Is Younique A Scam? A Woman’s Nightmare! [Review]

Younique is a brand of cosmetics founded by siblings Melanie Huscroft And Derek Maxfield in September 2012. 

The companies mission statement and belief is that every woman should feel beautiful on both the inside and outside.

They aim to empower, uplift, validate build the self esteem and self confidence in woman world wide with a range of high quality products. 

In short, their aim to make a woman feel, beautiful, unique and special - hence the name Younique. 

Younique operate their business using the multi-level marketing business model. 

The Beauty niche is one that is very lucrative and competitive, and when you do manage to succeed it can be very rewarding.

Something the brother and sister team found out when they sold the controlling share (60%) of the the Younique brand to Coty for $600M USD in January 2017. 

The founders still hold a 40% stake in the company. The acquisition by Coty makes Younique a Billion Dollar Brand. 

Similar Companies to Younique are:

• Senegenece
• Avon
• Mary Kay
• Thrive Causemetics
• Glossy Box
• Sephora
• Beautylish
• Birtchbox
• DermStore
• Camera Ready Cosmetics

Younique has 1 registered patent and 34 registered trademarks and generates $19M USD annually in revenue. 

Younique have a social cause that resonates strongly with all women The Younique Foundation and support another, defend the innocence. Both foundations fight sexual abuse. 

Let's talk about their range of products. 

The Younique companies product line is centered around cosmetics. This is what makes it an ideal opportunity for women.  

And being a guy, this is not exactly my area of expertise, so bare with me while I do my best and list the main product categories and what you can find.

1. Eyes: Eyeliner, Eye Primer, Mascara, Fiber Lashes, Lash Serum
2. Face: Setting Spray, Pressed Blusher, Face Primer, Setting Powder
3. Lips: Lip Plumper, Lipstick, Lip Exfoliator, Lip Balm, Lip Gloss. 
4. Fragrance: Perfumes
5. SkinCare: Cleansers, Masks, Day Creams, Night Creams, Moisturizers, Cleaning Cloths. 
6. Tools: Palettes, Eye Brushes, face Brushes, Lip Brushes. 
7. Sets & Collections

Wow! Being beautiful is hard work huh!.

If you are a lady reading this you will know beauty products far better than any man. 

The brands main flagship products appears to be their Moonstruck 3D Fiber Lashes which happens to be a little polemic too. 

It is only polemic because of erroneous claims made by Younique that the Moonstruck 3D Product is a completely natural product made entirely from the fibers from green tea. 

This is not exactly true as the product is made from Nylon, something you don't find in nature or drink with hot water!. 

The product line from the brand do appear to be very reasonably priced in comparison to other branded cosmetics commercially available. 

As it is with any and all multi level marketing companies there are 2 principle ways in which you can generate revenue for your business:

1. Direct Retail Sales: Selling Younque Products And Earning A Commission
2. Recruitment: Building your team and getting people into your downline

The Younique Compensation Plan

In this section I am going to talk about the Younique compensation plan and how distributors are compensated. 

How much you can earn as a commission is dependent where you rank in Younique's MLM, as shown below. 

When you start out your status is white and commission is 20% and rise's as you go through the ranks with Green, Orange, Purple and Black getting the 30% commission. 

At Elite Presenter (Green and orange) and above you can start to earn from your downline.

The maximum earnings are achieved when you reach Exclusive Presenter Rank and the Black Level.

Here you can earn 30% commission and receive earnings from your downline right the way down to the 3rd generation of your downline which totals adding it all up to a sweet 48%. 

Consider this 48% of a products value paid out in commissions and the company is still making a profit. It makes me really wonder what the actual "bare bones" cost of the product is. 

Earning Commissions

It is important that you know and are aware that before you get paid any commission you must first qualify for them. 

To qualify you need to earn at least $125 in Personal Retail Sales during a 3 month period - any 3 month period. 

Once you have reached $500 in personal retail sales in total you will be promoted to Yellow Status and get a nice 5% increase in your commission from 20% to 25%.

This I actually do like to see as it is based purely on sales. 

To rise the ranks you need to generate more sales and your downline need to perform as well. 

If you have qualified at pink level you will need to have generated $250 is sales yourself and $2,000 from your downline. Achieve that and you will have obtained the 3% circle royalty commission. 

You will also need to have 1 qualified presenter that you personally sponsored. 

To keep rising the ranks you will need to keep recruiting qualified presenters, and they will need to keep doing the same in a chain reaction like way. 

There are other way to earn with Younique as they have Fast Start bonuses and Car bonus, these are more incentives to motivate distributors than what I would call earnings. 

Watch the video below for a beautiful and clear presentation of the Younique Compensation Plan. 

Getting Started With Younique?

To get started with Younique you need to buy their $99 Starter Kit which is for Presenters - the name they give for their distributors/associates, to help promote their products. 

Inside the starter kit you will find: 

• Product Catalogue and some marketing material and tools. 
• Basic Younique Beauty Products to use as a demonstration
• Youniversity Training Academy - Beginner training to get you started
• Digital Marketing Tools.  
• A Website for you to direct traffic to and clients to make orders. 

One of the good things I have noticed here is the company puts in an effort when it comes to training.

Very few MLM companies put in the effort to train their distributors even the biggest of companies like Motor Club Of America!

If you are anything like me you will the kind of person that gives a lot of validation and respect to businesses that are Accredited and well rated by consumer groups, associations and advocacy organisations. 

Younique is fully accredited by the Better Business Organisation and has a perfect A+ rating. 

The most common occurring complaints I kept on seeing were centered around their products service and billing problems, a few I have shown below. 

No, to be more accurate hardly any of Youniqe's products are "All Natural". Sure some of the ingredients in their products are natural but they also contain non-natural man made compounds.

This can easily be seen when you perform a random search of a few of their products and look at the ingredients. 

Below is a screenshot of their Beachfront prime & set powder. Clearly it contain synthetic ingredients. 

On of the plus points that I like about the company is the fact that they are focused on sales, sales driven company. 

However, 

You are not going to make all that much money from selling their products based uniques on selling Younique's products. If you are not involved in the recruitment side of the business you will earn, by my calculation $2,401* for selling your products. 

*Calculation includes the deduction of $99 starter pack. 

That is a lot of work for what is not a lot of of money. So, in my opinion Selling Younique is not worth it. 

The commission amount that you can as a Younique Presenter varies from 20% starting point to 30% for your own sales and rise significantly when you include your pooled bonus and downline earnings at the highest Black level. 

The commission structure is explained above in the section "Younique Compensation Plan" and on the company website here

There are a lot of good thing about Younique that I liked, which were as follows:

• Established Brand

Younique is a well established brand, probably you have heard of their products and maybe even used them yourself.

This not a small "mom and pop" type of brand at all - Having undergone a $600M USD acquisition by a leading cosmetics firm in 2017 for a 60% stake means they are a fully fledged member of the three coma club - a billion dollar brand. 

• A+ Rating On Better Business Bureau

Younique are fully accredited and currently hold a perfect A+ rating with the consumer advocacy organisation - this is a strong trust factor point. 

• Sales Focused MLM

Many MLM companies have a strong focus on recruitment, which is undeniably unsustainable Younique are sales focused which is good and can help you to build a sustainable business. 

• Product Range Used By Many 

At least 50% of the adult population (women!) wear and use some form of cosmetics on a daily basis. Ample market for the product line. 

There are a few things that I don't like about Younique, which are as follows. 

• There are A Lot Of Complaints About Their Products

Look, I'm not one of those "girly-boys" I'm a man's man!. I have not tried their products myself, but there are plenty of complaints online about their products being ineffective and sometimes dangerous. 

• Pressure To keep Up Sales

You need to keep your sales flowing in order to maintain your rank. Slip and, whops, you can slide down the rankings.

This means that you have to run your business even while on holiday!. 

• Account Deactivation

You need to keep up at least $125 worth of sales on a rolling 3 month basis, if you don't you account will be deemed as inactive and Younique will deactivate your account. 

This is not unique to Younique, many MLM business's do this. Unnecessary pressure to keep you active and keep you selling. 

Great question!

Can you make money from Younique is quite subjective. I do believe in being a "Positive Pete" rather than a "Negative Nancy" the answer is is yes, you can make money with Younique.

The real underlying question is "How Much Money Can I Make With Younique?" and how likely are you to succeed with the company. 

Unfortunately Younique do not publish the obliged Income disclosure statement. However they do publish on their website a slightly misleading "Rising Star Leaderboard". 

The information presented is slightly misleading in my opinion as what is shown is NOT the income achieved by the individuals but their Personal Retail Sales, you would need to calculate those sales with the compensation plan to find out what their income is. 

The leading rising star would have earned 20% of that figure shown, making Veronique Stoquart earning $352.50. 

The above screenshot is again their personal retail sales volume and not their actual income.  The commissions earned from this group is much more difficult to calculate given that there is no way of knowing their downline size or commisisons there of. 

Basing purely on personally generated sales earnings per $10,000 USD is $2,500 USD. 

And generating $10,000 gross in sales in a LOT of work. A lot!!

Baring in mind that this is the elite, the best of the best that are involved in the opportunity my inclination is that it will be difficult to make a full time sustainable income from Younique. 

Remember, there is a reason why they are not publishing their income disclosure statement. 

Thankfully there are much better opportunities available for you!. 

There are many similarities to MLM opportunities and Pyramid Schemes some people even call or refer to MLM's as Pyramid schemes in disguise. 

Given technicalities in the law and that Younique has a valid range of products behind their MLM business they are not a Pyramid Scheme. 

Yes, given the commission structure and format, Younique is indeed a Multi Level Marketing Business. 

Younique is not a scam. They are a bonafide legitimate business, brand and a Billion dollar company that are fully accredited by the Better Business Bureau and members of the Direct Sellers Association. 

Being well established and a prestigious brand I doubt that they are a scam. If they were they would not have obtained full accreditation from the BBB, not been acquired by a well known company. 

Younique do appear to be well organised business and business opportunity but I question their products due to the complaints that I found. 

Also not very comforting knowing that the business is a MLM. In MLM's you uplines tend to pressure you and give you the sales talk to keep earning from you and your sales, looking for their best interests not yours. 

...Given the company does appear to have no big earners going by my own investigation and calculation as well as a lack of income disclosure statement I am not recommending that you try Younique.  

Thankfully there are opportunities that are much better and less complicated than MLM's. I have been Earning online since 2015 and consistently so, mostly on a semi passive manner working on average just 2 hrs daily or 3 hours when I do things lazily and slowly. 

Affiliate Marketing is my Number 1 recommended way for making money in the digital world both for those just starting out and those that are semi experienced. 

The reasons are pretty simple:

• No huge startup costs!
  
• No Selling face to face!
• No Stock to keep or manage!
• No huge investment involved - (Get started for $19!)
• No networking or recruiting required. 
• You can operate in any market you wish! - even your hobbies & passion!
• Earn a full time income & more!. No limit to your earning potential!. 
  

In fact...

I have created and built a regular mid 4 figure passive monthly income and fully enjoy a life of travel to where I want and when I want. With no boss to answer to and zero annoying co-workers I completely enjoy life and work when I choose to.

This is all thanks to Affiliate Marketing!

To emulate what I have achieved, real freedom and a passive income stream, click that red button below..and watch the video that I have prepared for you. 

Because MORE MONEY IS Waiting For You. The Question Is: WILL YOU TAKE IT?!?