Nature’s Sunshine Review: Is It A Scam?

(Last Updated on November 29, 2022)

There are a ton of multi-level marketing opportunities out there.

These types of business, also known as MLMs,  are great for helping people earn residual income – sometimes.  

Unfortunately a lot of people have had bad experiences with this type of business and so they have a bad rep.

Nature’s Sunshine is one of these companies, and we’re here to help you figure out whether or not this company is worth joining.

What Is Nature’s Sunshine?

Nature’s Sunshine is a company that sells mostly natural health products.

They focus on supplementation, homeopathy, and an assortment of other products intended to promote natural health.

The business is family-owned.

It was created in 1972, by the duo of Gene and Kristine Hughes.

Nature’s Sunshine has done pretty good in the expansion department.

By now it has a presence in more than 30 different countries across the world.

Despite that, the majority of its profits are made in the U.S. and Europe.

What’s interesting about Nature’s Sunshine is that it was one of – and arguably the first – company to encapsulate their herbs.

This is pretty impressive considering the majority of supplements that you buy these days are encapsulated.

They’re a pretty stable company and they’ve been running the business their own way for quite some time.

Nature’s Sunshine: What Do They Sell?

Nature’s Sunshine has a huge variety of products available.

They offer more than 600 products that can be useful for helping people manage, prevent, and deal with a huge number of health problems.

This might seem like a lot of products but considering they’ve been around for almost 50 years, it just shows that they’re making the best out of their ingenuity.

Their products can generally be classed into one of a number of different categories:

• Children’s health: products which are obviously intended to help improve the health of youth and babies.
• Enzymes: digestive enzymes that help to enhance the metabolization of nutrients.
• Essential oils: concentrated plant extracts that can provide a wide variety of health benefits for different purposes.
• Fiber: products which help to provide the body with the fiber it needs to function.
• Herbs: tons of different herbs that have been used in various medicine systems for treating ailments.
• Personal care: which includes products that are not necessarily meant for consumption – lotions, gels, creams, shampoos, etc.
• Vitamins and mineral: supplements which are useful to help prevent nutritional deficiencies.

Nature’s Sunshine Most Popular Products

There are a lot of products that they sell, but certain products from Nature’s Sunshine sell a lot more than others.

These are the most popular products from this company.

Probiotic Eleven

It is a blend of probiotics that can help restore and maintain proper functioning of the bacteria in your body.

Tiao He Cleanse

It is a cleanse that takes 15 days and is made with a mixture of Chinese Medicinal Herbs.

Mind Max

It is a bottle of 90 capsules that are intended to help you maintain the best cognitive function that you can have.

Does Nature’s Sunshine Work?

Nature’s Sunshine has been around for quite a long time, and this alone is enough for someone to believe that their products are pretty effective.

But that said, it’s not enough to believe that they’re entirely effective.

However, there have been quite a few positive reviews about the products that this company provides.

When you think about the fact that they sell products like chlorophyll – a plant-based nutrient that helps plants absorb sunshine – and people report that it’s effective at helping them feel good, I start to wonder.

Chlorophyll works great for plants, but there’s no evidence that it works in humans.

I mean, think about it – chlorophyll converts sunlight into energy.

There’s not a lot of sunshine in the human body, is there?

That said, there’s no reason to discredit the opinions of these people.

If they’ve had good experiences with these products then they’ve had good experiences.

Maybe you will, too!

In terms of scientific studies, many of the ingredients used in their products have been proven time and again to help people feel and function better.

So there’s no reason that these products shouldn’t work for you too.

Nature’s Sunshine MLM Business Opportunity

Nature’s Sunshine offers people a business opportunity.

Instead of a regular business which only allows people to buy stuff, Nature’s Sunshine allows you to join part of a marketing network.

This means that you can sell stuff for the company and earn commission, and you can also make money by recruiting other people to do the same.

In most cases, the best way to earn money from a brand like this is to recruit new members to the company.

They will become what’s known as your ‘downline.’

You will also earn commission on your downline.

That means the more that you recruit, the more money that you’ll make

Nature’s Sunshine: The Compensation Plan

The main thing that separates different MLMs from each other is the way that their compensation plans function.

Even though they’re all generally similar, each MLM appeals to different types of people in the bonuses that they offer, the rates of commission, and the amount of a discount that you get.

This particular brand offers two main compensation plans for its members.

• The Classic Compensation Plan is made for people who already own some sort of retail outlet, or for those who have experience in the healthcare industry.
• The Legacy Compensation Plan, the other main plan, is for people of money that you’ll make off of your downline.

Other than that, there are 4 main ways that you can earn money through these two different compensation plans.

• Retail profits. Since you, as a retailer, will be able to buy things at a discount price, you’ll be able to earn profit simply by selling these products back to people. As ou rank up you can earn as much as 33% profit on retail sales.
• By sponsoring new members you can earn as much as 40% commission on the things that they sell.
• Personal rebates and group commissions. Depending on the volume of your orders with the company, you may earn a rebate of up to 20%.
• Downline / successline commissions and overrides, which is a detailed system of income that you can earn based on the success of the people that you recruit.

Is Nature’s Sunshine A Pyramid Scheme?

The term ‘pyramid scheme’ has an inherently negative connotation, and in many cases people are quick to run away from any business that’s even slightly associated with being a pyramid scheme.

However, the reality is that most people don’t truly understand what a pyramid scheme is.

A pyramid scheme is basically just a name that people give to a type of business that has a high-ranking CEO that earns more money than the rest of the company.

They are associated with this type of business primarily because people are too lazy to learn about MLMs or explain how they function but they want an easy way to explain them as being scams.

Some of these businesses certainly fit the bill for being a ‘pyramid scheme,’ but there are two different ways of looking at it.

When people say ‘pyramid scheme’ in regards to these types of businesses, they are generally referring to a company that activel rips off their members and employees so they can earn money easier.

This doesn’t happen too often.

What a pyramid scheme really does is get people who rankl power in a company to funnel money up towards the CEO.

That’s pretty much every company in the world right now.

The reality is (from what I can tell, and I don’t even currently work for an MLM) is that they’re more open and honest than most regular businesses.

You’ll rarely have a chance to advance to being the CEO of a gas company.

For example, but they’ll goad you with career bonuses into thinking that you’ll be able to.

MLMs juts give you a chance to earn some extra cash, all while knowing exactly where you stand in the company.

Nature’s Sunshine Reviews & Complaints

One of the most truly impressive things about Nature’s Sunshine is the amount of positive reviews that their products have, particularly on sites like Amazon.

In fact, the majority of their products have more than 100 reviews yet still maintain a rating of at least 4.5 stars.

This is more than can be said of many businesses period, let alone MLMs.

Reviewers of their Immune Stimulator,  for example, say that it they “take it at the first stages of a bug and this wipes out any sickness.”

Another reviewer said that they “took it with  spleen activator from Nature’s Sunshine to help me clear  my immune  system.”

I feel that I should mention that the majority of positive reviews are all written with the same grammar and sound like they were written by the same person.

This suggests that perhaps Nature’s Sunshine is paying freelancers to write positive reviews about them. All their usernames are basic and fairly similar as well, so I personally wouldn’t trust the reviews.

Nature’s Sunshine Prices & Where to Buy

Nature’s Sunshine is available in  many countries.

Many different regions have their own site with the company.

For example, Nature’s Sunshine Canada will (obviously) be better for Canadians than  Nature’s Sunshine US.

They also  have a ton of products available on online retailers like Amazon and eBay.

In many cases you can get stuff for the  same or similar prices on other retailers and save money on shipping.

Here are some prices pulled from Amazon.

• Nature’s Sunshine Tei Fu Essential Oils run you about $9 per a bottle.
• Nature’s Sunshine LBS, or Lower Bowel Stimulant, will run you about $21..50 for a 2 pack of 100 capsules.
• Nature’s Sunshine Solstic Energy, a delicious and nutritious drink mix, will cost you $23.59 for a 30 pack.
• Nature’s Sunshine Immune Stimulator will cost you $26.33 for a bottle of 90 capsules.

Nature’s Sunshine Money Back Guarantee

Nature’s Sunshine offers a pretty basic money-back guarantee.

If you return products within 90 days, even after trying it, you can return it for a refund.

Nature’s Sunshine Pros & Cons

It’s a good idea to figure out the good things about a company as well as the bad things.

Looking at the pros and cons side-by-side is the best way to really evaluate whether or not a company is suitable for you and your lifestyle.

So, here are the pros and cons of Nature’s Sunshine.

Pros

• You get a good amount of support from the company in regards to learning how to start your business.
• There are company-hosted conferences to help further educate distributors.
• You get monthly webinars from professionals to help you fine-tune your sales skills.
• You will get your own website to help you reach customers.
• The company has received great reviews from both employees and customers, currently holding an A+ rating on the Better Business Bureau.

Cons

• You are required to buy at least $100 of products every month. This isn’t uncommon among MLMs but it’s kind of irritating because if you have a bad month of sales you’ll be footing the bill.
• Again, like a lot of other MLMs, you’re going to need to recruit lots of people to make a good income. If you don’t have a big social network this can be a bit of an issue.
• Nature’s Sunshine also ran into some legal problems in 2009. The brand was accused of bribing people in Brazil so they could import nutritional products from other areas without following through with the legal requirements. They then  hid the evidence. That said, as far as legal problems that some MLMs have run into, this is pretty mild.

Nature’s Sunshine Review: Final Verdict

The verdict isn’t out on Nature’s Sunshine.

The company seems great in some aspects and is quite sheisty in others.

The fact that all the reviews sound like they’re written by the same person doesn’t really help.

However, they have been around for a long time and people keep buying their products.

They use scientifically evaluated ingredients so there’s definitely some reason to try them out.

If you think this is the MLM for you, then by all means, go try out your luck!

So, what do you think about our Nature’s Sunshine review? Would you buy this product or not? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!