Younique Makeup Business Opportunity Review – Is It Worth Joining?

You’ve probably heard of the Younique makeup business opportunity and thought about joining. After all, you love beauty products and who doesn’t want to make some extra money on the side, right? I salute your good intention but is the program worth joining? In this in-depth review, we will look closely at the pros and cons of yet another MLM company, before coming to a conclusion, okay? 

The Business Structure and Income Opportunities

Younique is a direct selling company that offers high-end quality products in the cosmetic range. Founded by Derek Maxfield and Melanie Huscroft in 2012, the brother-sister team aims to “uplift, empower, validate, and build self-esteem in women around the world” through their beauty products.

That very strong statement mission reminded me of Avon, another well-known network company in the same industry, who surprisingly hasn’t been profiting much lately. Despite being only 7 years old, Younique is already making its mark in many countries, leveraging social media as one of the main routes for promotion besides the traditional one-to-one selling. 

Members who participate in the Younique business program are called presenters. This term is the same as what Agnes & Dora or Stella & Dot would call their stylist. To become a presenter, you need to sign up under a sponsor and purchase any of these three starter kits to begin your business. 

• Artist – $199
• Premium – $199
• Standard – $99 

With an experienced person leading the way and some products in hand, you’ll embark on some training sessions while selling the products through various channels. There are 8 levels to measure your progress as a presenter and each of them is color-coded. 

Like most MLM, you always start from the bottom and with every advancement, you’ll gain more financial reward and sometimes, even a car. 

There are basically two ways to earn as a Younique presenter – royalties (commission) from retail sales and bonuses from team sales. Product sales commissions start from 20% and go all the way up to 30% while team sales commissions range between x % to 8%. 

This business opportunity is suitable for stay at home moms or any young to mid-age entrepreneurial women who like dressing up in different cosmetic looks. Sounds like a fun thing to do, uh? So, what exactly can the company offer you as a new business owner? 

The Pros of Becoming a Younique Presenter

1 – As a presenter, you not only get a starter kit but also access to guided training, business management tools, an exclusive Facebook group as well as an e-commerce site. There is plenty of support to kick start your beauty business at the early stages and with a close-knitted network like this, you can expect other members to be very helpful too.  

2 – In terms of product quality, they are mostly mineral-based, chemical-free and derive from natural sources. In fact, the company is very honest about what goes into the ingredients as you can find these substances inside the product fact sheets.

I think such transparency is important for people who are concerned about skin allergy reactions. It can help them to decide whether a particular product is safe to be used or not.

3 – As for the product sales commission, I must say that 20% is quite a good offer. Most makeup brands with affiliate programs don’t pay that much. Even the giant Amazon marketplace only offers up to x % for associates who promote stuff from the beauty category.

The Cons of Becoming a Younique Presenter

Now, for a good reality check on what’s like running the business for the long term. 

1 – Unlike other MLMs that operate globally, Younique’s participation is only limited to certain countries. Here’s where the opportunity is available for now; 

• USA
• Canada
• Australia 
• New Zealand 
• UK 
• Mexico
• Germany 
• France
• Spain 
• Hong Kong 
• Italy 
• Ireland 
• Portugal 
• Belgium 

If your region isn’t on the list, sorry you can’t join the Younique makeup business program, but hey, don’t feel disheartened. There’s always the affiliate marketing route to explore.

2 – While the company is transparent with the use of ingredients, they are far from being pro-vegan or pro-organic which seems to be the trend nowadays in the cosmetic world. To date, Younique has yet to be certified under those two labels and hence may not be a favorite choice for health-savvy users.

In terms of price point, the products are notably 3 to 4 times more expensive than the range you would find in drug stores or even on Amazon. Ironically, they don’t get as many customer reviews as you would find on a typical online product page either, so pushing a product out there will largely depend on your personal effort.

3 – Remember the free e-commerce site that comes with your membership? Well, that’s nothing more than a cookie-cutter website that links to the main online store. That’s the ONLY personalized link you (and every single presenter) will get for referring customers to the company.

Whenever someone follows the link, they will have to search for the products themselves which I think is a bit inconvenient. It’s not like you have your own online store kind of thing so there’s really nothing unique about this.  

4 – Many presenters pride themselves as pros in using social media primarily Facebook Live, to market products but there are a few potential hurdles here too. To keep social posting fresh with promotions, you need to make new video recordings all the time. Otherwise, most of the information will be buried within a day or two and only the most engaging ones will get the users’ attention. 

You also need to constantly expand your social network to keep up with the competition and to search for a new crowd because let’s face it, there are only so many family members and friends you can approach. All the hassle, just to promote products and we haven’t even started on the recruitment process yet.

5 – Is recruitment important? Of course! How else can you advance to higher levels if you don’t build your own downline? In fact, you need to achieve a targeted monthly sales in order to maintain at a certain level. Otherwise, your account will become inactive or worse, terminated and you’d risk losing all your hard-earned downlines. Now, becoming a makeup presenter doesn’t seem like a fun venture after all, uh? 

6 – During the course of running the business, the starter kit isn’t the only expense. You still need to buy additional inventories to create more styles and travel to home parties for demonstrations. All these can add up and in this shocking income analysis, we found out that the average Younique presenter only makes about $14 per month!!!

Is Younique Makeup Your Style of Business? 

In conclusion, the company has got some decent products worth trying, sharing and selling. If you are someone who likes to use social media and work with a growing team, this might be an opportunity to try. 

However, if you aren’t a big fan of recruiting members, there will be a limit to how much you can progress within Younique. It’s either you just earn from the retail commission or look at promoting other brands to multiply your revenue stream. 

Earlier, I briefly hinted about affiliate marketing and I encourage you to consider this route for the following reasons; 

1 – There are so many new and upcoming cosmetic brands to try out and be affiliated with.

2 – You don’t need to do any recruitment or team building as an affiliate. 

3 – Instead of just doing Facebook Live, you can write product reviews that offer better insights for potential customers to make educated purchasing decisions. 

4 – By creating a beauty blog, you can write how-to guides, create a YouTube channel teaching makeup tutorials, and even set up an affiliate store. All this information reflects your passion, knowledge and most importantly, distinguishes you from other less in-depth reviewers out there. 

5 – In the eyes of Google, more content on a site equals more value and thus, they are worth ranking on the search engines. That’s how Google send free traffic to blogs and help you make a ton of sales commissions. 

6 – It’s extremely affordable to start an affiliate business nowadays. All you need is a gorgeous-looking domain, a self-hosted WordPress blog and you are good to go. If you have no idea what’s inside a WordPress platform, simply use the tool down below to find out. 

Overall affiliate marketing is a low-risk project to start on the side without any external pressure and gradually work towards a full-time online business. Relatively speaking, it offers better insights into the beauty niche and engages with online customers in a more informative and long-lasting way. 

For the detailed step-by-step on how to go about this, check out what my recommended training platform can do for you here. If you’ve any comments or questions about this topic, please do not hesitate to leave them in the space down below.