1. 20% of the articles on this site are pro-Mary Kay. They don’t convince anyone.

   And there is no “two sides” to a person’s lived experience. Believe them or not, but that is their life through their eyes. And the body of evidence, proven by hundreds of lived experiences, is that (pardon the throw-back) MARY KAY SUCKS!

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   • And If presenting both sides of the story is really the only fair way to be, why aren’t there stories about the downside of Mary Kay on the official MK sites, directors’ pages, and Facebook groups? Why aren’t the sales force allowed to share their bad experiences within the bubble? Why is anything even slightly negative or critical deleted or shouted down?

     After all, sites like Glassdoor and Yelp allow people to share both the good and the bad about a company, as do independent sellers on Amazon and Etsy and the like.

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2. Funny she should mention the BBB. Mary Kay’s rating is 1.14 out of 5 stars.

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3. “I think Better Business Bureau does a reputable job exposing unethical business practices because at least they examine both sides of the story”

   Aww that’s cute… Umm no they don’t. And business pay for their ratings with the BBB….

   Filing a complaint against one of the businesses in my city was one of the worst experiences I ever had. The BBB doesn’t give a crap about the injured party especially if the business has given them a lot of $$$.

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   • Exactly. The BBB doesn’t do what many people think. When there are business complaints, they *might* act as a mediator, yet for the most part, they do nothing. Plus, businesses have to pay a fee to be a part of the BBB, just like your local chamber of commerce.

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     • Never forget the pay to play scandal for businesses the BBB had
       https://lawecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=lclr#:~:text=On%20November%2012%2C%202010%2C%20the,to%20those%20businesses%20who%20paid

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   • That’s only out of 8 customers reviews that is why MK is not BBB accredited

4. I recently found your site.

   Hello and welcome.

   I am searching for the other side of the stories. I am seeing a lot negative feedback about Mary Kay.

   Shouldn’t that be a huge red flag to you?

   I think it hurts the credibility of your site to only project the negative side of any one company. In this instance it is Mary Kay.

   There are plenty of websites, blogs, vlogs et c. that look at the negative aspects of other large corporations such as Wal*Mart, Amazon , Disney and the like. Mary Kay shouldn’t be exempt.

   I would feel that the site would be more credible with a two sided version of these stories.

   Why? Not everything exists to make (general) you feel better.

   The blog’s come off as a complaint session. It may be therapuetic(sic) to those scorned by poor decision making.

   Victim Blaming 101.

   I think Better Business Bureau does a reputable job exposing unethical business practices because at least they examine both sides of the story.

   I refer you to my honourable, learned college Ms. Popinki’s statement re the BBB.

   Hypothetically, what about the gal that joins Mary Kay, embezzles from her own company to pay for something non Mary Kay related and blames her poor money management on the cult like influence of the company? Is this a Mary Kay flaw?

   I’m not sure I follow this argument. If some-one is using their profits to buy something non Mary Kay, it’s her money to do with how she desires.

   I think that as I am reading these “truths”, that which your web site is misleading me to believe are “truths”, I am more influenced to join and stay with Mary Kay.

   So, you are not only rejecting people’s own stories but also the screenshots taken of Mary Kay based groups where directors talk about not informing their down-lines ..sorry, silly me, recruits about products being dis-continued and discuss how to make them purchase extra?

   I am sure this is not the first of emails expressing concern over the nature of your site.

   No, it’s not and as usual has brought nothing new to this discussion space.

   I would just like to encourage you to raise your standards a bit and verify stories and present both sides.

   We do, when we display screenshots of directors bitching and whining about their down-lines team recruits not purchasing enough for them to keep their rank.
   And when we exposed Monique Vallair Anthony as a serial embezzler of banks and car companies. But hey, it’s wasn’t her Mary Kay Wagner Rogers Eckman Weaver Louis Miller Hallenbeck Ash’s company’s money, so I guess that she wasn’t some-one who blames her poor money management on the cult like influence of the company?

   I am so disappointed that women would make such a public display of their fundamental personality flaws that helped them to the brink of Mary Kay disaster.

   And after the deflections back to some good old Victim Blaming 201. Since you are so obviously better than us no doubt you will rocket to the dizzying heights of NSD in no time.

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   • Yep, you complain > if they aren’t a member, the BBB gets them to become a member and it’s resolved.

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5. News flash…there is no other side. OP, you can demonstrate the “other side” by pointing us to a single profitable downline in Mary Kay. Just one.

   If you take the aggregate (all current and former members) spending and compare it to the aggregate “income” of any MK downline, you will find it is losing money. You can pick any starting point from a NSD at the top or a lowly recruiter near the bottom. There are no exceptions, because this is how the model works. The losses are required, and thus are built into MK’s MLM business model. These losses are what provide upline cashflow. These losses are what keep Mary Kay Corporation afloat. There is no “other side” to this.

   And these losses are required for the top of the pyramid to make the little bit of money they actually make.

   You claim there is another side, by all means show it to us. In your quest to find this profitable down-line, be prepared to discover it does not exist in any MLM, and certainly not in Mary Kay.

   We look forward to your findings. Please report back here!

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   • Yes! That’s what I was going to say. Please join, work the “business” and report back with your results and experiences:). I am so looking forward to seeing if anything is different from her current perceptions of MK!

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6. Hey don’t be mad at us that you found “the other side of the story” you admit you were searching for.

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   • Great point!

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   • THREE DOWNVOTES WOO HOO HELLO MARY KAY REPS LOL

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7. I wonder if she’s letting Mary Kay know that they should be telling both sides of the story and not just the positive.

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   • Another great point. I’ll add that there would be no need for this site if Mary Kay was honest about their business. Specifically:
     – Front-loading (benefits the upline and Mary Kay Corp more than the customers or sales force)
     – The true purpose of arbitrary qualifying minimums (creates a steady stream of upline and corporate cash flow without the need for any retail sales)
     – Low probability of ever turning a profit (less than 1% of consultants will ever recoup their investment, no matter how hard they try)
     – Aggregate losses in every down-line (proving this is not a business opportunity but a buying club)
     – Where the cash flow really comes from (consultants, not customers)
     – Who benefits from Seminar (answer: The paid speakers and Mary Kay Corp, not the consultants)
     – How Mary Kay Corp sees consultants (as customers, not business owners)
     – Annual costs of remaining active as a consultant and/or xSD, and how the offsetting commission and bonus income is not sufficient to cover these costs for over 99% of participants
     – The proportion of MK product that actually ends up in the hands of paying customers (tiny…most product gets sold below cost, given away, donated or goes to the landfill)
     – How many sales are at full retail (very few)
     – The impact to your relationship with your family and friends for getting involved in MLM

     In the above cases, Mary Kay is telling one side of the story, and PinkTruth is telling the other side. One side is actively hiding the truth, while the other is sharing the truth. Can OP guess which one is which?

     Beside, if Mary Kay was truthful about the above, they’d have been out of business long ago.

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8. “what about the gal that joins Mary Kay, embezzles from her own company to pay for something non Mary Kay related ” How is it “embezzlement” if you take profits out of a company you own? Isn’t the purpose of joining Mary Kay to make money to spend on non Mary Kay things, like rent and gas and food and dinners out?

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   • If Mary Kay were truly profitable for the consultants, why is the company so hesitant to release an income disclosure statement?

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     • Available in Canada..2022

       https://www.marykay.ca/-/media/images/mk/united-states/canada/esuite/footer/earnings-representation-bilingual-0223.pdf

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     • Why did they ACTIVELY FIGHT the proposed disclosures the FTC wanted?

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   • It’s embezzlement if you spend non-profit money. The money you need to purchase more product to replace what you sold. If you spend all the money, then you cause yourself to go bankrupt in any business.

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     • You can’t “embezzle” from yourself. Just another falsehood promoted by Kaybots.

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     • So what is it if you spend money you need for household expenses like food and rent on Mary Kay product and activities? If you divert your and your spouses salary to fund your seminar trip or your next star order? Is that not also “embezzlement”?

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       • What on Earth is “non-profit money“? Your own or your husband’s salary? That inheritance from Great-aunt Gladys? Spending that isn’t “embezzlement. Spending our actual profits how you like isn’t embezzlement.

         Business make profits all the time. They can spend them how they like, expand the company, reduce debt, invest in newer machinery, give bonuses to staff and/or shareholders or even bank them.

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9. You literally post their diatribes all the time how is this posting only one side?

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   • BUT BUT BUT….

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10. I don’t understand that she thinks there are two sides to someone’s bad experience. When someone has a bad experience with a company there is only one side. The side where that someone, got cheated, was lied to, got scammed, or a company is not what they say they are or a product is not what it is advertised to be. To those who come here to tell their experience with Mary Kay Cosmetics, all of the above are true.
    For them, there is no “other” side.

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11. A lot of great points made in this thread and I wanted to add something. There was a pro-Mary Kay website out there, the most prominent one I could recall and I believe it even mentioned this site repeatedly, possibly trying the rebut at least some of the daily posts on here. Last time I looked on it (quite some time ago), a new post hadn’t been added in years and it didn’t seem to be all that active of a website. I wouldn’t know the web address now and I can’t find it anywhere. Maybe it is no longer online. In any case, what’s important is that *unlike* this website, there was no way to post any comments on it (positive or negative) like there is here. Granted anyone posting a pro-Mary Kay comment on here gets roasted pretty quickly, and they are pretty few and far between, but they can be posted and also, as this post indicates, pro-Mary Kay emails are readily posted for all to see. But on the pro-Mary Kay website, it was purely self-serving rhetoric with no anti-Mary Kay emails ever posted and no comments section like this one to freely discuss the pro’s and con’s of the company.

    This seems to be a pretty common pattern with *any* pro-MLM website, no comments section and no way of posting any anti-MLM comments. I do remember one pro-Amway website that allowed anyone to post comments like this website but it didn’t get much traffic and was pretty dull. I don’t think it’s around anymore either and it is the only pro-MLM website that had any opportunity free discussion that I remember. If any pro-Mary Kay parties out there would ilke to direct me to a website pro-Mary Kay website that allows for free discussion, by all means post the website here, but if there is no such website with any free discussion, please post to explain why that is the case with any pro-Mary Kay website. I ask this question sincerely and would not roast anyone that gives me an honest answer on this, although I can’t guarantee other people here wouldn’t.

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