Why I Started (And Quickly Stopped) Being a Senegence Distributor

I think we can all agree that every time we get on Facebook, we are almost guaranteed to see a post about one of our friends trying to sell us something. Whether it be essential oils, makeup, skincare, hair care, you name it… we see it all. And sometimes, when we see all of the discounts, promotions, and prizes distributors earn, we can get sucked into the glory and want that for ourselves. I want to earn an all expense paid trip to Australia and win a current-year brand new car. That can be me, right?

Well, my friend was selling Lipsense, the infamous Senegence product that everyone knows about by now. I tried it, and loved it (at the time). She kept promoting that if you sign up to be a distributor, you get 20%-50% off all your orders. That sounded like a good idea to me. Discounted makeup? Heck yeah!

And then I thought, well, why don’t I try to sell it myself and break even on my own orders? Maybe even make a little extra income. So, I became a Senegence Distributor and started selling makeup to my friends.

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That’s how I got in. I did so much research before I jumped in, but it really sounded like a great idea. And eventually being able to quit my 9-5 job and work from home on my own schedule sounded like a dream come true. Senegence is a cruelty-free and vegan company and I could stand by that. I figured if an MLM company was right for me, it would be Senegence.

And it was good for awhile. I was making sales and stopped spending my own personal money on makeup, but instead used my earnings from my new biz. I even ranked to Maiden, the first achievement. That month, I got my biggest commission check I had ever received.

And that’s when it hit me: I did ALL THAT WORK for this?? I had received $165 that month as my commission check (which is awesome, don’t get me wrong), but being new to the game, I was putting most of my earnings back into the business to build my inventory/stock items or shipping materials. I was barely getting profit, besides what I would use to buy my own makeup.

That’s when I had to evaluate how much work I was really putting into this business and if my return was worth the investment. And these four reasons are why I needed to call it quits immediately.

1. I was always on my phone. Always. All day and night, I was constantly on Facebook recruiting new distributors and promoting to potential and current customers. At work (I was still working 9-5), out on dates with my boyfriend, out with friends, on the couch trying to relax, when my phone lit up with a new message or Facebook comment, I was drawn to it. It became downright exhausting and it was taking over my life.

2. I was constantly bothering my friends and they started looking at me differently. I was no longer their friend, but their Lipsense lady trying to sell them stuff. I felt at times I was badgering them about something they really didn’t want. And this is what your uplines TRAIN you to do. This is how you get the sales.

3. I was making up facts. This one was probably the worst. If potential customers asked about a certain concern they were having about ordering the product, I would say what I ASSUMED was right because it sounded better than looking up the truth. MLM distributors do this ALL THE TIME, and I have even seen this happen to me on the customer side of it from other MLM distributors. MLM distributors are not experts on the products, and when one piece of false information is out there, it spreads like wildfire and now everyone is saying it to where you don’t even know what the truth is anymore about these products.

4. The products kept being defective. In my personal orders, I was finding some lip colors to be too thin. Some wands kept getting stuck in the bottles, spewing product out. Some applicators wouldn’t have any felt on it where you apply the color, it would just be plastic. I was in quite a few Senegence distributor groups as well and ladies were posting that they were having the same issues, so I know it wasn’t just bad luck.

At this point, my heart was no longer behind Lipsense, or Senegence for that matter. How could I continue to sell a product that has all of these defects?

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These reasons may sound extreme, and that I didn’t HAVE to do all of this, but the simple fact is: I did. This is the reality of working for an MLM company. Unless I wanted to quit my 9-5 and have this as my new job, I wasn’t going to have time for anything else. And honestly, quitting my real job to pursue an MLM was just not going to be realistic at the time. And the fact that no one really had an expert level of understanding the products they were selling and that products were even being recalled because of defects, I lost interest in the products and the company fast. Plus, Lipsense didn’t even really work that well to be honest, but we’ll save that for another day.

Long story short, you just can’t trust everything you hear, no matter how much research you do. And after being behind the scenes, I don’t think I’ll be distributing or buying from an MLM distributor again.