Reminiscience fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Reminiscience’s website does have an “about us” page, however it’s only used to market the company.

Reminiscience’s website domain (“reminiscience.com”), was first registered in November 2018.

The mostly private registration was last updated in May 2022, listing Acti Laboratories through a UK address as the owner.

Acti Laboratories goes by “Acti-Labs”, or at least they did.

A visit to Acti-Labs’ website today reveals the company now goes by Urban Retreat:

A visit to Urban Retreat reveals a message claiming the company’s

central distribution center was totally destroyed by fire on the 13th March 2023.

As a result Urban Retreat plans is in “full recovery mode”, with plans to relaunch out of France.

We are moving our business operations to operate entirely to France.

Our teams are working intently and our goal is to relaunch in early September 2023.

If Urban Retreat owns Reminiscience I’d assume this also affects their operations. At time of publication however there’s no mention of a disruption on Reminiscience’s website.

Nor is there any indication anything is amiss on Reminiscience’s official FaceBook page, dating back to March 2023.

What I did notice though is that almost all of Reminiscience’s products are out of stock.

On its website Urban Retreat claims to be a “family run business” servicing Russia.

Initially created as a small, bespoke manufacturer of luxury professional products for a number of exclusive Spas across the world, but primarily in Russia.

Following a transition to “sell its products direct to consumers”, Urban Retreat claims “all money had run out” by 2011.

ActiDerm was launched in the UK in June 2011 with just 11 great skincare products.

The brand quickly became popular enough to achieve our goal of keeping the production staff employed.

We are eternally thankful to the founding sellers who joined us at the beginning, and we are very proud to say that a good number of them are still with us today.

Oddly, there is no mention of Reminiscience on Urban Retreat’s website. There is also no mention of Urban Retreat on Reminiscience’s website.

Urban Retreat is headed up by co-founder John Miller. James Miller (John’s son?) is co-founder and CEO of Urban Retreat’s French operations.

Last October a BehindMLM reader informed me that Caius Hale was fronting Reminiscience.

Caius Hale and the seriously awful CEO of Acti-Labs, now Urban Retreat have relaunched TS-Life as ‘Reminiscience’.

What’s interesting is that the ‘leaders’ are trying to make out that this is new and not affiliated to TS-Life, whereas it’s been devised by exactly the same two directors under a different name.

Cutesy packaging, bold claims of sustainability, but essentially the same cheap shit under a different name.

TS-Life was a nutrition niche MLM company launched in 2018. The company was abruptly shut down without warning in early 2022.

I am aware of claims TS-Life was operating illegally and Hale fled Ireland following its collapse. I wasn’t able to independently verify these claims.

That said, here’s what I can verify.

After TS-Life shut down Hale disappeared. Hale scrubbed his FaceBook profile of content, before remerging on the platform in December 2022.

This coincides with Reminiscience’s launch in October 2022.

Hale ran TS-Life with Corporate Response Manager Jade Coyle.

On Jade Coyle’s FaceBook page we learn she is engaged to Hale.

Coyle also cites herself as a founder of Reminiscience.

On April 9th Coyle posted this photo to her FaceBook account:

In the bottom left of the photo there’s a menu for McCafferty’s Irish Pub.

McCafferty’s has multiple locations across the UK, Ireland, Spain and… Dubai.

I was able to pinpoint Coyle to McCafferty’s Al Furjan over Easter weekend:

What remains unclear is whether Caius Cale and Jade Coyle are visiting Dubai or living there.

Dubai is the MLM crime capital of the world. Cale and Coyle fleeing Ireland would support claims the pair escaped an investigation.

The murkiness surrounding Reminiscience’s corporate structure suggests Cale and Coyle don’t want to associated with the company on its website.

FaceBook posts notwithstanding, scrubbing one’s profile typically isn’t something you do unless you’re trying to hide something…

…like, for example, Reminiscience being a reboot of TS-Life.

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.

Reminiscience’s Products

Reminiscience’s markets a range of personal and body care products.

Personal Care

  • Eye Serum – “a lightweight serum that targets the sensitive eye contour area”, retails at $35.50 for a 15 ml bottle
  • Face Oil – “multi use oil that is almost exclusively formulated from 13 powerhouse botanic oils known for nourishing, hydrating, firming, and repairing”, retails at $34.95 for a 30 ml bottle
  • Face Cream Normal – “a lightweight yet active-rich moisturiser that restores and nourishes”, retails at $38.25 for a 40 ml tube
  • Face Cream Problem – “active-rich moisturiser that is light, helps to reduce breakouts, reduce excess sebum, and calm problem skin”, retails at $36.75 for a 40 ml tube
  • Cleansing Gel – “gentle purifying cleansing gel enriched with natural extracts to remove impurities”, retails at $25.95 for a 150 ml bottle
  • Body Lotion – “rejuvenating and tightening balm enriched with hydrating botanicals for restoring skin”, retails at $26.50 for a 200 ml bottle
  • Sheer Tint – “tinted medium buildable base with natural SPF25 protection”, retails at $33.75 a tube
  • Lip Gloss (Rose/Caramel) – “repairing and hydrating formula with a rich tint”, retail pricing not provided
  • Mascara – “lifting, lengthening, volumizing mascara. Buildable and enriched with fibre effect botanicals, deep nourishing extracts, and vitamins”, retails at $17.95 a bottle
  • Conditioner – “completely nourishing and hydrating, with the ability to calm flyaway hair”, retails at $23.75 for a 200 ml bottle
  • Shampoo – “rich in essential oils such as Bergamot and trusted proteins like keratin this shampoo delivers needed nutrients from root to tip”, retails at $22.75 for a 200 ml bottle

Body Care

  • U-Lixr – “powerful collagen and Vitamin rich liquid supplement”, retails at $68.95 for a 250 ml bottle
  • Ultranova – “full body tonic with a highly concentrated spectrum of life enhancing botanics”, retails at $45.50 a bottle
  • Detox Tonic – “alkalising superfood shot enriched with digestive enzymes, prebiotics and probiotics”, retails at $35.50 a bottle
  • Supanova – “full body tonic with a concentrated spectrum of life enhancing botanics”, retails at $27.25 a bottle
  • Body Lotion – “rejuvenating and tightening balm enriched with hydrating botanicals for restoring skin”, retails at $26.50 for a 200 ml bottle
  • Contouring Gel – “tightening, contouring, and silhouette reducing gel”, retails at $39.75 for a 200 ml bottle
  • Volt Daytime Capsules – “increase your daily vibration with these daytime capsules enriched with immune support vitamins and stimulating botanicals”, retails at $31.75 for a box of 30 capsules
  • Zeto Keto Experience – “increase your daily vibration with these daytime capsules enriched with immune support vitamins and stimulating botanicals”, retails at $29.95 for a box of 30 capsules

Reminiscience’s products are also available in various bundle packs.

Marked as “new” on Reminiscience’s website, the company now also resells Organo Gold ganoderma coffee products:

Reminiscience’s Compensation Plan

Reminiscience’s compensation plan combines retail sales with a bonus, residual binary commissions, a matching bonus and guaranteed pay.

Retail Commissions

Reminiscience affiliates earn a 30% commission on sale of products to retail customers.

Reminiscience Affiliate Ranks

There are sixteen affiliate ranks within Reminiscience’s compensation plan.

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

  1. Affiliate – sign up as a Reminiscience affiliate
  2. Crystal – generate and maintain 100 PV a month
  3. White – maintain at least 100 PV a month and recruit and maintain at least one Crystal or higher ranked affiliate
  4. Yellow – maintain at least 100 PV a month, generate 500 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume and 525 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume
  5. Pink – maintain at least 100 PV a month, generate 1500 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume, 1555 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume and be recruiting at least one new affiliate each month
  6. Blue – maintain at least 100 PV a month, generate 3000 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume, 1785 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume and continue to recruit at least one new affiliate each month
  7. Green – generate and maintain at least 250 PV a month, generate 5000 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume, 2380 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume and continue to recruit at least one new affiliate each month
  8. Orange – maintain at least 240 PV a month, generate 10,000 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume, 3230 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume, continue to recruit at least one new affiliate each month and have at least one Blue ranked affiliate in your downline
  9. Purple – maintain at least 240 PV a month, generate 15,000 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume, 3570 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume, continue to recruit at least one new affiliate each month and have at least two Blue ranked affiliates in your downline
  10. Red – maintain at least 240 PV a month, generate 30,000 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume, 4380 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume, be recruiting at least two new affiliates each month and have at least three Blue ranked affiliates in your downline
  11. Black – maintain at least 240 PV a month, generate 50,000 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume, 5270 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume, be recruiting at least two new affiliates each month and have at least three Green ranked affiliates in your downline
  12. Silver – generate and maintain at least 360 PV a month, generate 100,000 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume, 8840 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume, be recruiting at least two new affiliates each month and have at least three Purple ranked affiliates in your downline
  13. Gold – generate and maintain at least 360 PV a month, generate 150,000 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume, 10,710 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume, be recruiting at least two new affiliates each month and have at least three Red ranked affiliates in your downline
  14. Platinum – generate and maintain at least 360 PV a month, generate 300,000 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume, 13,260 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume, be recruiting at least two new affiliates each month and have at least three Black ranked affiliates in your downline
  15. Diamond – generate and maintain at least 360 PV a month, generate 500,000 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume, 17,850 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume, be recruiting at least two new affiliates each month and have at least three Silver ranked affiliates in your downline
  16. Crown Diamond – generate and maintain at least 360 PV a month, generate 1,000,000 GV a month in weaker binary team side volume, 20,100 GV a month in personally recruited affiliate volume, be recruiting at least two new affiliates each month and have at least three Gold ranked affiliates in your downline

PV stands for “Personal Volume”. PV is sales volume generated by sales to retail customers and an affiliate’s own purchases.

GV stands for “Group Volume”. Typically Group Volume is the sum total of an affiliate’s PV and that of their entire downline.

For the purpose of rank qualification, Reminiscience uses only GV generated by personally recruited affiliates and weaker binary team side volume.

Note that required rank affiliates must each be in a separate recruitment leg.

Retail Rank Rewards

Reminiscience rewards affiliates with bonus products for reaching retail sales volume milestones:

  • Pink – generate 500 PV in accumulated retail sales volume and receive one free product
  • Blue – generate 5000 PV in accumulated retail sales volume and receive two free products
  • Green – generate 10,000 PV in accumulated retail sales volume and receive four free products
  • Orange – generate 20,000 PV in accumulated retail sales volume and receive six free products
  • Purple – generate 40,000 PV in accumulated retail sales volume and receive ten free products
  • Red – generate 80,000 PV in accumulated retail sales volume and receive twenty free products
  • Black – generate 160,000 PV in accumulated retail sales volume and receive forty free products

Reminiscience’s compensation plan states affiliates are able to choose “a number of free products from a menu applicable to the rank status”.

Guaranteed Pay

Reminiscience guarantees monthly pay to Yellow and higher ranked affiliates:

  • qualify at Yellow and receive $137.50 a month
  • qualify at Pink and receive $262.50 a month
  • qualify at Blue and receive $468.75 a month
  • qualify at Green and receive $812.50 a month
  • qualify at Orange and receive $1750 a month
  • qualify at Purple and receive $2812.50 a month
  • qualify at Red and receive $6000 a month
  • qualify at Black and receive $10,625 a month
  • qualify at Silver and receive $22,500 a month
  • qualify at Gold and receive $35,625 a month
  • qualify at Platinum and receive $75,000 a month
  • qualify at Diamond and receive $12,500 a month
  • qualify at Crown Diamond and receive $256,250 a month

These minimum amounts are paid on top of earned commissions and bonuses.

Residual Commissions

Reminiscience pays residual commissions via a binary compensation structure.

A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):

The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).

Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.

Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of affiliates. Note there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.

At the end of each month Reminiscience tallies up new sales volume on both sides of the binary team.

Affiliates are paid a percentage of sales volume generated on their weaker binary team side:

  • White and Yellow ranked affiliates earn a 10% residual commission rate
  • Pink ranked affiliates earn an 11% residual commission rate
  • Blue ranked affiliates earn a 12% residual commission rate
  • Green ranked affiliates earn a 13% residual commission rate
  • Orange ranked affiliates earn a 14% residual commission rate
  • Purple ranked affiliates earn a 15% residual commission rate
  • Red ranked affiliates earn a 16% residual commission rate
  • Black ranked affiliates earn a 17% residual commission rate
  • Silver ranked affiliates earn an 18% residual commission rate
  • Gold ranked affiliates earn a 19% residual commission rate
  • Platinum and higher ranked affiliates earn a 20% residual commission rate

Once paid out on, weaker side volume is matched against the stronger side and flushed.

Leftover volume on the stronger binary team side carries over.

Matching Bonus

Reminiscience pays a Matching Bonus on guaranteed income and residual commissions.

The Matching Bonus is available to Pink and higher ranked affiliates, and pays on up to two levels of recruitment (unilevel):

  • Pink ranked affiliates earn a 30% Matching Bonus on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
  • Blue ranked affiliates earn a 30% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 5% on level 2
  • Green ranked affiliates earn a 30% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 10% on level 2
  • Orange ranked affiliates earn a 40% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 15% on level 2
  • Purple ranked affiliates earn a 40% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 20% on level 2
  • Red ranked affiliates earn a 40% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 25% on level 2
  • Black ranked affiliates earn a 40% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 30% on level 2
  • Silver ranked affiliates earn a 50% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 35% on level 2
  • Gold ranked affiliates earn a 50% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 40% on level 2
  • Platinum ranked affiliates earn a 50% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 45% on level 2
  • Diamond ranked affiliates earn a 50% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 50% on level 2
  • Crown Diamond ranked affiliates earn a 50% Matching Bonus on level 1 and 55% on level 2

R-Cash

If a Reminiscience affiliate generates 100 PV within the first ten days of a month, they receive $18 worth of R-Cash.

You can be rewarded R-Cash in a variety of other ways too like one off promotions and specials.

What R-Cash can be used for isn’t specified but I’m assuming it can only be used to purchase Reminiscience products.

Joining Reminiscience

Reminiscience affiliate membership is free.

TS-Life also failed to disclose membership costs and had various product pack bundles affiliates could sign up with. Whether this is the case with Reminiscience too is unclear.

Reminiscience Conclusion

Let’s get Reminiscience’s red flags out of the way first:

  • Reminiscience ownership or corporate information not provided (FTC disclosure failure)
  • circumstances TS-Life closed and was rebooted remain murky (potential due-diligence failure)
  • Caius Cale and Jade Coyle turning up in Dubai (avoid any MLM company based out of or with ties to Dubai due to non-regulation and sheltering of criminals)

These red flags alone are enough to avoid Reminiscience.

While I can’t confirm anything, I find Urban Retreat’s sudden warehouse fire a bit suspicious.

This is due to rumours that TS-Life’s problems in Ireland were due to illegal importation of products.

There’s also the name-change away from Acti-Labs. Perhaps not eyebrow raising itself, but a potential tie-in to TS-Life closing.

If Urban Retreat shifting operations from the UK to France is in any way tied TS-Life’s regulatory problems, that hasn’t been disclosed.

In any event, with Reminiscience we have an MLM company seemingly unable to replenish stock until September 2023.

I surprised to see Reminiscience reselling Organo Gold products. I didn’t realize Organo Gold was offering its products to other MLM companies – I guess that’s a thing now.

I did note Reminiscience avoided using Organo Gold’s name on its website, instead referring to the adopted range as “Organo”. Not disclosing these products are from Organo Gold is strange.

After thinking about it a bit more, I realized the switch to coffee is to keep Reminiscience selling something until the Urban Retreat restock.

Seeing as mushroom coffee has nothing to do with Reminiscience’s other products, it’s a bit of an odd place to be as an affiliate.

If you build a coffee customer base, you’re counting on Reminiscience continuing to stock Organo Gold’s products. Failing which you lose your customer base.

And that’s on top of likely losing your existing customer base, as September 2023 is still five months off as I write this.

All of this is a shame considering Reminiscience’s compensation plan itself didn’t have any major red flags.

I wasn’t impressed with PV being referred to as “Personal Retail Volume”. This is misleading given it counts an affiliate’s own purchases.

I’d considered an affiliate’s purchases might be excluded, but based on the compensation plan documentation wording that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Every product will have a CV (commission volume) and RV (retail volume) value assigned to it.

Please note that it is against terms to bulk purchase of keep excessive stock.

A lack of required retail volume for rank qualification means a potential affiliate has to query their upline on how much retail PV they’re generating each month. This was the case with TS-Life too.

One big difference between TS-Life and Reminiscience is the guaranteed income. It’s certainly interesting but could fuel a pyramid scheme if affiliates are self-purchase PV qualifying and mostly recruiting affiliates who do the same.

All in all I think the red flags I brought up earlier are enough to warrant a pass on Reminiscience.

The MLM company might be worth a revisit later in the year – but between now and then there’s a lot of disclosures that need to be made.

 

Update 18th April 2023 – In going through some of the threads I’d saved as part of my research into this review, I came across one I’d forgotten to explore pre-publication.

That thread led me to a March 28th FaceBook video, in which Organo Gold Chairman Paul Caldwell reveals Organo Gold has purchased Reminiscience.

[5:46] Organo has now publicly announced the acquisition of Reminiscience.

And Reminiscience is a brand, it’s a brand acquisition. Out of um, manufactured in France. It’s a French brand.

Organo’s global subsidiaries are involved in this acquisition, substantially and significantly.

While this does answer why Reminiscience is now selling Organo Gold products, it only raises more questions with respect to Reminiscience as an MLM opportunity.

Caldwell states Reminiscience has been acquired as a “brand acquisition”. Does that mean Reminiscience will continue on as a standalone company, or will it eventually be folded into Organo Gold?

Why does Acti-Lab/Urban Retreat still own Reminiscience’s website domain?

Will Caius Hale still run Reminiscience, or has he cashed out? If Hale has cashed out, that might go a long way to explaining why he’s turned up in Dubai.

Caldwell goes on to state;

[6:39] This transaction’s been worked on for quite a few months.

Considering this was announced in late March, “a few months” prior puts us towards the end of 2022.

Reminiscience only launched in October 2022 – why did Organo Gold move to acquire the company, coming off the back of TS-Life’s closure murkiness, so quickly?

And why on earth did Organo Gold announce its acquisition of Reminiscience, two weeks after it was made public the company would have no product inventory till at least September 2023?

Despite Caldwell making it sound like this has all been addressed publicly and clarified – it hasn’t.

I couldn’t find any corporate level explanation as to why TS-Life shut down, why Caius Hale disappeared, Urban Retreat’s involvement in the company and now Organo Gold’s acquisition.

Following on from red flags raised in the review above, there are now major disclosures being withheld with respect to Reminiscience as an MLM opportunity.

Pending these questions being addressed and that information being made public to consumers, complete due-diligence isn’t possible.

I would avoid Reminiscience until these disclosure issues are satisfactorily addressed.

For now I’m leaving BehindMLM’s Reminiscience review here. If there are any updates with respect to missing disclosures I’ll leave an update below.