Is Beautycounter A Cosmetics Scam Or A Legit Opportunity!?

It’s likely that you have come across Beautycounter through an email list, on social media or got it recommended by a friend or family member.

Is Beautycounter a scam? The reasons why you’re here is because you have want answers right so, that’s what I’m going to provide for you within this Beautycounter review.

First and foremost I must commend you for actually doing a bit of extra research before committing to joining Beautycounter. For all you could have known, the product could be a major scam so the fact you’re here right now, researching whether or not that’s the case is a pretty smart move on your part.

To be fully transparent with you, I am personally not a member of Beautycounter so I can assure you that I will not attempt to sell you it unless of course it’s worth investing in.

What I will aim to do is provide you with an unbiased 3rd party look at Beautycounter that will hopefully help you to make the best decision you can in the end.


PRODUCT NAME: Beautycounter

OWNER/S: Gregg Renfrew

TYPE OF PRODUCT: cosmetics and skin care MLM

PRICE: $98 + $50/year

SUMMARY: BC is neither a scam, a pyramid scheme or a ponzi scheme, in fact I’d say that it’s a lot better than most other MLM’s but, this doesn’t mean it’s a business opportunity I would recommend you join, unless of course you’re good at sales and lead generation.

The fact you need to be good at recruiting is always going to be a difficult thing to overcome for most, the fairly low success rate with the company and the fact that it only operates in the US and Canada is kind of bummer too for lots of people.

However, it also is pretty admirable in emitting multiple bad chemicals that come in cosmetics through the Never List, the credibility it has by working with major corporations like target and the transparency of showing their income disclosure statement (a lot of MLM’s don’t tend to do this) makes its a somewhat respectable company in my eyes.

Nevertheless, as a business opportunity and the cost of running the business makes it an opportunity that I personally cannot recommend. But, if you do join it, I can’t say it’s the worst decision you’d be making in this lifetime.

FINAL RATING: 3/5

RECOMMENDED: NO


WHAT IS BEAUTYCOUNTER?

Beautycounter is a cosmetics and skin care based MLM company founded in 2013 by Gregg Renfrew but, it only started running business operations in 2016 which makes it a fairly established brand but, not necessarily established enough to be a company that’s guaranteed to still be in operation around a decade or so later.

BC partakes in a very competitive industry and considering it is still around a few years into operations shows that it has a firm footing in the industry.

Nevertheless, there are countless beauty based MLM’s out there like bellame, Avon, Mary kay, Senegence to name a few so you may ask yourself, why exactly should you work with BC over the others?

What makes it different from the competition?

I’ll discuss the business opportunity section a little later in this review but, regarding the products, BC claim to have their own special “Never List” that aims to draw a line between the many similar products on the market.

According to the company’s website, a mission that they’ve made is to completely rid their products of the many harmful ingredients that other cosmetics tend to have.

This list includes multiple chemicals and harmful substances such as benzalkonium chloride, butylated hydroxy anisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), EDTA, formaldehyde, hydroquinone and quite a fair few more.

If you want to check out the Never List for yourself, click here.

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BEAUTYCOUNTER PRODUCT LINE

BC have 4 different product categories in their product line which consist of multiple different products. These categories include :

Beautycounter products

  1. Skin Care : This line of products include a ton of different items which include moisturisers, sunscreen, exfoliant, cleansers, makeup remover, lip conditioner, facial mask, mist and a few others. Of course the commonality between all these products is that they’re designed to improve the condition of your skin.
  2. Make Up : This line of products is pretty self explanatory. Within it you’ll be able to purchase BC’s makeup line whether it be mascara, lipstick, eyeshadow, make up removers, foundation and so on.
  3. Bath & Body : Within this line of products, you’ll be able to purchase products like moisturisers, body balms, body scrub, body butter, cleansing bars, sunscreen lotions, lotion, body wash, and hand creams.
  4. Counterman : Within the counterman line, which are BC’s hygiene products for men, you’ll be able to purchase products like exfoliating cleansers, face lotions, toner pads, shaving cream, conditioning beard oil, body bar, and body wash.

If you want to check the products out for yourself, click here to go to Beautycounter’s website.

All of the products BC sells are also relatively expensive ranging from around $15.30 for the cheapest products to around $188 for the most expensive. That’s just the range, in terms of the average price for a product, it’s around the $30 – $40 range which is far from cheap.

In fact, you can go so far as to say that it’s quite the premium price, roughly 1.5 or 2 times more expensive than other similar quality products in the cosmetics industry. Then again I know the makeup industry can be expensive so this price increase isn’t anything major to complain about.


HOW DO YOU MAKE MONEY WITH BEAUTYCOUNTER?

As is the case with pretty much all MLM businesses there are 2 ways to make money with them, BC being no exception.

1. The first method is by directly selling the product to other individuals and in return make a commission for the sales

2. You make money through your recruits and downline, by getting residual income by following and meeting certain criteria as well as make money through bonuses and incentives due to meeting company set goals.


HOW TO GET STARTED

If you want to become an official BC consultant, there are a few things you will need to do to qualify. BC has 2 member types you can become, one of these memberships is called the band of beauty. The benefits of becoming such a member is that you’ll be able to enjoy free shipping on orders worth $100 and 10% credit on all applicable orders.

You’ll also be given a welcome gift when you order $50 worth of products upon enrollment and get a member-only offer from BC. The membership is reasonably cheap too, only setting you back a one time fee of $29.

Now if you’re planning on becoming a legitimate BC consultant, that’ll cost you a further $98. By doing so, BC will provide you with a few resources. These resources include a BC consultant enrollment kit which has a personalized website, back office, training materials, and marketing collaterals.

Futhermore, in order to continue having access to these resources you’ll be billed a $50 yearly fee.

The benefits of becoming a consultant means you’ll be able to purchase products at the discounted wholesale prices, which is 25% off the retail price. This means any retail commissions you make from products your purchased will be pretty decent.

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COMPENSATION STRUCTURE

The compensation plan and ranking system of BC is quite detailed so, it’s best you learn it to a good level if you’re looking to join the company.

Before jumping into the compensation plan, I want to first go over the ranking system and the criteria to qualify for each rank :

  • Consultant : generate $300 BV a month
  • Senior Consultant : generate $1250 BV a month
  • Manager : generate $2500 BV a month
  • Senior Manager : generate $5000 BV a month
  • Director : generate $10,000 BV a month
  • Senior Director : generate $25,000 BV a month
  • Executive Director : generate $50,000 BV a month
  • Managing Director : generate $100,000 BV a month

BV stands for “Business Volume” and is the sales volume generated by a members downline as well as sales they personally make too. You should be aware that one leg can only account for 50% of the sales.

Another thing you should know is that there is a qualifying criteria to be eligible for the commissions from the plan. Members are subject to a six month minimum $1200 PV requirement and $250 must be from new retail customers and/or recruited downline members.

PV stands for personal volume and is the sales volume generated by sales to retail customers and your own product purchases.

Now let’s move on to the compensation plan. The plan consists of 4 different ways you can make money.

Retail Commissions

The first is retail commissions where as a BC consultant you’ll be eligible to make a base 25% in commissions on every product you sell. This rate increases depending on the volume of sales you generate within the month.

  • generate between $500 to $999 in retail sales = 5% bonus (30% retail commission)
  • generate between $1000 and $1999 in retail sales = 7% bonus (32% retail commission)
  • generate $2000 or more in retail sales = 10% bonus (35% retail commission)

This shows that the maximum earning potential for retail sales is at 35%, which honestly is a pretty good amount but, it’s a lot easier said than done to achieve. Nevertheless, it’s a much better commission structure from retail commissions I’ve seen in most other MLM’s.

Residual Commissions

BC uses a unilevel structure for its residual commission system. This means that you’ll theoretically be allowed to recruit infinitely horizontally whilst commissions vertically will be capped at a certain level. As for how the levels work, your personally recruited downline members will fall under level 1, their recruits will fall under level 2, level 2 recruited referrals will fall under level 3 etc.

BC caps these levels at the 4th level down. The commissions paid from your downline are calculated on the sales volume generated from your team as well as the rank that you are. The rank also determines from how many levels you’ll be eligible to earn commissions from.

  • Consultant : 5% on level 1
  • Senior Consultant : 7% on level 1 and 5% on level 2
  • Manager : 9% on level 1, 7% on level 2 and 5% on level 3
  • Senior Manager : 9% on levels 1 and 2, 7% on level 3 and 5% on level 4
  • Director : 9% on levels 1 to 3 and 7% on level 4

Generational Bonus

This bonus gives BC consultants the ability to earn beyond the 4 level cap on the unilevel residual commission. This is a little more complex than the other 2 elements because you need to understand what a generation is.

A generation is defined by BC as when a Director ranked affiliate is found in a unilevel leg. If no Director ranked member exists, the second generation extends down the full length of the unilevel leg.

The commission on the generational bonus are paid out as such :

  • Director : 3% on the first generation
  • Senior Director : 5% on the first generation and 3% on the second
  • Executive Director : 5% on the first and second generation and 3% on the third
  • Managing Director : 5% on the first to third generations and 3% on the fourth

Recruitment Commission

If you manage to recruit member a member who’s qualified as a Senior Consultant or higher, you’ll also be awarded commissions :

  • If a downline member qualifies as a Senior Consultant = $25 commission
  • If a downline member qualifies as a Manager = $50 commission
  • If a downline member qualifies as a Senior Manager = $100 commission

Keep in mind that these commissions will be paid on a monthly basis so this is a pretty huge incentive for recruiters to help other recruits to level up in a rank.

If you want to get the full breakdown of the plan so you can understand it more, just check out the video below.


THE NOT SO GOOD THINGS

You Need To Be Very Good At Sales And Recruitment

This is a very common thing when it comes to MLM’s as in you need to be very good at sales and recruitment to become successful with the system.

This means you either need to be great at face to face marketing or have a lead generation system in place to sell the idea of joining BC to potential prospects.

If you’re not up for learning these skills, that is if you don’t have them already, there’s a very high chance that you won’t succeed with BC (you’ll see how unlikely when I show you the income disclosure statement).

This is where you’ll need to look into training that teaches you how to build a lead generation website or paid for ads that can help you with finding warm leads (I suggest checking my #1 recommendation for that).

Only Available In USA And Canada 

If you’ve been looking into the business opportunity but you’re not a US or Canadian citizen, I’m sorry to say but you won’t be able to participate in this opportunity.

I won’t say this is a good or bad thing because it’s unlikely you’d become a successful individual even if it was available in your country but, it’s still a negative for some.

Most Members Aren’t Making Much With The Business 

This isn’t suprising but yes, as a BC affiliate the chance of making anything decent at the $1k+ region is very low whilst making a full time income is even lower.

Beautycounter 2018 income disclosure statement
Beautycounter 2018 income disclosure statement
Beautycounter 2019 income disclosure statement
Beautycounter 2019 income disclosure statement

The 2019 income disclosure statement shows that consultants, whom make up 82% of the members, are literally making half of what they made on average the previous year (from $80 to $40), whilst the top earners at the highest rank within the institute are only barely make around $24k per year on average.

So these affiliates (which make up 0.2% of all members) are barely taking home a full time income despite being the highest rank members within the company…

It’s quite ridiculous if you ask me because most other MLM companies like my daily choice, xyngular and lularoe even have a far better rate than Beautycounter so, why would you get involved with it if you’re solely looking for a business opportunity to pursue?

In short the success rate according to Beautycounter’s direct reports are abysmal and I most certainly would not take all of this with a grain of salt.


THE GOOD THINGS

The Never List Is Great For Regulating The Unregulated Cosmetics Industry 

The makeup and cosmetics industry is a highly unregulated market so there can be products put out into it that have toxic or simply unhealthy chemicals in them, which aren’t great for your skin or body.

So the fact BC tries to counter this problem through their Never list is something I definitely will give them credit for and does make the proposition of purchasing their products far better than other MLM’s.

They Work With Some Big Brands

The company has made deals to have their products on the shelves of some pretty big brands. One such example being target, so their credibility is a lot more than most other MLM’s in the beauty and cosmetics industry.


IS BEAUTYCOUNTER A PYRAMID SCHEME/SCAM?

BC is neither a scam, a pyramid scheme or a ponzi scheme, in fact I’d say that it’s a lot better than most other MLM’s but, this doesn’t mean it’s a business opportunity I would recommend you join, unless of course you’re good at sales and lead generation.

The fact you need to be good at recruiting is always going to be a difficult thing to overcome for most, the fairly low success rate with the company and the fact that it only operates in the US and Canada is kind of a bummer too for lots of people.

However, it also is pretty admirable in emitting multiple bad chemicals that come in cosmetics through the Never List, the credibility it has by working with major corporations like target and the transparency of showing their income disclosure statement (a lot of MLM’s don’t tend to do this) makes its a somewhat respectable company in my eyes.

Nevertheless, as a business opportunity and the cost of running the business makes it an opportunity that I personally cannot recommend. But, if you do join it, I can’t say it’s the worst decision you’d be making in this lifetime.


HOW I MAKE MONEY ONLINE

Although MLM’s have created its fair share of millionaires over the years, more often than not when it comes to training newbies and teaching them how to succeed in the biz, they tend to be very lacklustre…

This is why so many people tend to fail!

Therefore, personally I would suggest you look into creating your own brand, particularly through a website, whilst ultimately getting involved in my #1 money making method online as a result.

If you’re curious as to what my #1 make money online method online is, it’s affiliate marketing!

By having your own website and essentially driving targeted traffic to it, not only can you sell whatever MLM product you want, it’s also possible to sell other products too without even purchasing stock.

By doing this not only would you make extra commission per sale but you also won’t need to worry about fulfilling orders for customers and dealing with their potential complaints!

I’ve personally made over $100 in a day as a result of implementing affiliate marketing to my online business!

Here’s a screenshot of one specific payment

Others have made way more than me but, the fact of the matter is that it works, which is why I would highly recommend you look into it.

If you’re intrigued by the potential of affiliate marketing, I’ve put together a very in-depth guide diving into what affiliate marketing is, how long it takes to make your first bit of income along with how to effectively grow your online business and maintain its income.

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If you have any questions that you would like to ask me regarding BC, feel free to do so in the comments section below and  I will get back to you as soon as I can. If you have your own thoughts about BC and would like to talk about it, again feel free to do so in the comments below!

Thanks

Amhil

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