If you want more useful tips and information on real health and beauty, then stroll on over to my blog: http://www.beaututipsfromahag.blogspot.com.

The Hag

When you purchase from a Direct Sales rep. you are purchasing within your LOCAL community, supporting someone with a small, home-based business. You will receive admirable customer service, generally VERY good return policies, high quality products. Yes, some are priced higher than super market brands, but there are many other much higher priced retail brands that don’t give the same level of service, and very often, the same value. I don’t think the quality value is ‘just as good’ for lower priced brands either. Have you made any posts on this site about fillers? My understanding is that better quality cosmetics are more concentrated, which means you use less, they last longer, and of course, the added benefit of the proven and tested claims the product may make. (Mary Kay has patents on many of their products, like the Time wise moisturizer. They also have won independent research based awards on how well their products work according to the claims made. )
I will speak to Mary Kay specifically now, because I have researched them the most. (although I’ve researched many) When you purchase MK products, you recieve a 100% satisfaction gaurantee… with no restrictions. Tell me the drugstore that will let you return your opened foundation because the next day you just were not happy with the colour? Same goes for any other cosmetics product? A Mary Kay Consultant will visit your home as many times as you need to find the RIGHT products for you, that WORK. They have a “try anything before you buy” policy, as many Direct Sales companies do.
DS companies don’t pay for many of the endorsements they receive, they also don’t shell out millions on Magazine, TV, and celebrity backed Ads.
This means they have more money to put back into local consultants through the form of prizes, and commissions. This means encouragement, motivation, support, training, recognition for a job well done that goes beyond a simple pay cheque.
As a result of being debt free, Mary Kay is able to send even more of their profits back to consultants. Commissions don’t come from any persons sales in MK, it comes out of the companies 50% of retail sales. They also don’t extend all the way up a long chain. If you are not working with your personal team members, teaching and mentoring them on how to succeed in their own business, you are not getting paid by the company. period.
Instead of paying a lot of money to advertise, Direct Marketing works by paying consultants commissions to spread the word, first to friends and family yes, but then beyond that. Many top business people would agree that networking in almost ANY business, word of mouth, is HUGE! Direct Sales relies on people building relationships with others as their main form of growth, instead of shelling out huge sums of money to marketing professionals.
What is wrong with that?
In MK. no one makes a commission to just sign people up either, a significant divide from many MLM companies. It is fully reasonable to expect to earn a comfortable income on sales alone, no one has to recruit to succeed.
I would never go back to working an hourly wage job, after working in Direct Sales. For a stay-at-home mom like me, this is a wonderful option! I can earn more money with just a few hours of work away from my son, than I ever could working full time at minimum, or even a managers pay level, at a retail outlet. I also have the flexibility to choose my own hours, to work with my son in the house if I want, to take time off whenever if he’s sick, it’s my CHOICE! Starting my own business from scratch, is FAR more time consuming, requires FAR more capital investment, and certainly doesn’t have the relational and training support I have access to working with an established company. With my own business, if it went under, that would be it, I would have to start from scratch. Working with Mary Kay, I can’t really go under. I can stop working for a time, and start back up whenever with little lost except time. Since MK is debt free, and a private company I never have to worry about them going belly up on me or losing a lot of value to a stock market crash either.
Some of these points are related specifically to Mary Kay, because I know their business plan well, others are related in general to the Direct Sales Industry. Yes, I do work in the DS industry. That doesn’t automatically make me biased. I enjoy your site because I enjoy learning as much as I can and doing properly backed up research. I have researched things like parabens on my own and appreciate your comments about chemicals and “natural” products. (a claim MK does not make by the way, because they know it would be misleading!)
I have done my research on the Direct Sales industry, and I think you should too, rather than making blanket statements about “MLM” companies, and advising people not to purchase from them. This is uninformed and therefore biased against network marketing professionals. This industry includes many wonderful companies, great products and are well worth the investment of consumers money.
What is wrong with a woman wanting to support her girlfriend, family member, or the lady she met on the bus, rather than a large public retail brand whose profits end up in the pocket of someone who lives very far away from you? Those girls behind the counter make minimum wage generally and certainly do not think about whether your face cream is working for you when they go home at night. What is wrong with wanting some good customer service and a solid return policy?

I agree that boxed “natural” cleansers and moisturizers are fairly useless, with a few exceptions. Oil cleansing with your own mixture is the only thing that works for some people. I’m sensitive to sulfates and used to have oily skin. Now I wash my face and remove makeup with only olive oil, and I am often complimented on my skin, it’s soft and supple.

I also use Deva Curl, which someone mentioned above. It doesn’t actually contain any cleansers, which is why it’s called no poo. I was doing strict no poo, but had to add in something after hard workouts to keep my scalp from feeling nasty. This stuff is a nice balance, the oils pull the sweat off of my scalp and the menthol makes it feel quite clean. I’ve been happy with this combo for a while. Despite Deva Curl being fairly expensive, this is the least I’ve ever spent on my cleaning regimen because I dont’ wash my hair every day.

Also, some expensive makeup brands really are better, some are not. The pigment level in Too Faced and Urban Decay is extremely high. I use much, much less eyeshadow when I use these brands than I do from drug store brands or even MAC.