Mary Kay Canada Sues Touch of Pink Cosmetics

Mary Kay Cosmetics Ltd., known as Mary Kay Canada, filed suit on February 3, 2009 against Touch of Pink Cosmetics and its owners, Amy and Scott Weber.

According to court documents, Mary Kay Canada filed the lawsuit to “remedy damages caused by Defendants’ unlawful actions in Canada.”

Mary Kay Canada claims it discovered in late 2008 (among other things) that the Defendants were interfering with Mary Kay Canada’s contracts with certain Independent Beauty Consultants (IBCs).

Sound familiar? It’s one of the claims that Mary Kay Inc. is making against the Webers in their lawsuit.

I find it amazing that it took Mary Kay Canada until late 2008 to discover this, given that Mary Kay Inc. had filed a lawsuit against the Webers in May 2008 and had apparently had the Webers on their radar screen well before that.

The Canadian lawsuit is based on trademarks registered in Canada, and therefore requires the interpretation of Canadian law.

The Webers asked for a six month continuance (delay) in their current case with Mary Kay Inc. so that they could have time to defend against both cases. They also argued that the Canadian lawsuit exists ““to intimidate the Webers and increase their cost of defense in an effort to ‘win’ by making it too expensive for the Webers to protect their business.”

The Webers request was denied.

Everything is on track for the Mary Kay Inc. case to go trial in March. We’ll keep you posted.

Worn Out Words and Phrases from Mary Kay

Below is a list of words and phrases that you’ll hear used often by those in Mary Kay, followed by our definition and interpretation.

Awesome!
Used to describe everything MK-related.

Be a woman of your word
Phrase used to guilt you into something you never promised you would do.

Bee-lieve
Mutation of the word “believe.” The bumble bee is a symbol of the Company and often used as a motivational tool. Supposedly, the bumble bee is too heavy and aerodynamically-challenged to be able to fly, but is still able to. Therefore, don’t accept obstacles just because of your lack of belief (or bee-lief!)

Big Girl Panties
Used frequently by Directors to encourage Consultants to not be afraid of “working their business.”

“Put on your big girl panties and go to work!”

“Put your big girl panties on and handle it!”

“Fake it ’til you make it”
Pretending you are at a level of success you want to be before you actually are.

Great!
The often-uttered “positive” response to nearly every statement made by a Consultant.

“Hear my heart”
This phrase is used when your upline is trying to convince you that they are being sincere in what they are saying (gag).

“I’m SO excited!!”
Exclamation used by Consultants, usually in phone scripts to customers to entice them to book a class.

New Level, New Devil

A phrase favored by Directors when you’ve finally achieved a goal (by working MK to the exclusion of all else) and they’ve convinced you to immediately work toward the next step. What happens is, suddenly awful things begin to plague you. Your car breaks down, the babysitter quits, your husband draws a line in the sand about all the time you’re spending on this “simple” opportunity, someone in your family suffers a serious illness. You want to step back and focus on what is important, but the Director’s response is: “Now, now you defeated that first devil and now you have to face a new one. Satan doesn’t want you to succeed.

The reality is that a much larger force is trying to tell you that you’re taking the wrong road. These obstacles are thrown in your path to make you stop and reflect on what is truly important in life and to help you make the right choice. In the real world, it’s called Divine Intervention.

On Trend

An overused term in MK to describe Mary Kay products as being “current” with what women want to buy. Unfortunately, the products that are “on trend” are usually 5 years behind the real trend.

Pink Bubble

Term used to describe the Mary Kay environment. Those who are in Mary Kay are said to be in a pink bubble, separate from the “real world” due to the optimism and enthusiasm of the whole Mary Kay culture.

Sharp
Adjective used to describe a nicely-dressed professional-looking woman. Consultants are advised to use this when warm chattering women.

“You are so sharp! Has anyone ever offered you a Mary Kay facial?”

“I’m looking for five sharp women to give me their opinions of our products.”

“You’re a find-a-way, make-a-way kind of person”
This means you don’t let obstacles get in your way… or, you will charge Seminar on your credit card, even if you don’t have the money to cover it.

Short Term Sacrifice for Long Term Gains

A term used to imply that if you will just work really hard for a little while, making your MK business the top priority in your life, you will be financially rewarded in the near future.

Time and sacrifice, however, are relative. A person with no children or other family that requires her presence probably won’t mind spending every spare moment for the next 8 to 10 years building her business. Ah, but the mother of a 3 year old will have missed most of the best years of her child’s life.

Missed the school play? ‘Sorry honey…facials, facials, facials.’

Unable to attend the soccer play offs? ‘Sweetie, you know mommy has to go to Seminar.’

Hubby tells you that sonny rode his bike all by himself yesterday evening. ‘Don’t start on me, Success Meetings are incredibly important to our future.’

Seemingly, all of a sudden, it’s 10 years later. You’re an EESD or NSD, but your child doesn’t know you, you husband doesn’t care, you’ve lost 10 years of joy that you will never get back…..and oops, you discover that the hard work never actually ends.

Show Up to Go Up
If you want to be successful, come to every event and meeting even though you are really taking time away from what’s important…like your faith and you family!

“We’re on fire! “
Your unit is really doing great things.

We truly look at the world through rose colored glasses.
We are all insane and to keep from feeling like outsiders, from the rest of the world, we just like to say that we have a different view on things.

You can’t sell from an empty wagon.
Used to convince new consultants that they need to have inventory on their shelves to be successful.