Is Young Living A Scam? The Ugly Truth Exposed Here!

Is Young Living A Scam?

Essential oils have been used by humans for thousands of years. In fact, the ancient Egyptians used plant oils for aesthetic care, aromatherapy, and spiritual purposes. In the year 2021, the market for essential oils was valued at USD 10.3 billion, and it is predicted to grow to USD 16.0 billion by 2026.

Young Living is smack in the middle of it all. The Lehi, Utah-based firm has established a flourishing health business with a network of farms that stretches from a sandalwood restoration project in Hawaii to an Arabian Frankincense Distillery in Oman.

This particular company is on a mission to help people all over the world “elevate their spirit, encourage good behaviors, attain whole-life wellness, and generate permanent abundance” with “therapeutic-grade essential oils” and oil-based cosmetics.

However, despite Young Living’s success, the entire business is set up as multilevel marketing (MLM) operation using essential oils as its main product.

Though not all multilevel marketing companies are unlawful or illegitimate, Young Living appears to exhibit the hallmarks of what you’ll consider a pyramid scam. In which its members’ financial success is overwhelmingly based on the recruitment of new members rather than actual product sales.

But is this actually true? Let’s find out today in our review what Young Living is all about.

The fact that you’ve taken a moment to scrutinize this product before signing up should be applauded. You’ve done yourself a huge favor. Your due diligence will save you from potentially wasting your time and money.

A good bit of research always goes a long way in the fight against online scams. Creating a sustainable full-time online business is not difficult. You just need to know where to look.

Before we proceed I’d like to let you know that I’m not linked to Young LIving in any sort of way and I’m not trying to sell you this product.

Instead, I’d like to show you why this program should be avoided…

Young Living Product Review

• Name of Product:  Young Living
• Owner:  Gary Young
• Type of Product:  Essential Oils
• Cost of Product:  Ranges from $15 to $100+
• Who Is This Product Best For?  No one!

Young Living Product Summary

Young Living, established in Lehi, Utah, is a multi-level marketing (MLM) organization. It distributes essential oils and other related items and was founded by Donald Gary Young in 1993. It promises to sell 100% pure, organically derived oils through a network of farms from Hawaii’s sandalwood restoration project to Oman’s Arabian Frankincense Distillery. Its items are available for purchase both online and through distributors.

Product Rating: 20/100

Would I Recommend This Program: DEFINITELY NOT!

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Young Living Background

Young Living is a multilevel marketing company founded by Gary Young that distributes essential oils and other oil-based goods, as well as promoting the claim that their essential oils can heal everything from the common cold to ebola.

According to their official site, their mission is to honor their stewardship to champion nature’s living energy, essential oils, by fostering a community of healing and discovery while inspiring individuals to wellness, purpose, and abundance.

Despite the fact that there is a lot of data to back up such claims regarding essential oils, they haven’t been found to actually heal any ailments in a few class actions and lawsuits involving the corporation.

As a matter of fact, these essential oils seem to mimic the claims once told by snake oil salesmen from years ago. These vendors of potions sold plain mineral oil and advertised them as “snake oil liniment”. They promoted these snake oil products as a cure-all for a variety of diseases. However, as you may already be aware, they didn’t work.

As a result, the word “snake oil” now refers to a useless product or a con. Despite this, Young Living continues to make strong claims about the health benefits of their essential oils.

But that’s not to say that essential oils are entirely useless. If that were the case, they wouldn’t be generating billions of dollars a year.

Who is Gary Young?

Gary Young founded Young Living in Riverton, Utah, in 1993, and it was incorporated in 1994. Near 1996, Young bought a second farm in Mona, Utah, and in 2006, he launched his first overseas farm in Ecuador. After suffering a back ailment in the early 1970s, he became interested in alternative medicine, according to his wife, Mary Young.

Young grew interested in essential oils after meeting a French lavender distiller at a conference in California a few years before coming to France to study the process. Near the early 1990s, he and his wife, Mary, bought a 160-acre farm in St. Maries, Idaho. Young had already pled guilty to a misdemeanor for practicing medicine without a license prior to launching Young Living.

Gary founded the Young Life Research Clinic in Springville, Utah, in 2000. The clinic was shuttered after a lawsuit was settled in 2005. Afterward, he created a clinic in Ecuador, where he practiced medicine and surgery, despite concerns from Young Living’s COO, David Stirling.

They were the “first significant commercial distillery” to distill frankincense essential oils in 2010, and their Highland Flats plant “became the first automated, large-capacity, computerized steam distillation facility for essential oils” in 2014. Between 2015 and 2017, the company recorded yearly revenues of more than $1 billion, up from $8 to $10 million in 1996.

In 2015, Young stepped down as CEO, and Mary Young took over. In 2014, the firm relocated its corporate headquarters to Lehi, Utah, and received tax benefits to help them expand. Gary Young died in 2018 after starting building on their new company headquarters in 2017.

Young Living Product Line

Young Living’s products are made up of essential oils and other oil-based goods that are promoted for their supposed healthcare benefits.

How Does Young Living Work?

Young Living uses a multi-level marketing model, recruiting “thousands of independent distributors who can sell directly to customers and earn commissions on sales to distributors recruited into a hierarchical network called “downlines.”

Although distributors can potentially profit from direct sales, commissions on sales to distributors recruited into a hierarchical network called “downlines” make a lot more money. However, Young Living requires distributors to spend $100 in purchases every month in order to qualify for a commission, according to the New Yorker in 2017.

In addition to that, according to a 2016 public income statement, about 94% of Young Living’s active members earned less than a dollar. On the other hand, fewer than one-tenth of one percent, which is probably around 1,000 Royal Crown Diamond distributors, earned more than a million dollars.

According to Business Insider’s analysis of the company’s 2018 income disclosure statement, 89% of all members attempting their own business were on the bottom tier, earning an average of $4 per year, while those on the first three tiers, accounting for 98.7% of active members, earned between $4 and $1,551 per year.

Keep in mind, this did not include the required monthly costs to stay active with the company.

Getting Started with Young Living

Whether you want to sell items or recruit new members into becoming a Young Living distributor as well, you’ll need to invest in starter kits, which range in price from $25 to $165.

Their pricing and inclusions are shown below:

Basic Starter Kit ($25)

• Discover Your Young Living Lifestyle booklet
• Essential Oils At A Glance
• Stress Away (5ml)
• Thieves Mints
• AromaGlide Roller Fitment
• 2 NingXia Red 2-oz samples
• 10 Thieves Waterless Hand Purifier Sachets (0.1 oz each)

Premium Starter Kit ($165)

Additionally, you must also buy an Essential Rewards (ER) kit after purchasing the starter kit. The essential oil items you’ll be selling are included in these Essential Rewards packs. You buy them at wholesale costs (a 24% savings over retail) and get paid a percentage of any product sales you generate, plus a cash incentive.

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Young Living Compensation Plan

Young Living’s compensation plan follows a three-level structure that lays out the steps for strategically growing your business, progressing to the next level, and being rewarded as you go. Further explanation can be found here.

1. Creating a foundation. Young Living’s compensation plan is designed in a way that will help you achieve abundance and success.
2. Build your Business. After you’ve experienced the advantages of Young Living’s goods and the joy of sharing them, you’re ready to tell others about it. Build on your foundation by enlisting the help of others and working together to achieve success!
3. Become a leader. You’re ready to take the mission global as you guide people to success with an established business and a love for encouraging wellness via Young Living.

Additional earning opportunities also include:

• a fast starter bonus where during the first three calendar months, you’ll receive a significant 25% incentive, up to $200 each new, individually enrolled brand partner’s order.
• a starter bundle bonus where when your new, personally registered brand partner purchases a Premium Starter Bundle, you’ll be eligible for a one-time $25 cash bonus. To qualify, brand partners must purchase a Premium Starter Bundle during the same month that they join.
• retail earnings if you directly sponsor retail clients. You w illbe able to profit from the difference of 24 percent between the retail and wholesale pricing for their orders.

The terms and conditions of Young Living’s compensation plan can be found here.

Young Living Ugly Truths Exposed!

Safety violations following an inspection into an employee death in 2000, reports to the FDA of adverse product reactions from 2013 to 2014, federal misdemeanor charges after voluntarily disclosing illegal trafficking of certain oils in 2017, and a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that the company is an unlawful pyramid scheme in 2019 are just a few of the complaints and lawsuits the company has faced. A few of such complaints are as follows:

#1 Pyramid Scheme-like Practices

The 33-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, argues that Young Living’s promises of financial gain are “nothing more than a pipe dream,” and that the firm is an unlawful pyramid scheme that profits at the cost of its members.

When faced with the fact that recruiting is their “sole possibility” to earn enough money, most Young Living members discover that they must spend hundreds of dollars each month on the company’s items in order to continue receiving commissions from their downline, according to the lawsuit.

Young Living is accused of providing most of its members with nothing but an opportunity to lose money while padding the company’s wallets, rather than the capacity to “create plenty.”

#2 Lawsuit With doTerra

David Stirling, along with other former executives from Young Living, was sacked from the company in 2008. They went on to form doTerra, a direct rival of Young Living.

DoTerra attempted to provide essential oils to a broader customer base than Young Living, and they achieved tremendous market expansion as well. In August 2013, however, Young Living filed a lawsuit against doTerra for misappropriation of trade secrets, saying that the business had unlawfully reproduced their manufacturing method.

The Fourth District Court rejected the accusations against doTerra in October 2014, and the firms also resolved litigation involving fraudulent lab tests, deceptive advertising, and theft of trade secrets, as well as withdrawing their disparaging assertions about the purity of each other’s goods.

Young Living lost the case in 2017, and a judge ordered them to pay $1.8 million in legal expenses to doTerra in 2018.

#3 False Claims

Despite being one of the country’s most well-known essential oil distributors, Young Living is also notorious for dubious sales practices and legal troubles. The FDA issued them a warning after they claimed that their goods had therapeutic characteristics that might heal disorders such as MS, PTSD, autism, diabetes, and ebola. As a result, many consumers see the organization, as well as other MLMs in general, as untrustworthy.

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Advantages of Young Living

I usually try to be optimistic when it comes to reviewing products but in regards to essential oils, I do feel like they’re a load of crap. Apart from shady business practices, the minimal income you get, and the pricey startup costs of becoming a Young Living distributor, I don’t really see any advantages of why this would be anyone’s choice to start a business in.

Is Young Living a Scam or a Legit Program?

Young Living is definitely a legitimate company that sells a solid line of essential oils. However, if a corporation does not provide consumer items, it is clearly a pyramid scheme, but many pyramid schemes conceal themselves under a product.

One technique to recognize a masked unlawful pyramid scheme is to look at how much money can be made from the items. It would be impossible to even break even, let alone generate a profit if you had to acquire these essential oils on a monthly basis. In other words, the actual money in being a Young Living distributor comes from promoting others to join the organization.

How Do I Use The Internet to Make a Full-Time Salary?

I’m not a big fan of get-rich-quick schemes, let’s just say that I’ve been caught short a few times.

Instead, an Amazon FBA Business is my leading recommendation for people that want to build a thriving full-time online business working from home.

Here are my reasons why…

• There’s no pressure to recruit family and friends, or anyone else for that matter.
• Learn a unique method to source incredible, high profit, low-competition products that are virtually hidden from your competitors. 
• You don’t need to sell hundreds of different products to create lucrative profits with this fresh, exciting business model.

An Amazon FBA business can help you to…

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