Becoming a Beautycounter Consultant: FAQs

Hey y’all! Today I’m back with a bonus blog post, because there’s just a lot I want to share this week. In case you don’t already know, one month ago I dove in and became a Beautycounter consultant. Although this means I’ve added something else onto my already full plate, it is one of the best decisions I’ve made. In fact, my only regret about becoming a Beautycounter consultant is that I didn’t do it sooner! Therefore, today I wanted to pop on with a little bonus post and share the answers to a few FAQ’s about becoming a Beautycounter consultant.

PS. If you’re unfamiliar with Beautycounter, take a look at this post first which explains more about Beautycounter’s mission and why I joined. And if you’re interested in learning more about clean beauty, you can sign up for my newsletter here. I will share clean beauty education, tips for switching to safer products, and some of my favorite clean beauty products!

1.What is required to become a Beautycounter consultant?

There are only three requirements to become a Beautycounter consultant. You must be at least 18 years old, you must live in the United States or Canada, and you must pay a $98 (USD) enrollment fee.

2. What does my $98 enrollment fee get me?*

Your $98 sign-up fee gets you an amazing enrollment kit with a travel size Overnight Resurfacing Peel, Color Intense Lipstick, Beautycounter branded canvas tote bag and makeup pouch, Consultant Workbook, and promotional materials. The Overnight Resurfacing Peel and Color Intense Lipstick are two of Beautycounter’s best-sellers.The retail value of just these two items almost equals the enrollment fee. In addition, your $98 covers your personal website and Behind the Counter back office (where you can access earnings and performance reports and training materials) for an entire year.

July 2020 Update: Right now, Beautycounter is also offering a $50 virtual enrollment fee. You don’t get the swag and products in the traditional enrollment kit, but this covers your personal website plus all the back office training materials. Also, the products in the traditional enrollment kit are now Counter+ Cooling Eye Patches and the Melting Body Balm (seriously smells like a tropical vacation).

3.Now that I’ve gotten my awesome enrollment kit, what other benefits do I receive?

Becoming a Beautcounter consultant gives you the privilege to purchase products at 25% off all the time. This is a steeper discount than you will get during any of the major department store or beauty retailer sales. And the best part is you don’t have to wait for your favorite products to go on sale. Your consultant discount is always valid! In addition, consultants will periodically get to purchase exclusive consultant-only products. Consultants usually get to pre-order new products at an additional discount too. For instance, I got to pre-order some of the amazing holiday sets at a deeper discount. Furthermore, consultants can also buy additional skincare and makeup kits during their enrollment. These are completely optional. However, the products in the extra enrollment kits are around 40% off retail price, which is a bit more than the standard 25% consultant discount.

Finally, Beautycounter consultants also get to save 15% on Clean Slate products. These are personal care products from other clean brands that Beautycounter supports and that fill in some of the gaps in Beautycounter’s product offerings. Although Beautycounter has a wide selection of products, they don’t have deodorant, nail polish, or toothpaste. Consultants can get these various products discounted via Clean Slate!

4. How much do I get paid for being a Beautycounter consultant?

For every Beautycounter product you sell, you will receive a minimum 25% commission. The only exception is sunscreen and kid’s products. You still receive commission, but it’s just a bit lower. Depending on your monthly sales volume, you also have the opportunity to earn up to 35% commission. Also note that you are not required to buy a certain amount each month in order to earn commission. This is really nice, because if you don’t need any products for personal use during a given month, you won’t feel pressure to buy just so you won’t miss out on commission.

5. Do I have to sell anything?

The short answer is no. Plenty of people become a Beautycounter consultant simply for the discount. There are no monthly sales quotas. The only requirement to remain an active Beautycounter consultant is to have $1200 in product volume every six months. This includes both sales and your personal orders. This definitely isn’t hard to do, especially if you intend to switch to Beautycounter for skincare, makeup, haircare, and body products. In my first month, I made it more than halfway to my six-month volume minimum with just my personal purchases and one customer order.

If for some reason you do not make the the six-month minimum volume, you become a Band of Beauty member for the remaining six months of the year at no additional cost. Normally it costs $29 a year to join Band of Beauty and receive those benefits. Band of Beauty is Beautycounter’s VIP customer program. I will explain more about Band of Beauty in a future post.

6. Do I have to keep an inventory?

No! In fact, other than your $98 enrollment fee, you aren’t required to ever buy any additional products. Although you will definitely want to take advantage of your consultant discount, because the products are amazing. However, you are not required to keep any inventory. Customers order through your personal website, and Beautycounter’s warehouse takes care of all the shipping!

7. Is Beautycounter one of those pyramid scheme things?

Absolutely NOT. First of all, pyramid schemes are illegal. Secondly, by definition a pyramid scheme only pays people based on recruiting others to join them. There are no product sales involved in a pyramid scheme. Multi-level marketing isn’t the same as a pyramid scheme, because you can earn money simply by selling products. Beautycounter does use the multi-level marking (MLM) sales model. If you recruit others to join you and you build a team, you will earn additional commission off your team’s sales. However, you are absolutely not required to recruit others.

Furthermore, Gregg Renfrew, Beautycounter founder and CEO, intentionally chose to utilize the direct sales model for a good reason. She felt that Beautycounter’s mission to get safe products in the hands of everyone was best shared face-to-face. Also, Beautycounter is unique among direct sales companies, because you don’t have to buy through a consultant. You can simply order off the main Beautycounter website as opposed to a consultant’s personal website. However, customer cost is the same both ways, so you might as well support a friend or acquaintance in her business! Beautycounter also has brick and mortar storefronts in New York City and Denver.

8. What made you choose Beautycounter over similar companies?

One of my Instagram followers asked me this, and I thought it was a really good question. At Beautycounter, we focus on the amazing aspects of our company, rather than directly comparing to other companies. So I’m not going to bash or critique other companies in this section. However, I do want to reiterate a few of the things that stood out to me about Beautycounter, and thus sold me on the company.

First of all, Beautycounter’s ingredient selection process is unparalleled in the industry with respect to safety and transparency. Beautycounter bans 1500 harmful or questionable ingredients in all their products, whereas US cosmetics regulations only ban 30. Secondly, the genuine passion and enthusiasm that Beautycounter consultants displayed towards educating others about the importance of switching to safer products really stood out to me. I like that as a Beautycounter consultant, I’m not simply selling lipstick. I’m educating and empowering people to be proactive about their health by making better choices with respect to what they put on their body. I’m extremely passionate about this because I had to get a mammogram and breast MRI at only 33 this past fall. Although I can’t control my genetics, I can control the chemicals I slather on my body.

From a business standpoint, I like that Beautycounter has a variety of products (skincare, makeup, haircare, body products) at various price points. I also like that Beautycounter doesn’t have a monthly consultant website fee, and doesn’t require personal purchases in order to maximize your paycheck in a given month. This appealed to me because it eliminates the pressure to buy products you don’t need.

9. How do I sign up to be a Beautycounter consultant?

If you’ve read this far and are interested in becoming a Beautycounter consultant, but still need more info, please send me an email. I will answer any additional questions you have so that you can decide if this is a good fit for you. No pressure, just facts! Sending me an email to request more info does not obligate you to join. When you become a Beautycounter consultant, you sign up under a mentor. A mentor is simply a resource for questions and support on your Beautycounter journey. If you don’t already know a Beautycounter consultant, then I would be happy to be your mentor.

In addition, if you’re already convinced that you want to jump in with Beautycounter, you can enroll with me as your mentor here. Please reach out if you have any questions.

Thanks so much for reading. I hope that this post helped clarify some of the ins and outs of being a Beautycounter consultant! If you want to learn more about the products, you can shop via my website here.

PS. Don’t forget that you can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. You can also subscribe to my Weekly Coffee Chats here, and my clean beauty newsletter here.

-xoxo Liz