Many recruits are snared into Mary Kay Cosmetics with the lure of executive earnings. They are told that the sky’s the limit, and the earnings are unlimited, if only you are willing to work hard enough. Sales directors tout their “highest checks” without ever mentioning all the business expenses that must be paid out of those checks, or that those are a one-time deal and don’t represent their normal commission checks.

The hard workers are the ones who make it big in Mary Kay, right? Wrong. One has to look no further than superstar Allison LaMarr, who was the fastest woman ever to make it to Mary Kay National Sales Director. Yet all of that hard work resulted in a downward spiral that culminated in Allison becoming the fastest quitter in Mary Kay history. She has flailed around since, attempting to be a personal coach, a failed participant  in multi-leve marketing company MLM Bellamora, a former “executive” for multi-level marketer Seacret Direct, and has been spinning her wheels trying to build a downline as a distributor for Seacret. (No wonder she stopped posting publicly about her Seacret stuff long ago!)

Written by SuzyQ

June, the final stretch! June! We could sing “Promises, promises, I’m all through with promises, promises now.” But that would date me, so, never mind.

Hi and pink hugs to all lurking directors and consultants! So happy you stumbled upon this negative site. It’s hard to find it you know, you have to type in www.pinktruth.com or google something (negative) about Mary Kay. Before you dismiss me, I have typed Mary Kay so often as a former, non top-director type, that when I type Mary, my word processing program helpfully finishes it and adds a little bubble that says “Mary Kay” so all I have to do is press enter. So, I know what I am talking about here.

Written by SuzyQ

Okay, dear fogged ones… the prize thing. Let’s talk about the prizes.

When Mary Kay directors and nsd’s offer a major prize there are a couple of contingencies working here… First and foremost, your director can’t afford much, so the prizes are, shall we say, meaningful, but tacky? Our usual vendors make a mint during the last 3 months of the seminar year, and in June, oh my, the prizes in June! They are cheap, really cheap. And very often, the directors offer CA$H! That’s right! Actual money you can spend. If you win the drawing.

Written by sadnpink

During the course of my time in Mary Kay, I never missed being a star consultant.  I believed that I deserved those nice gifts they were giving away each quarter, and I managed to accumulate quite a few.  It wasn’t until I resigned as a director and returned my products that I came to realize how little those prizes really were worth.

Written by Raisinberry

Every May, a group of local Directors in my former area would gather at the Local Holiday Inn and discuss the ordering bait for June, to “reach our Seminar Goals”. Being unaccustomed to the best choices in gaudy jewelry, I showed up but generally didn’t offer any input. I trusted the more successful Directors to choose the precise order-generating gem.

You can’t imagine the amount of discussion that occurred, as to what a prize appeared to cost, which was better for a $200 order, and how exotic should we go for a $1,800 order. Paris Hilton’s engagement ring knock off in cubic zirconia was a sure winner for an Emerald Star. Some of our gang noticed Stacy James sporting a emerald baguette cut ring (you have that one don’t you?) and of course everyone had to have it as Star Consultant bait for newbies. Doggonit… Stacy wore it!

Written by Raisinberry

Well I think I may have figured out why many of us lingered too long at the Mary Kay dance before coming to our senses. I have been thinking over this past year that I can’t believe a woman like me, reasonably intelligent, would have fallen for the hype for so many years and never faced or admitted it, even to myself. Then I saw many of you saying the same thing.

It has been said that this is a “realization, remorse, repair and resume” sequence akin to cult detox and it just takes time. We were bamboozled. We gave our trust to people who were practicing an art that had its start in the very first garden.

Mary Kay executive Sean Key, always keeping it classy!

Written by The Scribbler

“The Wondrous World of Me!”  No, it’s not the title of an 1980s-era junior high health textbook, but I’ll be honest with you, when I cracked open this quarter’s Mary Kay star prize brochure, I was half-expecting artfully-shaded diagrams of ovaries, followed by an explanation of menstruation and how beautiful it is to experience the kind of monthly hormonal overload that makes you grab a wad of Kleenex every time you see an Oxy-Clean commercial.  “I’ll never let go of your memory, Billy Mays.  I’ll never let go.” 

Written by The Scribbler

The heat is on, firebrands!  As we shoot down the pipes towards Mary Kay’s annual “Festival of Fakery,” you might want to duck and cover, as the scripted “sincere” compliments of IBCs and directors everywhere will be barreling toward you faster than a crazed Christmas shopper in 1983… and you’re a chubby-cheeked Cabbage Patch doll.  You can always tell your peers that you got the gash wounds in a gang war with Rainbow Brite.  Do not underestimate those sprites, bro – they got claws like box cutters.   

Written by The Scribbler

Titled, “Go Me: How I’ll power up my best year ever,” beauty consultants will enjoy the updated recipe used to cook up this quarter’s star prize brochure:  Combine one part ham and fourteen parts cheese; sprinkle liberally with eye-rolling puns, serve with a downturned eye and muttered apologies.  Busy career path trekkers will appreciate the brochure’s dual function as goal poster/motivational handbook; the wee wads of wisdom scattered throughout will give your brain a proper Mary Kay lathering – that is, if they don’t scrub your frontal lobe down to a nub first.