Dashing Diva Nails Abandoned MLM Plans After Executive Rant Sent to ALL

January 25, 2023 12:55 PM

I'm a guy, so I have never heard of Dashing Diva, which I understand has a cult following for its high-quality pre-made nails with great color selection, and reasonable prices, and they sell direct as well as in major drugstores and supermarkets. However, I do track MLMs at times, and I was surprised to see a mention on BehindMLM.com that DashingDivas had abandoned their attempt to go MLM after major member backlash. And the story indeed had less to do with MLM, and more to do with one man's hubris...

Scott Halversen was the main backer of the MLM program "The Diva Life", at Dashing Diva. Previously Halversen was president of sales at Longaberger, a premium "lifestyle" brand that was bought out by Xcel Brands in 2022. However, PRIOR to that, Halversen was Director of Marketing at Rodan & Fields, a well-known MLM company that sells beauty products.

So it was not surprising that he is attempting to create an MLM operation at DashingDiva starting in late 2022. It was heavily promoted on their Instagram account as of January 10th, when the proposed compensation plan was posted.

Dashing Diva ALREADY has an affiliate program where you can get a referral commission for referring customers to DashingDIva.

The reaction to the MLM plan was negative. Dashing Diva responded with a "we've heard you" on the 13th, only 3 days later.

Three days later, on January 16th, an email was sent by Scott Halversen to the ENTIRE Dashing Diva email newsletter subscriber base and it was reposted at multiple places including on Reddit, where Halversen basically ranted against all the negative ninnies. (WARNING: long screen-cap of text courtesy of BehindMLM)

This caused Tasha, the "blogger" mentioned in Halversen's rant, to reveal the ENTIRE email conversation she had with Halversen online.

The reaction to the newsletter post was so overwhelmingly negative, that DashingDiva pulled the plug on the ENTIRE MLM operation on the 17th via Instagram post. In a follow-up post on the 18th, DD reported that Mr. Halversen is "no longer with Dashing Diva".

All mentions of MLM had been purged from DashingDiva's social accounts.

posted by kschang (20 comments total)

Weirdly, this made my day. One piece of evil averted. Thanks for posting.
posted by humbug at 2:48 PM on January 25, 2023 [9 favorites]

LOL, this is delicious.

This quote from his e-mail to the blogger made me giggle (emphases mine):

There are so many opinions you stated that are factually incorrect. I realize you have a disclosure however, your assessments, connections and conclusions demonstrate a great lack of ignorance, investigation and business model comprehension considering your education achievements. In my opinion, this is an article used as click bait to build your brand while degrading others at your expense, which I find highly unethical....

Dude, I do not think those words mean what you think they mean....
posted by rpfields at 3:47 PM on January 25, 2023 [19 favorites]

You mean a large group of people had too much sense to accept an MLM? I feel better about the human race.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 4:01 PM on January 25, 2023 [16 favorites]

Would be cool if this meant we were getting smarter in some way 🙌 but I don't understand the context well enough to know if this generalizes that way.
posted by grobstein at 5:02 PM on January 25, 2023

I'm a guy, so I have never heard of Dashing Diva

I have been given to understand that some men also have fingernails.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:31 PM on January 25, 2023 [29 favorites]

I have been given to understand that some men also have fingernails.

THAT'S A DIRTY LIE!
posted by evilDoug at 5:33 PM on January 25, 2023 [7 favorites]

grobstein, it might mean that the word is getting out to more people that MLMs are evil, but this doesn't mean it's a large proportion of people now or maybe ever. It's still progress.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 5:55 PM on January 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

I used to be in a Facebook group dedicated to bitching about MLMs, and the mods had to close it because it got too big for mere mortals to run. There are a lot of MLMs out there, is what I'm saying, and Rodan & Fields was frequently singled out for being especially toxic. This rhetoric (that any critics just don't understand the business model or are jealous haters who just want others to fail) is straight out of the playbook of every MLM.
I find MLMs so fascinating/horrifying/horrifascinating because they really, really make people who are not innately sociopaths act like sociopaths. That Facebook group was overflowing with stories from people getting MLM sales pitches from beloved kindergarten teachers, or former therapists, or old friends who approached them under the pretext of condolences about a loved one's terminal illness. Once I Venmo'd someone grocery money she supposedly desperately needed and she tried to "thank me" with an offer to host a party for her fancy candle warmer MLM. Her response to me literally giving her free money was to try to sell me and my friends a bunch of crap. This is not socially acceptable. It is, in fact, weird shit. Good for the Dashing Diva customers for being so organized and vocal and shutting it right down.
posted by Nibbly Fang at 5:58 PM on January 25, 2023 [21 favorites]

I hate MLMs. Tried selling Avon. MISERABLE experience. Got endless phone calls because I decided to leave in 2 months. I had on friend who did all sorts of MLMs. Finally she quit. People in Bosnia were being hit up to join AmWay at one point. It was so hard explaining why it’s a scam. I just hope people understood before they got in too deep.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 6:13 PM on January 25, 2023 [8 favorites]

I do enjoy some choice schadenfreude, make no mistake. But these days, the fucking around seems so widespread and the finding out, so infrequent. Any story (like this one) where there's such a direct line between the former and the latter puts a spring in my step for the rest of the day.
posted by sourcequench at 7:10 PM on January 25, 2023 [11 favorites]

I’m legit stunned there wasn’t a cryptocurrency angle to this whole moronic diversion, and I pray to Platinum Jesus that this Halversen tool gets incarcerated one day.

(Please Plutonium Jesus, let Shkreli get imprisoned again, along with the cryptobros)
posted by aramaic at 9:19 PM on January 25, 2023 [4 favorites]

I am not "fancy" and typically polish my nails about twice a year, maybe for a wedding. I actually just heard about Dashing Diva for the first time about a month ago when a similarly unfussy friend raved about them. I tried them and was actually really surprised to like them. As someone who abhors MLMs, I am delighted with this turn of events and might actually do my nails more now. And, I need to share this post with my friend, who will also get a kick out of it.
posted by hessie at 6:17 AM on January 26, 2023 [4 favorites]

Let us never lose sight of the fact that scAmway is the most evil MLM of all.
posted by BostonTerrier at 7:44 AM on January 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

(for anyone else as clueless as me, MLM = multi-level marketing.)
posted by martin q blank at 10:30 AM on January 26, 2023

The earliest takedown of a multi-level marketing I read was Cockeyed about Herbalife.

https://cockeyed.com/workfromhome/workfromhome_s.html

I assume the "call a 1-800 number from a plastic sign" angle is less common these days.
posted by RobotHero at 11:05 AM on January 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

I adore Dashing Diva nails, because my nails have a tendency to crack and split and fall apart before they get much length on them, and the DD stuff looks good and has an option that actually fits me (the original hormones gave me large hands and so I need wide press-ons).

There were a lot of DD fans who were cranky about the MLM setup and much cheering about this going away.
posted by mephron at 12:33 PM on January 26, 2023

Your reminder that the Amway empire provides the money for Betsy DeVos former education secretary under Trump whose brother is Erik Prince of Blackwater infamy

A classic review of the landscape - https://thebaffler.com/salvos/dreams-incorporated

Delighted that the pushback worked
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 2:13 PM on January 26, 2023 [6 favorites]

A classic review of the landscape - https://thebaffler.com/salvos/dreams-incorporated

Well that was bracing
posted by grobstein at 9:28 PM on January 26, 2023

I will add this to my confirmation bias tally that any organization or endeavor helmed by someone other than the target user/demographic of that service/item is a grifter and a scammer. See also, football.
posted by amanda at 8:19 AM on January 27, 2023

oops, should NOT have direct-linked stuff from BehindMLM. Here's Halversen's long rant as reposted on Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/10dvx2a
posted by kschang at 12:17 PM on January 27, 2023