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Should You Sign Up to Sell Mary Kay Products?

If you’ve ever purchased cosmetics for yourself or someone else, you’re probably well aware of Mary Kay, a privately-owned cosmetics company founded in 1963 by Mary Kay Ash. This company has yearly revenues now totaling over $3 billion and focuses on six major product lines: skin care, cosmetics, sunscreens, fragrances, men’s personal care (colognes, face soap, shaving cream), and gifts.

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You can buy Mary Kay products by going online to its website; however, what’s more strongly encouraged is that you work with your local Mary Kay “Independent Beauty Consultant” and purchase through her or him. Why?

Because Mary Kay is a direct sales and multilevel marketing (MLM) company.

What is Mary Kay all about?

Companies that wish to reach different marketplaces and sell their products by the gross usually make deals with area distributors, who purchase their items in bulk and at wholesale prices. Those distributors then sell their products to retailers at a set markup. Finally, the retailer sells those products to consumers, and also at a set markup.

With direct sales companies like Mary Kay, there are no distributors or retailers. Individuals purchase directly from the company, paying wholesale prices for the products. These individuals then mark up their goods as they see fit in order to make a profit from their customers.

To sell their products, individuals will host product parties at their homes or list items via special company-hosted websites. Other consultants might even go door-to-door, with samples in hand, to sell.

Such individuals, who are often called consultants, can also recruit others to sell product (this is the MLM side of the company). Through this recruitment, the original consultants earn referral commissions. When their recruits, in turn, recruit others, the commissions to the original recruiter increase. With some MLMs, commissions can trickle up through four or even more levels of recruits.

How do you start a Mary Kay business?

You can sign up to become a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant by purchasing the $100 Starter Kit. Within this Starter Kit, you get a few products, brochures and access to a personal website.

You can then start taking orders for customers and buying their products for them at 50% off retail value. So, if a customer orders a $10 lipstick from you from an MK catalog, you make $5 in profit when you purchase that item and deliver it to her.

Keep in mind that, to remain an active consultant in Mary Kay, you must purchase at least $225 of wholesale-priced (or $450 retail-priced) product every three months.

You can also earn additional income from consultant recruitment. In fact, recruitment is the surest way to leverage your selling efforts and to rise up in the Mary Kay sales ranks. There are 15 total levels for MK consultants, with each level paying out higher commissions, bigger bonuses, and major incentives like the use of a pink Cadillac “career car.” Keep in mind, though, that the car perks require high personal and team wholesale product sales, sometimes to the tune of roughly $200,000/year.

Should you become a Mary Kay consultant?

Like every direct sales MLM reviewed so far, Mary Kay has its pros and cons:

Pros:

  1. Quality products– Mary Kay sells medium-end personal care products that are on par with those of Avon and Nu Skin. There are many products to choose from, including a line of products directed towards men.
  2. Market reach– Mary Kay products are applicable to a wide audience, including women, men and kids. The company sells much more than just makeup.
  3. High commissions– Being able to pocket 50% of the product price means that consultants can run promotions and discounts and still make a profit.

Cons:

  1. Market saturation– When I looked up Mary Kay reps for my geographic area, I found not one or two, or even three, but six local beauty consultants. That’s a fairly high number for a geographic radius spanning about 15 miles.
  2. Peer pressure– If you thought buying $225 worth of wholesale product every 3 months was bad, be prepared to undergo some major sales pressure by your local sales director to purchase “inventory packages” that run $600 to as much as $4,800. This is because the higher up you go at Mary Kay, the more you are pressed to have your underlings purchase wholesale packages and thousands of dollars of inventory each month.

  3. Storage– Unlike Avon, where you take orders from customers and then purchase the inventory, here you are first purchasing massive amounts of wholesale inventory to (hopefully) sell later on. But until that inventory is sold, you need to store it. The question is where, of course. If you rent out a storage unit, you’ll be paying a monthly fee for your extra space. Unless you have some spare basement or closet space, you’ll be surrounded by inventory.
  4. Restrictions– Mary Kay emphasizes that you sell to your “warm market,” which consists of your family members and friends. However, such a market is easily and quickly tapped out, so you must soon look for new customers. Many people use third-party platforms like eBay, Facebook or Craigslist to sell their goods. With Mary Kay, however, you are not allowed to take advantage of these opportunities. Additional information about where you can advertise your products is provided here (spoiler alert: it’s only the company website).

Is starting a Mary Kay business a good idea?

Despite the fact that Mary Kay offers high commissions and good products, I’d be hesitant to sign up with this company because of the high pressure to buy loads of company inventory and to then try to sell it only via the approved company website. This limits you to doing mostly house parties and/or fairs in order to sell your massive amounts of stock. And speaking of which, that stock does come with expiration dates, so you must either move it or be stuck with stuff that you never wanted in the first place.

Have you sold Mary Kay products or are you a current consultant with this company? Please leave a comment about your experiences below.

10 thoughts on “Should You Sign Up to Sell Mary Kay Products?”

  1. I was an MK consultant. I had a great sales director, and YES, the push to buy & keep inventory was & is a hard sell. Plus you’re so “in” to the idea, you do it. After doing great for quite a while, skin care parties were hard, as I was inside potential customer environments – and clearly saw what they could *not* afford: makeup! I’d worked in Corporate Sales before, could assess my customer base, our area was extremely saturated. Time to go.
    Id buy the yearly minimum for myself & family, then dropped after a couple years. The makeup is great, but not enough to stay.

    Anyone who says it isnt a something, consider this:
    My sales director attained Natl after hubby moved three times, helping her grow teams in four large states. Until that happened, she was stuck on the lowest sales director rung, and not happy about it [Especially with ALL four of her sisters: Directors at various levels.]

    Reply
  2. Hi! I became a beauty consultant in June so I cant speak on how things were a few years back. Now if you ever want to quit Mary kay they will buy back ALL of your product (i think they dock 10% for processing) so its VERY LITTLE RISK (you get your money back if you decide its not for you and you have unsold product). I have only hosted 2 parties (which has netted me close to 2k) in these 3 months (i’m not a sales-y people person lol). I utilize a combination of facebook, youtube vids and IG and in 3months I’ve profited close to $12k. So its been good for me. The products are good and outsell many of the brand names I used to use. There are more MaryKay company cars on the road today than UPS trucks (look it up :) *Our Microdermabrasion Set is the ONLY one on the market that is CLINICALLY proven to reduce pore size. *Our mineral eyeshadows outsold Mac’s by 3 to 1. *Our oil-free eye makeup remover is #1 and outsells the #2 brand by an overwhelming 8 to 1 ratio.*We have products mentioned in 7 different high end magazines this month alone (beauty editors picks… the advertisements you cannot buy!). So for me its been good. I’ve just about replaced my income as an engineer working part time. So its been a life saver for me :)

    Reply
  3. Mary Kay is a scam, 100%. Check out pinktruth.com. There’s a reason why consultants are told to buy large amounts of inventory every couple of months. The worst part is…products are constantly changing and being discontinued, so you have to buy even more inventory. MK is basically a cult…these people are so brainwashed!

    Reply
  4. A very good review; I heard of Mary Kay many years ago,the fact that that the company still exists must mean they are doing something right. How balance is the system?, it seems to way a little heavier on the side of the company.
    I am surprised that there are no regulations when it comes to retail prices.Have the formula been the same from the sixties or were there changes. The expiration dates of purchased stock is troubling. I assume the product is high quality to remain competitive for so long.

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  5. Hi, Steve! I had never read such a clear explanation of how Mary Kay consulting works so thanks for the simple facts! I appreciated that you included the pros as well as the cons so I could weigh the decision out for myself. I think I’ll stick to WA personally!

    Reply
  6. There are loads of women local to me whoa re involved in MLM programmes, selling beauty products or ranges. Mary Kay is not so big where we are, but there are others like Avon, Arbonne, Temple Spa, Neal’s Yard…and the list goes on. In my experience it’s usually only the people who get in right at the beginning that make anything substantial in the way of income. More often than not, if you’re lower down the chain it becomes exceptionally hard work for not much reward. The main benefits I can see for these sellers is that they can get some stuff for free for themselves. But that’s not enough for me!

    Reply
  7. Hi Steve,
    Mary Kay has almost been around as long as me!. This company is well known, and their idea of selling at parties would suit those who are out-going types.
    I wonder if you could sell at markets/fairs?
    As you say, because the company is so old, i believe the market is saturated, and that means less profit per consultant. A new company with newer products could be better to join.
    Cheers

    Reply
  8. It is interesting how an MLM company like Mary Kay uses the MLM business model by moving the sales and training function down to the distributors. But then places restrictions on the selling of the product. It sounds like Avon would be a better business opportunity for the average person.

    Reply
  9. I love Mary Kay products, and I used to be a consultant several years ago. There were several people in my family and we order it this way. I only hosted a couple of parties, but it was a great way to get discounted products. I have not used Mary Kay in a while, but I did see a Pink car the other day, so there is still a market for it. 

    Reply
    • Thanks for sharing your experiences Heather! Did you find it challenging to host parties after your first few? Seeing as most people start with their social circles, I have always imagined it would be hard to continue this style of business after a few months. 

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