The eldest Kardashian sister launched her wellness gummy brand back in 2022, promising better sleep, less bloating, and a yummy-tasting hoo-ha. Its latest line of gummies now promise to regulate blood sugar and tackle our desire to (gasp!) have a snack.
Want to chill? Want to sleep? Want to debloat? Kourtney Kardashian’s got you – or does she?
The wellness-obsessed Kardashian sister launched her aesthetically-pleasing supplement brand back in 2022 and surprisingly, it wasn’t an instant success. Even die-hard fans were apprehensive to pick up some of the products, each of which came with its own special promise: better sleep, less stress, a healthier vagina, and a flatter tummy.
Despite Lemme’s strong PR outreach and excellent branding, many consumers asked: what does Kourtney Kardashian know about health? She may have a personal interest in wellness, bolstered by her well-established platform Poosh, but she’s not a doctor or gynecologist – she’s a television personality.
Across the internet, experts weighed in. They unanimously agreed that the amounts of active ingredients included in both Lemme’s supplements and gummies are either negligible, unnecessary, or irrelevant to the health matters they claim to address.
On top of widespread criticism from those with medical qualifications, Lemme has also taken another recent hit. Around $4 million USD worth of product was stolen from a truck and resold to popular retailers across the US, including TJ Maxx.
Customers took to TikTok to explain how they were excited about their find, but were eventually unable to complete their purchase, as retailers had recalled the products in case of tampering or fraudulent formulas.
That said, negative speculation and a huge stock heist hasn’t stopped the brand from releasing new products. Its latest offering is a gummy called Lemme Curb – and it’s making a lot of interesting claims.
Hungry for what?
‘Lemme Curb’, originally in capsule form but now sold as individually wrapped gummies, claims it will ‘help manage unwanted cravings, ‘support healthy blood sugar levels already in the normal range’, and ‘significantly improve body composition in combination with diet and exercise’.
Looking at the website, each of these statements has an asterisk beside it – in fact, almost all Lemme’s website’s descriptions do – which lead to a disclaimer at the bottom of the webpage.
It reads: ‘These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.’
While this is an unsurprising find, there are two additional problems with Lemme’s new product. The first being society’s newfound love of the heroin-chic aesthetic – or as we call it today, Ozempic body – and the second is Kourtney’s willingness to capitalize on women’s insecurities during the latest wave of diet culture.
A textbook lesson in capitalising on women’s insecurity
Like most of the products launched by the Kardashians, Lemme is responding to a growing Western trend.
People of all ages are more conscious of their health than ever, causing a serious spike in the wellness industry’s market value. In fact, the global wellness economy was worth $5.6 trillion in 2022 – a 14 percent increase from 2019, just three years prior.
What’s sad is that Lemme seems to be honing in on anxiety over our health and appearances, specifically targeting women’s insecurities in the process. Stomach bulging after drinking water and eating a nourishing meal? ‘Lemme Debloat’ will ensure that doesn’t happen. Got a vagina that smells like a vagina? Can’t have that. Take ‘Lemme Purr’, it will smell like a pineapple.
The ‘Lemme Smooth’ range even claims to rid women of cellulite, a completely normal and genetically-determined feature that often won’t entirely disappear even if a woman has lost excess weight.
As we speak, it’s likely that the team at Lemme is researching the growing list of concerns young women have about their health to garner ideas about how to expand their product range further.
Unfortunately, it looks like ‘Lemme Burn’ is simply snowballing off the rail-thin trend occurring in Hollywood, with countless stars picking up Ozempic and shedding copious amounts of weight in a short period.
The Kardashian’s brands sparsely last
To wrap things up, it’s time to pull back the curtain on a clear trend: Kardashian-produced products almost always tend to be out of stock.
Those paying attention have pointed out that is a typical marketing tactic intentionally deployed by the family – you will notice it with Kylie’s endless number of companies as well as Kim’s makeup and shapewear brands.
By producing and releasing a small amount of stock, items sell out faster, creating hype around the brand and boosting product desirability. This approach creates the illusion that the products are in extremely high demand, and that everyone is using them, so they must be good.
So while you’ll find tons of people (specifically PR packet receiving influencers) who are loving the products, you’ll also find that many people believe Kourtney’s venture into the world of wellness supplements is a cash grab before the Kardashian name fizzles out for good.
Most people – even fans of this ultra-famous family – would argue that it’s unnecessary to purchase a celebrity-driven supplement when there are so many reputable companies offering formulas with decades of research backing their benefits.
All in all, Lemme is a relatively new brand that has touted itself as promoting wellbeing. Why would they launch a product designed to prevent their target market, young women, from eating when they feel hungry?
Whether these supplements do what they say they will or not, other products in the Lemme line make sense, including prebiotics, probiotics, and collagen supplements. The addition of an appetite suppressant slash diet pill doesn’t make a lot of sense for wellness on a whole.
Unfortunately, a large portion of consumers will continue to fall under the Kardashian spell. This product is sold by a beautiful woman who doesn’t eat gluten and lives off matcha lattes, so it must be good for me!
Still, in time, I’d suspect that Lemme will eventually be placed in the same category as Sugarbear Hair gummies – an unnecessary, useless, and hype-driven scam.
