Tropic skincare review: Is this MLM a Scam or Pyramid Scheme?

Today we’re taking a look at Tropic Skincare.

You probably came to this page because you wonder if Tropic Skincare is a legit or a pyramid scheme?

No need to worry you’re in the right place for the answers to these questions.

Over the last few years, I’ve been busy creating reviews about all kinds of online products.

Some turned out to be fake others were legit ways to make money online but in the process, I learned how to spot scams.

In this post, I’ll show you absolutely everything you need to know about Tropic Skincare and after reading it you’ll know exactly if you should give it a chance.

What is Tropic Skincare?

Tropic Skincare is an MLM company that manufactures and distributes everything from body care and hair care to makeup and baby products. The name of the founder of Tropic Skincare is Susie Ma. 

Since Susie Ma was young she’s always been concocting healthy organic skin care creams and scrubs inspired by her grandma who was a medicinal chemist and toxicologist.

Around the age of 15, she started selling them and had lots of success selling them which inspired her to participate in BBC’s series The Apprentice where she met Lord Alan Michael Sugar a British business magnate, media personality, author, politician, and political adviser.

He invested in her products to become a 50/50 partner of tropic skincare and in 2013 they decided to distribute the product using network marketing also known as multi-level marketing.

The mission of Tropic Skincare is to empower people to build their own business in the beauty industry by selling natural products that are healthy and safe.

At the time of writing this, Tropic Skincare has launched over 300 products and has more than 20.000 active ambassadors in their independent workforce.

How does Tropic Skincare work?

In short, Tropic Skincare is a company that manufactures and distributes everything from body care and hair care to makeup and baby products. Instead of directly selling it to consumers they have chosen to use the MLM model which gives you a choice to earn money by:

• Selling the products for a commission
• Recruiting people to earn bonuses.

What is MLM?

MLM (a.k.a network marketing or direct selling) stands for multi-level marketing.

According to Wikipedia, multi-level marketing is a marketing strategy for the sale of products or services where the revenue is derived from a non-salaried workforce.

As a part of this workforce, you sell the products from the company, and/or you recruit people to do the same thing. This group of people you recruit will work under you and is referred to as your downline.

The bigger your downline is the more money you can earn passively (technically speaking) because you’re getting paid a percentage based on the performance of your downline.

This also means the person that recruited you which is called your upline is making money based on your performance.

The act of recruiting turns an MLM company into a pyramid-shaped organization where the first people to join make the most and are on the top of the pyramid and those last to join are at the bottom.

Source: Wikipedia

MLMs have been around for a long time. There are Multi-level marketing companies active today that was founded in the 1950s. MLM has a lot in common with pyramid schemes which is why scammers often use MLM to disguise their pyramid scheme.

Is it essential to recruit people? No.

You can also stick to just selling products which you can order at wholesale price (25% discount) and re-sell to make a profit. This is easier said than done for multiple reasons which are why most members try to recruit others so they can earn more money.

How to join Tropic Skincare

You can join Tropic Skincare as an ambassador. 

Most people get introduced to Tropic Skincare by another ambassador which will become their sponsor but you can also sign up for both by visiting the Tropic Skincare join page.

Those that sign-up to become a partner by signing up will have a sponsor appointed to them by “Tropic Skincare”.

You’ll also be asked to purchase one of their starter kits which have samples of all their best-sellers at the one-off cost of £198

You’ll receive training after which you can start selling products and recruiting people to earn commissions and bonuses.

How does a Tropic Skincare ambassador earn her commissions?

Tropic Skincare trains its ambassadors to sell their products through what they call Pampers. 

These are small get-togethers where people will get a demonstration of the products that Tropic Skincare provides. During these Pampers the people invited are able to place orders.

The products will be used on a hostess that gets 15% of revenue gained in these pampers. The rest of the earnings go to the ambassador that puts the Pampers together. 

Is Tropic Skincare a pyramid scheme?

To answer this question we need to know what a pyramid scheme is.

What is a pyramid scheme?

A pyramid scheme is a type of scam where people are promised money for joining the scheme and recruiting other people. No selling of a product or service is involved whatsoever.

So you might be wondering where the money comes from?

The people that join are expected to pay a one-time fee and in exchange for that, they get a percentage of the fee of everyone they recruit after that.

The problem is from a mathematical standpoint it’s impossible for everyone to make money because you simply run out of people.

Take a look at this picture below showing how it’s impossible for everyone to earn money.

Source: Wikipedia

As you can see, in this pyramid model it’s required to recruit 6 people. You’ll notice from the 12th level and further, it’s not possible anymore for everyone to earn money.

The 2.2 Billion people on the 12th level need 13.1 billion recruits in total for them all to make money which is more people than there are currently on Earth.

Looking at the description of what a pyramid scheme is, Tropic Skincare can’t be classified as a pyramid scheme from a legal perspective. Tropic Skincare sells products and has given people a method to make money without recruiting people.

That being said, there definitely are definitely a few unanswered questions that make me worry. Read further to find out what I mean.

Who can benefit from Tropic Skincare?

Who would benefit from joining The Tropic Skincare MLM Program:

• Expert salesmen
• Expert recruiters
• People that believe in the cause.
• The United Kingdom and channel islands

Who shouldn’t join The Tropic Skincare MLM Program:

• People that hate sales jobs.
• People that hate recruiting
• People that want to earn a full-time income
• People that expect to earn passive income
• People younger than 18 years old

Tropic Skincare products

A good MLM should have quality products that you can sell so I thought it was appropriate to look at what they offer. Tropic Skincare is a health/beauty company mostly geared towards women and children that want to take care of their skin, body, and hair.

Tropic Skincare products are made to take care of your body using environmental-friendly ingredients and are cruelty-free. The products can be divided into 4 categories Skincare, Makeup, Hair, and Baby products.

Here are a few examples of the products you can buy on the Tropic Skincare website.

The products that Tropic Skincare sells seem to be a lot more expensive than non-MLM alternatives that are currently on the market. That being said, people seem to be very satisfied with the products that Tropic Skincare sells. 

Does this mean the price of the products is justified? Who knows but I doubt selling these products will be easy when you know people can find cheaper alternatives with a 2-minute Google search.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Products have tangible benefits
  Some of these MLM companies sell products of which you don’t know if they’ll benefit you until you use them. An example of this is essential oils. Its never been concluded from a scientific perspective that they work which limits you in promoting their benefits. Tropic Skincare has the advantage with their products that what you see is what you get. People know exactly what they’re buying.
• 90-day money-back guarantee
  All products of the Tropic Skincare have a 90-day money-back guarantee which makes products a bit easier to sell because it removes risks of not getting the value you pay for as a customer.
• You don’t have to keep an inventory of products
  As a Tropic Skincare ambassador, you can order products directly from the website and have them shipped to your clients. 
• They don’t work with PV
  Most MLMs designate points to their products to explain to their ambassadors how much a product is worth. Tropic Skincare doesn’t do that they just go by how much it costs. The advantage for the ambassador with this is that the company can’t change the worth of the points. They can’t “move the goal post” for qualifying for higher levels.

Cons

• Expensive products
  The Tropic Skincare products sold are insanely expensive making them hard to sell to others. I can imagine associates having a lot of trouble with getting rid of the products they purchased with the goal of reselling.
• Low earning potential
  The commission rate is high but when you look at the products you have to sell, you start to notice that you have to sell an unrealistic number of products to earn decent money or start recruiting.
• You have to pay to play
  You have to purchase a specific amount of products to stay eligible for getting commissions based on your downlines. This comes with increased financial risk.

Tropic Skincare Compensation Plan

The Tropic Skincare MLM program can be considered a traditional MLM when you look at their compensation plan. You either re-sell their products for a commission or you can recruit people and receive residual income, climb up the ranks, and earn bonuses.

In total there are 8 ranks divided into 3 categories (Ambassador, Leader, Executive) that all come with their benefits such as getting a higher commission percentage of all your sales starting at 25%.

Ambassador ranks:
Ambassador
Senior Ambassador
Team Ambassador

Leader ranks:
Leader
Senior Leader

Executive ranks:
Executive Leader
Platinum Executive
Diamond Executive

How much does it cost to start a Tropic Skincare “business”?

The compensation plan is very confusing at first sight but these are the most important things to know when it comes to the cost of staying a member.

After signing up, you have to buy a starters kit that costs £198.

There’s no minimum monthly requirement to earn commissions. 

You just need to place £500 Personal Sales in the month you want to earn commissions to be eligible.

When you want to start earning residual commission based on recruits as a leader or Executive you’ll have to meet more requirements.

Overall, the minimum costs for starting your Tropic Skincare business are £198. 

How much can you earn with Tropic Skincare?

Tropic Skincare provides its ambassadors with multiple opportunities to earn commissions and bonuses.

• Personal commissions
  25% Commission based on personal sales regardless of rank.
• Personal sales bonuses
  An additional 1,5% to 10% bonus based on personal sales.
• Team Mentor bonuses 
  A 2% or 3% bonus based on sales of personal sponsored ambassadors and your personal rank.
• Executive Personal Bonuses
  £300 – £500 bonus for ambassadors on the executive level
• Executive Business Bonuses
  Additional £300 – £400 bonus for ambassadors on the executive level
• Central Team Bonuses
  £100 bonus that’s earned when ambassadors at the rank leader or higher have £10.000 worth of sales.

Unfortunately, Tropic Skincare hasn’t published an income disclosure to see what current members are earning but here’s an interesting screenshot from the Tropic Skincare ambassadors page.

According to this page, 10% is at the leader level and earning £1,049 excluding costs for business maintenance. The average full-time income in 2021 in the UK according to Statista is £31.285/ year.

This means assuming you can maintain the level of leader for a year ( which takes at least £500 in personal sales, £4000 in team sales, and 5 personally sponsored qualified ambassadors) you’ll earn a third of the average full-time salary.

This isn’t horrible but looking at how much work you’d have to put into I don’t think it’s worth the time.

Also, something you have to take into account is that is 10% is at the level of Leader and higher, 90% is at the ambassador level where they barely earn anything.

Technically, the sky is the limit when it comes to commissions but unfortunately, it shares the same “handicaps” most MLM companies have which prevents members from earning decent money.

Why aren’t people earning decent money with MLM companies like Tropic Skincare?

I have summed up the reasons why it’s hard to make money with Tropic Skincare and MLM companies in general into 3 points. As a Tropic Skincare Ambassador, you’ll have to deal with these 3 points.

1. MLMs are often associated with pyramid schemes
MLMs have a pyramid recruiting structure that you often have to join to be able to make decent money or at the very least not lose money. The problem is a lot of pyramid schemes disguise themselves as MLM programs making it difficult to differentiate the two.

This is the biggest problem why most distributors have a difficult time recruiting people. The moment people hear about how you can make money by recruiting people red flags appear in most people’s minds.

2. You have to consistently invest your money to earn commissions
You’re only eligible for bonuses and commissions if you buy their products. The bigger the bonuses the more product you have to buy. You do get discounts but if you can’t sell the products I can see you easily fall into a financial deficit (which happens to the majority of MLMs).

3. The price of the product often isn’t aligned with the market

It’s hard for a multi-level marketer to sell products because most MLM products tend to be a lot more expensive than similar products sold by non-MLM companies. This means even if you’re really good at recruiting your downline still needs to sell those same expensive products for you to make decent money.

You can see that translate in these statistics I found about Multi-level Marketing.

• Nearly half (47%) of MLM participants reported that they lost money.
• One in four (27%) MLM participants reported that they broke even (made no money).
• MLM participants are 7% more likely to declare bankruptcy during their lifetime.
• Direct sales have risen 79% in the last decade, but MLM participants continue to lose money.
• 90 – 99% of distributors in multilevel marketing only receive a couple of hundred dollars commission per year.
• Out of 33,000 interviewed, 90 people made enough money to cover costs in building their business.
• 50% of the people who start a network marketing enterprise abandoned it in the first year.

Sources:
FTC
AARP
Jobsinmarketing.io

Tropic Skincare Reviews, Opinions, and Ratings

To add more objectivity to this review I thought it’d be nice to take a look at what others had to say about the Tropic Skincare MLM program. I took a lot of what a few blog reviewers had to say which could be summarized in these 3 points:

• Tropic Skincare is a legitimate MLM
• Tropic Skincare has quality products
• The price per product is too low to earn a decent income without recruiting. 
• Succeeding with this business model is incredibly hard.

My Personal Take

Tropic Skincare isn’t a pyramid scheme or any other type of scam but I don’t think it’s a great opportunity either. Since 2013 Tropic Skincare has used their MLM program to distribute their products and still 90% is at the lowest level.

So if you have dreams of earning a full-time income online this probably isn’t the best program to join. I do consider it to be one of the better MLM programs. I have seen MLM programs where you’d have to pay $1900 just to join and pay $400 monthly.

That isn’t the case with Tropic Skincare. Although I don’t recommend joining this MLM program because it requires more work than its worth I think this is a legitimate MLM company.

Verdict

Is Tropic Skincare A Pyramid scheme or Scam? No. They sell quality products and there’s is a legitimate focus on selling products but you won’t earn a lot of money even if you’re a top distributor or recruiter.

Tropic Skincare Alternative

Let’s be honest unless you’re very skilled at selling and recruiting, MLMs might not be ideal for you.

What if I said to you there’s a method to make money online that doesn’t require you to recruit people or resell products?

It also brings in a lot more money even though it takes less work.

Sound like a better option for most right?!

If you want to make money online from anywhere including your own home I recommend looking into affiliate marketing.

I think this method is a better option for most people because you can earn just as much as with multi-level marketing but you don’t have to bother people to join your downline.

There is also no need to dig yourself into a financial hole without knowing if you can succeed and you aren’t required to sell a minimum of products to stay eligible for commissions.

I learned how to do affiliate marketing with the help of a step-by-step beginners course on an affiliate marketing training platform called Wealthy Affiliate.

Interested in doing the same? Learn more about the training platform and try out their FREE starters course.

If you have experience with MLM companies like Tropic Skincare leave a comment.

I’d love to hear what you think about it.

That’s all for today.

See you at my next post!