Pink Truth: Caption This Mary Kay Photo

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Caption This Mary Kay Photo Sep 29th 2012, 11:00

More "we don't have anything worth saying, so let's make fun of a Mary Kay picture" from Pink Truth.

Pink Truth: Mary Kay Husband Lies About His Wife’s Success

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Mary Kay Husband Lies About His Wife's Success Sep 28th 2012, 11:00 At Pink Truth, we are very familiar with the false earnings claims made in Mary Kay. This week the husband of a Mary Kay consultant attempted to post two comments on a thread about pink Cadillac sales directors: I don't know who you are or why you are doing this. All I know is that [...]

First, I have to point out that Tracy (not the husband) misspelled "hard" as "hared".  Not that I particularly care about misspellings, just that I am curious to see whether or not the spelling police on Pink Truth will call her out on this or conveniently not notice. It is unfortunate that this gentleman said they were 'almost there' on Tracy's site.  Aside from this, it seems that he had a pretty good awareness of what it takes and that it isn't going to fall into their laps.  I would agree with Tracy's assessment that senior consultant is not 'almost there' if 'there' is a Cadillac driver.

Pink Truth: Mary Kay: Not Just One Bad Apple In the Bunch

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Mary Kay: Not Just One Bad Apple In the Bunch Sep 27th 2012, 11:00 Probably the most frequent challenge I hear to our real-life experiences with Mary Kay Cosmetics is, "Oh, there's always one bad apple in the bunch. Don't judge the entire company by that one person!" Yet in maintaining this site, I hear similar stories daily. Stories of lying and deception in an effort to get to [...]

Tracy's point that "thousands" of stories compared to the million-plus consultants worldwide is insignificant makes sense.  Her attempt at suggesting that it is significant does not.  I am not saying that there are not problems out there - the women whose story she posts here demonstrates that there are - but to say that "thousands" proves it is a systemic problem is simply illogical. Regarding the story posted here, I have several issues with it. For one, if this woman feels so strongly that her director is wrong and ruining women's lives, it is quite odd that she is still working for her and (in her words) "dispenses MK rhetoric". This woman's perspective (along with her director, apparently) is that once you "arrive" at national, you just sit around and do nothing.  Perhaps there is something in the literature that comes from Mary Kay that can be misinterpreted this way, but I don't see it. I get that people maybe get sucked in by women similar to this "ten year veteran", but really if you take just a few minutes to look at what Mary Kay (corporate) puts out (literature, website, etc.) you should pretty quickly recognize that this is not an overnight process, you don't get rich quick, you aren't going to "arrive" at a million dollar paycheck that takes no effort. Are there women out there like this director?  Obviously.  Are there women out there like her assistant that is airing her dirty laundry, but still collecting a paycheck from her?  Again, obviously, yes. Does this mean that selling cosmetics for Mary Kay is a bad idea?  Not necessarily.  And that is my main contention with Pink Truth.

Pink Truth: Making Money (or Not) in Mary Kay Cosmetics

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Making Money (or Not) in Mary Kay Cosmetics Sep 26th 2012, 11:00 Here is an email a Mary Kay nsd sent to her area. The focus here is on making money, which isn’t a bad thought. The problem is that it doesn’t align with reality. Time and again, research shows that 99% of people lose money in MLM. Mary Kay is no exception, even though your recruiter [...]

Pink Truth keeps saying the same thing over and over, so I guess I will keep saying the same thing over and over.  They HAVE NOT proved their statements (such as "99% of people lose money").  They have not proved how awful Mary Kay is.  They just say it over and over again and then call pieces like this "lies" because, in their words, "The problem is that it doesn't align with reality". The only "claim" that this piece makes is that if you sell to just one client at full price you will make enough money to get your own product free.  That is neither hyper inflated nor dishonest. Also, that theoretical person would be "losing money" on paper.  Pink Truth makes some good points, but unfortunately, most of them are like this one.  Ill-defined and untrue.

Pink Truth: A Mary Kay Director’s Letter to Her NSD

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

A Mary Kay Director's Letter to Her NSD Sep 25th 2012, 11:00 Can you relate to her struggles as a Mary Kay sales director? Is this you? I know so many pieces of this story resonate with nearly all the sales directors in Mary Kay… Dear NSD, I will try to paint a picture of my situation –but I don't think it's indicative of everyone's situation. So [...]

I'm not sure what, if anything, to say about this.  Seems like such an odd set of circumstances that it can't possibly help prove anything about Mary Kay other than to say, "ah ha, Mary Kay was a miserable experience for this girl".

Pink Truth: Common Misrepresentations by Recruiting MLMs

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Common Misrepresentations by Recruiting MLMs Sep 24th 2012, 12:35 The lies that multi-level marketing recruiters use to con people into signing up for their scams change little from company to company. Dr. Jon Taylor, a noted expert on MLMs, put together a list of common misrepresentations, and here are some of my favorites. I bet all of us have heard most of these at [...]

As before, worth a read.  If this strikes a nerve, look closer.

Pink Truth: Common Deceptions Used to Lure People Into MLMs

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Common Deceptions Used to Lure People Into MLMs Sep 21st 2012, 11:00 Multi-level marketing expert Robert FitzPatrick summarizes the common deceptions used to recruit new marks into MLMs and pyramid schemes. From his paper The Myth of “Income Opportunity” in Multi-Level Marketing: The Lure and the Hook MLM companies divert attention from the flawed business model and the disastrous financial outcome suffered by participants by presenting a [...]

Good information. If your recruiter is promising these things, think twice.

Pink Truth: The Start of a Fake Mary Kay Friendship

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

The Start of a Fake Mary Kay Friendship Sep 20th 2012, 11:00 A new Mary Kay recruit, almost reeled in by a sales director who she thought was becoming her friend. But it was really all about the inventory. So, I've always been well aware of the name Mary Kay.  It's been a name that has been tossed around a few times in my 30 years of [...]

It doesn't seem like this implies anything other than the story itself.  If Pink Truth only posted stories and such without exaggerating the implications, it would be easier to swallow the "Truth" part of their name.

Pink Truth: The Reality of a Mary Kay Husband

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

The Reality of a Mary Kay Husband Sep 19th 2012, 11:00 The story of a husband deceived by a wife in Mary Kay… This is far too common. My wife has been in Mary Kay for 4 years. In that time she has lost over $30K. I had to remortgage the house to keep her from going bankrupt, but still she’s back at it. Her credit [...]

Judging by the style of writing and the story line, I suspect this "piece" to be a fabrication.

Pink Truth: Maybe She Needs Pink Truth

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Maybe She Needs Pink Truth Sep 18th 2012, 11:00 Below is a little piece entitled “Maybe She Needs Me.” Here’s big news: No one needs Mary Kay. They don’t need a consultant’s fake (warm chattering) compliment. They don’t need Mary Kay’s average (or below) products… they’ve got Walgreen’s. They don’t need the “sisterhood” of Mary Kay, in which your fake friends will ignore you [...]

meh.

Pink Truth: How Much Do Mary Kay Sales Directors Make?

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

How Much Do Mary Kay Sales Directors Make? Sep 17th 2012, 10:00 We at Pink Truth are very familiar with the often-uttered phrase “My director makes six figures!!!!” Women believe the hype that Mary Kay Sales Directors are making big money. So how much money is “big money” and how many sales directors are making it? Here are the numbers, straight from the horse’s mouth. From the [...]

This seems to be an accurate portrayal of income expectations (for the top tier).  If you think you are going to make millions with Mary Kay, these numbers would be good to look at.

Pink Truth: Caption This Mary Kay Photo

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Caption This Mary Kay Photo Sep 15th 2012, 21:51

Pathetic. About the only positive thing I can say about Pink Truth on this one is that (maybe) the readers are becoming less petty as evidenced by the fact that there are only three mean little captions on this picture.

Pink Truth: Another Mary Kay Inventory Con

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Another Mary Kay Inventory Con Sep 14th 2012, 11:00 I am consistently amused by these types of documents that Mary Kay sales directors use to convince women that they need inventory. No one is “holding a gun to their head….” True, the new recruits have a choice. But over and over they are told the only way to succeed in Mary Kay is with [...]

While I don't agree with Pink Truth's "why" on this, I agree that the buying more inventory is not going to help you sell more inventory.  I think the biggest thing you should look out for when considering inventory purchase is believing that simply by purchasing inventory, you do nothing to increase your chances of making sales.

Pink Truth: The Claim of “Legality” in MLM

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

The Claim of "Legality" in MLM Sep 13th 2012, 11:00 Multi-level marketing companies commonly hide behind a claim of “legality” to advance the scheme and recruit new members. MLM expert Robert FitzPatrick explains in his paper The Myth of “Income Opportunity” in Multi-Level Marketing: Another element of maintaining the MLM myth of legitimacy and a viable income opportunity  is based on the claim that, regardless [...]

This is well written no doubt, but fails to address whether or not Mary Kay falls under his definition of fraudulent and offers no evidence to support Pink Truth's assessment of the same.

Pink Truth: Shh! Don’t Tell Consultants. They Might Wait to Order.

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Shh! Don't Tell Consultants. They Might Wait to Order. Sep 12th 2012, 11:00 The key to success as a director in Mary Kay is to suck every last bit of ordering out of consultants. So when changes are coming, directors don’t tell consultants until the last minute. Why? They’re hoping you might place an order for the old stuff, and then you’ll have to order again when the [...]

If you are only ordering to replace sold inventory, this should not impact you, and that is the point.  This statement SHOULD mean that the directors and others involved don't want consultants to hold a NECESSARY order just because there might be new product coming soon. Obviously, Pink Truth is right here that this is being used as a manipulative tact that is ugly and deceitful.

Pink Truth: Does Mary Kay Know Their Products Aren’t Being Sold?

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Does Mary Kay Know Their Products Aren't Being Sold? Sep 11th 2012, 11:00 With the recent spotlight on Mary Kay thanks to Virginia Sole-Smith’s eye-opening article about Mary Kay Cosmetics in Harper’s magazine, the company has repeatedly said it doesn’t know how much is actually sold by consultants. But is that a lie? With the tremendous number of eBay auctions for Mary Kay products (often with multiple items [...]

Oh the burden of trying to understand Pink Truth. If ,as Tracy states, only 10-25% of wholesale products purchased were sold to retail customers, Mary Kay would be (as Pink Truth always dreams) gone away and Pink Truth would be unnecessary. Further, how posting a survey letter from Mary Kay proves anything is beyond me.  In point of fact, it does not prove anything. Also, referencing the "tremendous (and astronomical) number of eBay auctions" is not proof... not to mention, not quantitative. In fact, out of curiosity, I searched "Mary Kay" on eBay and got 49,762 results.  THAT is an amount.  "Tremendous" and "Astronomical" are not amounts. Okay so using Pink Truth math 600,000 (consultants) divided by 50,000 (ebay auctions) equals 1 (one) ebay auction for every 12 consultants. Obviously this is no way to calculate the actual amount of product being dumped by the 75-90% (remainder of product based on Tracy's estimations), but it shows how (relatively) small a number 50,000 is. I know that eBay is not the only way that consultants unload unsellable products, my only point in that exercise is that 50,000 is neither "tremendous" nor "astronomical" and does NOT prove Pink Truth's point that no one is selling Mary Kay products.

Pink Truth: Can 26,000 Mary Kay Consultants All Be Lazy?

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Can 26,000 Mary Kay Consultants All Be Lazy? Sep 10th 2012, 11:00 Written by Lazy Gardens Admin Note: This article was first published in 2007. But the results are still valid, so I’m running it again. Just for fun, I analyzed a bunch of Court of Sales data that I collected. My collected data contained the estimated retail sales for 26,279 consultants in 519 units, mostly for [...]

I think I have just given up trying to understand Pink Truth's way of jumping to conclusions.  It seems that they just throw a bunch of numbers together, perform some random equations on them and then present the outcome as a result. I have no idea how Lazy Gardens came to the conclusions she does here.  I also don't see any support for her biggest claim which she repeats over and over.  Namely, that it's a long shot that everyone is selling all their product.

Pink Truth: False Recruting Information in Mary Kay

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

False Recruting Information in Mary Kay Sep 7th 2012, 11:00 False information provided when recruiting new members to Mary Kay is not new. It has been going on for years. Here is another example of misinformation on a Mary Kay sales director’s website, with our comments in italics. Mary Kay Facts….Did You Know? Mary Kay is #1 in brand loyalty among customers who buy skin [...]

For Pink Truth's claims of rampant deception in Mary Kay they really don't highlight all that many lies in this article, and, as always, their "proof" is them saying "prove it". Granted, the claims being made in this piece should all have asterisks with source information at the bottom (at the very least), but Pink Truth manages only to prove that they are just as lazy as those they are accusing and that they have no idea what they are talking about.

Pink Truth: The Twisted Sisterhood of Mary Kay

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

The Twisted Sisterhood of Mary Kay Sep 6th 2012, 11:00 Written by Raisinberry Many years back, I stepped through the doors of my first Mary Kay event, completely uncomfortable by what I saw. I thought it was me, since they appeared to be so close and having so much fun. I must have had "issues". They were so happy and warm and huggy and supportive. [...]

Sorry... didn't even bother to read this.  It's raisinberry, so take it or leave it.

Pink Truth: Explaining the Failure of the Mary Kay Business Model

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Explaining the Failure of the Mary Kay Business Model Sep 5th 2012, 11:00 Written by C_Personality My letter to my team when I decided to quit Mary Kay back in 2008. Dear Current and Former Mary Kay Team Members, This is a very different letter than I have ever written.  I have made the difficult decision to phase out of Mary Kay.  Because I recruited you into Mary [...]

Too long to hold my attention all the way through, but seems well written and only a little too over-generalizing.

Pink Truth: Caterina Harris: Another Mary Kay Failure

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Caterina Harris: Another Mary Kay Failure Sep 4th 2012, 07:00 For years, Caterina Harris has been touted as Mary Kay royalty. The best of the best. At the very TOP of the company. Someone who is an example for all women who want to move up in Mary Kay. Part of an elite group of women…. “Mary Kay Millionaire” who is living the good life [...]

Pink Truth recently begged us to believe them that they are not negative.  But what are we supposed to call them when they say things like, "her income is pathetic" and they are referring to around $100k/year in commissions only. Call me poor, but $100k sounds like, at the least, a less than pathetic income. Are there other careers you could pursue that make more money?  Of course. Are there other careers you could pursue that make more money that don't require years of school (read: debt) and long hours clawing and biting your way up the corporate ladder? Not that I know of. Is "unlimited earning potential" a misnomer that is clearly deceptive and misleading?  I think so.  Clearly you are not going to be able to make billions or trillions or even more unlimited, you are not going to be able to buy Manhattan island with your earnings. But to call $100k a "pathetic" income is just plain ridiculous.  Looking at Tracy's website and various "iron's in the fire", I think even she would be happy to have $80k cash at the end of the year to do with as she pleases.  Do you really think she would waste her time with Pink Truth if she didn't need the cash from the advertising?

Pink Truth: Caption This Mary Kay Photo

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Caption This Mary Kay Photo Sep 1st 2012, 11:00

If you want to read the Pink Truth readers ripping into someone that they don't even know, here is your chance - follow the link above. Pathetic.

Pink Truth: Avarice and Greed: The Evil Twins

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Avarice and Greed: The Evil Twins Aug 31st 2012, 11:00 Written by A Mary Kay Husband Recently I read a particularly disturbing email from my wife's NSD. In the National Sales Director's "marching orders" for the upcoming months, the NSD referenced the name "Mary Kay" no less than 40 times. Can you imagine that? FORTY one-liners, listing the attributes of this God/lady/or company called "Mary [...]

Bizarre, scary and (typically) way out of balance.  I will say this for Pink Truth, they certainly have a flair for the dramatic!

Pink Truth: What Do You Mean We’re Negative? We’re 100% Positive!

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

What Do You Mean We're Negative? We're 100% Positive! Aug 30th 2012, 11:00 Written by Raisinberry No matter what we Pink Truth women do, how charming we are, how honest and forthcoming, we are still labeled "negative" by the "I haven't found out yet” Mary Kay World. Now this characterization begs the question. When did sharing real life experiences mean someone was "negative"? If our experiences were negative, [...]

This is the kind of stuff Pink Truth puts out that makes my head spin.  I don't even know where to start because they make so many assumptions about Mary Kay and the 'reader' that they are targeting.  They accuse Mary Kay in the strongest possible language of the very thing they are doing themselves. "Don't disagree with us, don't hold a candle to our dark deeds." When Mary Kay does it, it is wrong and reprehensible.  And attention needs to be called to it.  But who will protect us from the protectors?  Pink Truth is the ultimate cesspool of all those (at every level) that thought they could cheat their way to the top and, when they finally couldn't keep it up anymore and crashed and burned, turned against the people they were lying to and teaching their manipulative behavior to. Obviously there are still their kind in Mary Kay, so their warning ought to be heeded. But their solution (avoid Mary Kay at all costs) is not the only option available.  And their vehement insistence that it is discredits their so called "truth" angle.

Pink Truth: Mary Kay Scripts: She Needs to Think About It

Pink Truth Facts, opinions, and the real story behind Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Mary Kay Scripts: She Needs to Think About It Aug 29th 2012, 11:00 Written by The Scribbler The “Don’t give her too long to think about it” script featured on Mary Kay NSD Caterina Harris’s website. At the end of the recruiting interview, Prospect Pam is interested, but needs to "think about it" before making a decision. We hear it all the time. Out of concern that she's going [...]

There is definitely some language in this piece that comes across as sneaky and manipulative.  Personally, I don't agree with rushing people into making a decision about something like this. If you genuinely want to build a good team of motivated sales people, you need to let people choose (as opposed to being hustled into) to join up.