Note: This submission is about one of Mary Kay’s international markets, which cannot be named. Even without knowing the area of the world, however, the situation is interesting and relevant, and not much different than what we see in the United States.

To Pink Truth,

Wishing a peaceful New Year 2026 to everyone here. I am writing today because my heart breaks for the women who are starting this year in financial distress. While their national sales directors are celebrating “new beginnings” with the new My Shop (i.e. the likely start toward launching an affiliate model), the beauty consultants are left picking up the pieces of a manipulative 2025 recruitment drive that was never designed for their success.

I am writing this out of a sense of deep frustration and moral outrage. With the likely affiliate model rollout, I’ve been watching an nsd execute what can only be described as a predatory “final harvest” of her downline.

The Sudden Shift in Energy

Two years ago, this nsd was quiet. There were no contests, no big pushes. But as the affiliate rollout approaches, the “excitement” has been suddenly manufactured. Since early 2025, she has been relentless:

• Constant Contests: Offering cheap trinkets or the “honor” of a coffee date as prizes.
• Budget “Luxury” Trips: Promoting domestic and overseas trips to low-cost destinations that most consultants could afford on their own, yet framing them as exclusive rewards for high production.
• The “Batch” Factory: She has been amping up “Red Jacket Graduations” in rapid-fire batches. Batch 2 “graduated” in September 2025, and Batch 3 is already being pushed through the pipeline.

The Strategy: Extract and Exit

I know why this national sales director does this. She has to extract as much as she can from her downline while the old rules still apply. She is manipulating them into purchasing inventory which they will never be able to sell, especially because the new My Shop process moves Mary Kay toward a direct-to-customer shipping system that doesn’t require consultants to hold personal stock. She was loading them up with “dead” inventory just weeks before the company made that very inventory unnecessary for business.

The Human Cost

The fallout is devastating to watch:

The Struggle: The Batch 2 graduates are already drowning. To cope, they are “self-soothing” with Mary Kay rah-rah and, most heartbreakingly, using their faith to find strength. They are praying for relief from a financial distress that was manufactured by the very woman they call their “mentor.”

The Disappearing Act: The batches that came before have vanished. The usual Facebook adulation has gone silent because those women have been chewed up and spat out.

The sheer cruelty of this nsd is nauseating. Watching her use spiritual language to mask financial exploitation is a betrayal of the highest order.

I am upset, I am disgusted, and I want others to see this pattern for what it is: a desperate grab before the doors close on the old way of doing business. After all, she has a mortgage and bills to pay for all that successful facade she curated to ensnare others. The trapped who traps… the tragic irony of Mary Kay.

That’s it for now.

Have a very, very good new year, Tracy. I wish you all the best in all aspects of life.