Companies I’ve
Reviewed Series:
In my research and reviews of companies/brands I look at:
-Rating/Reviews – I
look at general reviews online and check rating on ewg.org and/or ewg.org/skindeep
(a website that examines brands/ingredients for toxicity). On the main website
the best rating is an A, on skin deep best rating is 1. Note that it can be complicated to search for things on the main site –
usually I google the brand and “ewg” and see if it comes up. Occasionally a
company/product cannot be found so then I look more closely at the actual
ingredients and reviews both online and people I know.
-Cost – Is it
worth it for what you’re getting? How does it compare to what else is out
there?
-Effectiveness
– Do the products really work? This is sometimes a matter of opinion - some
find certain products to work well that others don’t.
MELALEUCA (also known as SHOP CLUB)
Melaleuca is a MLM company – Representatives or “preferred members” will deny
this and say it’s “referral based”. I will admit, the way it is set up IS a
little different from most other MLM companies (reps don’t sell directly they
just refer), however you STILL get a commission based on the people you refer
and there ARE levels. There also are commitments – it’s not without strings to
join (more on this below). MLM companies can be fine, I work for one after all,
but it’s a good thing to be aware of. However, after some research I was not
very impressed with Melaleuca for two big reasons which can really be boiled
down to one: They are secretive (and might I say, not very honest?). On their
website they do not list 1) prices, 2) ingredients. Now, they do not list the
prices mostly because of the way they have their company set up (it’s a points
system) but I still found this inconvenient…. How am I supposed to see if this
is a reasonable price compared to what else is out there? I did find a way to
view prices here – melaleuca.com/usguest – I found this on a blog post, I don’t
know why they can’t just do this on their main site – why so secretive? It’s just weird. You also still have to pay
to become a member in order to purchase anything (see more on this below). But with the
ingredients, THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT and of a big concern to me. If you
claim to be an all-natural, "no poisons" company with pure products you NEED to disclose all
of your ingredients!!!
Reviews out there are very mixed. You can see and buy
some of their products on Amazon but even there it was difficult to find
the exact ingredients and price-wise I wasn’t impressed.
To buy from the website you have to sign up to be a
Direct Customer – there is a one-time $25 fee to join (lots cheaper than Sam’s
Club or BJ’s!). You can also join as Preferred Customer for a one-time fee of
$29 (you get a starter kit) which gives you a 30-50% discount (depending on
your status – see there ARE levels!), but there is a yearly $12 fee (still
cheaper than Sam’s or BJ’s) but then there is also a 35 point ($60-80) minimum
you must purchase each month to keep your status and get a commission. This is doable
for some people and can save them money - and earn them some too if they play
their cards right and work at it. Commission is earned based on the number of people
you refer to the website (they sign up as members under your name). The nice
thing about working for this company is that you don’t do any work beyond just
recruiting people to sign up. They also seem to have a very good rewards system
(that works with getting cash back from other stores as well) – it was a bit
confusing though!
Now they have LOTS of products – everything from vitamins
to skin care and household products to a food line so by “switching stores” you
could do fairly well cost-wise, but it depends. Many have not been impressed by
their food line, but their vitamins are popular. (Look for my later blog post on vitamins
though and use caution!)
Rating on ewg.org/skindeep is 1-4 which means at least
some of their products have ingredients that are of concern (although they had
no actual products listed). On the regular EWG site they have 4 products listed
(including their popular detergent) and all are rated an F! So… NOT good. As I
cannot find ingredient lists anywhere I cannot do any further research. As I have
never actually used their products I cannot tell you personally how they work,
but they certainly have many loyal customers that love their products.
Conclusion: I
personally was turned off by many of the factors above so I was not interested
in pursuing this company further. There are many other reviews out there so
google Melaleuca reviews and see what you find! Here are some pretty
comprehensive ones I came across:
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