Mary Kay pioneered the multi-level marketing world of beauty products in the 1960s. Women selling makeup to other women has proven to be a business model that’s endured the decades.

But today, a new multi-level marketing beauty company is shifting the focus from just making women beautiful … to making women activists.

Beautycounter is turning saleswomen into an army of lobbyists on behalf of safer cosmetics. According to the company, there are more than 80,000 chemicals in skin care products on the market today, and many don’t have any safety data.

So, part of the company’s mission is to get lawmakers to change that. They’ve rallied their army of saleswomen to lobby Congress to pass the Personal Care Products and Safety Act — and that’s a new approach for a beauty company, according to Amanda Bower, who teaches marketing and advertising at Washington Lee University.

The Show's Lauren Gilger spoke with her recently about this, and asked a cynical question: is this just a ploy to harness the current political action wave we're on in order to make money? Or is it actually about altruism?