A reader sent this to me to thank us for helping her avoid the Mary Kay scam. I love these emails! This, my friends, is the whole reason we exist. I want resources to be available to those who take the time to research before they sign up for MK.

I just wanted to tell you that I think your website is terrific. It’s so addicting to read! I stumbled across it after I started doing research on Mary Kay after a weird experience with a MK consultant.

A couple of weeks ago, a Mary Kay consultant came to my apartment to give me a makeover. I didn’t know her personally. She got my name from a church event that I had participated in. We all got mini-facials at this church event. In order to get it though, we had to fill out this little form about what we knew about MK products and the company. She said the forms we filled out would be entered into a raffle drawing for free MK products. Cool, I thought.

Anyway, she called me about a week later and said I had “won” $10 worth of MK products. The only caveat was she would have to come over and do a makeover on me.Never one to turn down free cosmetics, I agreed to it. She asked if I wanted to have any of my girlfriends join me for an evening of “pampering.” Knowing full well that this would mostly be a sales pitch, I dragged my sister into it (because that’s what sisters are for). I even planned to buy something just so her trip wouldn’t be a wasted effort.

After she left, however, I had a really bad feeling about the whole organization, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what bothered me.

First, she tried to sell me these expensive product kits. The cheapest was somewhere around $60. Like I said, I had planned on buying something, but I had not budgeted for that much. I asked if she sold the products separately. She seemed reluctant to hand over the catalog of the separately-sold products.

I finally settled on a mascara and eyeliner. My $10 credit covered part of my $30 order, still pretty high for my cosmetics budget but it was okay since it was a one-time thing.

My sister wanted to buy just the foundation but the consultant said that was not possible. She refused a sale because she wouldn’t buy the whole TimeWise kit.

While she went down to her car to get our orders, she had us fill out these forms about what we thought about the company’s motto of “God first, family second, career third,” or whatever it was, as well as other questions pertaining to the the company and how great it supposedly was.

She didn’t try and recruit us there on the spot or anything and I did learn some nifty make-up tricks and stuff, but after she left, I still had this weird feeling about the whole thing.

It just struck me as a complete scam, like it was never really about cosmetics to begin with. I wondered why this consultant, who seemed like such a bright young woman, would be doing this. She was almost like a robot, especially when she spouted off the company motto, how far along she was in the company, etc… She even mentioned excitedly that she was about a year off from one of the cars they “give away.”

Anyway, I was unnerved enough to google Mary Kay out of curiosity. I found your site and love it.

I have this feeling that this won’t be the last time I hear from the MK consultant, especially now after reading some of your site and learning how the process/scam works.

I feel a little more prepared should she try and “stalk” me as a potential new recruit.

Your site is great. Keep up the good work.