Industry Claim #1: Nobody is required to buy inventory. 

This is true. Antonella even told me so when we did my official Mary Kay orientation: You’re not required to purchase a single thing from Mary Kay beyond your $100 starter …

In case you missed it live yesterday, here’s the podcast of NPR’s On Point, which devoted its second hour yesterday to Investigating Mary Kay, inspired by my Harper’s article.

The show was guest-hosted by Wade Goodwyn and …

Another coda to The Pink Pyramid Scheme — and more free online content for y’all! The Investigative Fund asked me to blog about why I went to beauty school in the first place, since that is, of course, …

As a follow-up to yesterday’s announcement about my article, The Pink Pyramid Scheme (which, annoyingly, is behind a paywall online right now — I know!), I‘ve written a companion piece that you can read for free on Harpers.org …

My new cover story, “The Pink Pyramid Scheme” is out in the August issue of Harper’s Magazine.

This is a big one.

I’ve tracked this story for the past three years, since enrolling in beauty school and discovering that …

The Pretty Price Check: Your Friday round-up of what we paid for beauty last week.

• $72: What you’ll pay for this insane night bra, which separates and moisturizes your cleavage to prevent wrinkles. You know I couldn’t not include this.

The first thing I learned from Delores is that Mary Kay ladies don’t drive pink Cadillacs anymore.

Well they can — a shiny pink convertible is still one of the choices if you’ve earned Career Car privileges — but Delores …

Melissa asks:*

Who are the beauty industry stars that the people in class aspire to be? Is Miss Jenny a role model? Are there big six-figure earners people look up to? Does anyone aspire to a Hollywood-style job as