They had some okay products we bought to help her out.

Shacklee, shaklee, who really cares 😛

Are they even around anymore?

That's too bad! Feel terrible but have fond memories of the Oatmeal Mask they sold.

Mary Kay Ash's former home in Dallas has been torn down and is just a lot now.

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