Seint Makeup Controversy

As an Artist for Seint Beauty, I can’t just turn a deaf ear on controversies involving the company.

What are all these controversies about? you might ask.

Should I continue to be affiliated with a company involved in controversies?

This is just one  of my questions. 

In my effort to be as objective as possible, I am putting on my journalist hat to do my own investigation to these pressing issues and share my opinion. 

I won’t be surprised if many of the controversies surrounding the company stem from its multi-level marketing (MLM) structure. 

Heck, there is even a Reddit community dedicated to discouraging people from joining MLM companies.

But aside from being an MLM, I’ve also uncovered issues like false income claims  and alleged manipulations in rank advancement that caused a lawsuit. 

These problems have significantly impacted the company’s reputation, some even say that the lawsuit was the reason the company rebranded.

Anyways, I’ll get into details in the next section.

“Unfair” Business Practices in MLMs

Inflated Product Prices

MLM by their nature, often face criticism and scrutiny, particularly regarding product pricing.

Products sold through MLMs like Seint are often priced higher than similar products available through traditional retail channels.

This is because a portion of the product price is allocated to compensating the network of marketers and joiners within the MLM structure.

As a result, consumers often pay a premium for products that might not be of superior quality.

Since my purpose is to study these issues and be objective about it, I am going to babble about what I think.

The company is actually transparent about their pricing and they said that each tin costs $2 to manufacture. They are selling retail for $16. If you think about the other costs to get the product into consumer, the $14 difference will justify it.

A huge portion of the pricing accounts for commissions and bonuses:

$7 – max amount paid to the artist who made the sale ($3.20 min amount if max bracket is not reached)
$5 – max amount paid to artist’s uplines ($0 if there are no uplines)

The remaining, I’d say, goes to warehouse, shipping, administrative and all other costs for running an ecommerce business. After all of that deducted, at least $1 is the profit for every tin, and for me this is a reasonable margin. 

And of course, that assumption is only applicable when a customer chose to buy with a Seint Artist. Otherwise, all profit goes to the company if the customer bought without an Artist. 

If one has to say this is inflated pricing, make sure to buy from an Artist so you can contribute an earning to that Artist. It’s free for you and you can get top notch, personalized product support! 

Income Diparities

Another significant issue in MLMs is the disparity between income claims and the actual earnings of participants.

Seint's income disclosure documents revealed that a large portion of the sales force does not earn substantial income.

I am not going to lie, this is not your typical 8-5 job where you can be guaranteed of an income at the end of the day. 

This is a commission based business, some call it affiliate marketing, and they are not different. You only get to earn from products you and your downline sold. 

The more downline you have, the higher chance of a commission especially if your downlines are raking in massive sale each month!

But, in the spirit of fairness, the Company isn’t hiding this information. Their Income Disclosure Document is open for the public to see. 

Basically, it says that in Canada, 2 out of 1828 Seint Artists earn an average income of $97,192 in year 2023. Will that be enough to replace your full time job? For sure! But you need to that 2 out of that 1828!

Meanwhile, the document also indicates that some Artists didn’t make any income at all. And if they did, they werent enough to replace your full time job.

I think reaching Artist VI is when you can at least make a substantial income. But to be an Artist VI, you need to:

  • Make a sale of at least $900 for the month
  • Have 5 downlines in qualifying month
    • 1 must be at least Artist V with minimum sale of $600
    • 1 must be Artist VI with minimum sale of $900
    • 3 must be at least ARTIST III with minimum sale of $300
  • Your group (yourself and your downline) makes at least $25,000 worth of products sold

I am still an Artist III as of this writing and have not built a good amount of downlines in my tree so it will be long shot before I can reach Artist VI. 

I just rely on my personal sales to earn commissions. What I noticed though, if you have been an influencer, a network marketer, a social seller or the MLM business  isn’t new to you, you can perhaps climb the ladder more easily because you already have a fan base or a following rather than starting from the ground up which is unfortunately the case for many.

 Although, I can honestly say that I have seen a few Bloggers, Tiktokers, Instagrammers, YouTubers and even Podcasters who have already amassed a following, makes a living in the Seint Artist business.

Recruitment Over Sales

MLMs often emphasize recruitment over the direct sale of products. Participants are encouraged to recruit others into the network to advance in rank and earn bonuses.

This focus on recruitment can create a pyramid-like structure where the majority of earnings are concentrated at the top leaders, while new recruits at the bottom build their downlines and push their uplines higher up.

This recruitment-centric approach can be seen as exploitative, as it relies on an ever-expanding base of new recruits to sustain the earnings of those higher up in the hierarchy. So, the first to get in often gets the advantage.

With Seint, if I have a good amount of downlines, that means, I earn both from my personal sales and my downlines’ sales. 

Two stream of incomes there. 

It is better than just having one which is only from personal sales. When you build a downline tree, you bring in more salesforce to the company and the company rewards you with commission from your recruits. 

I don’t see any issue here, it is an option for anyone to build their tree or be stuck with just selling – choice is yours actually! 

My take, don’t join if you don’t want to be stuck in the bottom. Join and build a tree so you can go higher in ranks! And if you’re ok with just selling, you can leave the recruitment at bay, no harm done.

The Lawsuit and Rank Advancement Allegations

Now moving on to another controversy and one that I found most striking. This happened even before the rebranding to Seint. Maskcara Beauty faced serious allegations involving a top leader named Kirsten Tyrell.

Tyrell was accused of faking a rank advancement. This act falls under what Seint identifies as “inventory loading and bonus buying.”  

The top leader was terminated by the company and has filed a lawsuit to claim her lost earnings or earnings she would otherwise earn has the company not terminated her.

According to Seint’s policies, bonus buying involves any scheme devised to qualify for rank advancements, incentives, prizes, commissions, or bonuses that are not based on genuine product purchases by end consumers.

 

Seint’s guidelines explicitly prohibit artists from maintaining an inventory for resale, ensuring that all products are directly shipped from the company to the customer. 

This policy is intended to prevent manipulative practices that could distort the true performance and rank of its sales force.

Product Inventory Loading & Bonus Buying Policy Explained

What I learned  from Seint’s policy is that it explicitly prohibits:

  • Product Inventory Loading
    • As already mentioned, this means carrying an inventory of Seint products for resale.
    • Contrary to popular belief with other direct selling companies that you need to keep an inventory of the products to sell to your customers, this is not the case for Seint. They wanted their products to be sold and shipped exclusively by the company.
  • Bonus Buying
    • This means any mechanism to qualify for rank advancement or bonuses not derived from bona fide product purchases by actual consumers. 
    • As an example, you need to genuinely help your downline build up their tree. You cannot put arbitrary people as your downlines to push you up the rank.
    • You also should not bring in sales to your downlines to boost their sale so you can increase your bonus.

False Income Claims

My investigation also revealed that Seint has faced considerable issues surrounding misleading income claims. 

Some artists associated with Seint have made exaggerated statements about the potential earnings from selling Seint products, suggesting that one could replace their full-time job income or even surpass it. 

Another way of making false income claim is by showing luxurious lifestyle claims.  Artists are also prohibited from displaying their business’ success and claims of a turn key business.

Such claims are problematic because they can mislead prospective artists about the actual earning potential within the company. Potential artists should know that this business is not turn key, it requires hard work and takes time.

Seint’s income disclosure documents, which I scrutinized, reveal that a significant portion of its sales force does not earn substantial income while very few could really make a hefty income. 

This document highlight the reality experienced by many. 

Seint recognizes the seriousness of these misleading claims and actively works to curb them. The company monitors social media posts and Seint artist websites, taking down any false or exaggerated income claims to ensure that prospective and current artists have a realistic understanding of their earning potentials.

Wrapping Up

If you’ve made this far, thanks for reading the entirety of it. I always want to make my own research on issues that concern companies I chose to affiliate with. 

As for me, I am thankful that the company is an MLM as I have made a few extra dollars out of it. I’ve always wanted to be in the beauty business and this is one product I believed in. 

My advice, if you can build a tree, it’s better than without. And, this business is really hard work. You can be doing a lot of work but still get no traction ( I hear a lot of women complain about this). Then, one day, they became viral and sale start pouring in. This could be once in a blue moon. Lucky if that was you!

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