Beauty Counter – Scam or Legit? Is This MLM Worth Joining?
Beauty Counter – Scam or legit MLM business opportunity? That’s the very question many people have been asking about this network marketing company that focuses on beauty products. They claim you can create a great lifestyle by becoming a distributor, but is that really the truth?
Read on to find out more about the Beauty Counter MLM scheme….
Company Name: Beauty Counter
Founders: Gregg Renfrew
Price To Join: $29 Minimum To Start
My Rating: 5/10
~ Beauty Counter Reviews ~
Intro
In the modern world there seems to be nearly as many companies and brands selling via the network marketing method as there are through retail. MLM schemes seem to be popping up everywhere.
A lot of people love jumping on board with anything network marketing, and I was seeing a lot of mentions about one called “Beauty Counter”. It appeared to be pretty popular, so I thought I’d take a good look at it and write a review on what I found out.
My website – Laptop Freedom Living – is all about helping people find legitimate ways to make money, particularly online. Therefore I write a lot of reviews of training programs that teach you how to make money, as well as money making opportunities. These reviews help us all to make good choices.
In so many ways the internet is truly awesome. Never before have there been so many opportunities that can be accessed globally, and so many ways you can literally earn money from the comfort of your own home. Plus, the internet never sleeps.
The downside is that a lot of scam artists patrol the virtual world, looking for ways to take our money by promising stuff they never intend to deliver on. Reviews help us find the good while avoiding the make money scams.
I’m so glad you found your way to my review. It shows you are smart enough to do your research before handing money over and joining something. Because of that you’ll likely never fall for a scam online.
Let’s now see how Beauty Counter fares and whether it’s worth joining or not.
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What Is Beauty Counter About?
Founded in 2013 by a man named Gregg Renfrew, Beauty Counter is a company that sells mostly skincare products, make up and other beauty products, predominantly for women. The company uses the network marketing business structure for sales and distribution, rather than going the traditional retail route.
Because of the MLM style to this business, that means you can buy products, or jump on board as a distributor and sell products as well.
As of the time of writing this review, the company has well over 100 products in its range, with some 25,000 or more active distributors who buy, sell, promote and expand the Beauty Counter business. Some comparative MLM companies would be Mary Kay and Avon, to name just a few.
MLM is okay and it’s popular, but it’s one of the hardest ways to make decent money. I much prefer affiliate marketing over multi level marketing, as it’s both far simpler and cheaper to do.
It’s easy to get started when you follow the Wealthy Affiliate training. You can even sign up for FREE!
Beauty Counter Products
As Beauty Counter has so many products in its range, and this review is more focused on the business side of getting involved, I won’t dig deep into the products. If you want to have a really good look at everything in their range, simply go on over to the Beauty Counter website.
For the sake of rounding out this review though, we’ll take a brief look at what’s on offer.
Although there are many products on offer, there are only 4 main product categories, and they are:
- Skincare
- Make up
- Bath & Body
- Family
There are actually a lot of subcategories beneath the main categories, with quite a number of products in each subcategory. Way too many to list here or offer much detail on.
While the Beauty Counter range seems to be generally well received for quality and so on, there’s nothing extra special about their products compared to many others on the market.
The first 3 categories are mostly targeted at women, while the last category (Family) is more for babies and children.
These are not solely for women alone, as there are some products that men can use as well.
Why Are the Products So Expensive?
If you ask someone involved in selling MLM products why they cost so much compared to everything else on the market, they’ll give you an answer about the products being way better quality, or having some special ingredient or something.
This is nearly always the reason (excuse) for the high prices.
I mean, they have offer up something that sounds feasible to justify the high price tag, yeah?
If the truth was simply told, that wouldn’t go over so well.
Let’s be totally honest here and state the real reason why Beauty Counter and most other MLM schemes always have astronomical prices.
The very nature of the MLM compensation plan is based on building downlines (teams), where everyone is getting a cut of the action all the way up to the very top of the food chain.
Because of all these small commissions being paid out on every single sale, the company still has to end up being profitable. The only way they can ensure they get their share is to have prices so high that they cover everyone’s share.
Now in a sales pitch to someone who is interested in buying products or joining the business, this reason (the real reason) doesn’t sound sexy at all. It’s far better to offer up a story about the products being ten times better than the competition, and that’s why they ten times more expensive.
The real reason would just be like saying to someone, “Hey, you wanna buy this lipstick? I know it costs way more than all the other brands, but we need to charge you a lot extra because we have to pay so many people their cut of the action.”
You might as well just tell them you need to totally rip them off on price because everyone wants a slice of the pie.
But anyway, I’m not bagging out Beauty Counter’s products or saying they’re no good. Just explaining the real reason why almost all companies that use the network marketing business model charge such high prices compared to their retail competitors.
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The Beauty Counter Compensation Plan
When you join the business side of just about any network marketing company, there will be two primary ways to earn money:
- Direct sales
- Recruitment
When it comes to simply selling the products to others, you stand to make between 25% and 35% profit on the retail price. Conversely, if you buy products for yourself, you get them at a 25-35% discount off the retail price.
This is all okay, but it’s not where the real income potential is when it comes to MLM. That’s in recruitment and team building, because it’s your team volume that’ll earn you more commissions, help you achieve bonuses, and help you rise up the company ranks.
Let’s take a look at the ranks you can aim for in Beauty Counter:
- Consultant
- Senior Consultant
- Manager
- Senior Manager
- Director
- Senior Director
- Executive Director
- Managing Director
You start off as a consultant and, if you really want to stand a chance of making any decent money, your goal should be to recruit like crazy and advance up that ranking ladder as quickly as possible.
That’s the key to success with MLM.
To help you fully understand the Beauty Counter compensation plan, you can access the official PFD document here.
Also, check out the explainer video I’ve embedded below.
Beauty Counter Income Disclosure Statement
I like to include some details of MLM company income disclosure statements in my reviews so people can see what the average yearly or monthly earnings are if you’re a consultant. By law, MLM businesses are meant to have these documents available on their websites for everyone to access.
For some reason there isn’t one available on Beauty Counter that I can see, so I can’t offer you any details about what you might be likely to earn with this company.
The MLM Business Opportunity
To be totally honest I’ve never been a fan of the MLM style of doing business. I’ve done MLM in the past and there are some key things I really don’t like.
There is a really good reason (or reasons) why so many businesses, companies and manufacturers decide on adopting the network marketing method of distributing and selling their products, rather than using more traditional routes such as retail.
It’s because there are so many advantages for MLM companies over their retail counterparts. Now while there are really major benefits for the company, at the same time advantages are being stripped from its distributors.
Regular businesses and retailers hire employees and have to pay wages and other employment related expenses. When a company uses the MLM business model, sure, there will still be some employees on staff, but the majority of the workforce is basically free, where the company pays nothing until some sales have actually been made.
Distributors in network marketing schemes don’t get paid wages or retainers. Essentially you are working as an unpaid sales rep, covering all your own expenses, until you might finally earn some commissions and bonuses.
Companies like Beauty Counter and co, using the MLM compensation structure, save loads of money by not having to hire paid workers, either on an hourly rate or a salary. Besides that, the distributors are the ones shouldering the majority of the workload, buying and selling products, doing the promoting and advertising.
In addition to all that, the distributors are also actively responsible for growing the business because of the need to recruit new members and build teams. Without recruitment it’s impossible to advance up the ranks in any MLM scheme.
This is a totally awesome deal for companies such as Beauty Counter and others, and you would have to say it’s a very smart choice. However, the deal for the distributors is anything but a sweet one. Distributors are doing nearly all the work, yet are at the lowest end of the MLM food chain.
Another thing that seems to be common with all MLM businesses is their expertise in both talking up the opportunity and selling the dream lifestyle. Whenever you go to any of their official meet ups, this is constantly rammed down peoples’ throats.
Of course people want a better lifestyle, and we all want and need money, but being involved in a network marketing scheme rarely ever leads to this dream life. Very few people achieve high enough ranks to be earning a decent living from MLM, whether it’s Beauty Counter or some other MLM company.
You never own a business in MLM either. The company is in control and has full ownership. I mean, since when can you sell your MLM distributorship like you might sell some other sort of business.
When they say you’ll have your very own business, that’s just fantasy, a fancy sales pitch and nothing more.
Most MLM schemes will have distributors buying most of the products too, thus making the workforce also the main customer base.
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Is Beauty Counter a Pyramid Scheme?
Because most MLM schemes adopt a compensation plan structure that resembles a pyramid format, it’s common for them to be regularly accused of being illegal pyramid schemes. Most of the time, though, this tag is inaccurate.
Let’s look at what an illegal pyramid operation really is.
These schemes of the illegal variety don’t have any products that can be bought and sold, or the products don’t have any tangible value attached to them.
Illegal operations rely solely on recruitment for the procurement of funds. Without recruiting new members into the scheme who also invest their money into the scheme, previous members as well as the company, don’t make any money.
Beauty Counter has loads of real products that have value, so they don’t rely on recruitment only to make money, and neither do the distributors.
For this reason it’s NOT an illegal pyramid operation.
Target Market
I always wondered why MLM is so popular among the masses, but I guess it’s because it’s easy to get started. You’re told you’ll have your own business and everything’s set up and ready to go
When you get aboard, there’s not ground work to be done, no creating or sourcing products, no setting up of business structure. That’s all been taken care of. The moment you join you can immediately start selling and recruiting.
That’s appealing to a lot of people.
As I mentioned before, you don’t actually get to own your own business with MLM and never will. Not unless you start your own MLM company.
You don’t actually build an asset you can sell. If you want to leave, you simply walk away and leave all your hard work behind.
What I Like
- At least this MLM is operating in a niche that’s not the super saturated health and wellness niche
- They’ve recently dropped the price of their enrolment fee to become a consultant
- The products are of a good quality and quite positively reviewed
- The company isn’t all that old as far as MLM companies go, so there might be more chance to advance up the ranks in this one, and that’s vital to your success
What I Don’t Like and Red Flags
- It’s a very hard way to make decent money consistently
- About 95% of people fail to make any profit with MLM on average
- There’s no mandatory income disclosure statement
- If you can’t actively recruit you’ll fail at this – It’s that simple
- The company gets all the benefits, not its consultants
- The products are super expensive compared to similar ones on the retail circuit
- You never actually own your own business with any MLM company, despite what they tell you when they’re trying to recruit you
How Much Does Beauty Counter Cost To Join?
The price to enrol as a consultant used to be $85. Very recently they’ve dropped the enrolment fee down to a far more reasonable $29. You need to renew your enrolment every year, though.
You’ll still have to buy a business starter kit on top of the enrolment fee to be ready to work for Beauty Counter. The minimum cost will be $218 for this kit.
Along with these costs, you do have to either purchase or sell a minimum amount of product every month to remain eligible as a consultant.
Is Beauty Counter a Scam Or Legit?
I don’t see Beauty Counter as being any sort of scam at all.
Yes, I’m not a fan of the way MLM works, but that doesn’t make it dodgy. The products seem quite good (but pricey), and they have a lot of them.
As far as the compensation plan goes, it’s pretty standard, although Beauty Counter does pay slightly higher commissions on direct sales than some other companies.
While the skincare and beauty markets are generally highly competitive, it’s not such a competitive niche when it comes to network marketing, which is in your favour. Health and wellness seems to be the niche of choice for so many multi level marketing companies these days. There are so many it’s ridiculous.
Another advantage you might have with Beauty Counter, is it hasn’t been around all that long and there aren’t millions of distributors all out there selling and promoting it. This gives you better odds of recruiting people and rising up the company ranks.
If you were to decide to join, 90% of your focus should be on recruitment and moving up those ranks. It really is the secret to success in any MLM scheme. You won’t find success just by trying to sell the products to people.
I really don’t recommend MLM as a good way to make money, but it’s up to you at the end of the day.
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It’s not impossible to make money with Beauty Counter and MLM in general, but man it’s gotta be one of the hardest ways in the world to build up a decent and regular income. Most people just end up working really hard, spending money, annoy everyone they know, and still don’t get anywhere.
I’ve tried MLM in the past, like I said earlier in this review. I much prefer doing affiliate marketing. It beats MLM in every way, in my opinion.
It’s less work, more profitable, you don’t have to buy and sell products, and there’s no push to recruit people just so you have a slight chance of making more money.
I make money with affiliate marketing every single day, as do many millions of other people all around the world. I make more than a fulltime living from it. Anyone can, you just need to learn how through some quality training.
Along with being free to work your own hours from the comfort of home, you don’t even need any money to run this simple type of online business.
You naturally build up multiple sources of passive income, and there’s no ceiling on how much you might earn. This gives you both the lifestyle freedom of having money and time, and more financial security.
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