Can You Make Money Selling Younique Products?

Are you looking to make extra money from your home?

If you’ve been thinking of joining Younique to do that, I’d advise you to read this review first to see how realistic it really is.

I have reviewed many MLMs like Younique and most of the time they’re not as great as they seem.

Is Younique legit or yet another pyramid-like scam?

Let’s find out if you can really make money selling Younique products.

In this Younique review, you’ll learn:

• What is Younique?
• What are their products like?
• How can you make money (& how much)?
• How much does it cost to join?
• Is it a pyramid scheme or a scam?

I’d also like to show you a worthwhile alternative in case you decide Younique is not for you.

Alright.

Let’s get started.

What Is Younique?

Younique is a multi-level marketing (MLM) company selling beauty & cosmetic products.

It was founded in 2012 by Derek Maxfield and Melanie Huscroft and their headquarters are in Utah, United States.

To help expand their reach, Younique allows their customers to become independent distributors (or Younique presenters as they call it)

As I will explain below, if you decide to become a “presenter” for them, you will be buying inventory at wholesale prices and then selling it for potential customers at retail prices (while also recruiting them to become presenters).

That’s the “traditional” way how most MLMs operate — however;

Younique is big on hosting virtual parties and marketing their products on social media. Their reps also get access to “replica” e-commerce stores which they can use to sell products online.

So you’re not required to stick to the “old ways” which is a good thing.

Some direct competitors for Younique would be Red Aspen, Color Street, and Tori Belle.

Are Younique Products Any Good?

If you want to become a distributor, you need to have a good understanding of the products to be able to sell them successfully.

And of course, the products need to be something people would want to buy.

So let’s see if the products are any good.

Younique sells a wide range of makeup and skincare products in the following categories:

• Eyes (Mascara, lashes, brows, liners, primers, brushes, palettes)
• Lips (Lipstick, gloss, care, liner, brushes, sets)
• Face (BB cream, primer, bronzer & blusher, concealer)
• Skincare (Anti-aging, cleansers, masks, moisturizers, toners, serums, etc.)

There are certainly many products you could sell.

Although many of the products seem expensive compared to non-MLM brands (which is typical).

The reason they’re more expensive is so the presenters can earn higher commissions on the products (but they’ll also become harder to sell).

One example would be this “YOU-OLOGY Brightening Serum” which costs $80 for just that small-looking bottle (30 ml /1 fl oz).

I searched Amazon for an equivalent product sorted by highest average ratings and the results were in the $20-40 range.

I don’t know what magic liquid that bottle holds but I find it overly expensive.

Is it possible to sell this stuff and make money?

Yes, it’s possible but your customer will probably want to know everything about the product so be prepared to know the answers. You should also have used the product (with a positive experience, of course).

As a side note, there was also a class-action lawsuit against Younique in 2017 due to deceptive marketing for one of their mascara products. They said it was made of 100% natural green tea fibers but in reality, it was 100% made of ground-up nylon.

It sounds a bit concerning to me regarding this opportunity.

How Can You Make Money With Younique?

Let’s talk about the money aspect as I’m sure that’s what you really want to know.

There are a few ways to earn with Younique:

• Selling products online (& offline) for commissions
• Recruiting presenters and earning bonuses from their sales.

And of course, there are a bunch of overcomplicated bonus structures that I’m not even going to include here.

When you sign up as a “presenter”, you are not an employee of the company, but an independent contractor.

So, to make money, you can buy Younique products for a 20% discount and then sell them to potential customers for retail prices. Basically, you’ll make a 20% profit when you successfully sell something.

This is usually done at home parties where you invite all your friends and family to buy stuff. This is also where recruiting usually happens.

When you recruit someone, they’ll become your “downline” and you will earn bonuses whenever they make sales.

Another way to make sales is the “replica” e-commerce website which you get access to when you join the opportunity. It looks like the original Younique website but they’ll know the sales came from you and can compensate you accordingly.

Younique offers 20-30% commissions on sales you make.

It means if you sell an $80 product for 20% commissions, your cut would be $16.

Can you make money with Younique?

I’m sure you can, although you need to learn how to sell their products.

It also helps if you already have a large social following or a blog where you could promote these products.

What I can say for certain is that you’ll need a constant supply of customers to succeed.

And that is not the easiest thing to do.

How Much Does It Cost To Join Younique?

To get started, you need to buy a $35 Younique business kit.

And you can choose to add a “Bold Beginners Kit” for $64 which comes with various products that you can sell (or use yourself).

There is no annual fee for business kits (contrary to many other MLMs).

And of course, if you decide to do the majority of your selling offline, you can expect to have expenses from home parties, traveling, advertising, gas, etc.

All Younique presenters are also required to sell $125 worth of products in a rolling 3-month period to remain active.

Failing to do that will often mean you’ll lose your rank and downline = part of your income.

Alternatively, you can buy $125 worth of products if you can’t sell them to remain active. But you can probably see how this can become a vicious circle.

All summarized you need to allow expenses of at least $599 for your first year as a presenter.

How Much Can You Earn With Younique?

Unfortunately, Younique is not very transparent since they’ve not provided a public income disclosure.

But we can do some math and also see how much people earn on average with MLMs.

Let’s say you want to sell their flagship product which seems to be the “Moodstruck Epic 4D Fiber Mascara”.

It costs $31 and we can expect to earn 20% commissions.

That means our cut is $6.2 for each sale.

If you wanted to earn $1000/month, you’d have to sell 161 each month.

Unless people buy many of them at once, you’d have to find 161 potential customers every month to sustain that level of income.

I can tell you it’s not an easy thing to do. Even with the potential of social media (which seems to be Younique’s preferred medium).

You’d still have to chase after new customers and there’s one problem when you pair that with social media;

People don’t go to social media to buy products. They go there to relax.

You’ll be fighting an uphill battle of conflicting interests.

But that’s what MLMs teach and there’s no way around it.

Overall, I find that 20-30% commissions on $20-80 products are not a very lucrative way to make money. I mean you can make supplement cash, but I wouldn’t expect to earn a full-time or even part-time income from it.

Of course, you could make more money by recruiting people to your downline or by simply selling the more expensive items. But still, both options require you to have good skills (which you may not have).

This is why 99% of MLM distributors lose money.

Is Younique Going Out Of Business?

You may also have a hard time recruiting people to become presenters because Younique is on a downward trend.

The upwards momentum phase is long gone and people may have not even heard of the company.

It also means you are entering an already saturated market where those who got in at the very start are now enjoying the profits and those who are now joining are scrapping the bottom of the barrel.

Is Younique a Pyramid Scheme Or A Scam?

Younique has received some criticism for being a pyramid scheme, but this is not the case (at least yet).

The presenters are selling real products and the emphasis is not on recruiting people.

But this doesn’t necessarily make it a better business opportunity for you.

MLMs are hard to succeed with.

They are typically constructed in a way that maximizes profits for the company while the majority of distributors earn very little.

This is why people think so many MLMs are scams. They are technically legal, but borderline sketchy.

Although you could make good money if you manage to join an MLM at the very beginning.

The biggest problem is that you’re at the mercy of the company and its products. The moment your downline starts quitting and lawsuits start appearing, your “business” starts crumbling away.

Should You Join Younique?

It’s up to you.

You could earn some supplement cash if you really like their products.

I wouldn’t expect to earn a whole lot though.

I personally don’t like how they lied about their products and got sued.

It certainly doesn’t make life easier for their distributors (I’m not one btw).

It’s also cool how they’ve expanded almost exclusively to sell on social media even though I don’t find that very effective (or fun) by today’s standards. It’s still an upgrade from home parties no doubt.

Overall, I find MLMs to be way too expensive & risky to consider joining them myself.

There are so many better options out there (which I’d like to show you).

What’s A Better Way To Make Money Online?

Many MLM reps are moving over to affiliate marketing because it’s simply a better business model.

Here are some differences:

• No recruiting
• No compensation plans
• No need to be brand loyal
• No recurring heavy investments
• Easy to get started with realistic income potential

Affiliate marketing also completely resides in the online space and it’s a growth industry instead of a shrinking one.

If you’re interested in building an “actual” home-based business, Here’s a free course on getting started with affiliate marketing.

Thanks for reading my Younique review.

I’ll leave you to it.