.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Alyce Faith Burnett began selling Mary Kay products in Greater Des Moines when the typical reaction to her pitch was still “Mary Who?”

“I was one of the youngest ones in Iowa, and one of the first. And I’ll probably be here the longest,” said the Johnston resident, who became a Mary Kay consultant in 1975 when she was in her early 20s.

The veteran beauty consultant is also among a handful of independent sales representatives locally who have earned one of the company’s top sales incentives: the Mary Kay pink Cadillac. For her past-year sales, Burnett in July was awarded her 16th company car, a metallic black 2008 Saturn Vue, which winners get to use for two years.

“The products match ‘the cars and the jars,'” explained Burnett, noting the company is gearing up for a major line of sleek metallic lipsticks to be rolled out in the next month. “It’s no longer your mother’s cosmetics. The young people are going, ‘This is so cool.’ It’s really for everybody. We’re really excited about that.”

Founded in 1963 by Mary Kay Ash, Mary Kay Inc. is the second-largest U.S. direct seller of skin products and color cosmetics, behind New York-based Avon Products Inc. Avon posted revenues of $8.7 million last year from sales by more than 5.3 million representatives.

Burnett is one of 1,804 independent Mary Kay sales consultants in Greater Des Moines, a figure that has increased by more than 70 percent in the past 10 years, according to figures provided by the company.

In total, Mary Kay’s independent sales force numbers more than 1.7 million people in 30 countries worldwide, offering more than 200 premium cosmetics products in five categories: facial skin care, color cosmetics, body care, sun protection and fragrance.

Burnett went to her first Mary Kay event in Des Moines with her mother-in-law while her husband, Bob, was attending National Guard training.

The host of that party, Lucy Reifscheider-Kuhlmeier, encouraged her to consider becoming an independent sales consultant for Mary Kay. Reifscheider-Kuhlmeier won 20 pink Cadillacs during her career.

“What an inspiration,” Burnett said of her mentor. “She believed in me and saw the little sparkle and said, ‘You should do this.'” Burnett still keeps in touch with her friend, who is 80 and lives in Hubbard.

Burnett, who worked as a schoolteacher in Omaha before she and her husband moved to Des Moines, didn’t become a consultant until she was unable to find a teaching position here.

“So I said, ‘I’ll do this until I find a real job,'” she said. “My first week with Mary Kay, I made more than I made teaching in one month. And now I’ve had paychecks in one month that were more than I had made in teaching all year.”

Learning to sell cosmetics is not rocket science, she said. In essence, it comes down to: “squirt (a sample on her wrist), smile, (then ask), ‘Do you like it?’ Turn the page, ‘Aah, ooh. … Do you want that?'”

Despite the increasing number of consultants, Burnett said the company’s representatives maintain the cooperative spirit of its founder.

“We have a ‘Go-Give’ spirit where we all help each other, and the more you give, the more that will come back to you,” she said. For example, each of the local managers and directors meet regularly to share tips. “That’s one of the principles of the company,” she said. “It doesn’t happen so much in corporate America.”

At the same time, each consultant’s success is based on her own efforts, she said.

“If you put in the effort, you’ll have the results,” said Burnett, who estimates her client list at about 800 women. “And my husband is in the real estate business, so we team it up and share our leads back and forth.”

Some of her clients have bought from Burnett nearly her entire career. Her oldest customer is 103 years old; she also continues to work with a number of customers who have moved out of state.

“When you take care of them for 20, 30 years, you become really close,” she said. “This one gal says, ‘I’ve known you longer than my doctor.’ I said, ‘You’re married to a doctor.’ She said, ‘I know.'”

To qualify to receive a vehicle, an independent consultant’s annual sales must exceed “one-third of a million dollars,” said Burnett, who has earned a vehicle biennially since 1979.

Burnett, who said she has trained thousands of new consultants during her career, said she believes the opportunities are as great as ever for women who want to get into selling Mary Kay products.

“When Mary Kay started the company in 1963, women were just starting to get back into the workplace, and it was the perfect answer,” she said. “Now, women want to come back and be home, and Mary Kay is again the perfect answer. When she started this whole thing, she knew there was more out there for the average girl. … I’ve seen it change people (as consultants). They come in and they can hardly say their names; the confidence they gain is just magic.”