Tropic

[BaconAndAvocado]

Have just been recommended the Tropic concealer for my crepey under eye area.

The whole range looks gorgeous, I'd never heard of it before.

Anyone used Tropic ?

ellebeaublog.com/

Here's the link to Elle Beau's blog. It's really well written, and will send you down a rabbit hole of MLM tales. Really interesting.

I wouldn't touch an MlM company with a barge pole!

Tropic is an MLM. The DSA doesn’t like the term “MLM” (too many negative connotations) and prefers to call it “social selling.” You can put lipstick on a pig, but at the end of the day it’s still a pig.

Tropic does, however, have its uses. No, really: bear with me. (I’ve name-changed for this.) If it wasn’t for Tropic, I wouldn’t have found concrete proof that my man (now ex man) was cheating on me with another woman. Before Christmas, I was perusing a Tropic bot’s social media when I saw a familiar sight: a photo of my man’s foot. I recognised this ghastly appendage straight away as he suffers from terrible eczema on the sole of his foot. It’s so bad that he’s been going to hospital for treatment.

The caption beneath the photo (taken from a WhatsApp screenshot) included this glowing testimonial:

“Just want to say a massive thanks for recommending Tamanu balm. My partners eczema improved massively after only using it for two weeks 😍😍😊. Could not be happier. 🥰 Thank you”

I didn’t take that photo or write the testimonial, so it was obvious he had another partner. Obviously this was a sexual partner, not a dancing partner, as he wouldn’t be doing much dancing with a foot like that. After a bit of sleuthing it transpired that the owner of the foot has been in a relationship with the Tropic bot’s mother for a number of years - he left his wife (to whom he’d been married for 40 years) for her. He and I were together for 16 months.

He certainly put his foot in it. Tropic bot’s mother is quite welcome to him and his manky foot. So, thank you Tropic! I’m sure the sleazy bugger didn’t think his foot would end up on FB and Insta for all to see - including me.

As for the Tropic bot and her mother, I have one word: “aciu” as you say in your language.

@Bubbles1st

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

@Bubbles1st since when has a difference of opinion been classed as trolling? I’ve made no ad hominem comment.

It’s typical of MLM defenders to immediately say “you’re trolling” when they can’t defend their arguments. Can anyone else explain where I have trolled anyone?

I'm a fan of tropic, used to buy dermalogica but found it getting a bit expensive.
I like the toner, body oil and cuticle oil the best.

I buy from the lady who does my nails. She is the least pushy person ever and has never once tried to upsell and certainly doesn't recruit anyone. If she did I'd be out like a shot. I'm pleased that while she can't open her salon because of covid she can make a little money through this.

My best friend has been assimilated. She has been doing it a month and I've had to mute her on SM. Month 1, all goodwill from friends and family used up, spent £50 on kit and made less than £400. Nobody she knows will spend every month like they did this month. Apparently her upline's team is in the top 50 in her area. Which is the middle of nowhere. So more than 50 women selling the same stuff locally and she's been driving the recruitment all week on FB. I'm trying to ignore her. If she asks me directly, I'll have to say something.

@YouokHun It amuses me that whenever someone criticises MLM the flying monkeys cry “troll!” or “bully!”. They always do this when they know that they’re never going to win an argument.

LibyanFeet
I thought today was going to be another monotonous Saturday but your story has changed that. Glad you are Manky-Footed-Partner Free.

Until I read the whole of this thread I’d never heard of the term MLM.
I have a friend who works for UW, not sure if they’re classed as an MLM. She gave me a quote, it wasn’t beneficial for me so that was the end of it.
If I don’t want to buy anything I say no.

However, I do want to buy Tropic products online. I’ve found that the concealer works for me with a bit f colour corrector and the skincare products are gorgeous.

@ButtonMoonPie

I'm a fan of tropic, used to buy dermalogica but found it getting a bit expensive. I like the toner, body oil and cuticle oil the best.

I buy from the lady who does my nails. She is the least pushy person ever and has never once tried to upsell and certainly doesn't recruit anyone. If she did I'd be out like a shot. I'm pleased that while she can't open her salon because of covid she can make a little money through this.

Exactly the same here. My order arrives on Monday. Looking forward to trying it.

Despite claims it’s an mlm, I have to say the products are so good. My skin has had so many compliments since I started using their serums and moisturisers. Friends and family have said my skin looks ‘plump’ and ‘amazing’ so wild horses couldn’t stop me using Tropic lol.

I went to a Tropic party which is where I discovered it but now I just buy via their website. I’ve never had any pressure whatsoever from the party host. She delivered my goods then that was that.

Unlike the Temple Spa ‘hun’ who I had to block on my phone, email and SM.

I was a Tropic ambassador. It is most definitely an MLM. My ‘upline’ was pushy and now I have great fun trying to avoid her at the local outdoor market I didn’t stop selling because of that though, I was just crap at it and eventually couldn’t be arsed putting out money and not making it back (I think you need to have a decent amount of social media friends to make anything out of it without pestering friends and family all the time). The products are nice but I’ve found other, cheaper but still ethical/vegan etc that are just as lovely/effective.

I’ve been using Tropic for about a year and really like their products, especially the skin serums and lipsticks. I find it similar to Liz Earl but a bit lighter and the products seem to last ages. I’ve tried various sets from brands in the past (dermatological, Elemis, LE, etc) and a mix and match of stuff too but I like pretty much everything I’ve tried from Tropic and can buy it from one place. Especially when I can’t browse Boots/House of Fraser/Space NK in person right now.

I bought it a few times direct from the Tropic site with no ambassador, then a friend started selling it and so I still ordered online and put her name in as my ambassador for stuff I was buying anyway... so she gets 20/25% commission for absolutely nothing, though ho hum I would have been buying it regardless. She isn’t pushy, has an IG page and sends me a thank you when I order.

@BaconAndAvocado Utility Warehouse is MLM.

I’m glad I’ve brightened up your Saturday - I can laugh about it now (he’s a bloody idiot). The before and after photos don’t show much difference though, despite his partner’s claims about the wonders of Tamanu balm. I just hope he keeps his socks on when he goes to the mosque. 😂

My friend has now been pulled I to an MLM. She is constantly pestering me to buy her products. If I do much as say my lips are dry or my skin greasy, it's "hi hun, I have a product that will help". She can understand the word "no". She's alienated a lot of us. We were collecting for a mutual friend's birthday and she persuaded us to buy some of the products from us, thus lining her own pockets at the same time and helping her to reach the next level. She's got a couple of up lines who siphon off money from her profits and a couple of down lines that she siphons money off from. The ones at the bottom make very little in a saturated market and the company execs at the top make the most. But nobody knows exactly how much they make as it's all smoke and mirrors. They have an approach called "fake it til you make it, and post pics of their latest holiday, house, car, shoes, and thank the company, as it was the company that secured the purchased. All lies. Oh, and they call it their own business, but actually it's not.
This friend has now branches into selling health shakes. Some of the claims are downright criminal. Apparently the shakes can protect you against Covid and cure your infertility.
Tropic may be lovely but it's stories like the one above that make me run for the hills, so unfortunately I have a zero tolerance for MLMs.

I just hope he keeps his socks on when he goes to the mosque* 😂😂

Tropic may be lovely but it's stories like the one above that make me run for the hills, so unfortunately I have a zero tolerance for MLMs.

I agree. No matter how good the products may be, it doesn’t change the fact that multilevel marketing / network marketing / social selling is a thinly disguised pyramid scheme where 90-odd percent of people who get sucked in, often under false pretences, lose money and get into debt.

The products are so expensive to ensure that enough money flows up the pyramid into the pockets of the CEOs and shareholders. Susie Ma is laughing all the way to the bank.

Wasn't aware of the MOM situation.
I got a pot of Face Lift mask from eBay and can genuinely say it does lift and firm my face. I use it twice a week and have had it for nearly a year and it's still got around a quarter of the pot left. I think it's fab.

Why don’t they just sell in Boots etc??

I mean we all agree the products are great, natural, effective...

Surely they’d reach a much larger audience if they went into actual shops?

Also does anyone know if Sir Alan Sugar is still involved in the company?

@crazyontheweekend

Why don’t they just sell in Boots etc??

I mean we all agree the products are great, natural, effective...

Surely they’d reach a much larger audience if they went into actual shops?

Also does anyone know if Sir Alan Sugar is still involved in the company?

They'd have to pay to market & advertise instead of using hoodwinked (mainly) women to do it free!

Mentioning the Sugar man, does remind me of Susan Ma’s epic quote “do the French like their children?”
m.youtube.com/watch?v=xcDhGLjUWYo

Reps get 25% discount. I'd imagine retailers like boots would take a higher percentage. Plus there would be investment in marketing and point of sale material.

Tropic still has to pay for marketing its products. If Tropic was available for sale in well known department stores and high end beauty shops, as well as online, it would reach a much larger customer base.

[quote Bubbles1st]@YouokHun of course you do.

The most basic difference to me is that MLM
Is focused on recruitment and rewarding for recruitment - bonus payments when people join their team.

This doesn't exist in social selling where the main purpose of the business is to empower individuals to have their own network of customers who they sell to and their is no reward for someone joining your team - unless you are successful at selling then benefits will come later down the line if you so wish to achieve that. However Tropic for example do not have sales targets so there is pressure in that domain to recruit.

Lots of other detailed and varied reading to do on google if you are actually interested in being educated rather just trying to provoke.

[/quote]
Er, that’s an MLM. You even sound like a hunbot with your ‘empower individuals’ 🙄

Of course Tropic is an MLM- they aren’t defined by being unethical and having terrible products, you can still be an MLM, make nice face masks and not have sales targets.

Ultimately, it’s cheaper for a business to pay commission only on sales than have a retained workforce who want pesky things like regular salaries, paid holiday, pensions etc. Plus the major retailers are expensive to do business with- payment for them them to list your products in their stores, payment for point of sale, for promotions, a percentage of their sales back as a rebate etc etc.

I bought the same type of concealer as you and I thought it was heavy and dried out my skin.
It looked awful and was comparatively expensive ..£20 iirc?
I got a Maybelline one in the same style for around half the price and it's much better.
I haven't bought anything else as I just thought it was all very expensive for what it is.

It's an MLM. That's a fact, not an opinion to debate.