This Younique review is written for folks who are considering to join Younique as a presenter and to make money from home. If you are looking for reviews of Younique cosmetic products, you should look elsewhere (such as YouTube).

younique logoName: Younique
Website: youniqueproducts.com
Owner: Derek Maxfield
Owner: Melanie Huscroft
Price: $99 for Starter Kit

Recommended? ONLY IF YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH MLMs AND COSMETICS

Table of Contents:

  1. Younique = Pyramid Scheme?
  2. Younique Review
  3. How do Younique Presenters Make Money?
  4. Younique Virtual Parties
  5. Younique Starter Kits
  6. Younique Compensation Plan Explained
  7. Can You Earn Sustainable Income From Younique?
  8. My Final Verdict

Younique = Pyramid Scheme?

 

Now, one recurring question when it comes to joining the company as a career boils down to whether Younique is a pyramid scheme. After all, it’s a common and legitimate concern when it comes to signing up for a multi-level-marketing (MLM) opportunity.

The simple answer is – NO, Younique is not a pyramid scheme. Unlike illegal pyramid schemes, Younique has an actual product to sell and generate income by creating values for its customers.

However, if you are uncomfortable with the MLM model or if you’re not interested in selling cosmetics, there are much better business models out there to make a decent income from home (more on this at the end of review).

Younique Review

 

younique pyramid scheme

How does Younique fare as a business opportunity?

Younique is a trendy cosmetics MLM company that was launched by a brother-and-sister duo, Derek Maxfield and Melanie Huscroft back in 2012.

Since its inception, the company has grown to include close to 1,000,000 distributors (which Younique calls “Presenters”) at the time of writing, and their popular mascara still sells as many as 16,000 units a day.

With close to a million distributors/presenters, is it getting harder than ever to enter this business opportunity since it’s becoming so competitive?

Looking at the statistics of other major cosmetics MLM companies, Avon currently has more than 6 million representatives across the world. Mary Kay, another cosmetics giant, stands at over 3.5 million consultants across the globe.

The demand and market capacity for cosmetics is enormous, so there’s definitely still room for new Younique presenters to make some money through the business opportunity.

With that said, the chance of you making a decent living out of selling Younique products alone is slim.

After all, like many other MLMs, Younique focuses a lot on recruitment over product sales in their compensation plan.

In fact, across different MLM companies, the percentage of members making a sustainable income is less than 5%, and this includes Younique platform.

Most people are simply not cut out for the MLM model, which requires their members to constantly recruit new people and selling products.

How Do Younique Presenters Make Money?

 

If you want to become a Younique presenter and sell their products, you need to find a local sponsor, who is an existing Younique presenter that you can join under.

Just like other MLM companies, the representative or presenters of Younique are looking to expand their teams all the time.

As you recruit more presenters and build a bigger team, you make extra commissions as they sell products. Younique is no different in this respect.

A bigger team = more sales = more commissions.

However, what sets Younique apart from many other companies is the digitization of their selling process.

While the traditional MLM companies focus on meeting customers and selling products face-to-face, Younique gives you a website when you become a presenter and encourages you to sell online.

In fact, all of their products are sold via the internet platform. It’s clear that Younique is targeted towards the teenagers and young adults.

Younique Virtual Parties

 

younique party

A presenter introduces Younique products through Virtual Party

As a presenter, you host virtual parties using social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube to demonstrate the products.

You can invite your friends and fans on social media to your Younique Party through a personalized link. Anyone who buys from that link will earn you reward points.

The rewards you earn from hosting Younique Parties are calculated through a points-based system. Every product purchased from a Party contributes to the total amount of points.

As your friends shop they’ll be able to see how many points their purchases are contributing to your Party.

younique party rewards

Younique Party rewards

Let’s say you successfully sell Younique products that are worth 400 points in a single Party, you will earn 2 half-priced items for your next purchase and $48 dollars worth of reward points.

You can either use these reward points towards your next purchase, or you can convert these points into cash. 1 reward point is equivalent to $1 USD at the time of writing.

At this point, it is clear that you need 3 things to be successful in selling Younique products:

  1. You need to have a sizable female social media following to invite as your Party guests
  2. You need to be comfortable in hosting live Parties and demonstrations
  3. You need to have a set of Younique products that you can use for demonstration

Fortunately, when you sign up as a presenter, you get a complete set of Younique products in a starter kit at a relatively low price.

Younique Starter Kit

younique starter kit

Younique starter kit costs $99 (accurate at the time of writing)

At $99, the Younique starter kit includes a complete range of products that will cost north of $400 at retail price.

As of Semptember 2017, the list of products included in the starter kit are as follow:

  • Moodstruck 3D Fiber Lashes+
  • Moodstruck Epic Mascara
  • Moodstruck Esteem Lash Serum
  • Moodstruck Addiction Shadow Palette 4
  • Splurge Cream Shadow – Tenacious
  • Moodstruck Pressed Shadow – Shrewd & Agile
  • Moodstruck Eye Primer
  • Moodstruck Precision Pencil Eyeliner – Perfect
  • Moodstruck Splash Liquid Lipstick – Stubborn
  • Moodstruck Minerals Lucrative Lip Gloss – Lovesick
  • Moodstruck Precision Pencil Lip Liner – Popular
  • Touch à la mode Cream to Powder Luminizer – Benevolent
  • Younique Royalty Pore Purifying Cleanser
  • Younique Royalty Rose Water Toning Spritz
  • Blending Brush
  • Angled Shadow/Sponge Brush
  • Mask Samples: Younique Royalty Detoxifying Mask (2), Younique Royalty Exfoliating Mask (2), Younique Royalty Oil Control Mask (2)
  • White Status Charm
  • Saving Lashes, Changing Lives Charm
  • Welcome Card
  • The Younique Foundation Card
  • Product Card
  • Business/Opportunity Card
  • Fast Start Card
  • Lash Trio Card
  • ZenPrint Promotional Card
  • September 2017 Catalog
  • Younique-branded, purple faux leather makeup bag

Keep in mind that the products in the kit may change as Younique update their product line.

Always check their dedicated starter kit page to view the latest kit.

Younique Compensation Plan Explained

 

This is going to be a slightly complicated section, keep on reading if you are interested to join Younique as a presenter.

If you are not interested in MLMs but still want to make money from home, it’s time to learn about the affiliate marketing model that doesn’t require selling and recruiting.

Part 1: Compensation Structure

younique commission structure

The royalties or commissions structure of Younique

If you are serious about becoming a presenter, you should take some time to learn the ins and outs of Younique compensation plan. Open it up in a different window and refer to it as you read the section below.

The chart above shows the different levels of membership and the commissions that you get for each level.

Every presenter starts at the White level and make their way to Black. Some of the terms to know are as follow:

  1. Retail Royalties: Percentage of commissions you get from your personal sales at any given month. Starts with 20% at White presenter level and ends with 30% at Black level.
  2. Circle Royalties: Percentage of commissions you get from your personal sales + your entire downlines in any given month.
  3. First Generation Royalties: Percentage of commissions you get from your direct downlines (aka first generation downlines) at any given month. Only applicable for Green and above.
  4. Second Generation Royalties: Percentage of commissions you get from the downlines of your direct downline (aka second generation downlines) at any given month. Only applicable for Orange and above.
  5. Third Generation Royalties: Percentage of commissions you get from the third generation downlines at any given month. Only applicable for Black.

As you can probably imagine, as you climb higher it quickly becomes a game of who has the biggest team and most downlines.

At the White and Yellow level, you are only earning commissions through your personal sales, but when you start to hit Pink and above you are making commissions through your entire team.

When you reach Green and above, you are considered a leader and earn extra commissions from your downline.

Part 2: Status Requirement Structure

younique leveling structure

The requirements to reach different levels of membership

Now that we understand how much Younique pays their presenters, it’s time to look at the requirements for different levels of membership. Again, open it up in a different window and refer to it as you read this section.

Terms to take note:

  1. Personal Retail Sales (PRS): Your personal amount of sales (in terms of retail dollar value). E.g.: You need to sell $1,000 worth of Younique products (cumulative) to hit Yellow. For Pink and above, you need to hit respective PRS for every single month to maintain your level.
  2. Company Wholesale Sales: The amount your entire team of downlines (yourself included) sells for the month. This amount excludes the commissions paid to presenter, which is why wholesale amounts are only 75% of retail PRS (100% sales – 25% commissions).
  3. Qualified First-Level Presenter: Number of your direct downline that qualifies as an active Younique presenter, i.e. any presenter who sells at least $125 worth of products in the past 3 months.
  4. Circle Wholesale Sales: The amount your entire team of downlines (yourself included) sells for the month, EXCLUDING the downlines who have become Green level members. If you find this confusing, read the examples below.
  5. First Generation Elites: Number of your direct downline that qualifies as a Green level Younique presenter.

The leveling and requirement structure for Younique is not the simplest one, so I’ll give you a few examples to help you wrap your head around it.

To become a Yellow level presenter, you need to sell at least $1,000 worth of products. The $1,000 is cumulative, so presenters may take 1 month or 1 year to reach this. It really depends on the presenter’s enthusiasm and abilities.

Once you become a Yellow member, you will never go back to White even if you don’t have any sales in the following months. Every month you will start off as a Yellow presenter.

To become a Pink presenter, you need to hit $250 product sales, and you + your downlines must sell at least $2,000 worth of products in a given month. In addition to that, you need to have at least 1 active downline.

The Green level is where a presenter becomes a leader within Younique. You must sell at least $500 worth of products, and your team (you + all downlines) must hit $10,000 in sales in a given month.

In addition to that, you need to have at least 3 active downlines. At this point, some of your downlines may fulfill the same requirement and qualify for Green status.

In this case, the downlines that become Green presenters will still be included in your Company Wholesale sales, but they will form their own circle and EXCLUDED from your Circle Wholesale sales.

If you want to advance into Orange level, grooming your first generation downline into Green presenter becomes essential, as you need to have 1 direct downline that is a Green presenter for you to become an Orange presenter.

Can You Earn Sustainable Income With Younique?

 

This is where things can get a little bit tricky for an entry level member of any MLM.

Long story short – you can earn a bit of pocket money if you just want to work on selling Younique part-time and you are not interested in recruiting downlines.

Even if you have a passion in selling, it’s hard to make a sustainable income by selling Younique products alone.

Let’s say you hold Virtual Parties all the time and manage to sell $10,000 worth of products in a month, and you will get at most $3,000 commissions (before taxes).

At some point you will have to start recruiting people and build a solid sales team to make this a viable business model for yourself.

The big money lies in building a big team and making sure that they stay motivated to sell the products, so you can make commissions from their sales.

This may leave a bad taste in some peoples’ mouth and turn them away, but this is the reality with every MLMs. The real money lies in making commissions off your downlines.

The Final Verdict

 

My final verdict is this – only pursue Younique as a business opportunity if you have a passion in selling cosmetics and building a team MLM-style.

It has a good following and it is trendy among the young adults, but keep in mind that it’s not that sustainable if you are not interested in climbing the MLM ladder.

Contrary to what many people are saying, Younique is not a pyramid scheme and on the same note, Younique is not a scam either.

However, given my experience with both MLMs and affiliate marketing, I’ll recommend the latter any day of the week.

If you are just looking to make money online without the hassles of direct sales, inventory or recruiting downlines, I’d say go with affiliate marketing.

Most importantly, you work entirely on your own terms and there are no sales quota to fulfill. The ability to work on your own without building teams make it an even more attractive proposition for people like me.

I managed to build a full-time income with it while still holding a full-time day job, so it speaks volume for the earning potential.

If you are just starting out, I highly recommend Wealthy Affiliate as it provides a solid basis for building an online business, and it’s free to get started (zero risks).

It is the program that helped me made my first real profit online, which is why I will always recommend it to my readers.

Read My Review and Results with Wealthy Affiliate Here.

 

I’d love to hear from you if you have any experience with Younique as a presenter, or any other online opportunities for that matter. Let us know in the comments below if you have any personal experience to share!