Younique MLM Review - Make Money Selling Cosmetics?

If you are looking for a way to earn money with a flexible schedule, selling cosmetics and skin care products can seem like an easy gig. Younique is one such company that provides that opportunity. In this Younique MLM review, I’ll tease out the good and the bad about the company and the products they sell. You probably won’t find your dream job here. So let’s get started with what this company is.

What is Younique?

Younique is a direct-seller cosmetics company that was founded in July 2012 by Derek Maxfield and his sister, Melanie Huscroft. Their headquarters is located in Utah and they have around 200 employees. The company focuses on products for women such as skin care products and cosmetics. Younique have approximately 1.19  representatives all over the world with an annual revenue of around $400 million. Younique is a MLM (multi-level marketing) business whereby the company generates earnings from product sales and recruitment.

Are Younique Products Worth Their Price?

When you are trying to sell physical products to people, it’s important that you can back up both the reputation of the company as well as the products Younique products are on par with Avon and Mary Kay products. Unfortunately, I found complaints ranging from the quality of the products, lack of customer service when customers tried to return these products, customers receiving the wrong product or only the partial order. In one case, a woman bought a product as a gift for her sister that was never delivered.

As a Presenter for this product, your reputation will take a hit if this is the way they do business. And if your reputation is on the line, there goes your potential income. Even if your reputation remains intact, you will find it difficult to sell products when the company doesn’t back up the guarantees listed on their website.

Younique was also involved in a class-action lawsuit regarding false advertising about one of their products. So to answer the question: are Younique products worth their price, I’d have to say probably not. Also, keep in mind that the FDA has not approved any of these products. Similar products can be found at your local drugstore for a similar price or cheaper.

The Younique MLM Opportunity

We’ve talked about the Younique company and its products. Now, let’s talk about what this means for you. When you first sign up with Younique, you will be a “Presenter.” You will then be encouraged to buy products, make sales and bring other Presenters on board which is the typical business model of MLM companies.

The general idea is that as a Presenter, you can sell products through a virtual party or a physical party and be paid commissions. But these products are not exclusive. By doing a quick search, you can also purchase them through eBay and Amazon just like Monet products.

How Much Does It Cost To Join Younique?

To join Younique, you will have to invest $99 to get started as a Presenter which is a direct selling representative at the White Status level. The Presenter Kit includes products from all the different product categories. You will also get your own website for promoting products on social media.

Can You Make Money With Younique?

One of the advantages of being a Younique Presenter is that you can host virtual parties online. No need to necessarily drive to a friend’s house, set up product displays and pack it all up afterwards. Your hosting parties can be done from the comfort of your own home.

With that said, Presenters make commissions off the products they sell. Presenters also make commissions through the sales of any of the recruits they bring onboard and on down the line to any recruits the recruits bring onboard. See the image below for royalty information.

Pros of Younique

• Quick Commission Payments
  One thing that Presenters will love is that you will receive your commissions in as little as 3 hours after orders are placed.
• Simple Website Interface
  When you sign up you are given your own personal free website that has an e-commerce store built in so you can start selling products immediately.
• Free Training
  Youniversity Training Academy provides weekly training courses and marketing tips as well as connection to private Facebook group pages.
• Available Worldwide
  Younique has Presenters all over the world so there’s no restriction on location. This can make an opportunity very appealing to anyone outside the U.S. who has been restricted from participating in similar programs.
• Y-Cash
  So you know how with most of these kinds of parties the hostess usually gets a gift? In this case, the hostess will get Y-cash instead. Every time someone makes a purchase, the hostess will earn points that are eventually converted to Y-cash that they can use to purchase products for themselves. The downside here is that if there are not enough sales, the hostess may not qualify for Y-cash.

Cons of Younique

• Money Back Guarantee? Not So Fast!
  Younique is registered with the BBB and is currently enjoying an A+ rating, but there are complaints from customers about the money back guarantee. One such complaint involved a product that had a distinctive bad odor when the customer opened it. Since she had been using the product previously, she knew what to expect. When she contacted the company for a refund she received a response that “the timing is beyond the company's guarantee return policy and therefore nothing can be done.” Here’s the Return Policy/Guarantee information.
  
• Good BBB Rating But There’s a Catch
  Younique currently have an A+ rating on the BBB (Better Business Bureau) website. However, there are also complaints  you should be aware of if you decide to join.
• False Advertising
  A class-action lawsuit was filed against Younique in 2017 for promoting their Moodstuck 3D Lashes as natural and containing “100 Natural Green Tea Fibres.” “A class-action lawsuit was filed against Younique, LLC for allegedly using a multilevel marketing campaign to market products to health-conscious consumers by falsely marketing Younique Moodstruck 3D Fiber Lashes as “natural” and containing “100% Natural Green Tea Fibers” when, according to plaintiffs, the product contains unnatural ingredients (such as ground-up nylon) and does not contain any green tea leaves at all."
• High Pressure To Meet Sales Targets
  Like most direct selling MLMs, there is a lot of pressure to bring new people in and to meet quarterly sales targets. Some of the sales methods have left some Presenters uncomfortable. For instance, when you first join you may be asked to put together a list of all your family and friends and target them. Stay-at-home moms seem to be a particular target.
• Keep Buying Products To Keep Your Status
  In order for Presenters to keep their status, they must continue to buy products regardless of whether they are able to sell them or not. So if you are not making commissions, this requirement will leave you out of pocket.
• No Discounts For Presenters
  Other programs such as Forever Living give discounts on their products. Not so with Younique. Not only do you have to continually buy products to maintain your status, you won’t get a discount on those products. Ouch!

Is Younique MLM A Scam?

There are plenty of Presenters who claim they are making great money promoting Younique products so I don’t think that Younique is a scam. I do think that you need to be careful about promoting products that don’t have a great reputation or have shipping issues, not to mention that these products can be purchased elsewhere.

Final Thoughts

Working in an MLM-type environment such as this can be a very stressful way to try and earn money. These business models focus on bringing in more people to sell products. So chances are that you will spend a ton of time trying to bring people into the program and not so much time actually selling products. When it comes to MLMs, Younique isn’t so unique.

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