Someone has probably introduced you to Farmasi as a great way to get some great makeup and "be your own boss". But you're probably wondering... is Farmasi a pyramid scheme scam?
First of all, I want to congratulate you on spending some time researching the company.
Many people look for legit opportunities to make money from home, but most just jump into them blindly.
Yet Farmasi promises to be an opportunity that could help you genuinely "be your own boss" and get some makeup whilst doing it!
This Farmasi review, with videos, will show you exactly what the company is about with the pros and cons of joining so that you can make an informed decision if it's right for you.
Farmasi Review
The overview and rankings
Name: Farmasi
Founder: Dr. C. Tuna (90 out of 100)
Website URL: farmasius.com
Type: Personal Care & Beauty MLM
Products (Including Pricing): 85 out of 100
Success Stories: 30 out of 100
Price To Join MLM: $19.99 one time fee & no monthly sales quotas (99 out of 100)
What To Look For In A MLM:
Summary: Farmasi is one of the best MLM opportunities that I've seen in the USA currently as it's still in the early momentum phase. The affordable good quality makeup and 50% commission structure means the "beauty influencers" focus is on selling products rather than recruiting people.
The issue is the low income potential. Those influencers that can use internet marketing to help scale the business could do very well, but the income will be very limited without your own website.
Make Time Online Rating: 76 out of 100
Recommended: Yes for beauty bloggers with the right approach. See how my top recommended program can help...
What is Farmasi?
Farmasi is a personal care and beauty company that sells a wide range of products including makeup, fragrances and shampoos.
In 1950, Doctor Tuna founded Farmasi, a cosmetics brand he launched after entering the health and beauty industry.
Farmasi Cosmetics has over 67 years of experience in cosmetics and health. Both its business partners and customers have considered it a leader in the industry for many years.
Farmasii’s product range has grown significantly since 2000. From perfumes and decorative cosmetics to wet wipes and personal care products, Farmasi Cosmetics offers a wide range of products.
In addition, the company has several sub-brands, such as detergents, household products, and healing products.
The brand is cruelty-free, which means it supports animal rights and advocates ethical treatment.
It has a long list of products and operates in 24 countries worldwide. You will be surprised to know that Farmasi uses different ways of selling products. Where a company sells its products to retail stores or online, and consumers buy these products online or from retail stores. Instead, Farmasi is a direct sales company.
Farmasi also relies on salespersons or distributors to sell its products, and they have devised a compensation plan for the distributors.
It claims to also offer a “direct selling” opportunity to people who would like to earn an income from “selling Farmasi’s products”.
So it’s possible to become a beauty consultant and make a living from this at home.
Check out the 4-minute YouTube video below to have Nicole explain a bit more about the company…
As you continue to read this Farmasi review you will find out that Farmasi is really a Multi-Level-Marketing company (this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just important to be aware of this!)
First of all, let’s clarify the difference…
What's the difference between direct selling & MLM?
Direct sales is a business model where independent “contractors” sell the companies products to other people. They typically earn a commission from doing this.
Multi-Level-Marketing is exactly the same thing.
However, the difference is you can also earn a commission from recruiting more members beneath you (in your “downline”).
Both models are completely legit and legal.
However, pyramid schemes are not...
Is Farmasi a pyramid scheme?
No, Farmasi is not a pyramid scheme.
If you become a beauty consultant with the company you are encouraged to sell and promote the products that Farmasi offers.
In fact, with a massive 50% commission on anything you sell, it’s certainly possible to make decent money just from selling Farmasi’s products.
What is a pyramid scheme?
A company that promises payment to their members for recruiting more people into the company.
Technically pyramid schemes do no sell any products or services. These are totally illegal in most countries because they are unsustainable as you can see in the diagram below...
However, some MLM companies are pyramid schemes in disguise.
They use a “product or service” to make it look like they are selling something legitimately. Although, the only real way people can make decent money from the company is by recruiting other people.
I'm glad to say that Farmasi is not like the majority of these companies as you will find out in the "what I like about Farmasi" section.
This short video explains what to look out for to avoid pyramid schemes…
Success is rare with Farmasi
The truth is success is rare in all MLM companies.
Did you know that between 73% and 99% of all MLM representatives lose money?
Not every MLM company is equal though.
As Farmasi is still pretty new to the USA there are no income disclosures released yet so it's hard to tell if this is the case for them.
But the income disclaimer does suggest that the average revenue generated will only be $500-$2,000 a year.
This sounds about right for a company like Farmasi. It's legit but the income potential will be very low, unless you know how to create your own beauty website to help promote the products.
How does Farmasi Work?
Farmasi sells a range of beauty and skin care products.
They offer everyday people the opportunity to make money by selling these products to earn commission or recruit people into the company to earn bonuses.
As a Farmasi Beauty Partner, you get a premade site replicating farmasius.com that anyone can use to buy Farmasi products.
You receive 50% commissions on the total amount paid by a customer who purchases Farmasi products through your replicated site.
Also, if anyone wants to become a beauty influencer for Farmasi, they must sign up using your replicated website, making you their sponsor and their first recruits.
Your posts as a beauty influencer when you join Farmasi can get you started earning money.
You can be a Farmasi beauty influencer by signing up for any of the members’ websites.
By promoting this website correctly, you can maximize your earnings, revenues, and recruits.
This means that Farmasi saves money on marketing and advertising costs.
It's kind of like a win-win!
Farmasi products- Skintrends, foundation & cosmetics
Before you jump into any MLM company it's important to fully understand what products they promote.
Here are the main product categories on offer with Farmasi:
- Dr. C. Tuna- foot care, oral care, skincare, haircare, aloe vera, baby
- Makeup- body, face, lips, eyes, nails
- Fragrance- for men and women
- Accessories- bags, for hair, facial cleanser
- Personal Care- hair care, cleansers, soap, health
- Men- body wash, fragrances, moisturisers
- Christmas- bag, box, fragrance, makeup
There is a range of prices but the majority of products range from $5-$50.
The vast majority are under $20 (and this is the retail price… you'd get 50% off if you are a beauty consultant!)
The above screenshot shows the main categories of products on offer at Farmasi.
Click here to see all the products with the information and prices on offer at Farmasi.
This is quite a similar range of products to other MLM companies out there such as Bellame, SeneGence and Young Living. The thing that stands out at Farmasi is that the price is very affordable!
But what else can give it the edge over the competition?...
Farmasi flagship products
So as you can see there are a lot of products offered by Farmisi!
But there's not really one product that stands out as their main one. This could be a good thing or a bad thing.
Some MLM companies use one "flagship" product to stand out such as nail strips. It can be useful to stand out in a crowded market but it can also be quite gimmicky and often they are not great products.
Here are some example retail prices of popular Farmasi products:
- Liquid Lipstick: $11.90
- Gel Cleanser: $14.90
- BB Cream: $15.90
- Foundation: $22.90
As you can see the price is very low for the products. If you plan on just selling these to friends and family you may be able to make a couple of hundred dollars each month.
But if you can set up your own website to help promote the products your income potential is unlimited.
If you’re like me, then you probably jump on YouTube to find out more about the products and see what people are saying about them.
You can find loads of YouTube videos, but here is a pretty good one with a handful of products being reviewed in one go…
How to make money with Farmasi
This is probably the main reason you are on this website right now.
So let's not hang about...
There are 2 ways you can get paid as a Farmasi beauty influencer:
- Sell products and receive a commission
- Recruit people into the company and earn bonuses from your "downline" sales
Before we dig into the compensation plan, you're probably wondering...
How much does it cost to join Farmasi?
It costs $19.99 to become a beauty influencer and get your starter kit.
There are no monthly fees or a “sales quota” that you need to hit to stay active as an influencer.
That. Is. It.
$19.99 one time fee.
Simples.
Beauty influencer is the same as a beauty consultant, distributor, rep etc.
Farmasi monthly cost
Unlike a lot of MLM companies there are no monthly fees or sales quota that you need to hit to remain active.
But you can try out some products and receive product packs with extra discount compared to normal...
What is in the Farmasi USA Kits?
Here are the costs of the 4 Farmasi USA Kits…
Starter Kit- $19.99
- Welcome letter
- Dr C Tuna guide English
- Dr C Tuna guide Spanish
- FARMASİ opportunity brochure
- Catalog English 2 PCS
- FARMASİ Catalog Spanish 3 PCS
Product pack- $49.99
Activation product pack- $125 ($340 Worth of Products)
Welcome product pack- $200 (Over $500 Worth of Products)
You must buy the starter kit to become a beauty influencer. But you do not need any of the expansion packs.
However, you do receive over the 50% discount for any of the additional packs.
You can see all of the products that are included in each expansion pack in the video below…
Farmasi compensation plan
PV means Personal Volume
GV means Group Volume
100 points is roughly $200 worth of retail price products (or $100 with your 50% off as a beauty influencer)
Typically a direct sales model is pretty simple.
It’s a commission that you get paid every time you make a sale of a product (in this case the whopping 50% commission).
However, this is the part that really proves Farmasi is, in fact, an MLM company.
There are 7 ways to get paid to be exact:
- Personal sales (50% commission, but on low cost items you'll only make a small income)
- Online sales (50% commission from online sales)
- Welcome program (incentives to receive free products within your first 4 months)
- “Building your team” program ($40 bonus when 2 members join your team and each accumulates 125 PV within one month)
- Personal bonus (extra % bonus for your downline sales)
- Group bonus (extra % bonus for your teams sales)
- Leadership bonus (extra BIG bonuses for your downline sales and your team getting promoted)
So you DO get paid to bonuses from recruiting other members and the sales your “downline” makes.
*Again note- it’s not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, you’ll get paid MORE money with this model. But it is important to realise Farmasi is NOT just a direct sales model like they claim.*
The beauty influencers how have their own websites can use the power of the internet to help them sell 24/7 rather than only when they promote them.
This 5-minute clip will explain how you start earning 50% commission
This 9-minute video below explains how you get paid by building your team and from PV & GV bonuses really simply… I’d highly recommend watching this one! (Use x2 speed if you’re in a hurry)
This 11-minute video below goes into the deep dive of the leadership model. It’s confusing and you really don’t need to worry about this when you are first starting (maybe pin this page for later to come back to this video).
You can find the full Farmasi MLM Compensation Plan here.
So this Farmasi review shows the opportunity is starting to sound pretty exciting right?
Now, I can almost hear your mind asking…
Is Farmasi a scam?
The short answer is no.
The longer one will follow in this Farmasi review…
Farmasi clearly delivers on the products that it offers and it does provide a legit opportunity for people to work from home.
There are no crazy claims that you’ll be able to make thousands of dollars by clicking a button. The website is very open and honest about what to expect as a Farmasi beauty consultant.
So let’s dig in a bit deeper to find out if it suits you in the rest of this Farmasi review…
Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a Farmasi distributor myself and I do not endorse Farmasi in any way.
I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.
Tired of MLMs? Check out how I make money online here!
What I like about Farmasi
There are pros and cons to every business opportunity.
So here are some of the things I like about Farmasi…
Key Terms:
- Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from referring others to the service rather than providing a product
- Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
- Red Flag - A warning sign
#1 Farmasi is on the rise
This is, without doubt, the number 1 reason why Farmasi may be a good business opportunity currently.
It’s only moved to the USA since the start of 2019. If you were to get involved now, you could still be an “early adopter”.
Just look at the increased interest on Google in this last year…
This is compared to 3 other relatively big MLM opportunities that I have previously reviewed in a similar market:
It’s still not as widely searched as Arbonne, but it is certainly on the rise very quickly and could possibly catch up with them soon.
You can see how Arbonne and SeneGence have already been through their early momentum phase and how big that spike can get.
#2 Farmasi longevity
The concern about new companies or start-ups that are rising like Farmasi is that they will fizzle out and die this time next year.
However, the Farmasi brand was born in 2004 and has been part of Dr. C. Tuna’s work since the 1950s.
It has a track record in 125 countries worldwide, but it has only just moved the opportunity to the USA!
There are also many positive Farmasi review’s online from other countries.
#3 Affordable products highly rated
You see so many MLM companies that offer insanely high priced items that anyone with half a brain cell would just search for on Amazon and buy them for a fraction of the price!
However, Farmasi is (again) different from other MLM companies here.
The products are mainly under $20 retail price (or 50% less if you are a consultant).
There were also no tests done on animals and no animal-derived ingredients were used to make any of the products.
I’m going to be totally honest with you here…
I have no idea if that is normal or not…
But a quick Google search proved that there are still 30+ makeup brands that test products on animals in 2019… including L’Oreal (even I have heard of them!)
#4 Low cost to start
The low price of $19.99 to become a consultant means that if someone is planning on spending $40 on makeup in the rest of their life, then they may as well become a consultant (as this will save them money in the long run!)
Even if they have no intention on ever promoting the products to anyone else, they get a 50% discount just by becoming a beauty consultant!
That is very affordable and reasonably priced!
#5 Focus on selling products instead of recruiting (50% commission)
There are so many MLM companies out there which are really a pyramid scheme in disguise.
They use some random-ass products (such as a water filter system, motivational speaking, or crazy overpriced health products) to make it seem like they are legit.
However, the ONLY way you can possibly make any money from them is by recruiting people into the company.
Farmasi, on the other hand, offers such reasonably priced products and a great commission structure.
If you can build your own website in the right way you can make great money just by selling makeup and by having the website help to sell these products 24/7.
Now, I’m again not the best person to know this as I don’t personally use makeup!
But I know for a fact my wife spends a LOT of money on makeup and smelly things… all the time! And she tells me she doesn’t spend as much as many of her friends on it!! (Somehow she believes that makes it acceptable!)
So let’s say you recommend the products to 3 friends who buy $500 worth of makeup (honestly I still don’t get it!… the great thing is that if someone does just want to spend $5 then they can as there are no minimum order limits)
You would pocket a tasty $250.
#6 No monthly sales quota
This is again another huge pro for Farmasi compared to many MLM companies.
You don’t need to set up a monthly standing order to make sure you "remain active". You don’t need to accumulate a load of inventory and need to buy an extra house just to store it.
Simply sell what you sell and continue every month.
What I don't like about Farmasi
There are some hidden truths to the company and some areas that you really need to be aware of before diving in.
These can make the difference between making $100 from Farmasi and being able to work from home and use it as a business.
#1 Low income potential
In the Farmasi Income Disclaimer, they don’t have any figures to provide in the USA… yet!
So they have provided some information about how much beauty influencers should expect to earn on average…
The average annual gross revenue for Entrepreneurs is projected to be anywhere between $500 and $2,000. Please note: These numbers do not reflect the expenses associated with building an Farmasi business, which could exceed the commissions received.
This is hardly a “quit your job and work from home” amount of money that you can expect to earn from Farmasi then.
However, if you use online marketing and the power of the internet you can actually sell makeup 24/7. Yes, it's possible to make money whilst you are asleep or holiday if you know how to do it!
#2 The Truth about MLMs
A study by the FTC found that 99% of MLM recruits lose money.
The same study revealed that 95% of MLM recruits quit within 10 years.
Obviously, Farmasi claims to be a direct selling company, but when you peel back the truth, you are actually rewarded by recruiting other members. Hence, it's an MLM.
If you can use Farmasi more like an "affiliate marketing" business model and get visitors to your website using the internet 24/7 then it could be possible to make some great income from here.
Plus, you could also promote other products or monetise your website in different ways.
But if you try to sell the products in person to your friends and family and host "Farmasi parties" you'll be lucky to make more than $20 a month.
#3 Competitive market
The beauty industry is not short of competition.
There are thousands of brands and companies trying to “break into” the market all the time.
However, there are a select few brands that tend to dominate the market consistently.
Even though there is a lot of competition, the beauty industry is a $532 billion industry. So if Farmasi can establish themselves in the USA, there is clearly plenty of money in this market.
#4 Farmasi review complaints
Despite Farmasi only existing in the USA since the start of 2019, there are already some complaints from former beauty consultants.
#5 Confusing returns policy- this will be an issue
Farmasi’s return policy has the potential to become a sore spot for customers and beauty influencers in the future.
The company is still too young to be reviewed on the Better Business Bureau (BBB). However, I expect to see numerous complaints about this returns policy in the future.
Even after reading the policy it is unclear what their returns policy actually is.
It appears the influencers are expected to offer full refunds, but the company itself only offers 80% refunds.
Unless this is cleared up on their sales pages, people will be miffed (English word for annoyed) if they return their products within 30 days and don’t receive a full refund.
#6 No internet marketing training
Just because Farmasi gives you a ready-made website and you can earn commission on their products, it does not mean you OWN an online business.
Here’s the truth…
If you don’t use online marketing for your Farmasi business, you have really just paid $19.99 to get a Farmasi booklet.
If you want to make good money from Farmasi, then you’ll need to learn how to use the magical internet to sell for you… 24/7/365. I've made a special video which explains exactly how you can set up a website the right way to make this happen...
My opinion - Farmasi
I genuinely think this is the best MLM type of opportunity that exists in the USA right now (in 2022 and beyond).
This is mainly because:
- It’s in the “early momentum” phase
- The low priced products (which seem pretty good)
- No monthly fees/ needing to hold inventory
- And the really good compensation plan (50% commissions!! Plus bonuses!)
I am not a Farmasi influencer because I do not live in the USA and it doesn’t exist in the UK (yet).
However, if you just join Farmasi from any old beauty influencer, you are likely going to fall into that 99% of MLM recruits that don’t ever make money.
This is a legit opportunity, but only for people that can use online marketing.
How I make passive income online
MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the products you have to promote.
Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:
- You can promote anything you want and truly own the business (including Farmasi products as one income stream)
- You never need to sell to friends and family
- It's completely free to start
In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.
But I went from a full time PE teacher to making a passive income online within one year...
If you want to discover how I did it then check out this special video I created which explains exactly how. You can also get your free 7-day bootcamp to get started.
Hi, Mike,
This is a very in-depth review of the Farmasi opportunity, it answered all my questions.
It is now araising in my country too (I am from Romania) and I saw many people are promoting it very actively through Facebook groups.
I agree with you that online marketing is the best way to succeed in promoting literally anything.
Have you tried some other training platforms besides the WA?
Thank you!
Ionut
Hi Ionut,
Thanks for your kind words, I’m glad it answered everything about the opportunity!
I have tried numerous “blogging courses” and reviewed over 100 make money online opportunities/ courses on this website so far (I’ve even had some very good ones chucked at me from people I’ve had a chat with on my podcast… I actually really like Paul Scrivens’ Dare to Conquer & Alex Nerney’s Create and Go courses).
But I have to say the more I compare everything on offer at Wealthy Affiliate the more I realise how good it actually is. I got lucky I stumbled into it when I did…
It’s particularly good for someone pretty new to the whole “online world” as I was when I joined. The step-by-step training holds your hand to set up your website in the best way possible, plus it comes with website hosting (for 50 websites), a keyword research tool and has a new platform that you can search for affiliate products in literally anything.
I really like the live weekly webinars with up to date info for online marketing and the live chat means I can get a niggling answer to any question straight away.
There’s honestly too much to explain everything it has here (I joined at last years Black Friday at the end of November for $299 and I am still finding new things to learn… plus it’s constantly updating to improve).
So feel free to check out my more thorough Wealthy Affiliate review here.
Do let me know if you have any more questions! Take care
Thanks. For this great review about the farmasi MLM scheme, you have really cleared my doubts about the farmasi MLM being a scamming site, but I wanna ask a question, if you be a beauty consultant for this company will they be paying you directly or you get paid through your customers?thanks
Hey Rose, your customers would pay through Farmasi and Farmasi would pay you the commission. Very similar to affiliate marketing if you are familiar with that
Both you will get pay if you sell the products that you order by your page. But if someone makes a customer account under you, then you will need to wait till the 10 of each month to get your earnings
Hey Mike,
Once again: thanks for taking the time to teach people about online income methods. Farmasi looks pretty okay to me, dispite the cons. Joining for only $20 is a nice perk, too. Then there are the upsells, which I never like. Still, since it’s not a pyramid scheme, it might be a good opportunity. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Cheers!
Hi Kevin, there actually aren’t any upsells with this company. And like you say the price to join is very reasonable. The only issue is really whether the distributors can scale the business to earn any decent income from it.
Good Day, Mike.
This is a very extensive and comprehensive review on the Farmasi Brand.
You have a lot of pertinent information on the brand, history, and integrity of Farmasi. I can’t imagine anyone not being able to be sufficiently informed about Farmasi and its sales program after reading your post.
The one time fee is low and “out in the open”. Even if one chose not to follow their sales program, the samples alone cover your costs.
Their long history and “cruel-free” policy is another bonus.
Thanks, Paul
It does seem like one of the best MLM companies I have reviewed Paul yes. But to really be successful with this company, you will need to market it online. If you don’t do that you are very unlikely to make any real profit as a distributor due to the low-cost items.
These well-priced items make the company very honest and legit, but making money as a distributor will only happen when you scale the business online.
Hi Mike!
Thanks for the farmasi review. I was wondering In your research for this company, did you find out how they are able to keep their prices so low on these beauty products? Are the ingredients they use seem to be a high quality?
Thanks!
Mel
Hi Mel,
No problem I hope it helped.
You can check out more about the ingredients here https://www.skincarisma.com/products/farmasi/farmasi-bb-cream-all-in-one/ingredient_list but yes they seem to have very good products that are high quality.
The reason many MLM beauty companies (or any MLM’s) have such high prices is that they often have monthly “sales quotas” the distributors must reach (unlike Farmasi).
So it means they create a “recurring income” model, which means they can get away with such crazy high prices (the distributors often become their most loyal customers!) High prices compared to the average in the industry suggests the MLM company is more focussed on recruitment rather than selling the products (signs of a pyramid scheme).
There is no need for these types of companies to have such high prices normally. It’s actually a very good sign about the ethics of the company that the prices are similar to other ones on the market.
I hope that makes sense and helps,
Mike
They have low prices because they produce everything they used on their products
Thanks Marilyn
Really affordable makeup and it actually works better than most of my high end makeup brands. I highly recommend, great company!
Thanks Krysti, yeah it does seem way better than most crazy expensive MLMs that I’ve seen! Glad you like the makeup
This was very informative and helpful a few months ago and helped me to make the choice to join Farmasi as a beauty influencer. I mainly buy the products for myself with the 50% discount but indeed it is not an illegitimate business. It can be lucrative if you put in the work and I’m not sure there are many mlm companies that offer 50% commissions from day 1. Thank you!
Glad it helped Krysti! I see you started a blog too! How is that going? Let me know if you have any questions about setting things up and please do stay in touch about how things go. I would love to get an insiders point of view about things!
Absolutely ?
This review very looks like an advertisement. Not objective.
Below average, harmless but also ineffective products but yes they are cheap. Bad customer support, useless software, and back office. Complex and unpredictable compensation plan. Yes, you may make some money.
Thanks for the info Wilson.
It’s genuinely no advertisement at all, just calling what I saw from the company. I make no money from people joining Farmasi in any way, but it seemed far better than a lot of other MLMs I’ve seen. I defo do not recommend people join MLM’s though! There are far better business models and side hustles for people.
Hello Mike,
Thank you for the awesome information. I went down the rabbit hole and looked at quite a few of your reviews and found them very eye opening. I was thinking of signing up for Farmasi, but I was still on the fence about their skink care products so I did some more digging. It seems that they are not entirely honest about there not being a quota when you sign up. I cant show you the screen shot on this comment, but while reading some reviews there was a compliant that said the person felt lied to because her account was deactivated without her knowledge. A rep from Farmasi U. replied: "Hello Zulma. We are sorry to hear you feel this way. Accounts that do not accumulate 125PV in a 90-day period are automatically suspended due to our policy 10.2A. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Your Feedback will be shared with out team. Should you need assistance, please contact us from the FARMASUIS.COM website or give us a call at…." it just gives the 800 number and the number for Puerto Rico and hours of operation after that. Just thought you would like to know! I mean $42.00 is not much but it is still more than what they advertise as having to sell. Thanks again for your hard work and providing good info.
Great share thanks Roycee