Pink Truth Has No Credibility
Pink Truth would have a lot more credibility if you weren’t so dramatic all the time. You want to be taken seriously? You want people to stay away from MK? Just say why and back it up with facts. Real ones. Names, dates, numbers.
Honestly, I don’t see much of that here. Most of the time it feels like MK-style cheerleading in reverse. Like the same over-the-top energy, but now it’s being used to bash the company. I keep waiting to see something solid (actual documentation) but it’s always anonymous people telling the same kind of stories. I didn’t read the papers and so I’m a victim! What’s with that?
If you want to make a stronger argument, post some actual proof. Where are the 1099s? The Schedule C’s? You can blur out your personal info if you’re worried about privacy. But give people something real to look at, not just vague posts about how “I lost money” or “my director was evil.” You say you were lied to, okay. But show us the numbers. Tax returns don’t lie and if you’ve been saving them like we’re all supposed to, they should be easy to find.
And just so you know, I’m not here defending Mary Kay. I’ve got a relative who’s a recruiter and she drives me nuts. She’s always pitching people, even waiters and random shoppers. Calls herself a “top earner,” talks about her income like she’s famous. I’m not buying it. She gives me product at a discount (probably to meet her quota), and I only say yes now and then to shut her up. Overpriced stuff, and I still like Oil of Olay better. (It’s pink too, go figure.)
Anyway, if you really want to help people avoid the same trap, give them what you wish you had: info. Not just complaints. Actual facts. Make your case with receipts, not just regret.
Just saying.
Visit the
PTC, you can’t prove a negative. This is why we ask purveyors of MLMs like Mary Kay to produce a Sched C to bolster their earnings claims. We can’t prove they exaggerated their income claims. We can only share the statistical likelyhood of their claims based on income disclosures from MK corporate, as well as research for the FTC on the MLM industry, both of which show only a tiny fraction are making even a penny more than they are spending.
Many of the contributors here did make money with Mary Kay. Sharing their financials is not the point being made. Yes, it is possible to make money in MLM. The problem is it is very unlikely, and requires the exploitation of one’s own downline. The contributors here openly admit to participating in this manipulation…and once fully aware of this reality, had a change of heart about continued participation.
As for receipts, when it comes to the dark side of Mary Kay, please read more on this site. Contributors here regularly share the very real social media posts of xSDs showing their unethical, manipulative behavior, in their own words!
Oh for heaven’s sake. It’s the authors of the articles and comments that are stating the facts, presenting the data, crunching the numbers. How often have folks here asked for the “successful” IBCs to present their tax documents, offering to redact the sensitive info, in order to prove that they’re the exception to the rule? And yet, not one has taken the chance to prove everyone here wrong.
Anyway, the financial losses are only a part of the whole problem with MLM, which is that the participants were promised easy executive money for part time work with products that sell themselves. So they invest time and money into it and find out that the money was a lie, the MLM takes over your life, and nobody wants the stuff. They were lied to and manipulated. Losing money sucks, full stop. Finding out that you were lied to and used just to keep someone else’s MLM career afloat hurts.
You can’t quantify emotional pain. You can’t balance up hurt feelings on a spreadsheet. There’s no form 1040 for lost friendships or troubled marriages.
Believe the stories, or don’t – but you don’t get to dictate how people choose to share their own stories.
“And just so you know, I’m not here defending Mary Kay.”
Yes you are. Stop lying.
MK Apologetics bleed through each sentence.
“If you want to make a stronger argument, post some actual proof. Where are the 1099s? The Schedule C’s?”—
Do you only care about the numbers, or do you care HOW the money is made? Would you be satisfied with us confirming that endless-chain recruiting pyramid schemers, at the top of the pyramid, do make money? Because they do. The con artists who are most skilled DO make money. Happy?
The question: Where does that money come from? It comes from those who have been conned into thinking that everyone can make money in this scheme (impossible), so they participate with high hopes – spending their own money. It’s basically a zero sum game; the dupes don’t realize that they must lose money in the MLM system in order for their upline to make money.
Most of the revenue comes from product purchased by consultomers; they are most often the end-user. The MLM system defaults to endless-chain recruiting and recruits’ purchases, not retail sales to end consumers. If the company truly wanted non-affiliate retail customers, the MLM system, multi-level recruiting, would not be used.
The scam summed up from the MLMer perspective: Upline is selling an opportunity for the new recruit to make money selling products, when, in fact, it is the recruiter making commission off the recuit directly buying/ordering products. I quote: “I’ve got a relative who’s a recruiter and she drives me nuts. She’s always pitching people, even waiters and random shoppers.”
From the company perspective: The MLM consultants are the direct buying consumers.
You cannot climb the MLM ladder without recuiting direct buyers who order. What happens to products after that doesn’t matter. In fact, the commission system could exist without attaching any products, but that would be too obvious. That is the only difference between a blatant pyramid scheme and a product-based pyramid scheme.
Feel free to ask questions if you need further explanation. We’d be happy to answer them.
“If you want to make a stronger argument, post some actual proof. Where are the 1099s? The Schedule C’s?”—
This PTC thinks she is so very clever throwing our words back at us!
Pink Truth would have a lot more credibility if you weren’t so dramatic all the time. You want to be taken seriously? You want people to stay away from MK? Just say why and back it up with facts. Real ones. Names, dates, numbers.
Some people want t remain anonymous on the internet and that’s fine, there are plenty of Mary Kay bots out there who are (far too) open with every aspect of their lives. We use the latter because it is already out there. The MKBots can’t argue with their own posts.
I find it far too ironic that YOU are demanding that we do what we have in fact been doing for decades, it shows just how little you have actually read here.
Honestly, I don’t see much of that here.
It’s Friday, clear your weekend calendar and actually read and digest some of the articles.
Most of the time it feels like MK-style cheerleading in reverse. Like the same over-the-top energy, but now it’s being used to bash the company.
I don’t see that. I see measure responses.
I keep waiting to see something solid (actual documentation)
Well, there’s this Mary Kay Wagner Rogers Eckman Weaver Louis Miller Hallenbeck Ash’s company’s 2024 Canadian Income Disclosure.
https://imgur.com/a/mary-kay-canadian-income-disclosure-2024-hPNN90o
Then there’s around 20% of the posts which are screenshots of various directors groups complaining about nearly everything!
but it’s always anonymous people telling the same kind of stories. I didn’t read the papers and so I’m a victim! What’s with that?
And proof positive that you have never read a story here because that has never happened! The women who chose to remain anonymous are “telling the same kind of stories” because the system is set up to churn out large numbers of “failures”.
I suspect that even if women came forward with their names you would still denigrate them because you have already locked yourself into a rigid kind of thinking.
If you want to make a stronger argument, post some actual proof. Where are the 1099s? The Schedule C’s? You can blur out your personal info if you’re worried about privacy.
I guess you think you are being clever by throwing our own requests back into our faces!
But give people something real to look at, not just vague posts about how “I lost money” or “my director was evil.”
I’m beginning to suspect that you are a director trying to discover who the ladies are behind the names and not realising several of them outed themselves years back.
You say you were lied to, okay. But show us the numbers. Tax returns don’t lie and if you’ve been saving them like we’re all supposed to, they should be easy to find.
No-one owes you (or us for that matter) those figures. Again here is MK’s own figures, extrapolate from that if you want to.
https://imgur.com/a/mary-kay-canadian-income-disclosure-2024-hPNN90o
As for lies, how about “executive pay for part-time work”, “free car”, “jewellery worth $x”. Mary Kay’s stock in trade is either lies or exaggerations.
And just so you know, I’m not here defending Mary Kay.
Sounds like you are.
I’ve got a relative who’s a recruiter and she drives me nuts. She’s always pitching people, even waiters and random shoppers.
I’m surprised you flat out call your relative a “recruiter” because we all know that’s how she gets her money. However, why aren’t you calling her out when you see that kind of behaviour from her?
Calls herself a “top earner,” talks about her income like she’s famous. I’m not buying it.
Points back to the income disclosure!
She gives me product at a discount (probably to meet her quota), and I only say yes now and then to shut her up. Overpriced stuff, and I still like Oil of Olay better. (It’s pink too, go figure.)
Stop buying from her. You are giving her hope that she will be in the Big Leagues.
IIRC, Oil of Olay has been ink since the 1970’s. It’s not such a coincidence.
Anyway, if you really want to help people avoid the same trap, give them what you wish you had: info. Not just complaints. Actual facts. Make your case with receipts, not just regret.
Again, read and learn. Not take your relative’s words as the Gospel Truth.
Just saying.
Stop saying, start reading!
There is no hope for you, OP. If you can read the hundreds of articles posted on this site and still beg for more “proof,” then nothing will ever be enough. Have fun stuck in your ways.
We can’t help you at this time. Please return when you can read with comprehension. There are numerous facts stated. If you have ever been in, you would know that. Please disprove by joining up and posting YOUR schedule C’s. Good luck and may you be the quickest to
NSD. Do quit your day job!
You want FACTS?
Try these, straight from Mary Kay Canada: https://www.pinktruth.com/2025/05/26/mary-kay-income-disclosures/ showing how few make money. When you subtract expenses and the “lost opportunity” costs, most are losing money.
And this, old, but straight from the FACTS posted by Mary Kay directors on their very own web pages:
https://lazygardens.blogspot.com/2015/09/mary-kay-home-business-opportunity-or.html
(using the 2006 federal minimum wage: $5.15 an hour)
10 hours a week @ minimum wage = $200 a month take-home pay. To make that much money in MK sales, you have to consistently sell $600 a month (only 1/3 is spendable, remember?). How many do that? Only 3178 of the 26,279 consultants (12.1%) were selling enough to equal or exceed the take-home pay of a teenager working 10 hours a week as a minimum-wage burger flipper after school.
32 hours a week @ minimum wage = $600 a month take-home pay. To make that in MK sales, you have to consistently sell $1800 a month. How many do that? Only 428 of the 26,279 consultants (1.63%) are selling enough to equal or exceed the take-home pay of someone who works 4 days a week as a minimum-wage Wal-Mart greeter.
40 hours a week @ minimum wage = $825 a month take-home pay. With this kind of job, you might even get paid vacation, health insurance and other benefits, which you do not get from Mary Kay until you reach exalted rank. To make that in MK sales, you have to consistently sell $2400 a month. How many do that? Only 119 of the 26,279 consultants (0.45%) are selling enough to equal or exceed the take-home pay of someone who works 40 hours a week as a minimum-wage cashier at a convenience store.