I had no idea about this when I applied to work at The Body Shop in-store a few years ago. At the beginning of my interview the manager told me she had too many mimosas at lunch so the interview was going to be a little "loosey-goosey". I thought I did well in the interview but the manager called me to tell me I didn't get the job because I didn't wear enough makeup to the interview- thus not making the best impression. I'm glad I dodged more than one bullet with this company lol

right before you said "did someone say market saturation?" i was thinking - what a horrible MLM to join when the body shop sells their products online and in the malls as well. not only are you competing against other recruits, but you are competing against the corporation itself. seems like the worst possible scenario for sellers.

The Body Shop was always a store in the mall, who knew it was an MLM!

Just a quick one- please don’t donate money to NHS hospitals! It is a nightmare for wards/ staff to access those funds! Ask the wards what they need that costs the amount you wish to donate! 😄

Just found your channel, and am having a great time here! But to add on to the bar soap, they are extra useless because they're scented, scented soap is not allowed in hospitals. Scented anything isn't allowed in hospitals. Well in the US anyways, not sure about the Uk, but basically all hospitals have a scent-free policy, so no perfume, no scented body products, and no scented soap, or only very lightly scented soaps are allowed.

I really appreciate that you emphasize putting blame on the MLMs rather than the individuals! I'm writing a dissertation on when blame is applied to individuals vs systems and incentives, and MLMs with their "hustle" rhetoric seem to emphasize the individual so heavily to avoid scrutiny of their practices and the kinds of incentives they create. I think that blaming the people who get sucked in is unhelpful because it has the same effect of detracting from the systems themselves, so I'm really happy to see that caveat!

I loved The Body Shop back in the mid 90’s (white musk perfume oil and their body butters were my fave), but my sensitivity to scents have grown as I’ve aged. A few years ago I popped into a store at the mall and had to exit ASAP due to the overwhelming scents. ETA, the bad times virus is my new favorite term for these times.

Thank you for this video! You’ve spoken so clearly, fairly, and eloquently. My sentiments exactly! The lengths people have gone to in a desperate attempt to recruit me to BSAH are unbelievable and unethical. A few of my longstanding friends are recruits themselves. It took me until I was 32 to speak publicly about having an anxiety disorder for Mental Health Awareness. Over the weeks that followed, I received DM’s from my “friends” saying that they used to suffer from anxiety too, until they joined BSAH, and now they have the confidence to do anything! - Yeah, like ruthlessly using my mental health as an weapon to recruit me! 😩🤦🏻‍♀️ It seems to me that people are under such terrible pressure to recruit that they lose sight of their morals along the way 😢 Thank you for highlighting the dangers. I wish people would take note! xxx

hey emma, i just want to let you know that the maths part of recruits here brings me a lot of joy due to how done you are with numbers hope you're doing well, keep up the good work with spreading information

Binge watching Emma's videos 😁 regarding donating soap bars to hospitals Nurses may take them home for personal use 🤷‍♀️ but if they wanted to do something for Nurses & Doctors they would hand in sealed bags of tea, tins of coffee, biscuits and cereal bars. Talking from experience 😊

This is what we need more of! Videos picking apart the compensation plans, putting them into perspective, to see how much pressure there actually is on recruiting. I know for some it’s hard to find up to date resources and sometimes for the right country but out of the ones we can find, I wanna see more videos like this x

Loved this video. It's a great one to show consultants because it doesn't seem like such an aggressive attack , that reps can get defensive or upset over.

I have a friend in body shop at home and I honestly don’t believe it is as bad as some of the other mlms in terms of recruiting based on her experience. I asked her about it outright and I believe she was pretty honest about her experience and she said she made around £50-£150 a month through sales and had never been pressured to recruit anyone (she’s never tried to recruit me). The way she put it is she finds the marketing side and customer interaction fun to do in her spare time and she makes about enough for some extra days out with her kids. I think so much of it really comes down to your upline and the body shop should do more to police and monitor this aspect if they want to keep their reputation as a decent company.

I appreciate your desire for completeness of coverage on a subject and willingness to site sources. I know KZfaq's algorithm may be stressing short videos for the less attentive, but I am not afraid of 1000-page books or four-hour movies if I am interested in the subject or appreciate a presenter's/creator's abilities to keep me engaged - like you do. You may not have Sir Attenborough's length of experience, but you do come across as having their passion for the chosen subject, and desire for the factual content of what you are espousing. 🙂

I remember, at the start of the pandemic last year, when Arbonne reps (in the US, at least) were allegedly putting together "care packages" for the healthcare workers at their local hospitals. They were just a bunch of Arbonne products that are purported to have some sort of health benefit. I learned about it from a video by Amanda Mc, another excellent anti-MLM channel who is also a healthcare worker (registered nurse, I believe, but not 100% sure), explaining that hospitals would not even accept outside gifts of any kind at that time, for fear that it could be a further source of contamination of the bad times virus (love that lol). That probably would have applied to the NHS and the soap donation at the time you made this video. She said that the only exception was PPE, and whatever it was had to be fully brand-new, unused, and in its original sealed, packaging, and there was a specific process for donating it. She also found some Arbonne reps who were advertising this care package thing who were specifically in her city, and then she asked several of her friends and colleagues who were working in other hospitals in her area if any of them had gotten/seen/heard about someone getting one of these packages, and all of them said no. I'm not saying that proves the whole thing was a scam (within a scam), and neither did she, but there was a lot of speculation at the time that that's exactly what it was. Because, if I remember correctly, they were actually asking the public for _cash donations to themselves_ in order to put together more bags. ... because that's somehow better than giving that money straight to the hospitals.

Your video was amazing! I work full time and I'm considering becoming a BSAH consultant mainly as something else to do because I like making videos and I like the products. I'm against MLMs for all the things that you have said, if I do go for it I'll be doing it for fun. If I make a little bit of money then yay! If not then that's fine. One thing I will always stand by is that I'm never going to push anyone into buying things / recruiting people and your video has helped me realised more about the company and what I may end up in the middle of. ❤️ Thank you xx

Cant believe I didn't know about this until this year when it was popping up online the fact it's been around for so long is madness 🙃

When I went to trade school back in 2002, my English teacher tried to get some of the girls in my class, interested in some form of business selling lotion as a consultant. I'm not 100 % sure it was The Body Shop, but it was a very similar scheme and I told them it was a pyramid scheme as I didn't know about MLM's back then and my teacher continued to push the products on the girls, while telling me it wasn't a pyramid scheme. From that moment on, she really didn't like me at all.

You’re voice is just so soothing and professional x

Love that I caught the Icicle on the shelf! I have the same one- they make such beautiful pieces!

Wow, thank you for going undercover and doing so much research! You are awesome

another one nobody talks about is neal's yard remedies. they have shops on the high street and people think highly of the business but they have an mlm branch of the business.

Super informative ! I didn't know anything about this before

I’m always surprised that so many people don’t know this and that they have never been invited to a body shop at home party before . When my kids were little (now in teens and early 20s) I got invited to them ALL the time , and yes I was pressured to join . I’m in Australia for reference .

Thanks for this vid. I got added to a BSAH fb group and bought quite a few things. But when through October we were encouraged to comment on a the daily post for the month - the one who commented most got a prize - I realised, the consultants must be part of a group sharing these same ideas as a way to increase engagement. I'm only 5 mins into your video (just had to comment!), but why is no one talking about the BS before and after pictures?! I've been thinking of leaving the group for a while because it makes me so cross. Now to have my suspicions confirmed, that it's an MLM, I feel I have to leave but I feel I need to message the woman because I don't want her to feel bad, like it's something shes done. Ah, what a minefield! Now to tuck into your video, loving it so far! X

During Covid we got loads of soaps etc. donated - they weren't used clinically, the hospital would put them into gift bags for us to take home. Without wanting to sound ungrateful, I'd much rather have had the money (either directly or for the hospital to spend on us - e.g. buying drinks etc.). I know nursing has a reputation for being a "feminine" profession, but the constant bags of fancy hand creams, moisturisers, bath items etc. given out were useless for a guy with no interest in skincare. (And now I'm being unreasonably picky as I'm in such a small minority - but so much food was donated that I couldn't eat as I'm vegan, almost everyday I sat in the staffroom next to a buffet I could never touch!)

So impressed with all the wisdom and awesomeness you display for such a young person. Also

I got this add while watching a anti mlm video, From first glance your content is amazing! I really enjoy anti mlm things to this channel is for me. New subscriber (Also, you're very pretty!) Take care! Here before 1K Subs

Nice show. I like the longer videos. I didn't watch it all at once, but that's fine for me. I enjoyed knowing more about the MLMs.

Well researched and intelligently argued. I've struggled with the slow pace of some talking head videos on here but enjoyed this one. MLMs are designed to be unrealistic and unpleasant. They set an unattainable target which then creates desperate members who will do almost anything to recruit or sell.something. If the product was good and they weren't greedy they would set up a plain old sales network where brand enthusiasts could promote and sell the products for direct commission.

Thank you so much for your video. I have actually joined TBSAH though I suspected it was an MLM. Thank you for being so informative, it was actually really helpful and has probably prevented me from being sucked in! For me I haven't joined to make money as I know this isn't a realistic. I've started purely to get to know my community as I'm quite isolated from my family and of course to get cheaper body shop products. Thank you again! Rachel :)

I used to be a big fan of the Body Shop until I found out Anita Roddick stole the entire concept from two women in San Francisco. She saw their small store and went and copied everything: the dark green colour concept, the logo, the focus on fair trade, the names of the products.. and once she'd set it all up, she sued those poor ladies for trademark violation.... doesn't surprise me that this cursed company is an MLM as well.

This girl does her fucking homework! I love it!

Thanks Emma. Very informative. My friend has joined this scheme and I was worried about it. She is a teacher and on long term stressed induced leave.

There’s no need to make your videos shorter! Glad to hear what you have to say.

8:40 I don't know why slowly adjusting your glasses with two pointer fingers looked like such a significant gesture. 😂

I'm so deeply upset by this, I have only used white musk for ages.... I have never heard of BSAH! Not sure if you are a fellow Spoonie or just an aware non-Spoonie but hey. Just found your channel 💜

You are so cute, and everything about this setup feels so professional. I’m so happy to see some more UK antimlm youtubers💕

Oh wow, that's pretty shocking tbh, had no idea! I love their products but rarely buy any cause I find them so overpriced. Thank you so much for talking about this, I know I won't be supporting them ever again. And also, no need to try and make these vids any shorter imo, it's important to get all the information! You're awesome and I love your content! Stay safe!

Thank you for the video, it was very informative and useful. I've seen a few of my friends on Facebook selling Body Shop products recently and it all looked super suspicious, so after further research, I've come to the conclusion I, unfortunately, don't want to support this brand anymore.

About donating to hospitals... I think some of the only times you should donate items instead of money to hospitals is if they specifically ask for items i.e. Making hats for the chemotherapy patients. Blankets for the premie babies. etc.

WOWWWW like wow, I had no clue...thank u for making these vids

Really enjoyed watching.......keep going

I love Body Shop products and have friends that sell Body Shop at home, but never really thought of it as an MLM. No one has tried to recruit me probably as I never buy from reps only direct, as there is always a discount code. Can't see how anyone can make money when it seems to be in competition with the shop. Great stuff x

Found this from a Facebook anti-mlm group. Great video! I only found out that it was an MLM last year. Could you or have you done a video on the tropic skincare MLM? An ex-friend of mine was/is a part of it. We aren't friends now for a bunch of reasons, tropic being one of them.

Oh my glob! I know I'm commenting late on this video but I'm new to your crew and I know I've found a home because we have the same bird in our rooms. Crow lover?

Are the people who work at the stores somehow separate from the MLM? I'm wondering why they don't all try to recruit you when you walk in. Why does the Body Shop maintain brick and mortar instead of going all in on being an MLM?

Thank you for your anti-MLM content. My ex-girlfriend sold Mary Kay. They really targeted her when she was very young and impressionable. It was not OK.

Clear and well-research video, I'm glad youtube recommended this one to me! I stopped buying from the body shop when I started having horrible irritant contact dermatitis from the fragrance in their products, which led me to learning more about skin care and how, despite so many great reviews and anecdotal evidence, their formulations are really not great from a dermatological point of view. This was a shame because I always used to love their products, and simply can't use them anymore, but I'm wondering now if it was a blessing in disguise. I recently watched an illuminaughty video about the body shop's MLM component, and was shocked to hear them claim that basically the whole concept of the store, its initial products and formulations, and even the initial catalogue was plaigerised from another company. I have not done my own research into this yet, so I don't know how true the allegation is, but it has the potential to be an even more damning story to the company than their shady MLM practices. Would be very interesting to hear your thoughts on this if you felt like diving deeper into this subject.

Brilliant video. I loved your delivery

Thanks for this. I've just left TBSAH for every reason you've covered here. The irony is, The Bodyshop pride themselves on being an ethical business but there's absolutely nothing ethical about MLMs 🙄 The amount of bitching and backstabbing that was going on between recruits on social media was absolutely ludicrous. I couldn't do it anymore. I do wonder what Anita Broderick herself would say about this entire gaff. 🤔🤔

I love Body Shop products but hate MLMs. I have been buying from a friend or mine who became a consultant over lockdown as she would conveniently drop things off on my doorstep. However, I have just discovered that the BodyShop outlet shop (which looks the same as a normal version) is actually cheaper than buying from a consultant

Yay, ice-cream van. Cool!

I completely had no idea about it being an MLM, I only ever knew about the shops themselves and I've always got my soap and hand cream there

I love your video I was a manager with bodyshop at home I wasn't paid my bonuses I earned.. theu changed data to avoid payments and STILL haven't paid my manager who also earner her bonuses and fast track payments! Their stock levels are disgusting they don't even order enough for the consultants to have 1 for themselves let alone customers! I've been win them 4 years on and off and wow it's just greed and pushing numbers now!! Sell sell recruit recruit.. keep working don't get paid! 😂😂 total jokes

Man, King Of The Hill did a really good show about pyramid schemes. That was like 20yrs ago. The fact that this is still a problem speaks to the sickness of the system as a whole.

I've just came across this video and I just have to comment. I am a BSAH consultant and have been for nearly 2 years. I do it because I enjoy it and have met some amazing people. It is entirely up to the individual whether they recruit or not I personally don't hassle or encourage people you can do it whatever way you want. Also I never need to buy stock and again that is up to the individual to do so. There will always be people in any business who want to go up the ladder. Just to make you aware I sell between 600.00 and 1000.00 a month on my private group with 275 people. So to me it's easy enough. It is a hobby to me and I don't see any harm in it.

Great informative video! What about their raffles also? I read that this is considered illegal.

My friend in uni joined the Body Shop at Home. I don't think I really knew about MLMs at the time but I'm a suspicious b*astard and warned them that it sounded sketchy as hell - or at least, very unlikely to actually make them any money. Thankfully, this person didn't overstretch themselves on finances, they just bought a few items (maybe it was a starter kit?), threw one or maybe two parties to encourage friends to order things through them/the catalogue, then stopped when they realised it wasn't going to get them anywhere fast. Now that I know more about MLMs, I'm very glad for that (even though we're no longer friends). It could have been so much worse.

I don't have their store near me but I love their products and what to join just to buy them

Help! What should I do cuz the only thing that works for my eczema is one of their serums, what should I do?

I started the body shop at home for a bit of extra cash and a bit of fun after I left college. I really enjoy it and have never felt pressured to reach sales or recruit but I am aware that it is an MLM but I’m doing it more for myself and cause I love the products and friends do as well. I will never do raffles as I know they’re illegal. For me though I just enjoy it and is a great hobby to keep me busy during lockdown.😊😊 xx

Absolutely gutted to hear this. The Body Shop always seemed like such a great company. Fair Trade, no animal testing, good quality products that work for me ... why must they ruin their company with an MLM? 😭

It's so easy to avoid mlm's. Just shop locally. Do the effort. Go to a store, bye the products, have a good old fashion girls night and if you're old enough, drink a glass of bubbles. I'm employed in a The Bodyshop store in Denmark and were surprised by this video. We don't have "shop at home", but we do see our sister stores close one by one because people use the webshop and the webshop doesn't pay my salary or the rent. So should you boycott "at home"? I guess. I wouldn't be sure you got the right advice or trained staff, as I said, we don't have it, where I live so all I have to go by is the British homepage. Should you boycott The Bodyshop? H*** no! Actually, If you look at it, "at home" is a way of supporting small business owners, which has always been a brand identity, along with human rights, cruelty free, always been vegetarian and now becoming vegan, sustainability and so much more. Do yes, you could boycott the entire brand and go with a lesser conscious brand or you could just say no to any "at home" invitation you get.

I couldn’t help but think of the ‘I met a man on my way' riddle watching you figure out the structure of this pyramid scheme.

Okay i'm only 2 minutes in but OMG how did i not put two and two together with Ann summers!? I've even been to some of their 'parties' and its still never occurred to me that it was an MLM! but of course it is! crikey

Honestly even knowing as off this I'm not going to stop buying from my body shop rep, just because she's a friend of mine, the discounts you get from the groups are good and you do get products cheaper than what you'd get in-store. I would never join an MLM myself, but there are very few I support, Body Shop is pretty much the only one, been buying their stuff since I was a teen, it does help with my psoriasis and dry scalp.

This is interesting. I have never used their products but I thought they are just normal store

This was literally so helpful. You have really put effort into this video, explained things very well and understand MLMs really well💕 this is my first video of yours and I've subscribed now! I think you're fab. Thankyou x

I remember there being physical stores. It didn't look very MLM. I drove past the place all the time.

My wife was doing Tupperware. It's the exact same MLM. Exactly the same model. Same everything. Once she ran out of friends and family buying she was out. Yes we got a bunch of Tupperware on sale. But it still cost me..(the sole bread winner at the time) over $2000 CDN. I bought $2000 of product so my wife could keep going. Needless to say, that was the end of that endeavor.

26:50 I don't know if you bring it up but another manipulation tactic that could be going on is swapping the days. If I give myself a rash and photograph the rash getting worse, I could put my unrashed "day 1" skin as "day 5" and claim I was healed

I'm looking at joining bodyshop, but purely because I actually like and buy their products in the actual shop, I'm not looking to make a whole career of it but thought at the least maybe I'd get some discount of the products I already buy (well.. ask for for christmas!). I'm unsure still, which is how I ended up on your video! I Just wanted to say I really like the way you done the video and you are super natural infront of the camera! Thank you :)

You should do a random short dedicated to the creepy ice cream truck. Make it an AMV to the "nowhere king" song from centaur world.

My question is why dose the body shop do this? From what I understand the retail sector is doing well and they are always pushing on their social media and stores that they are all for being ethical and fair so why on earth do they participate in a practice that’s so damaging? I love the body shops products, all my skincare is from them because they work so well for me but I’ll only ever buy off the site or stores never from the mlm part. But now I feel they aren’t such a good company as they’ve lead the public to believe:/

Body shop and Ann Summers are MLMs!! Literally WHAT!!

I've just emailed about their Income Disclosure Statements. I didn't complete their form, which asks for my shoe size, I found a separate email. Let's see what happens

Do you know the income discloser statement?

Oh, gosh, they push "recruitement"! 11:06 They spell it in a French way, so that it sounds fancy! Typical MLM activity! (P.S. Love the channel.)

Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada carries Watkins bath products and they're an MLM. Bothers me a lot :\ I like Shoppers and it makes me sad that they support the MLM

1. I am immediately wary of any business (or "business opportunity") that brags about how easy it is to become a manager. It devalues the position and makes the title basically worthless. 2. I hadn't considered the possibility of the business reserving "the good stuff" for their brick and mortar stores, but it makes too much sense. I don't know if their store workers make a commission, but it's natural that their powers that be and shareholders would want to keep the core of their franchise as profitable as possible. May as well stick the offshoot independent sellers with the less desirable second grade products, since when they have to buy stock (either to maintain their status, or to actually try to sell) the money is already made by the core business in that sale. I would not be surprised if only the biggest independent sellers coincidentally happen to have an easier time getting stock of the good stuff as a reward.

wait... these bonuses for inviting a new person... sounds EXACTLY like f2p phone games 😱😱😱

So many of my cousins have joined this and have been harassing me with messages about placing orders. I never even knew about it until they all started doing it. Glad I don't use any of their products anyways

Soooo...no comment about the conglomerate that owns TBS at Home also owns Avon? As in, ring ring Avon calling!

"3 regional managers, 2 downstream workers and a partridge in a pear tree"

oh no i had no idea 😩 it doesn’t use the mlm system in my country (as far as google can tell) so that’d explain why i didn’t know before but this still sucks

nice crow. where did you buy it?

Lol just got a whole shipment of theirs mlms team shirts coming through my Goodwill. Suffice to say I'm not selling an mlms stuff. Out it goes.

I hate that MLMs encourage people to hoard a bunch of product that will inevitable expire. The only MLM I would enjoy being part of would be more like an affiliate marketing group, where the sales people are not really customers, but receive a commission from selling full size products online, and giving people small samples with discount or introduction codes, which would give the sales person a small commission. This would reduce waste, but give the customer a bit of product immediately to tide them over until the online purchase arrives. The only caveat would be the huge packaging waste, due to all the samples being "sold" so it would have to be enough product to use, but able to be stored in biodegradable containers, like wax lined cardboard trays, like a tv dinner style product 😂 but make it glamourous.

I always forget that we're the only country that doesn't use the metric system. I'm like, 30 degrees, your sweating below freezing temperature?

any information on beautycounter?

Um it's not because it's a store in the mall, you don't buy it from some weirdo on Instagram, and it's not based entirely on recruiting people. I applied to work there and they turned me down which MLM's don't do.

What’s the difference between a mlm or cult or religion?

Pyramid marketing seems to make a resurgence every generation and a half or so, according to where you live. Way back then in the late 80s, you were just as likely to get told in very blunt language to stop scamming if you even brought the name of Amway or Shaklee up. Late-Night TV had a whole humor-routine about it. It's kinda' like Scientology without the L.Ron angle. Tupperware was a bit more ambiguous, but still pyramid-administered. As cheaper, generic food-storage plastics became available, the brandname became obscure. Well, there's a whole new generation out there now of even more dumbed-down rubes to exploit. It's a real hard way to learn the propaganda-filtered rules of economics.

Be aware that if you recruited 5 people and they each recruited 5 people. And you kept going. You could only go through 15 cycles until you exceeded the population of the earth.

My Ex tried to sign me up as a consultant for what I now know was an MLM and the you're gonna work hard bit and do it was such a huge red flag - I'm like I'm Neurodivergent and just want to get paid every month, I'm not going to work hard consistently at all.

Honestly I prefer lush over the bodyshop anyway. But I find it too expensive regardless. I only use lush when I'm going travelling because their liquid free toothpastes/shampoo/etc is *super* handy.

Unfortunately that's not the only shady thing about the Body Shop. iilluminaughtii did a good in-depth video on the company. It's bad and I'm glad I went off them years ago...

I got laid off in 2020, and spent months on unemployment. After following a job tip from a friend, I found myself in the middle of an MLM sales pitch. I damn near took it, too. Not because I didn't realize what it was, but because I was running out of unemployment and I had no other prospects. Had they not demanded somewhere around a grand in "training materials", I probably would've. It's not just the get-rich-quick morons who get tangled up in MLMs. These businesses intentionally prey on people in bad situations, and I'm betting they represent the majority of participants these days.

Wai whaaaaaa, there’s one in my city center in Australia •~•