In the world of beauty blogging there are a ton of different ways to make money including doing sponsorships, ads, having affiliated links, and of course joining an MLM (multi level marketing). I never thought I would end up joining an MLM because they have a terrible reputation right? Known for being scams, costing you thousands of dollars, the list goes on and on. So when I discovered Crunchi and fell in love with their foundation, and then subsequently found out you could “join” them I sort of paused… I wondered if this company that I thought was really great was actually something bad just because they also have an MLM or Direct Sales aspect. But, I let the products speak for the company and figured if I loved their makeup as much as I did I should give them a chance and at least do some research. This post is long overdue because TLDR; I am a Crunchi advocate after joining in July 2019. However I’d like to talk about why I chose them and what I love about it, and also the down and dirty details.
Foundation
I have to give credit where credit is due, I originally discovered Crunchi through Organic Bunny who is a well-known green beauty blogger and one of the OG’s I’d say. She is super picky about what products she endorses and so for her to say Crunchi, like their Beautifully Flawless Foundation, was a top notch product gave me a lot of instant respect. And she was not wrong, I quickly fell in love with it. I never thought I’d get back to a liquid foundation after switching to green beauty and here I was using a totally natural liquid foundation that performed just like Estee Lauder. So obviously from here I wanted to check out all the Crunchi products because I figured if the foundation was this good then everything else was probably also pretty good. I didn’t end up using a ton, I stuck with the foundation, their foundation brush, and a couple lip glosses.
Expo
Fast forward to the summer of 2019 and I agreed to go to a natural baby expo with my friend to mostly support her and gather some resources for myself in the future. I was starving when I arrived and luckily they had some concessions so I immediately got in line and started chatting up a nice woman in front of me. She was wearing a Crunchi shirt and it was the perfect conversation started since I know exactly what Crunchi was! I ate my food and stopped by her booth eventually, tested out a couple things I hadn’t tried yet, and then listened nicely while she also pitched me on becoming a Crunchi “Advocate.” I was internally rolling my eyes thinking, ‘no thank you, I’m not trying to joint some beauty cult,’ but told her thank you and got her contact info for future purchases so I could at least support a local gal. She was persistent but in the most friendly and non-pressuring way and we eventually sat down for smoothies to discuss the actual “business opportunity.” I was pleasantly surprised.
Advocate
I asked her all the nitty gritty questions, I wanted to know for real what this was like and what I was getting myself into if I said, ‘Yes.’ She was totally transparent about the back end stuff, and I already knew how amazing the products were so while I did take a few days to think it over, it didn’t take long for me to pull the trigger and become an Advocate. So here are all the pros, cons, and details you need to know if you’re curious:
What is Crunchi all about?
Great question, Crunchi is a small makeup and skincare company based out of Florida, co-founded by two women in 2015. All the products are made in the USA and are mostly in glass packaging, or being slowly transitioned to glass and plant-based packaging. The focus of the company is on sustainable, green beauty and high quality products that do not compromise your health or safety.
What makes their products “natural”?
Crunchi has a pretty impressive Blacklist of Ingredients that showcase their commitment to only using ingredients they can vet with research and third-party testing. Most products use eco-cert® or COSMOS® certified ingredients, as well as certified Organic, are mostly vegan/Leaping Bunny© Certified, non-gmo, gluten free, etc. They also have a really transparent Ingredient Glossary of the ingredients they do use and what products they can be found in. They do use some synthetic ingredients, which tend to get a bad rap in the green beauty world, however I think it’s important to note that there are “safe synthetics” that are proven to be okay and these are the only ones Crunchi uses, such as dimethicone in their Beautifully Flawless Foundation. If you dig into it you’ll find out that Crunchi only uses the single polymer version in its pure form which makes it inert and as safe as possible in order to give the foundation the performance we all love. You can ask any advocate or corporate for more information on ingredients at any time they are more than happy to share all the available information they have proving safety and efficacy.
Is Crunchi an MLM/Direct Sales?
Yes. As a customer you can simply go to www.crunchi.com and place an order without ever talking to an Advocate. Or you can reach out to a local Advocate who can help you get samples and personalize your experience. Advocates have teams; uplines, downlines, etc in essence making it an MLM. One way you can earn money is by recruiting more Advocates to your team as your downlines, because you earn a small portion from their sales. Otherwise you can also earn commission on your sales to your clients.
Do you keep stock and fulfill orders?
No! All orders are placed through your affiliate link and corporate does the rest, including returns. It’s actually against policy to keep stock to sell because that voids the return policy.
What about samples?
Samples are your responsibility as an Advocate. You can send them for free or charge a small cost. Back office has glass jars you can purchase or you could buy little jars anywhere online, and then I still suggest buying the branded stickers in the back office to put on the little samples to make them look super professional.
So how much does it cost to sign up and what’s the catch?
Here’s the entire breakdown of signing up to become a Crunchi Advocate:
- $78.00 = One time purchase of your Business Portfolio which is mostly the back office access to see client orders etc, plus some branded stationary and sample supplies to get you going
- $70 – $470 = One time purchase of your start up product collection, you can go small with the $70 kit, or go big with the $470 kit.
- $40 = Annual fee on your sign up date each year, pays for your back office maintenance, Crunchi U classes, all the resources and support from corporate
- $9.95 = Sign up plus annual fee for ProPay which is the payment platform to receiving your commissions each month (plus $0.30 fee each time you transfer money to your bank)
- $1.50 = Monthly admin fee for paying out your commissions (monthly assuming you get paid commission each month, this fee is only charged if you actually receive commission that needs to be paid out and would therefore be skipped if you had a slow month with no payment)
- $7 = Shipping fee unless order is over $150 for free shipping
- $18 = Optional pack of sample supplies (branded stickers, tiny glass jars, etc)
- GRAND TOTAL = $175.95 – 575.95 on day of sign up and then $49.95/year, and likely $1.80/m.
I’d say there really is no “catch” except for the monetary commitment when you sign up and ongoingly.
And what are the perks and requirements?
It’s actually pretty simple and very low pressure in my opinion which is why it appealed to me.
- 20% commission on client orders
- 20% discount on personal orders (no commission)
- $400 in rolling sales every 6 months required to stay active (including personal orders; so that’s only ~$67/m in orders to stay active)
- Access to new product pre-launches and specials
- Facebook group full of resources and information to help with anything you could possibly need to know like color matching, ingredient questions, etc
- Impressive camaraderie and spirit that is NOT centered around competition or beating other Advocates. I’ve legitimately met some incredible local women being with Crunchi that I consider true friends.
More Info?
If you have ANY other questions at all please don’t hesitate to reach out to me! I hope this made this transparent so you have a good idea of what being a Crunchi Advocate is all about and what it entails. And if you have some interest in becoming an Advocate I’d love to chat and go over all the details with you so you feel comfortable. You can also check out the website to see some of the information I’ve shared above and sign up if you’re ready!
