Carelumina provide no information about who owns or runs the company on their website.

The only corporate management member revealed in a website featured Carelumina marketing video is Vice President of Business Development, Emil Dostovic.

Prior to Carelumina, Dostovic appears to have had a modelling career.

According to Dostovic’s Instagram bio he’s ‘appeared in Milan, Paris, NYC, MIA fashion weeks and most major publications worldwide.‘

I wasn’t able to find an MLM history for Dostovic, suggesting Carelumina is both his first MLM venture and executive position within the industry.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money.

Carelumina Products

Carelumina claim they “provide something for everyone”, as reflected in their mishmash of a product range.

Offered products include cold-pressed juice, personal care, health and wellness and “services”.

Carelumina claim their cold-pressed juice offers “complete nutritional wellness delivered right to your door”.

Not your ordinary juice. Our cold-pressed juice regimens are 100% raw fruit and vegetable juice designed by physicians to ensure the best nutritional value.

To ensure your juice arrives cold, fresh and ready to drink we use a sophisticated instant freezing process and ship your juice in a special cooling liner to maintain its quality.

Carelumina juices are also cold-pressured to kill at least 99.999% of bacteria and microorganisms while maintaining its tremendous nutritional value; providing a juice that is safe to drink for up to 30 days.

Carelumina juice flavors include:

  • E1 – kale, cucumber, ginger, green apple, lemon and turmeric
  • E2 – carrot, lemon, grape, celery, parsley and turmeric
  • E3 – green apple, cucumber, turmeric, swiss chard and romaine
  • E4 – bok choy, green apple, parsley, ginger, spinach, cucumber, turmeric and lemon
  • E5 – spinach, cucumber, turmeric, beetroot and pineapple
  • E6 – fennel, cucumber, orange, romaine, green apple and ginger

Retail pricing is per six, twelve or twenty-four bottles:

  • $70 for 6 bottles
  • $130 for 12 bottles or
  • $250 for 24 bottles

Carelumina’s personal care products include beauty and skin care ranges:

  • B1 Refresh – activated charcoal cleanser, retails at $25 a bottle
  • B2 Prepare – vitamin C antioxidant toner, retails at $25 a bottle
  • B3 Restore – anti-aging stem cell serum, retails at $35 a bottle
  • B4 Hydrate – utra vitamin C moisturizer, retails at $35 a bottle
  • B5 Illuminate – revitalizing eye creme, retails at $35 a bottle
  • B6+A4 Repair – anti-wrinkle retinol moisturizer, retails at $35 a bottle
  • B7 Brilliant – skin lightening creme, retails at $35 a bottle
  • A1 Pure – anti-acne deep cleanser, retails at $25 a bottle
  • A2 Clear – anti-acne healing toner, retails at $25 a bottle
  • A3 – Flawless – anti-blemish spot treatment, retails at $25 a bottle

There’s also a hair care range (18 products), with Carelumina providing a full catalog on their website.

Carelumina’s health and wellness range targets nutrition and fitness:

  • Calm – “no stress + anti aging”, retails at $30 a bottle
  • Rest – “sleep well”, retails at $40 a bottle
  • Grow – “hair + nail”, retails at $40 a bottle
  • Slim – “skinny me”, retails at $40 a bottle
  • Charge – “get fit”, retails at $60 a tub
  • Build – premium whey protein, retails at $70 a canister

Third-party services offered through Carelumina include:

  • roadside assistance – $15
  • telehealth – $25
  • tech support – $15
  • identity protection – $15 and
  • credit monitoring – $25

These are presumed to be monthly subscription costs, however the Carelumina website doesn’t explicitly clarify.

Note that the above services can also be purchased in Essential Protection ($35) and Complete Protection ($75) bundles.

The Carelumina Compensation Plan

Carelumina’s compensation combines retail sales and commissions with residuals paid out via a unilevel compensation plan.

A generation bonus extends payable unilevel levels, with additional performance-based bonuses also offered.

Carelumina Affiliate Ranks

There are seven affiliate ranks within the Carelumina compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

  • Independent Representative (IR) – sign up as a Careluminia affiliate, note that IRs do not qualify for MLM commissions
  • Manager – generate 3 customer points within the qualification pay period
  • Senior Manager – recruit at least two IRs or higher and generate at least 5 customer points within the qualification pay period
  • Regional Manager – maintain at least two personally recruited Manager or higher ranked affiliates and generate at least 10 customer points within the qualification pay period
  • National Manager – recruit and maintain at least three Regional Manager or higher ranked affiliates and generate at least 20 customer points within the qualification pay period
  • Director – maintain at least three personally recruited National Manager or higher ranked affiliates, generate at least 30 customer points and have a downline generating at least 1000 customer points within the qualification pay period
  • Presidential – recruit and maintain at least four Director or higher ranked affiliates, maintain at least 30 customer points and have a downline generating at least 2000 customer points within the qualification pay period

Customer points are generated when retail customers purchase Carelumina products and/or service subscriptions.

There is no indication of corresponding generated customer points in the Carelumina compensation plan.

With respect to the “qualification pay period”, there is also no clarification as to whether this is weekly or monthly.

Although Carelumina pay some commissions weekly, I believe the qualification pay period cited in the compensation plan is monthly recurring.

Retail Commissions

Carelumina affiliates are paid a retail commission on sales of products and services to retail customers.

  • Independent Representatives earn a 40% retail commission
  • Manager and higher ranked affiliates earn a 60% retail commission

Note the retail commission percentage is paid as a percentage of generated sales volume, not the retail value of products and/or services ordered.

Recruitment Commissions

Carelumina affiliates receive a “Fast Start Training Bonus” when they recruit a new affiliate who qualifies at the Manager rank.

  • the direct upline (recruiting affiliate) receives a 40% Fast Start Training Bonus
  • their upline (the affiliate who recruited the recruiting affiliate) receives a 10% bonus

The Fast Start Training Bonus is paid as a percentage of generated sales volume.

The Carelumina compensation plan doesn’t specify what sales volume this is, however I believe it’s sales volume generated by the newly recruited affiliate prior to qualifying at Manager.

Residual Commissions

Carelumina pay residual commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Residual commissions are paid as a percentage of generated sales volume from the sale and purchase of Carelumina products and services within a unilevel team.

How many levels a Carelumina affiliate earns residual commissions on is determined by rank:

  • Manager – 60% on level 1 and 5% on level 2
  • Senior Manager – 60% on level 1, 5% on level 2 and 2% on levels three to seven
  • Regional Manager – 60% on level 1, 5% on level 2 and 3% on levels three to seven
  • National Manager – 60% on level 1, 5% on level 2 and 4% on levels three to seven
  • Director – 60% on level 1, 5% on level 2 and 5% on levels three to seven
  • Presidential – 60% on level 1, 5% on level 2 and 6% on levels three to seven

Generation Bonus

Generation Bonuses potentially allow a Carelumina affiliate to earn on sales volume generated beyond seven unilevel team levels.

A generation in the Carelumina compensation plan is defined when a National Manager or higher ranked affiliate is found in a unilevel leg.

That affiliate caps off the first generation of that leg, with the second beginning immediately after.

If no other National Manager or higher ranked affiliates are found in that leg, the second generation extends down the full depth of the leg.

If a second National Manager or higher ranked affiliate exists, the second generation of that unilevel leg is capped off.

Note that generations are calculated independently for each individual unilevel leg.

Using this generational framework, Carelumina pay a Generation Bonus to National Manager and higher ranked affiliates as follows:

  • National Managers receive 1% on two generations of National Managers per unilevel leg
  • Directors receive 1% on two generations of Directors per unilevel leg
  • Presidentials receive 2% on two generations of Presidentials per unilevel leg

Presidential Shared Bonus Pool

Carelumina take 4% of company-wide generated sales volume and place it in the Presidential Shared Bonus Pool.

Each Presidential ranked Carelumina affiliate receives an equal share in the Presidential Shared Bonus Pool.

The Carelumina compensation plan does not state how often the Presidential Shared Bonus pool is paid out.

Customer Acquisition Shares Bonus Pool

Carelumina take 2% of company-wide generated sales volume and place it in the Customer Acquisition Shares Bonus Pool.

The Customer Acquisition Shares Bonus Pool is shared equally among qualified “Customer Specialists”.

To qualify as a Customer Specialist, a Carelumina affiliate must

  • generate at least 200 customer points
  • have a downline generating at least 2000 customer points and
  • maintain an average customer retention rate of 8 months

The customer point quotas are due every “qualification pay period”, which is believed to be monthly.

Car Bonus

Director and Presidential Carelumina affiliates receive a monthly Car Bonus:

  • Directors receive $800
  • Presidentials receive $1600

Joining Carelumina

Carelumina Independent Representative membership costs $200 and then $25 a month.

A free affiliate membership option is also available, however free affiliates are unable to earn MLM commissions.

Conclusion

When I first sat down to research Carelumina I thought cold-pressed juice was all the company offered.

I didn’t have a problem with that, as on that front the company seems pretty dedicated.

Personally I’m not a big juice drinker, but I do appreciate the retention of nutritional value versus “sit on the shelf for a month” juice.

That said at $11.66 for a 12 fl oz. (355 ml) bottle, or $32.84 a liter, Carelumina’s cold-pressed juice is very much a luxury item.

Although Carelumina’s juices have a wide variety of ingredients and delivered to your door convenience, home-made juice with a well invested in juicer will likely give it a run for its money.

The rest of Carelumina’s products and services felt very much tacked on. This is symptomatic of trying to appeal to a too broader crowd.

Variety of course is great but within a specific defined niche even better. I highly doubt, for example, that someone looking for cold-pressed juice is going to be spontaneously want a telehealth service too.

That said, Carelumina have put some effort into the presentation of its non-juice products and services. Although I do have to question the sincerity there.

Take Carelumina’s beauty range. In a marketing video on the Carelumina website, the beauty range is introduced by Dr. Jason Meier, a “double board certified facial plastic surgeon”.

States Dr. Meier in the video;

Through my years of practice, I’ve had numerous clients with a variety of skin issues and complaints.

And these clients have tried numerous over the counter regiments, without those clinically proven results that they want to see.

That’s why I developed the Carelimina Beauty skin care line.

Now I’m not questioning Dr. Meier’s professional expertise, but since when do surgeons develop actual products?

Obviously medical professionals have input when it comes to R&D, but on the manufacturing side of things?

It’s a bit like an experienced baker who might know how to combine ingredients to put together a banger cake, but also claiming to be an expert in developing the best production methods of the ingredients used.

Unless I’m missing something, these two areas don’t overlap. And that only served to reinforce the sense of “me too” I got with Carelumina’s non juice products and services (the services in particular).

Moving onto the compensation plan, at first-glance Carelumina appears to be very retail customer focused – which is great.

The Carelumina Compensation Plan is based upon the sale of Carelumina products.

Independent Representatives must fulfill personal and Downline Organization retail sales requirements (as well as meet other responsibilities set forth in the Agreement) to be eligible for rebates, bonuses, commissions and advancement to levels of achievement.

CP includes purchases made by the Independent Representative and Direct Retail Customers.

Customer – means Direct Retail or Preferred Customer. Customers may purchase product or services for personal use only and may not resell product. An Independent Representative is not and may not act as a Customer.”

As I was perusing through Carelumina’s thirty-seven page compensation documentation though, this sentence set off alarm bells:

All Independent Representatives are still required to have their personal monthly Smartship order to fulfill monthly requirements as specified in the Compensation plan.

Thinking I’d missed something, I scanned what I’d already read for mandatory autoship but turned up nothing. Continuing through the compensation document to the end provided no answers either.

In fact there’s no mention anywhere in Carelumina’s compensation plan, other than the above quoted vague sentence, that affiliate autoship is mandatory.

At this stage I hadn’t researched joining costs for Carelumina affiliates. After I’d done so, what the autoship sentence was referring to became clear.

Carelumina’s affiliate sign up options are “Affiliate” and “Independent Representative”.

Affiliate is free and generates a 20% retail commission (no MLM).

Independent Representative costs $200 and then $25 a month, which “includes Family TeleHealth Plan”.

Or in other words, every Carelumina affiliate participating in the MLM income opportunity is forced to maintain a $25 a month TeleHealth Plan autoship subscription.

This makes statements like this from the Carelumina compensation plan extremely misleading:

Smartship, Smartship Agreement – means the optional Carelumina program or service that automatically ships or renews a product or service to the Independent Representatives.

How is smartship/autoship optional if every affiliate participating in the Carelumina MLM income opportunity is forced to have a minimum $25 a month standing order?

Oh and for doing nothing more than paying $200 and then $25 a month, Independent Representatives earn a 60% retail commission over the base $20 Affiliate rate.

That’s blatant pay to play and a serious regulatory red flag.

And the worst part of it is I can’t figure out why Carelumina would trash an otherwise retail-centric compensation plan, with pay to play mandatory autoship nonsense.

Carelumina affiliate career progression is tied to rank, which is primarily based on customer point generation.

Carelumina affiliates are required to sign an agreement acknowledging that ‘the Carelumina compensation plan is based solely upon the acquisition of customers.‘

Personal customer points count only an affiliate’s purchases and that of their retail customers (including preferred customers on autoship).

Other than creating minimum sales volume quotas per affiliate recruited each month, I can’t see any reason to force Carelumina affiliates onto a $25 autoship.

Retail customer acquisition has to happen if the upper customer point requirements are to be met ($25 autoship only generates one customer point), so why saddle affiliates with an unnecessary financial burden?

And on that topic, what on Earth is the $200 sign-up fee about? Carelumina affiliates get nothing for it in return, other than the potential to earn MLM commissions, provided they generate 3 customer points.

And herein lies the trap.

If a Carelumina affiliate is already being forced to generate 1 customer point a month through a minimum $25 order, what’s two more to start earning on a recruited downline.

A few bottles of juice, some more telephone-based services? They do only need to generate two additional customer points after all.

And then having been conditioned to pay for commission qualification, they can then start earning residual commissions by recruiting other Carelumina affiliates who also do the same.

So much for the focus on retail customers.

The good news is identifying whether you’re getting into a retail-orientated business or affiliate autoship recruitment chain is pretty straight-forward.

What you want to ask your potential upline is a ratio of customer points generated by their own purchases and that of their retail customers.

Seeing as Carelumina make it a point to boast about an “average lifetime customer retention rate” of eight months, it also wouldn’t hurt to ask how many retail customers the affiliate has who have been purchasing for eight or more months.

Any resistance to the above straight-forward questions and you have your answer.

Whether compliance flaws in the Carelumina compensation plan are by design, an oversight, a symptom of overpriced juice or whatever else – I have no idea.

What I do know however is that in its current state, the Carelumina compensation plan needs a rework.

Abolishing mandatory affiliate autoship and not counting affiliate product/service purchases toward customer points would be a great start. And transparency about who owns and/or runs Carelumina is also needed.

Pending those specific or similar changes to the Carelumina compensation plan, approach with caution.