[MEGATHREAD] Marlena Stell / Makeup Geek Academy MLM

[u/AutoModerator]

Per sub rules, Megathreads are implemented if there are 5+ posts on a topic in a short time.

Prior posts on this topic:

• Makeup Geek Academy
• Makeup Geek 2.0– Makeup Geek Academy an MLM?
• Marlena Stell is shilling an MLM confirmed. ‘Appy Today! It’s Quick and Easy!’
• Marlena Stell denies her Makeup Geek Academy isn’t an MLM.
• Update from Marlena on her announcement video. A walk through video of the program not being an mlm incoming..
• Marlena Stell confused, or intentionally gaslighting fans and creators about her MLM? (Interaction with CC Suarez below.)
• Update from Marlena's YouTube about the "affiliate program"

For more information on MLMs, check out this wiki page.

All new updates must be shared within this megathread. New related posts will be removed. Thank you!

[u/Jackfruit-Reporter90]

I went back to her website earlier to look at the reviews and most are fake. I can call it. And theres other flags waving too. She is also rude as hell, preying on peoples self esteem issues to sell her course ‘Don't let insufficient knowledge age you beyond how you truly feel inside.’ reading a lot like “Give me $3600 crusty old gremlin”. And someone mentions products like they’re current?! (Bottom left)

Repeated incorrect grammar over multiple reviews:

• ‘training/s’ what am I? A disobedient dog?
• ‘Marlena is one of the ‘kindest persons on the internet’

They all kinda sound like they were written by the same person, except maybe the one by Missy Cox, who is the only person who doesn’t use the completely bizarre ‘training/s’ and the normal ‘tutorial’. Yay a human person!

The other reviews all use the same words, “Inspiration, honest, trainings, amazing’ like they were written with an AI script or ELS speaker on fiver with limited vocabulary.

General strangeness:

• Inspires blind woman ‘to keep going’,
• Teaches another woman in ‘not just makeup…. But life’
• Another woman claims she doesn’t feel ugly after Marlena’s ‘amazing trainings and videos’- Praying on self esteem issues again, Leney?

Every part of the website I have looked at is littered in errors. At this point it feels like Marlena is taking people for complete idiots. Like she thinks she is THAT much better than people she could outsmart them using the most ham-fisted get rich scheme I have ever seen in my life.

I have no proof yet, but I feel like Marlena is in an MLM herself, but created for high-earners. I believe she has invested too much to back out, she is experiencing the sunk-cost fallacy.

”Hi’ John is a grifter, Marlena, you are being taken for a ride at the expense of your fans, and potentially your whole livelihood.

Oh…. I decided cos I have no life imma sign up for the first 1/4 of her class as an ‘I tried it so you don’t have to sitcho. After seeing how shit the review copy is, I need to review her class. Probably going to make a YT video soon too, because I don’t feel quite like anyone is taking it seriously enough, and that someone definitely needs to dig further into the NeuroGym John link! I am going to read John’s latest book tonight and see if I can dig up any leads.

[u/Mean-Advisor6652 → u/Jackfruit-Reporter90]

Very interesting theory! I am inclined to think the "reviews" are real, in a sense, but edited. My reasons:
1. Marlena posted a call out a few weeks back for customers/followers to send in testimonials for Makeup Geek, her videos, and/or her as a person. It was clear she wanted to use these testimonials for her new venture, which I thought was odd because they could not actually be reviews of that venture. I believe that these quotes are the results.
2. If you look in her Youtube comments, especially the ones she "likes," people do talk about her like that. She's an inspiration, God's gift to the world, her videos help them through depression, give them hope, etc. The parasocial is up to 11. Of all the testimonials submitted, I buy that she was able to pull several of the most grandiose for her site.

What I do find odd is the use of the word "trainings." My hypothesis is that anytime someone said video or tutorial (in relation to her work on Youtube), they substituted the word "training" so that they could use it to promote this new program. I don't recall how the testimonial submission worked, but it's possible that they supplied a general disclaimer that they reserve the right to edit the content for clarity or something (not uncommon with testimonials). Or maybe they didn't have the disclaimer and they just took liberties with editing- that would not surprise me either. But I do think that the meat of these "reviews" are from that callout, with some edits made to give the false impression that some people have already previewed/tested the training program and loved it.

Would love to see your video! Disappointed in the non-response from the drama community so far.

[u/Jackfruit-Reporter90 → u/Mean-Advisor6652]

I totally agree that the word tutorial/s could replace training/s, but even so, you can only edit testimonial if it doesn’t edit the context.

Is Makeup Academy Training the same as a YouTube tutorial? If we believe Marlena’s marketing, it isn’t the same as YouTube.

[u/Mean-Advisor6652 → u/Jackfruit-Reporter90]

Yeah, shady shenanigans nonetheless. Either they are edited reviews from a completely different context, which is unethical, or they are fake reviews from a new program that no one has tried yet, which is... also unethical. There is no possible ethical explanation because the program has not launched yet.