G-Babi: Welcome to the BB forum! If you want to share info on the ONE group please feel free to start a discussion thread. While we don't want this to be a forum for sales pitches, we're always open to learning about new products. Just be warned, if we smell more Bull S#*t than Beauty Science the products might end up getting ripped to shreds. :crazy:

Pull out your Beauty Brain membership/disciple card, and hope she understands.

I should preface this by admitting that as of a few days ago, I'm an Arbonne rep. I'd prefer to just say, I have the discount, because sales gives me hives. I'd never even heard of Arbonne until a couple weeks ago when our clinic owner said, "Hey, there's this awesome line of skincare stuff, and we're going to carry it in the clinic, and you guys should try the oil for your massages!" I tried the oil, it was great, and she signed me up so I could "get the discount". And it was right around then that I started saying, "Hey waiiiitaminute....is this like a network marketing thing?"

*headdesk*

So here I am. I bought some stuff to try, and at least now I'll be able to take orders from clients at the clinic if they want anything, but I have, in no way, "drank the Kool-Aid", as they say. On the contrary, when my "consultant pack" arrived, I threw it in my filing cabinet in a folder marked, "Arbonne: Blatant Propaganda".

So here's my question: someone up above said they'd never use Arbonne in their salon because a salon uses "professional" products, and I'm curious what that means? What makes a product "professional"? For years I bought a certain brand of expensive shampoo and hair conditioner in the salon, because that was the only place I could find it and they said that's because it was "professional". And now it's sitting on the shelf at Fred Meyer (still costing $18 a bottle, I notice). I've also used Dermalogica for years, but that stuff is incredibly expensive and the Arbonne seems to be working just as well for less money (I can't say for sure, it's still early and I haven't tried everything yet). I had been trying Neutrogena for awhile, and it was giving me breakouts. The Arbonne hasn't done that so far. Maybe there's another product that's cheaper that would also do the job, I don't know; I just tried this because it was the next thing I fell into.

I suspect that the Beauty Brains are right in that Arbonne isn't that much different than what you could find elsewhere (am I going to be eaten by other Arbonne reps for saying that?), and like they've said, it's not that the stuff doesn't work, it's that it's touted to be "exceptional". So I guess I don't see what makes a spa product any different. I'm a massage therapist, and I get catalog after catalog of "professional" spa products, and they really don't look that exceptional to anything else; frequently the only thing different is that they're heavily marked down so I can buy in bulk and mark up to my clients (um, no thanks). This doesn't strike me as "professional", it strikes me as marking up crap so that people who come into the clinic think they're getting something a lot fancier than they are. Am I missing something about the glory of salon skincare?

Happy New Year. I just finished reading the few pages of notes here and wanted to add that Arbonne does indeed has a US patent pending with the US Patient Trademark Office. It was filed March 31st 2003 and lists Pierre Botiglierri as one of the 4 inventors. Since you all are such good researches, I am surprised you haven't found it yet. One thing that strikes me as odd is other than Scatter Brain, have the the other Brains tried the products on their skin? If so, what was your personal testimony? And isn't that what gets someone to try anything in the first place? Why else would consumer review and write up their opinions in any of the sites found on-line? After that, it's up to if you liked it or if it worked for you. Yes, yes, I know you are all science based and I respect what you have to say since I am not, but truly, the only reason to make a repeat purchase is - do you like it and does it work? Consumers do justify a high priced purchase but there are just as many other, myself included, who demand more if they pay more money. I would really expect great food from a $$$ rated restaurant vs one with $$ and I bet they use the same ingredients to make their meals too. As far a bugs in skin care ( and in many consumer products), the comment was most likely referring to the red coloring that comes from dried cochineal beetles, which incidentally can cause problems for people who have sensitivities to them. (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/fr060130.html) I believe you hit a sour note in regard to the use of Q15, but the CIR considers it safe in concentrations currently allowed and that it doesn't penetrate the skin. And for parabens, only one product catagory uses them - the Re9 series and at concentrations less than .05%. The line will get a shot in the arm in Feb and hopefully parabens and Q-15 will be gone. I couldn't agree more that far too many consultants make far to many outrageous claims about good vs bad ingredients. Even if they try to do some internet research, there is so much mis-information to sift thru. Personally, in regards to any purchase, I think it boils down to my original comment, do you like it? does it work for you? and if it does, the cost is justifed.

Here is the Arbonne patent information
Arbonne International, LLC: See--
Keefe, Candace R.; and Arth, Michele 07371389 Cl. 424-195.17.

For those who do not understand patents, the company is usually referenced in the patent, as the sponsor, if the company gives any funding, however, patents are registered in the names of the individuals, who created what ever they are registering, here is a link that explains in further detail for those interested (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent). For example, Thomas Edison is register for the light bulb patent, not his company at the time, General Electric, because he, Thomas Edison, is the inventor of the light bulb, not the company, General Electric. So for those who did a search on the ustpto.gove site and ONLY searched under Arbonne, the government server stores mass data and is unlikely to produce a result if the sponsoring company is only referenced once or twice in the document. The fact that the Arbonne patent is listed for Candace Keefe, and not under Abronne is not unusual or suspicious.

Brain Beauty, I appreciate your attempt to inform consumers, however, two areas of contention. 1 - You claim to be experts, however, where are your accreditations listed to substantiate this claim. You claim to be skeptical of anecdotal data; however, your claims of expertise are nothing more than that. 2 - You relay opinion or partial truths as fact, such as the patent information, which is the very crime you accuse Arbonne of committing.

Certainly, you are entitled to your opinion; we all are, however, do you find it ethically acceptable to give off your opinion as fact under the guise of being an expert with no data to back up your expertise? Again, I appreciate your view; I think all consumers should get the best information possible to make an informed decision. The issue, there are so many sources available that appear as factual, that are merely opinion, consumers stop their investigations. Is that your fault, absolutely not, people should always find independent evidence that a claim made is indeed fact. My caution here is about the hypocrisy.

Finally, I must disclaim, I do like the Arbonne products, knowing full well all the onions and data out there. This company tires, which is more than most can say, and perhaps they don't or didn't always get it right, however, in my opinion, few companies do get it right all the time. Arbonne does not hide their ingredient list, as you well know from your examples; they could choose to not list this on their website and the FDA does not require cosmetic companies to list ingredients for the public (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FDA).

The bottom line, I feel confident I have all the information available about the company, products work for me, and I am comfortable paying the price. For those who they do not work for, and for whom the price isn't right, well thank goodness we live in such a saturated economy that there are several hundred other products on the market, and I say good luck finding what fits! Are opinions and likes are as unique as are skin, there are differences, and it would be impossible to expect everyone to share the same point of view.

So there are my opinions and some facts. That said, keep up the investigations Beauty Brains, just try to make note when you are voicing an opinion vs. a fact, and more sources cited to back up said facts would be more validating!

Well, I was going to share my recent Arbonne experience yet I guess i got too wordy. I tried to break my pst in 2 but thesecond one only served to delete the first? It was funny, too! ;-) Bummer.

Hi.  I posted a response here almost a year ago and never got around to checking back until now.  I mentioned that I briefly sold Arbonne, but became disillusioned fairly soon after.  A while later I discovered a company called ONE Group and started using their products.  Truth be told --- I've been busy with other things and haven't really focused too much on trying to sell their products either.  I've just been telling people about them here and there and mainly just getting a discount for my use.  So why did I become disillusioned with Arbonne?  Reading over this thread (which has grown since I was here last!), reminded me of a number of issues.  First, let me say that, I too, really liked Arbonne products --- I thought the RE9 anti-aging line worked great!  I guess what started to get to me was their attitude.  If I'm going to sell something, I *really* want to understand it and believe in it.  I'm just analytical that way.  It seemed like with Arbonne, the more questions I asked, the more I got answers I didn't like or no answers at all or was made to feel like I should stop asking.  They *do* hide the ingredients.  Well not totally, but even as a rep I found it difficult to find the ingredients.  They're mostly not printed on product labels.  You have to dig for them.  And are the ingredients all "pure, safe and beneficial"?  Not if you read up on parabens, sodium laureth sulfate, propylene glycol, and other funky ingredients that Arbonne products contain.  But honestly, those ingredients and more like them are found in many, many popular personal care products that we all use, including me.  They're hard to avoid.  Yet, as I started to get into selling Arbonne, I began learning more about skin care ingredients and just wondered how we could really be promoting our products as "safe".  I had been ignorant about this.  Through my upline and the Arbonne literature, I believed that it must be impossible to create products that really work without using at least some of these ingredients.  And, was I really worried about the toxic effect of products that I was only going to have on for a few minutes and rinse off?  Hmmm.  So, they don't make it that easy to find out the ingredients and they lead you to think their products are "safe" when they may not be.  What else?  The company proudly spouts things like "patent pending" when in fact their patents have been pending for 10+ years which makes you wonder (though I did read here that one of their patents finally made it in '08), they proudly claim their products "contain no mineral oil" yet they contain dimethicone which is just as occlusive, and on and on.  But, like I said, i figured it was probably impossible to make effective products without parabens, etc.  So maybe there's no such thing as totally safe when it comes to skin care.  Then I discovered and started using ONE Group products ---- which is the worlds only line of certified organic skin care and personal care products.  This stuff is the real thing.  The ingredients are so safe, you can eat them --- not that you would want to, but you could.  I've been using the stuff for about a year now and I love them.  Because of my affiliation with ONE Group, I've started to learn more about healthy, organic ingredients and have tried to improve my lifestyle in other ways, too.  I never really appreciated before how putting things on your skin is, in a way, no different than feeding our bodies ... the ingredients we put on our skin can go right into our systems, so we really should be thinking about what ingredients are in our skin products.  When I posted before someone responded that it would be ok to tell you more about ONE Group products.  I know it's probably uncool to advertise here, but the easiest way to find out is to look at the information on their standard website.  Here's a link to the page from my affiliate website that tells about the company:  http://cluddecke.mionegroup.com/en/about  Feel free to browse around and learn more.  If anyone wants to try ONE Group products, feel free to order off my site or just google on "ONE Group" or "Miessence" (their main product line) and order off of *any* ONE Group rep's site.  While building my business would be a good thing, spreading the word about these products is the main thing.  Cheers, everyone.