Here is a quick follow up to Hide Yo Men, Hide Yo Husbands, where I discussed the various Younique presenter training techniques – as you saw, its all about targeting the menfolk at Christmas.

Worryingly – some menfolk are actually responding. In this case, its about face masks, and Younique’s Royalty Range supposedly being a good choice, because it comes in a “bigger pot”. We’ll see.

Remember this following example, shared by a chap on my own friends-list nonetheless in order to help his Younique-seller friend. We’ll call her Violet.

(In fairness to Violet, she’s got serious makeup skills, just like my former #Poonique upline “Scarlett“. Just a shame she’s peddling such sub-par quality makeup.)

Well, he was certainly reeled in. He even interacted with one of the interaction posts! All complete with a terribly photoshopped image. 😮

In this post, Violet is trying to peddle the “Royalty” range of face masks. I can only hope they are delivered by a golden carriage pulled by six white horses.

In case you are interested, the products are as follows:

My friend (referred to as ‘Male-friend 1’ in the below screenshot) quite rightfully asks whether the products are for men too. In the meantime, ‘Male-friend 2’ kindly offers to trial…although I don’t think the word ‘trial’ exists in the Younique-world, dear. Unless the sucker customer buys the product at full whack, and then takes advantage of the Younique Love It Guarantee of course.

For ease, any identifying details such as place names, supermarkets, family members etc have been censored out in red.

Violet confirms Male-friend 1’s question that Younique can be used by anyone of any gender.

Male-friend 1 elaborates on his query, saying that he’s currently using a Montagne Jeunesse product from their Men’s Mask Range. Violet straight away wants to know how big it is (the mask, you dirty sods).

Why so? Well…I have an idea.

Over here in the UK, Montagne Jeunesse masks are sold in various supermarkets, pharmacies and other such places where you can find cosmetic products. They are typically sold in little 10-15ml or 15-20g pouches that retail for around £1.00.

Just for argument’s sake, I took a quick look on the Asda website (for USA friends, that’s our equivalent of Walmart!) According to their website, the product is also available in larger tubes, but I have yet to see them for sale in my local shops. 😦

So there we are, we’re looking at roughly £1.00 per mask. For argument’s sake, let’s assume its for around 10ml of product on average. Remember this.

Male-friend 1 is disappointed that the mask doesn’t come out as blue as it does on the packet, it transpires. He also feels there is “not too much inside this pack” – well, it is just intended for one use, I am quite sure?

Now we find out why Violet wanted to know “how big it is” (behave, you lot).

“Our masks comes [sic] in a pot and are 50ml so a lot larger than that one…“

So that’s Violet’s game. The fact she said “our masks” made me twitch enough, as the products are not ‘hers’ – she is shilling someone else’s idea, she didn’t create the damn mask herself! That’s an opinion for another day, though.

No, Violet’s game is using the size of ‘her‘ product to somehow show that this 50ml pot is better value than the Montagne Jeunesse equivalent.

I took a look at the Detoxifying Mask fact sheet to confirm the price for 1.7fl.oz/50ml is indeed £38 GBP.

So let’s do some quick maths, Violet.

I used this handy Cost Per Litre calculator to do these checks – give it a try and see for yourself in your own currencies.

Using the assumption that you can purchase a 10ml sachet of Montagne Jeunesse for £1.00 on average, we would be paying £10.00 per 100ml. (I know some pouches are 15ml etc, but let’s just use this figure to give us an idea).

As above, Younique’s Royalty Detoxifying Mask is 50ml, and will set you back £38.00. What’s the price per 100ml? An eye-watering £76.00. Ouch.

I’ve put it in a very-quickly-put-together chart so you can see a visual comparison.

Oh, did I also mention that Montagne Jeunesse are Leaping Bunny approved? That’s more than Younique can say.

In conclusion – Violet is prepared to horrendously rip-off a supposed friend, just to make a sale. Now, the chap in question did say “cool, I’ll wait til I get paid” – that means the discussion either fell flat on its arse, or it turned into a “PM me hun” inbox situation. Either way, the figures speak for themselves. If this chap goes ahead and buys this Royalty Detoxifying Mask, I will only assume he has more money than sense.

However, there was one voice of reason – or “Negative Nancy“. At least he tried to stop money being wasted.

Violet responds with the “killing with kindness” tactic, similar to what I witnessed in my cruelty-free debacle…oh, and a Y-sister has to chime in with support, too.

Its great that you have full-time employment, Violet, but flogging Younique is NOT “running a business” and I fail to see how selling it is “making something better of ourselves“. Come on, wake up, wise up, and stop scamming your friends.

Have any of you been approached with these kind of sneaky tactics? Let us know how it went in the comments below, or via Facebook and Twitter.

Until next time, keep mood-hoovering, huns – and don’t be a Negative Nancy!

What’s next for Elle Beau?

On reflection, I do feel that I would like to rewrite my Poonique story into a proper novella – whether its an ebook, or if I find someone who would put me in print. The main reason being, I missed out “the smaller stuff” for the purpose of keeping the reader interested and driving the tale forward. When I wrote this blog, I wanted to mainly focus on the dodgy tactics I experienced, but on reflection I would like to talk more in-depth about everything I can remember.

I would like to rewrite my tale with the spreadsheet as more of a prominent reference point – it will also help me recall things in chronological order (i.e. when certain monthly kudos were released, little paltry orders etc). Mia is still lurking in some of the training groups, and is finding me screenshots to illustrate certain chapters. So, as well as writing anti-MLM articles, I will be working on producing a full, comprehensive story in the interim. I hope to set up a Kickstarter for this once I have an idea of costings.

If you like the anti-MLM aims I am working towards, please consider supporting me via Patreon. Anything is gratefully received.

Stay subscribed for upcoming anti-MLM news and articles, and of course the ever-popular #ShitHunsSay screenshots.

Don’t forget to join the MLM fight on social media – if you’re on Twitter, please give @ElleBeauBlog a follow (and help me get the #Poonique hashtag trending again!). Alternatively, join in the discussion with Elle Beau, the Anti-Blogger on Facebook. I am also on Instagram now – look for @ellebeaublog!

Please, also check out the good work of the people of Bot Watch, Juice Plus/MLM Lies Exposed and Timeless Vie. They work tirelessly to expose the truth and lies of the MLM industry, so anyone considering this line of work can make a fair, informed decision . In fact, I now have a Recommended Reading page for Anti-MLM writers and interesting lifestyle bloggers I think you will enjoy, such as Chammy in Real Life and my first Patreon, @yourolly.

For something a little different to pyramid schemes, I would also recommend a look at what Bad Psychics are up to. Award-winning and seen-on-TV, they have worked to expose false claims made by psychics, mediums and the paranormal since 2003.