Have you run into someone who sells Rodan and Fields and perhaps they want you to sell it too? Maybe they’ve told you that you can sell it in your spare time and that it’ll be easy. Maybe they even told you that you can make a lot of money. But I bet you’re wondering…is it worth it? Is Rodan and Fields worth selling?
I’m glad you’re doing research on this before just blindly signing up because there are things you should know before becoming a Rodan and Fields Consultant.
You probably want to know how much it costs to join. Maybe you want to find out if they have good reviews. We’re going to go over everything below.
Let’s get into it and find out if Rodan and Fields is worth selling.
What is Rodan + Fields?
Rodan and Fields is a mutli-level marketing (MLM) company focused on skincare. It was started in 2007 by Dr. Katie Rodan and Dr. Kathy Fields, who met at the Stanford University School of Medicine in the 1980s.
The categories of products on their site include:
- Regimens
- Face serums
- Eyes, lips and lashes
- Face masks
- Dermacosmetics
- Hand & body
- Sun protections
- Tools
Let’s take a look at some of the products on the site and their costs.
- R + F Lash Boost = $155 ($135 as a PC Perks Member)
- Active Hydration Bright Eye Complex = $72 ($64 with PC Perks)
- Micro-Derbabrasion Paste = $83 ($74 with PC Perks)
- Unblemish Regimen = $186 ($167 with PC Perks)
- Reverse SPF 50+ Sunscreen = $43 ($38 with PC Perks)
That’s just a few of their products, but it gives you an idea of their prices. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I see these prices, my eyeballs almost pop out of my head!
Am I crazy or is $43 a lot of money for a bottle of sunscreen?
I feel like I can go to Target and get something comparable for about $10. In fact, look at the active ingredients for the R + F sunscreen:
And here’s the active ingredients list for Sun Bum SPF 50, which you can get at Target for a fraction of the cost:
They’re exactly the same.
You can check the Sun Bum ingredients yourself on the Target website.
We won’t get into the others, but you can decide for yourself whether or not they are worth their prices.
I have some personal experience with the Lash Boost, but I’ll talk about that a little later.
How Much Does it Cost to Join Rodan + Fields?
In order to start as a Consultant with Rodan and Fields, you only need to purchase a Business Portfolio. It’s $45 and includes a business guide and a Product guide.
That’s the only requirement, however, it doesn’t include any products for you to test out, so whoever signs you up will likely push you to get one of the other kits. Understandable, as you would want to be able to talk about products to customers. Here is a comparison chart of all the kits.
The other kits and their prices are:
- Personal Results Kit = $395
- Core Kit = $695
- Ultimate Kit = $995
You also get access to Pulse Basic, which are online tools. This is free to use. If you’d like more robust tools, you can subscribe to Pulse Plus, and that will cost you $24.95 a month.
Keep in mind there will likely be a host of other expenses. While these are optional, you’re likely going to find at least some of them necessary eventually.
- Business cards, brochures and other marketing materials
- Additional products for you to try
- Additional products for your potential customers to sample
- Gas to travel to meetings with potential customers
- Table costs to display your products at fairs and conventions
- Travel to the company’s convention
In order to qualify for all your commissions, you will also need to buy or sell $100 in products a month. If you can sell that amount, that’s great. However, most Consultants, especially just starting out, usually end up buying that amount themselves. And that starts to add up month over month.
This is where a lot of people get into trouble…
Rodan + Fields Compensation Plan
Here is the Rodan and Fields compensation plan if you’d like to check it out for yourself.
And here’s a short video that goes over the basic points of the compensation plan in a visual format.
In the video, it says that you earn commission by filling 2 buckets each month:
- 100 SV (Sales Volume) – This is your personal monthly order, or what you sell to retail customers. 1 SV is approximately $1.
- 600 SV – This is your team’s commissions.
You need to fulfill both of those buckets each month to earn maximum commissions.
And they emphasize in the video to build, grow and support a team. That’s really where all the money is in an MLM. The problem is, it’s hard to do. And there are other issues with it too, but we’ll get to that a little later.
Rodan + Fields Income Disclosure
The Rodan and Fields income disclosure for 2019 can be found here. A few notes that the income disclosure mentions:
- The income shown does not include expenses
- Nothing more than the $45 Business Portfolio is necessary, but many consultants decide to make other business-related purchases like business cards, travel and R + F products
- To be eligible for commissions you have to buy or sell $100 worth of product every month
Now let’s look at the chart:
It might be hard to see, but there’s a note that says the 0% that made over $500,000 in a year represents 70 Consultants.
This chart is very much the same as other income disclosure charts that I’ve looked at. It shows how hard it is to make money in an MLM.
I know there are consultants that say their company is better and different. And it might be true for certain things, but when it comes to earning income, they are all the same.
If you’re looking to just have something to do and maybe earn enough to buy the products and a couple of bucks here and there, then Rodan and Fields (or any MLM) may be fine for you.
If you’re looking to earn a good income that can support your family, you have less than a 1% chance of that happening.
In fact, over 99% of people lose money in an MLM. (Source.)
Rodan + Fields Complaints and Positive Reviews
First, let’s take a look at the Rodan and Fields BBB rating:
We can see that they get an A+, however, the reviews are terrible! This might be the worst rating I’ve seen yet. To be fair, most people don’t come to the BBB to complement a product. They come to vent their frustrations. However, this is an unusually large amount of complaints.
Let’s go over what people are saying.
The people happy with Rodan and Fields are saying things like:
- I love the products and customer service is great
- The company is great
- Superb customer service
- I love the Redefine regimen
- I love being a customer
Some of the Rodan and Fields complaints include:
- One of the worst companies on the face of the earth
- The return policy is abysmal, I immediately tried to correct in order (within 2 minutes) and they said they couldn’t do it
- I was assured my order was canceled, but I got it anyway and received two overdraft fees as a result
- I was told I was going to receive an order – after canceling 2.5 years ago
- They have the worst customer service
- My eyes reacted badly to the products
There is an unusually large number of people that say they either never heard of Rodan and Fields or never ordered from them before, but they received an order from them. Now, we can’t say this is Rodan and Field’s fault as it seems like it’s more of an issue with credit card fraud, but who’s charging these orders? Are there consultants who are benefiting in some way? It makes you think…
Here’s a reviewer from YouTube who states:
“I am going to call it quits. I’m not going to spend $200 a month on skincare products when I can use my skincare line from Target that costs $20 a month.”
https://youtu.be/MjCsbJ8ZIho
That sums it up nicely.
Rodan + Fields Horror Stories
I came across this thread on Reddit’s anti-mlm sub. It’s called Rodan + Fields Horror Stories. It could be worth a read before you decide to join. I’m sure plenty of people have good stories, but it’s also good to be prepared for anything…
This sub is mostly about spending a ton of money on Rodan and Fields products that made their skin worse in some way.
Here’s one person who feels the way I do about their income disclosure:
Here’s another great thread called I Hate Rodan and Fields. This person “loved” getting Rodan and Fields for Christmas:
You get the point. There are a lot of unhappy Rodan and Fields users and ex-users out there. Their products are extremely pricey and for this many people to be unhappy with them is not a good sign.
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Is Rodan + Fields a Scam or a Pyramid Scheme?
Let’s answer a couple of questions real quick,
- Is Rodan and Fields a scam? It’s not a scam. Rodan and Fields is a legitimate business, but MLMs, in general, have some scam-like qualities that we’ll talk about in a second.
- Is Rodan and Fields a pyramid scheme? Technically no, but the push to recruit and build and grow a team pushes it toward that line.
- Is Rodan and Fields worth selling? That’s up to you. I’m trying to give you the information you need to decide. However, in my opinion, MLMs are not a good choice. I say that from research and experience. Let’s go over the pros and cons and maybe you’ll have a better idea of why I say that.
Pros
- Rodan and Fields have been in business since 2007, so they are well established
- The company is run by reputable women
- You can start for as low as $45
Cons
- Rodan and Fields does not get great reviews at the BBB
- Their prices are very expensive
- While you only need to start with a $45 kit, you will likely be pressured into buying a kit with products
- You also need to spend or sell at least $100 a month, which can put additional pressure on you
- It’s very hard to make money in an MLM (most people lose money)
- The best way to make money is through recruiting, but that pushes it toward being a pyramid scheme
- There have been some issues with the Lash Boost, and there are a couple of lawsuits regarding it
- In MLMs, you try to recruit people who then become your competition
- MLM markets are oversaturated, making it hard to find new people
Lash Boost Lawsuits
According to TINA.org, there were two class-action lawsuits filed against Rodan and Fields in 2018 for false advertising.
“Specifically, both sets of plaintiffs allege that that company misleadingly represents that Lash Boost improves the appearance of eyelash volume and strength without disclosing the potentially serious side effects – including, for example, eye sensitivity, irritation, inflammation, and infections – associated with the ingredient isopropoyl cloprostenate. “
If you click on the TINA.org link above, you can see the lawsuits filed.
I had a coworker who came into work one day and her eyes were very red and swollen. She was a seller for Rodan and Fields and she told me it was from the Lash Boost. So I have seen these reactions firsthand.
I also had personal experience with Lash Boost. I tried it for myself. A friend and I did an MLM exchange. I bought Lash Boost and she bought a Young Living kit. (These are the kinds of tricks MLM’ers play in order to get their sales in for the month.)
I didn’t have any adverse effects, but I didn’t really notice any significant difference either. I actually ended up throwing it away after I saw my coworker with the puffy eyes. $155 (+ tax and shipping) down the drain…
Yikes.
An Alternative to Rodan + Fields
I always like to give my favorite alternative because I know how tempting it is to want to work for yourself on your own time. Who doesn’t want to do that? But, in my opinion, there are better ways than an MLM.
I’ve done the MLM thing too. I was part of that 99%-lose-money statistic. That sucks.
Now I do affiliate marketing. If you want the full breakdown of MLM vs Affiliate Marketing, click that link. I break it all down for you. But let me just give you a few of the benefits of affiliate marketing here;
- No starter kits
- No uplines
- No downlines
- No cold messaging
- No warm messaging
- No bothering friends and family
- No training new consultants
- No inventory
- No monthly sales quotas
- Work on your own time
- Promote any products that you want
- Work you do now pays off over and over again
That’s a good enough list to start with. Affiliate marketing allows you to work on your own without the monthly sales pressures and without uplines convincing you that you need to buy more products (that’s how they make money because you are their customer).
Like anything worthwhile, affiliate marketing is not something you start and you automatically make money. It takes time, work, and dedication. But it’s so much less stressful than trying to make money with an MLM.
In fact, I think it’s a lot of fun!
If you’d like to learn more about it, you can check out my free guide for beginners.
Conclusion
So, is Rodan and Fields worth selling? I hope I’ve helped you answer that question for yourself. It’s really up to you how to spend your money and time. However, my opinion is that it’s not worth selling. MLMs never are. There’s too much competition and it’s too stressful trying to hit that 100PV every month, especially when you’re new.
Instead, you could set up a website like this one and have it pay you over and over again. Work that I put into my site now will continue to pay me later. It’s pretty sweet! This is the training platform that taught me how to set everything up step-by-step. You can join free (no credit card required) to check it out. Give it a try and join free now.
Other related content:
- Best Programs to Make Money Online
- Learn How to Make a Site That Pays You Over and Over Again
- How To: Affiliate Marketing for Beginners (FREE Guide)
- Ultimate Wealthy Affiliate Review