Welcome, New Visitors to Pink Truth
Thank you for seeking out Pink Truth. You may have just seen the story on Mary Kay Cosmetics on ABC’s 20/20, and you probably want more information. Contrary to what our critics will tell you, this site is not full of a bunch of bitter, lazy, disgruntled ex-consultants who are lying about Mary Kay Cosmetics.
I’d like to use this space to tell you what Pink Truth is really about.
The goal of this site is education. We want potential Mary Kay consultants (and current and former consultants too!) to know about the “other side” of Mary Kay. It’s not all Pink Cadillacs! What women are told by their recruiter and your upline is only part of the story. Pink Truth is here to tell the rest of the story.
Mary Kay Cosmetics has spent 50 years developing and perfecting a positive image. The general public believes that Mary Kay is a company that helps women. The reality, however, is that Mary Kay Inc. is a predator. It preys on women who need something (extra money, more friends, a career, a purpose, etc.) and exploits those needs. Women are deceived in the recruiting process, and the deception continues as the consultant is persuaded to purchase more inventory than she can ever sell, to recruit other women by not giving them all the facts, and to continue to invest hundreds or thousands of dollars knowing that she will almost certainly never earn that money back.
In addition to providing a place for Mary Kay consultants to share their experiences and opinions of Mary Kay, Pink Truth provides information such as:
- Why more than 99% of people involved with multi-level marketing will lose money.
- Why so many people call Mary Kay and other multi-level marketing companies pyramid schemes.
- How Mary Kay consultants and directors use scripts to recruit team members. (Were you told about the “6 things we look for“? Did your recruiter have an answer for every possible objection you came up with?)
- Why you’re going to be encouraged to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on an inventory package, because you supposedly can’t sell from an empty wagon.
- The real reason inventory purchases are pushed so hard is because the sales director gets paid a commission when the consultant places a product order (and it doesn’t matter if that consultant ever sells that inventory).
- The techniques used by Mary Kay sales directors to get women to continue purchasing more and more inventory.
- How you’re going to be encouraged to move up fast, and how you won’t be able to move up unless you’re willing to spend thousands of dollars of your own money purchasing more products.
- Why even if you move up fast, you are almost guaranteed to crash and burn.
- Why it’s nearly impossible to make a consistent income (no matter how small or large) just selling the overpriced products.
- The data that proves that almost no one is making money from actually selling Mary Kay products to customers.
- How little money most of the Pink Cadillac drivers (the ones who are the image of success in MK) make.
- How even at the top of the Mary Kay pyramid, not a whole lot of money is being made.
- More on the income of “top directors” in Mary Kay
- How Mary Kay churns and burns recruits… adding 30,000 to 40,000 new consultants in the United States each month, while the same number of consultants are quitting each month.
- The process for sending your inventory back to Mary Kay and getting as big a refund as possible.
Thank you for visiting Pink Truth, and for being willing to learn a little more about the pink predator called Mary Kay. We hope you will stick around and read more, and share what you’ve found with your friends and family who may be considering Mary Kay.
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Outstanding!
WELCOME to all newcomers to this site! Please get to know, and be assured that we have no hidden agenda. Our only goal in PinkTruth is to give you facts about the company so that you are not manipulated into joining the business and spending needless money and time in a scheme that is rigged against you.
As a former Senior Sales Director, I would suggest registering for the discussion board and perusing the “Calling All Sales Directors” section. You’ll hear the REAL stories of those of us who were the “top 2% of the company,” and why we left.
Ask questions and be open to answers. We’re glad you’re here!
Just so any new people here know, we on Pink Truth gain nothing (except perhaps our integrity) by sharing our experiences. There is no financial gain for us. Our intent is to educate you. To get you to see both sides of the coin. You may not want to see this side of the coin, but “avoiding negativity” is a great way to fall through “thin ice”. Do not put blinders on, or you will walk into the path of an oncoming financial Dump truck. And if by chance you become one of the lucky ones who make it to the top, can you live with the fact that you got there on the backs and credit cards of hundreds or maybe thousands of women below you? Your gain at their expense. The story is true for all MLM/ Direct sales “opportunities. 99%have to lose money so the top 1% can lure you in with the promise of “you can too”.
check out the facebook page on 20/20..lots of interesting comments
Yes that Facebook segment is rolling with comments. Lots of back and forth going on.
I couldn’t read those comments for too long; waaaay too many Kool-Aid drinkers.
The top commenter only has 2 friends, seems like a fake profile- IBC in disguise!
I’m disappointed they didn’t give more details on the games played and scripts used as well as how the m.o. is to squeeze big inventory orders from new consultant.
Did you notice that all the Seminar video was several years old? There was absolutely NO footage of this year’s Seminar. I’m sure MK Corporate supplied the footage, so why do you suppose they did that?
Whoever assembled the footage was very careful to edit out the Seminar year decorations, but it looked all the video was from the 50th Anniversary year in 2013. It was all in the Dallas Convention Center arena, and all the seats were filled to the rafters. Quite simply, this was a video parallel to “tell them your highest check” instead of “tell them your typical check – after expenses.”
Contrast the 20/20 Seminar video to the Seminar pictures from 2012, 1014, and 2015. This year was particularly pathetic, when they had to move it all out of the arena. But if you’re watching 20/20 Mary Kay still wants you to to bee-ieve the dream is still happening… even though the dream has turned into a walking nightmare.
Welcome to Pink Truth, a most informative resource on MLMs/pyramid schemes. Even if you’ve been fortunate never to have worked for one, you more than likely have been approached by one head or another of the MLM hydra. Read, be informed, and spread the word so that your friends and family won’t get duped or worse by these sleazy pyramid schemes!
MRW, they taped so much more than they used. We were there all day, and they must have done nearly 2 hours of interviewing just on the sofa, and more footage in other places. It is disappointing that they did not show more. BUT, I was on Facebook today and at least one person on the 20/20 site said ‘I would never do Mary Kay after what I saw tonight’ and that made the whole thing worth it to me.
And, check out this analysis on the income in Mary Kay.
http://lazygardens.blogspot.com/2015/09/mary-kay-home-business-opportunity-or.html
I’d love to repeat it for the current crop[ of IBCs, but the SDs mostly have their websites password protected now.
Business women?
All three gussied Mary Kay women were not able to quote their oun income.
Congratulations to the women of Pink Truth who sat on the couch. Thanks for speaking for all of us and those who are clueless they are being duped. You all looked great and what little time 20/20 gave you, you were fabulous.
WELCOME NEW VISITORS!! This site was just what I needed when I stumbled upon it: honest, real, not part of a script to convince me to do X, Y, OR Z, and so, so, SO helpful.
The first day I found Pink Truth, I kept reading. Every story, every category, mesmerized my attention. Day after day, I read, and I learned, and read, and learned. And you know what I found out?
What I read completely resonated with what I had already experienced as a consultant. At the time, I was attempting to become a DIQ; the articles regarding DIQ were fascinating to me, and ultimately confirmed what I had suspected all along: it’s all just one, never-ending treadmill. Becoming a director does not earn you a check from the company “just for mentoring other women, yay!!!” Nope. That check is directly correlated to how much your unit members or team, or whatever, ORDERED. not sold. It never ends. Once I learned this, the truth that I could never get anyone IN MK to tell me when I asked question, I was ready to get out.
Different stories may resonate more with you, depending on your situation. Please, keep reading. Ask questions. And above all, like these wonderful ladies have put far more eloquently than I many times before, it profits us NOTHING for you to read our stories. We don’t make a commission off you. All we are bringing to the table is the TRUTH of our experiences. When you’re in the pink bubble, sure, it might seem inconceivable that this company you’re staking your dreams on might not be all that it seems. Especially if you have been in a long time. Shoot, I was only in a short while, and It is sad….and embarrassing, too. But the relief you find in having YOUR concerns finally addressed, and YOUR questions finally, HONESTLY, answered, is well worth the journey of transformation back to your original self.
And let me emphasize this clearly: that self of yours does NOT need MK in any way, shape, or form. Enough of this garbage from recruiting spiels and speeches and coaching calls that MK will fill voids in your life or help you be better at this, that or the other. As if you were lacking as a person UNTIL MK came along to save you. All it makes you become is a shadow of your authentic, genuine, sincere, and humble self. Enough is enough!!!
Just a reminded, PinkTruth isn’t just for Mary Kay ladies. It’s for anyone involved in any kind of Multilevel Marketing/Direct Sales business. The same kinds of deceptions are used in all types of schemes in which advancement is required to move ‘up’ in the business, no matter what kinds of sales are made. No matter how much a person sells in these ‘opportunities’, title advancement is only made by recruitment; i.e. enrolling others as salespeople on your ‘team’. That is how to tell the difference between a genuine sales opportunity and multi-level/dual marketing. MLMs always suggest that a person starts by selling to his or her friends and family. Friends and family will buy to help you, and so initial sales look promising. Once this group is sold to and/or recruited, it’s very difficult to sell product; it’s especially hard to sell it at full price.
The first time I stumbled onto Pink Truth was in a hotel room at a Mary Kay event. I bawled my eyes out while wearing my red jacket with the upside down lapel pin.
The realization that I had been duped hit me like an icy cold splash of water. I had just taken pictures with the gals on stage. I had just really gotten down my pink Cadillac dance moves.
I knew what I was reading on this site was the truth.
And I was pissed.
I was mad at me for allowing myself to join a cult.
I learned here….it wasn’t my fault. Mary Kay honed her craft. She passed it on.
I’m okay now. You will be too. Hugs.
I can understand and agree what everyone is saying re: the business end of Mary Kay, but I would like to hear from others about the product itself. Isn’t the quality better than the stuff from Walgreens and cheaper if you only buy for yourself? Just curious and need truth before I quit buying for myself. Thanks for any input!
No, the quality isn’t good at all. The Day & Night Solution, for example, came out in 1998-1999. How many other brands do you see still promoting an anti-aging product nearly 20 years later? And the foundations are now over 7 years old. You can get way better at Sephora or Ulta.
Isn’t the quality better than the stuff from Walgreens and cheaper if you only buy for yourself?
The only way Mary Kay can compete is to build a “walled garden” around their users and prevent direct comparisons.
Any of the “drugstore” brands the Mary Kay consultants are taught to sneer at will give you better makeup quality for less money. The competition in those stores is fierce. They constantly push each other to improve formulas and delivery.
Revlon? Cover Girl? Maybelline? L’Oreal? Neutrogena? Better quality and coverage for lower price, and larger range of products and colors.
To do a price-to-price comparison, you would have to compare MK to MAC and the rest of the boutique brands.
Unfortunately, the quality isn’t better than drugstore brands. MK products, like BestDecision said, are WAY behind the times. They just came out with a chemical exfoliant and great, effective chemical exfoliants have been in drugstores for 10+ years. The one I use is a 6% glycolic acid peel I got for $6 at Walgreens.
MK’s version is $65 and they don’t even tell you what the concentration is. :/
Mary Kay skin care is awful. Broke me out big time. As for the cosmetics themselves, they really are not suitable for most women of color. I never found a decent match in the foundation, but then that’s true of most cosmetics unless they’re made by a Black company.
About time someone got the world out there about the “Mary Kay Cosmetics” cult! BTDT as a SAHM in the 80s. Thought it was bull then, and apparently, it still is now! Run, not walk, from the pink minions lol. If MK product so great, then how come the products have never sold in a real brick and mortar store alongside other real cosmetics? I know lots of people selling it, but very few actually buying it.