Should You Become a Distributor for Jeunesse Global?

If you purchase skin and beauty products, even occasionally, then you may have already heard of Jeunesse Global. This company markets high-end anti-aging skin care products as well as a nutritional drink/supplement called Reserve (which is actually from Jeunesse’s acquisition of Monavie).  The company was founded in 2009 by two network marketers, Randy Ray and Wendy Lewis.

What is Jeunesse Global all about?

At its heart, Jeunesse operates as a direct sales multilevel marketing company. In other words, Jeunesse products aren’t sold through retailers or even online, and are only available to purchase through its distributors. These distributors, in turn, purchase company products a discount and then sell them at full retail price to outside customers, pocketing the price difference as their personal profit.

Jeunesse’s flagship product is Luminesce, which it states is made with stem cell factors. Here is the lineup of Luminesce products and their prices:

• Luminesce Cellular Rejuvenation Serum: $134.95
• Luminesce Advanced Night Repair: $99.95
• Luminesce Youth Restoring Cleanser: $44.95
• Luminesce Essential Body Renewal: $59.95
• Luminesce Ultimate Lifting Masque: $69.95

Distributors purchase Jeunesse items at a 35% discount to their retail price and then sell them to others at full price. So, if a distributor wants to sell the Luminesce Ultimate Lifting Masque at its $69.95 price tag, she will first need to purchase it at $45.47. The profit for her will then be $24.48.

In order to become activated as a Jeunesse distributor, you must first pay $29.95 to purchase a personal Jeunesse website plus promotional materials. You must also purchase sufficient Jeunesse product to accumulate 100 Commissionable Volume (CV) points. The CV:dollar ratio is roughly 0.5:1. So, if you spend about $200 on product, you’ll have accumulated roughly 100 CV.

The next level up is Executive. To qualify for this level, you must recruit two new distributors under you, each of whom also purchase the $29.95 starter package and accumulate 100 CV points. For whatever reason, these new distributors are termed “legs.”

Being an executive enables you to earn team cycle bonuses, as outlined below:

As explained by Jeunesse, once your “left leg” and “right leg” recruits have managed to sell $300 and $600 of product, you qualify for a $35 bonus.

Other bonuses are gained once you progress even higher, such as to the Jade, Pearl, and Ruby levels. At the very top of this pyramid are the Emerald and Diamond Directors- these elite members not only earn all kinds of bonuses, they also get free company-sponsored trips to vacation destinations like Florida and Cancun.

Jeunesse pros and cons:

As with all MLMs and businesses in general, there are pros and cons to getting involved with Jeunesse:

Pros:

Good products– Jeunesse products are packed with moisturizers and other ingredients that help maintain skin’s supple nature. For example, Luminesce Cellular Rejuvenation Serum contains sodium hyaluronate, which is known to be hydrophilic (water-loving) and to easily soak into skin. As a result, the substance helps reduce the appearance of wrinkles. The Luminesce Advanced Night Repair has loads of natural fruit extracts.

Cons:

Expensive products– Jeunesse products, even when purchased at wholesale, are not cheap. Because of their steep price, these products will not sell as fast as similar products sold by Nu Skin, or Mary Kay, for example. As a result, you will need to probably purchase samples or full size products that you can sample out to potential customers. Taking this approach will of course cut away at your profit margin.

Additionally, despite claims to the contrary, Jeunesse products are not that unique. The company formulates and adds skin care ingredients to its products that are used the world over by many other skin care companies. These other companies often offer their products for far less cost.

Low compensation– Jeunesse makes it sound like it has a very generous compensation plan for its distributors. However, after taking a second look at some of the bonuses, you can’t really call them that generous. For example the team cycle amount must be $900 to earn $35. That’s just 3.9% of the sum.

Also, Jeunesse offers New Customer Acquisition bonuses to distributors who get their customers to buy product packages. However, these packages are certainly not cheap, and it’ll be a challenge getting customers to spend that kind of cash.

Dubious scientific claims– Jeunesse and/or its distributors often make bold scientific claims about the company’s products, such as that they contain stem cells and growth factors conducive to cell regeneration. However, just looking at the ingredients list of a product like the LUMINESCE Cellular Rejuvenation Serum, you don’t see any actual growth factors or stem cells:

What you do see in the ingredients list is a number of moisturizing (i.e., water-attracting) agents (e.g., allantoin, sodium PCA, panthenol, sodium hyaluronate), purported wound healers and skin smoothers (e.g., allantoin and Saccharomyces lysate extract), stimulants (e.g., gluconolactone, ipomoea batatas extract), thickening agents (e.g., hydroxyethylcellulose, xantham gum) and antioxidants (e.g., superoxide dismutase). The only real cells being added to this cream are Saccharomyces, which are common yeast.

Emphasis on recruitment– Much of Jeunesse’s website, videos, and collateral are dedicated to member recruitment. Very little material is dedicated to explaining the products, how they work, and how hey can best be marketed to customers for eventual purchase. The business has a disturbing pyramid scheme feel to it, especially when the company portrays images such as these in its training videos:

Should you sign up with Jeunesse?

Jeunesse offers decent skin care and other products, but they aren’t cheap or even that unique. As a distributor, you’ll be hard-pressed to sell these premium-priced products to your ‘legs’ and/or customers. Furthermore, you’ll also be pressed to purchase these products yourself or risk being deactivated.

Have you bought or sold Jeunesse products in the past? Please let us know your experiences in the comments below!