Is Color Street a Pyramid Scheme or Legit? [FULL Review]

Is Color Street a pyramid scheme? If a Color Street “independent stylist” has recently slid into your dm’s offering you an “awesome opportunity to run your own business” then you may have asked yourself that exact question.

In fact, it’s probably the reason you’re reading this right now…

Good on you for doing your research.

If something sounds too good to be true, it very often is.

This leads us to the ultimate question – does Color Street fit into the latter category, or is it actually a good way for you to make money online?

In this Color Street review, I’m going to take close look at the Color Street products and the Color Street business opportunity and share my honest opinion on whether I think you should join the company or take a wide berth.

Color Street Review Summary

Company Name: Color Street

Product Type: Nail Polish Strips

Founder: Fa Park

Price: $129 starter kit fee + $9.95/mo + sales requirements

Best For: Fa Park

Summary: Color Street is a multi-level marketing company that sells adhesive nail polish strips. The companies primary sales method is through the recruitment of “Independent Stylists” who make a commission for the products they sell. Like the majority of multi-level marketing companies, Independent Stylists also make bonuses and commissions on the sales of people they recruit into the company.

Rating: 10/100

Recommended: No

What is Color Street?

Color Street is a beauty company that sells one product – nail polish strips that adhere to the nail.

Color Street markets their nail polish strips as a more convenient alternative to nail polish and claim that their product “results in a brilliant, salon-quality manicure in just minutes.”

It is possible to purchase Color Street nail strips directly from the Color Street website, however, the primary method of sales and promotion is through the company’s vast amount of “Independent Stylists.”

What Does Color Street Sell?

Color Street sells just one product – adhesive nail polish strips.

Unlike companies such as Ring Bomb Party, which started off selling rings in a fizzy bomb and have since branched out to a variety of products, Color Street has just one product in their line.

Are Color Street Nails Stickers?

Color Street stylists claim that their nail polish strips are “100% real nail polish, not stickers.”

However, the definition of a sticker is literally “a piece of printed paper, plastic, vinyl, or other material with pressure-sensitive adhesive on one side. (1)“

Based on that information, it would be reasonable to say that yes, Color Street nail strips are very similar to stickers.

Color Street vs Jamberry – Is Color Street Like Jamberry?

Color Street and Jamberry offer a very similar products (adhesive nail strips) but they do have some key differences.

The main differences are:

• Color Street nail strips are made from nail polish – Jamberry nail strips are made from vinyl
• Jamberry requires heat to apply and adhere their strips to your nails

Perhaps the most important similarity between Jamberry and Color Street (besides the fact that they both sell nail strips) is that they’re both multi-level marketing companies.

Jamberry went bankrupt in 2018 and was bought out by a company called “BeneYou” – BeneYou products are sold through “Associates” using the same MLM setup as Color Street.

Color Street Compensation Plan

If you’re thinking of joining Color Street as an Independent Stylist, then you’re probably interested in learning more about the Color Street compensation plan.

If you were hoping for an easy-to-follow compensation that isn’t confusing and complicated, then I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Color Street’s compensation plan is just as convoluted as most MLM compensation plans.

As you can see from the Color Street Compensation Plan chart above, there are 8 ranks:

• Stylist
• Senior Stylist
• Team Leader
• Director
• Senior Director
• Executive Director (ED)
• Senior Executive (SD)
• National Executive (ED)

Regardless of what rank you are, your base retail commission (i.e. the commission you receive on products you personally sell) is 25%. If you sell more than $600PV, your commission rises by 3% to a maximum of 10%.

As you progress further up the pyramid, you receive a percentage of the sales of your downline (and their downline.)

Color Street also has a number of bonuses, including:

• Jump Start Bonus
• Enroller Matching Jump Start Bonus
• Enroller Bonuses
• Leadership Level Bonuses
• Leadership Depth Bonus
• Team Bonus
• Generation Bonus
• Car/Lifestyle Bonus

The “Leadership Depth,” “Team,” “Generation” and “Car/Lifestyle” bonuses are only available to the ranks of Senior Director and above.

Considering that less than 1% of all Color Street Stylists reach these ranks (as you’ll learn below), it’s highly unlikely that you will achieve these bonuses.

How Much Money Does a Color Street Stylist Make? Color Street Income Disclosure

How much money a Color Street Stylist makes depends on their rank in the company and, according to the Color Street Income Disclosure Statement, varies from $0 to $41,549.11 monthly median income.

That’s quite the income range, so let’s dive a bit deeper into the specifics.

The most up-to-date information I could find is from 2018 so that’s what we’ll go with. In 2018, there were approximately 15,000 Color Street Stylists.

Out of those 15,000 stylists:

• 54.32% had a monthly median income of $0.
• 33.44% had a monthly median income of $110.23.
• 6.75% had a monthly median income of $251.24.

That represents almost 95% of all Color Street stylists. As you can see, the majority of stylists make absolutely no money, which is in line with this Federal Trade Commission study on MLM companies, which states:

“…the vast majority of commissions paid by MLM companies go to a tiny percentage of TOPPs (top-of-the-pyramid promoters) at the expense of a revolving door of recruits, 99% of whom lose money.” (2)

Here’s the rest of the Income Disclosure Statement if you’d like to view it:

As the chart shows, even if you reach the rank of Senior Director (4th from the top) you can still only expect a median income of $2,065/month. And remember, this is before tax and expenses.

The facts are the vast majority of people who join multi-level marketing companies lose money.

The Federal Trade Commission published a study on MLM companies. Here are some direct quotes from the study (4):

“…MLM as a business model – with its endless chain of recruitment of participants as primary customers – is flawed, unfair, and deceptive.”

“…the vast majority of commissions paid by MLM companies go to a tiny percentage of TOPPs (top-of-the-pyramid promoters) at the expense of a revolving door of recruits, 99% of whom lose money.”

99% of people LOSE money when they join a MLM company.

If you have an extremely popular YouTube channel or a huge Instagram following that hangs on your every word, then there may be an opportunity for you to make money with Color Street.

For the rest of us, the answer to “how much money can you make with Color Street?” is – probably nothing.

How Much Does it Cost to Join Color Street as an Independent Stylist?

It costs $129 to join Color Street as an Independent Stylist. This fee provides you with a basic starter kit.

In addition to the starter kit fee, you will also be charged $9.95/month for a webpage that allows customers to order directly from you online.

Color Street Minimum Sales Requirement

In order to stay active as a Color Street Stylist, you must have at least one month every six months where you personally sell a minimum of $300 worth of products.

You cannot spread this out over 6 months – i.e. $50/month. It has to be $300 in ONE month and you must achieve this at least once every SIX months.

To put this into perspective, imagine if you got a job at Macy’s but before you could start, you had to pay a $129 “new hire” fee.

Then, you were charged $9.95 every month in order to use the cash register.

In addition, if you didn’t sell a minimum amount of product every 6 months, you were fired.

Does that sound fair and reasonable?

I’ll let you be the judge.

Is Color Street a Pyramid Scheme?

Color Street is a multi-level marketing company.

Multi-level marketing companies share several characteristics of pyramid schemes, but they are not the same.

Multi-level marketing (the banner under which Color Street falls) is a legal business practice as it involves the sale of tangible goods (3).

Should You Join Color Street?

In my opinion, no – you should not join Color Street.

There’s a 99% chance you will lose money when you join a multi-level marketing company – that doesn’t seem like very good odds to me.

Final Thoughts

Color Street is a fast-growing multi-level marketing company whose primary method of sales and promotion is through “Independent Stylists.” Like virtually all multi-level marketing companies, it’s almost impossible to be profitable as a Color Street Stylist.

References:

_{1. Sticker. Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticker}

_{2. Jon M. Taylor, MBA, Ph.D. (nd.) MLM’s Abysmal Numbers. Retrieved from https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/public_comments/trade-regulation-rule-disclosure-requirements-and-prohibitions-concerning-business-opportunities-ftc.r511993-00008%C2%A0/00008-57281.pdf}

_{3. Andrew Bloomenthal. May 7, 2020. What is a Pyramid Scheme? Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/insights/what-is-a-pyramid-scheme/}

^{4. Jon M. Taylor, MBA, Ph.D. (nd.) MLM’s Abysmal Numbers. Retrieved from https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/public_comments/trade-regulation-rule-disclosure-requirements-and-prohibitions-concerning-business-opportunities-ftc.r511993-00008%C2%A0/00008-57281.pdf}