Wondering if Young Living is a scam, pyramid scheme or a good business opportunity for you? This Young Living review should clear any doubts you might currently have.
An Overview of Young Living
Let me start by explicitly stating that this is not a review of the Young Living essential oil products. I do not know if the products are good for your body or not because I have not tried them. The whole point of this review is to provide you with enough information to decide if the business opportunity Young Living presents is the right one for you.
Even though we will talk a little bit about some of its products, this is a review of the opportunity rather than individual products.
I understand some people might be unable to sit through this long review due to time or patience constraints. If you are one of such people, here is a point-form summary of some of the stuff you need to know about Young Living:
- The company itself is legit and it sells actual essential oil products
- To become a distributor, you will have to invest between $45 and $160 on a Starter kit (flat $199.75 if you’re in Canada)
- After purchasing a starter kit, you will have to purchase an Essential Rewards (ER) kit
- You will have to order products every month to remain part of this ER
- They operate a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) business model
- It is possible to make money with this company but like most MLMs, it is highly improbable. 95% of the people who join fail to make any money
- This is not a work from home opportunity.
Essential oils are not the same as basic oils. They are luxury oils that are expensive when compared to regular oils.
If you already have a system of consistently reaching people looking for essential oils, you will do well as a Young Living distributor. Unfortunately, most distributors don’t have a system, because Young Living doesn’t teach them a good one, and this sets most distributors up for failure from the beginning.
Fortunately, you can follow the exact system I follow that shows you how to get leads when promoting absolutely any product you want, including essential oils. Sweetest part is it’s FREE to join too. 🙂
What is Young Living?
Young Living is an MLM-based company that sells essential oils, personal health products, and other related products. The company was founded by Gary Young and his wife, Mary, in 1993.
The Products
The first thing you should always look out for whenever you are considering an MLM opportunity are the products you will be selling. It should never be how much the company is saying you can make.
What separates a good MLM company from a blatant pyramid scheme is the strength of the products they offer. The products have to be unique, reasonably priced and trustworthy for you to even consider joining that MLM opportunity.
If the product is not unique, it means it can be gotten somewhere else. Now if it can be gotten somewhere else for even cheaper, like an actual store, why should anyone want to get the product from you?
I never recommend any kind of MLMs but if you must join one, make sure you take a good look at the products first. As a rule of thumb, only opt-in to an MLM opportunity if you truly believe there is real value in the products. Most people do not truly believe in the products, but they try to sell it anyway. This is one way of setting yourself up for failure from the very beginning.
Some of the products offered by Young Living are:
- Essential Oil Blends
- Roll-ons
- Massage Oils
- Diffusers
- Toners
- Healthy snacks
- Flour, etc…
I cannot tell you anything comprehensive about the products because I have not tried any of them. One thing I can tell you is: Essential Oils are not unique. Essential oils can be found at a regular store for much cheaper and as a matter of fact, many MLMs even offer essential oils.
Let’s take the pancake and waffle mix they are offering for example. Young Living offers a 2lb box of pancake and waffle mix for $13.82. Walmart, which is a more popular and trusted company than Young Living could ever be, offers several brands of 2lb waffle mix for just over $2. Now could you tell me why any rational-thinking individual would buy a product from you when they could just go to Walmart?
Let’s close up this section with this question: If someone approached you with the same products at the same price, would you actually spend your money on the products?
If your answer is no, why then would you believe you can make a living selling these products to other people?
The Business Opportunity
A company would be a blatant pyramid scheme if they didn’t sell products at all, but we have established from the last section that making an income from the products is somewhat unrealistic. Considering that you would have to buy these products monthly, it is virtually impossible to even break even, let alone make profits.
If we want to put aside corporate gibberish and call a spade a spade, the real opportunity lies with recruiting people into the company.
Whether you choose to only sell products or you choose to recruit new members into the opportunity, you will need to spend between $45 and $160 to get a starter kit. The different starter kits are:
- Basic Starter Kit: $45
- Premium Starter Kit: $160
All kits contain a simple guide on how to get started and they have company brochures, business cards and more. The premium kit contains small samples to market to potential customers.
After purchasing a starter kit, you will now have to purchase an Essential Rewards (ER) kit.
These Essential Rewards kits are the actual products you will be selling. You purchase these at wholesale prices (24% discount off retail value) and then earn a percentage of any retail sale you make.
I think it is so much easier to sell the business opportunity than to sell only the products. For someone to join the opportunity anyway, they would have to buy a product first. So selling the opportunity also implies selling products.
Don’t misunderstand what I am trying to say here. There is still a very high chance of failure either way but I think to stand a chance of making money with this company, the business opportunity is the more feasible way to go.
The Compensation Plan
I don’t like writing about the compensation plan of most MLMs because they tend to highlight how much you could possibly earn, and then they subdue how difficult and highly unlikely it is to achieve those earnings.
Below is a video explaining the compensation plan in detail to you.
Disclaimer: I do NOT endorse this video. I do NOT recommend Young Living and I am sharing this video solely for educational purposes.
- Your rank is dependent the number of personal volume (PV) points in your group
- Participation of members in your group is what determines your success or failure in this business
- You could earn commissions 5 levels deep into your downline
- It is not enough to be successful right now. To remain successful long-term, the members of your downline have to remain motivated and successful
- Note that you wouldn’t know most of the people in your downline personally
Can you now see why 95% of people fail, despite the large income potential numbers they tout?
Let’s look at numbers
If you are still having doubts about everything I have said till this point, that’s fair.
How about we look at some official numbers? Here’s a screenshot of Young Living’s official income disclosure statement from 2015…
Here are a few things to note:
- 93.1% of all members earn $1 per month on average
- 99% of all members earn less than $2,221 per month on average
- You start earning $2,221 per month on average at the silver level and the average number of months it takes to get there is 32.
- Another important thing to note is that this chart only covers how much was paid to members. It does not include the expenses incurred by members like the recurring ER kit costs.
- As bad as these stats look, it is better than your typical MLM. 99% of distributors in most MLMs earn less than $2,000 a year!
Who is this opportunity for?
If you truly believe in the products you will be selling, you are prepared to be extremely pushy and “salesy” and if you have the strength to handle rejection and push on even if you don’t see results, then you at least have a slim chance of being successful.
If you were looking for a work from home opportunity, you are looking at the wrong company. I recommend you build your own online business if you want to work from home.
If you are uncomfortable with the idea of cold calling or hard selling to people, you are better off looking away from network marketing in general.
Pros
- Distributors purchase the products at wholesale prices
- For members that join without a sponsor, the company assigns them one
- Even though the average earnings are low, they are still better than most MLM companies
Cons
- It is very unlikely that you will make money
- Commissions could be very low and will require a lot of sales to even break even
- It can be argued to be a pyramid scheme
- The products are not unique and are relatively expensive
- The start-up costs are quite high for a beginner
Is Young Living a Pyramid Scheme?
Yes, it is a pyramid scheme. If recruiting stops today, what do you think will happen to the company?
The company still stands with its products but as you would expect, not many people would buy a pancake mix for $13 when they can buy one for $2. Most of the product purchases are made by members who want to participate in the business opportunity and when recruiting stops, the business opportunity crumbles.
The only way the company would survive without recruiting is if they reduced their prices to match up with the market prices. As things currently stand though, I don’t believe the company would survive without recruiting.
Closing Thoughts
One thing you need to realize is that MLMs are hard! This is one thing MLM companies would never tell you before they get you to join. They will take your money and let you find out the hard way that while it is possible to earn a lot of money, it is very improbable and difficult.
If you are not cut out for it, you are very likely to fail. There is a reason 95% of members fail in MLMs and I refuse to believe 95% of the crowd is just lazy or incompetent. The problem is with the entire MLM business model.
If you would like to make money from home, at your own pace, in a niche you already love and where your success is not dependent on anybody, build your own online business.
No hard selling, no cold calling, no recruiting, no pyramids, none of that stuff. Just you minding your own business, literally.
Young Living Essential Oils Review
PRODUCT NAME: Young Living
Price: $45-$160 for Starter Kit
Overall Ranking: 30/100
Owners: Gary and Mary Young
Your review leaves much to be desired.
First off, essential oils may be common, but high quality essential oils are NOT common. Very few companies (a couple??) can prove they offer high quality oils. I’d recommend you do a little research on how essential oils are harvested, and how easily they are destroyed in the process and sold regardless to an unsuspecting public.
Did you consider the fact that members are not seeking to earn money? Only those who reach Star, Silver Star, or above are attempting to earn money. Just something to consider. The vast majority of people in *any* MLM are there as members/customers, not business members. It is not accurate to say that it is difficult to earn money this way if you are looking at those stats and including members/customers who never sought to earn money in the first place.
Hey Kiara,
You are vouching for the quality of their essential oils but that’s not my priority. This review is about the quality of the products strictly from a marketing perspective. Without proper marketing training, distributors have to rely on face-to-face marketing to make sales and these products are a nightmare from a marketing perspective due to their prices. It does not matter how “high-quality” they might be, it is not feasible to expect a decent income from promoting the products without in-depth marketing training.
Young Living’s convenient bookkeeping leaves a lot of things down to assumption. But do you really expect me to believe that most distributors are willing the pay the monthly auto-ship fee for new products without wanting to earn money for themselves? You want me to just take your word for it?
This is common practice with MLM companies. They bundle distributors and customers together to have a sensible explanation for why the ratio of people that earn close to nothing is so low.
First of all there is a huge difference between Young Living essential oils and oils available at Walmart etc with regards to quality. YL oils are of high quality and worth every penny. Some of those store bought oils can even be dangerous. Second you are not required to enroll in Essential Rewards and if you do you can stop it at anytime. I joined YL for Myself. I can attest they have literally changed my life for the better. I enrolled in Essential Rewards also for myself. I am a “distributor” and I haven’t sold one oil nor have I even tried to get anyone to enroll though I do believe passionately in YL oils. No one from YL has gave me any hassle about this. I know you are talking about business opportunity in the article but I just wanted to correct a couple things and explain a different perspective of why people join YL.
I didn’t say the quality of Young Living essential oils and the ones sold at Walmart are the same. I’m only saying that your target audience as a distributor would be those who already understand that essential oils should be expensive or those who are already using another brand of essential oils.
In any case, it is still too much to expect most distributors to earn substantial income from making these sales without proper training. The regular person on the street does not give a damn about essential oils and even many people that understand their use would still not bring out the money to pay for it.
I’ll use myself as an example. Since I wrote this review, I’ve had many back and forth email conversations with Young Living distributors. I think I now have a good understanding of what essential oils do and why they are expensive. But would that make me willing to spend my money on it? No! Same goes for most people distributors will run into.
On paper the Essential Rewards kit isn’t required. Unless the distributor is truly only in it for the discounts, I don’t see how they can make sales without having the products in hand. By the way, there are minimum PV requirements to remain a Young Living member and one way to take care of this is by getting the monthly ER kit.
Anyway, thanks for the clarification. I’ll try and make time to make some adjustments to this review.
So the thing about quality as a determinant in judging essential oils: you need to look beyond the “story” and while I’m sure they’re probably going to be more pure and unadulterated than something you get at Walmart (mainly because Walmart does not even sell pure EOs), I did look through the Young Living catalog and noticed that most of the oils are not even certified organic nor wild-crafted. Also therapeutic grade is not a measure of quality. The majority of the oils are steam distilled rather than cold pressed which means the raw plant material is heated, which is why steam distilled although better than chemical processes like hexane extractions, are inferior to newer techniques. So please give it a rest with the quality.
And I’m sure you buy name brand Tylenol and Advil every time you go to the drug store too, yes ? because they work so much better!! lol Its all a placebo scam!
Acetamenophen and ibuprofen are identical in strength and quality to their name brand counterparts.. which is why you chose that analogy I’m sure, and I’d expect most people found it humorous. Additionally, your comparison is like oranges to apples, but I’m not rolling my eyes… Okay, well maybe a little. I’ve been around the essential oils block and can attest to YL’s strict seed to seal standards and the results are plain as day. My short lived medical schooling, and understanding what happens when EO’s enter the blood stream are both fascinating and real. No need to waste time on chemical-laden oil knock-offs (or placebos, which are impossible with essential oils btw). I’ve also not once attempted to make a profit, as I’m employed full time in two different careers simultaneously and just want to improve my life as well as my children and closest friends. Nothing else matters when it comes to using oils. Just health. And, yes, I’ve seen drastic and not so drastic improvements in our lives in the last four years, and I wouldn’t ever go back!
I really wish you had done your homework and so much could have been more accurately reported just by combing through the Young Living website.
“After purchasing a starter kit, you will have to purchase an Essential Rewards (ER) kit”
There is no Essential Rewards “kit” to buy and you also do not have to be involved in it. More on this in a moment.
“You will have to order products every month to remain part of this ER”
That is true, but I feel it’s important to note that these products are for your own personal use, not products that you must buy and then sell like some other MLM’s require.
“Some of the products offered by Young Living are:
Essential Oil Blends
Roll-ons
Massage Oils
Diffusers
Toners
Healthy snacks
Flour, etc…”
This is such an understated list. Young Living also provides products for natural cleaning, oral care, animals care, OTC products 9which they work with the FDA on), healthy cooking ingredients, nutritional options/supplements, personal care, and even a line of oils pre-diluted for use on children. This means that voluntary monthly auto ship programs allows you to swap out chemically laden products all across your home for safe options. Kind of brilliant, on their part.
“Let’s take the pancake and waffle mix they are offering for example. Now could you tell me why any rational-thinking individual would buy a product from you when they could just go to Walmart?”
I can. Their pancake and waffle mix (along with other food options) are made of Einkorn wheat, which some gluten intolerant people are able to eat. Not necessarily those with celiac disease, but it’s a safer option for those watching their gluten intake. I could be wrong, but I don’t think that’s not something that Walmart offers and for those who care about what they eat, they’ll pay for it.
“A company would be a blatant pyramid scheme if they didn’t sell products at all, but we have established from the last section that making an income from the products is somewhat unrealistic.”
From the Federal Trade Commission’s website:
“A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products or services.”
Young Living’s distributors earn their commissions on the monthly orders of their team (everyone buy products for their own personal use) primarily, while also earning commission from new sign ups.
“All kits contain a simple guide on how to get started and they have company brochures, business cards and more. The premium kit contains small samples to market to potential customers.”
The starter kits do not contain business cards or other sales materials. They do contain pamphlets on Young Living’s history, Seed to Seal promise, and how to use the oils included in the kit. There are samples that you can hand out – if you decide to – but the starter kits contain 11 oils and a diffuser for the purchaser’s own personal use. There are two other kits, one of which is all products to use around your home as safer options over common chemically-laden products.
“After purchasing a starter kit, you will now have to purchase an Essential Rewards (ER) kit.
These Essential Rewards kits are the actual products you will be selling. You purchase these at wholesale prices (24% discount off retail value) and then earn a percentage of any retail sale you make.”
Again, there is no Essential Rewards “kit” to buy and you also do not have to be involved in it. It’s a voluntary auto-ship program where you earn (pretty awesome) points back to your account to cash-in for free product.
You can read about it in detail on Young Living’s site:
https://www.youngliving.com/en_US/opportunity/essential-rewards
“If you are uncomfortable with the idea of cold calling or hard selling to people, you are better off looking away from network marketing in general.”
While true that you do have to educate/sell to potential new users/members, there’s no cold calling and you don’t even necessarily need to hard sell. Just educate and let people decide for themselves if they want cheap quality store oils or safer, higher quality oils, even if they are therefore more expensive.
“It can be argued to be a pyramid scheme”
I’m still confused. See the FTC’s website.
“The products are not unique and are relatively expensive”
As Kiara said, there are common but YL’s goal is products that you can trust. P.S. did you know there are tons of oils for less than $20, or even less than $15? Research, man. The crazy expensive ones are the rare oils like Frankincense and Rose. Rose flowers are expensive flowers so that’s logical.
“The start-up costs are quite high for a beginner”
Basic Starter kit – $45.
“Is Young Living a Pyramid Scheme?
Yes, it is a pyramid scheme. If recruiting stops today, what do you think will happen to the company?”
Didn’t you yourself say earlier that it wasn’t? “What separates a good MLM company from a blatant pyramid scheme is the strength of the products they offer.” The company has been going for a little over 20 years. If they stop recruiting, they would still survive because members earn commissions from the monthly orders of their team. It’s more accurate to ask what would happen to the company if all members stopped ordering monthly. It’s not about recruiting. But what would happen to any company if people stopped ordering the product.
As someone who is obviously a Young Living member and debating business building, I was happy to have stumbled across this article. But just being able to clarify some of your points made me more confidant in moving forward. Please do your research in the future. People are looking for unbiased information that they can trust and I’m not saying you are biased (obviously) but it is clear you didn’t thoroughly research what you were writing.
It looks like you read the review in its entirety and I really appreciate that. However, I did my homework before writing this review.
Why should they force you to purchase products every month for your own personal use? Shouldn’t that be your decision to make? What happens when you don’t need more products for your own “personal use”? Do you remain an active distributor? Companies suffocating distributors with compulsory auto-ship costs is one of the signs of a potential pyramid scheme.
Like I said in the review, this isn’t a product review but a review of the business opportunity. I’d expect anyone that is considering the Young Living business opportunity to have at least visited the website to know what products they sell. How does listing all the products the company sells change anything I wrote about the business opportunity?
The keyword for me here is the word “some”. So not all gluten intolerant people are able to eat it. A distributor that chooses to sell this product has to go from street to street looking for people who are watching the gluten intake AND are willing to pay much more than they would pay somewhere else. This review is supposed to be the common distributor’s perspective of the issues they will face as Young Living distributors.
Let’s refer back to the FTC: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/multilevel-marketing
“Not all multilevel marketing plans are legitimate. If the money you make is based on your sales to the public, it may be a legitimate multilevel marketing plan. If the money you make is based on the number of people you recruit and your sales to them, it’s probably not. It could be a pyramid scheme. Pyramid schemes are illegal, and the vast majority of participants lose money.”
I used your own exact words and then gave you the FTC’s exact words. I don’t need to add anything else on this issue.
I’m pretty sure there are business cards & a catalog (product guide and price list) included in the starter kits. Here’s why I’m sure:
https://www.youngliving.com/en_US/products/basic-starter-kit
Yes you do have to be involved in it if you want to earn money as a distributor. Again, in your own words, “These Essential Rewards kits are the actual products you will be selling”.
With the pressure of monthly ER costs, there is definitely going to be cold calling and hard selling. The only other alternative is to head straight for recruiting, which of course is one of the marks of a pyramid scheme.
Show them to me please. I clicked on many products back when I was writing the review and I clicked on more products now. Only thing I found for less than $20 was their toothpaste.
It’s $45-$160, depending our your choice. Starter Kit, Essential Rewards Kits and monthly order to remain in the ER program are all non-voluntary if you want to earn money as a distributor. Hence my claim that it is expensive for a beginner.
What of the members that are bottom of their team? Whose monthly orders would they earn commissions from? Nobody if recruiting stops and guess what? They’ll leave and next level up would have no one to earn monthly commissions from and so on until the entire pyramid crumbles.
As I was reading your comment, I was wondering why an MLM distributor would say some of the things you said and have so little understanding of the workflow in the industry. Then I found my answer towards the end: You’re not a Young Living distributor. You’re a member who is interested in becoming a distributor. I hope you really understand what you’re getting into. In any case, I wish you all the best.
The only qualification to remain a wholesale member of Young Living and receive 24% off retail is to purchase 50 pv (about $50) per year of product. That is it. I can tell you I joined as a wholesale member just to save the 24% off retail price. You are also able to join as a customer if you want and pay full retail price.
There is NO requirement, whatsoever, of having to join Essential Rewards. It is encouraged if you continually spend at least 50pv per month as you can rack up percentages on what you purchase and use those points to get product wherein you only pay the shipping. That is the only qualification for being on Essential rewards–50 pv per month. And if you do decide to join Essential Rewards, you can cancel at ANY time.
ALL wholesale members are labeled as distributors. But not all distributors are “doing” the business. They don’t want to nor have any desire to do the business–they just want to save the 24% on their product. Some of them only order once per year to meet their 50pv (about $50) requirement to remain a wholesale member.
You do not need to be on Essential Rewards to earn money for the “team”.
What is the definition of a pyramid scheme?
A pyramid scheme is an illegal investment scam based on a hierarchical setup. New recruits make up the base of the pyramid and provide the funding, or so-called returns, the earlier investors/recruits above them receive. A pyramid scheme does not involve the selling of products.
What about a Ponzi scheme?
Ponzi scheme. Definition. A type of investment fraud in which investors are promised artificially high rates of return with little or no risk; original investors and the perpetrators of the fraud are paid off by funds from later investors, but there is little or no actual business activity that produces revenue.
I’m sorry. But by these two definitions, Young Living qualifies as neither.
I agree. But MLM companies structure their books like this to make it difficult to tell the true percentage of distributors who are successful or unsuccessful in “doing” the business. It’s usually the justification for why their average income is so low.
About the company being a pyramid scheme or not, I already replied F. Coppea’s comment with a link and a quote from the FTC. I didn’t call Young Living a Ponzi scheme, so I don’t get why you’re defining it in this case.
F. Coppea and SJohnson – perfect replies. At some point, it’s obvious that unless a person is willing to learn what something is actually about, it’s all bias and conjecture. As a Distributor, I love YL for myself, my mostly grown kids, and my close friends who signed up because I diffused at work for my own reasons, and basically the “curb appeal” (scents) got them! Past that, I don’t even care. I do care though, about their health, and if there’s any way I can help them take better care of themselves, why on earth wouldn’t I?? I signed up for ER, not because it suddenly makes me money (HAHA), I signed up because getting 25% back in points, means I get my favorite skin care cream free, plus whatever promotion they have that month! I didn’t think I’d like Longevity, but it’s pretty effective in warding off viruses! And, don’t get me started on Thieves.
Just saying your comments didn’t fall on deaf ears.
Quick question, Frank: If you were not at all involved in the business opportunity, I’m curious to know how you managed to find this review,
Yep. Sounds like a pyramid scheme to me and very cult like similar to advocare. You can get good quality essential oils anywhere these days. They just target people interested in natural healing claiming the products are the best.
Thanks for stopping by, Anthong!
I agree! My adoptive sister is a “Diamond” and, because of this, got dragged into the business as a “Distributor” (as she is one who is honored in the family) with ER and I saw that Walmart’s essential oils are pure and Target even tests them! I do NOT want to be a part of this business and realized it was a pyramid scheme right away before reading this article.
If she is a “diamond” I would definitely not say anyone dragged her anywhere. She would be making serious commissions.
PS Target and Walmart oils have ZERO comparison to YL oils. They must utilize 1% of the actual ingredient (say lavender) and call product therapeutic grade.
You get what you pay for.
My daughter is a distributor and had not made money. She loves the product and made me a distributor.I don’t want to hurt her feelings but I don’t think she is being realistic when she thinks she can make money on this.