Today I’m going to be reviewing a handful of popular celebrity-owned health and wellness brands to give you my honest thoughts on if they’re a good buy or total bunk.
So according to a report by JLL research, celebrities have been busy doing things some say they’re not technically qualified to do. But nearly 60% of celebrity brands on the market today were founded in the last 6 years. And I mean, it makes sense. With the rise of social media and a marketer’s ability to use the user data, celebs went from being paid by a brand to endorse their brand or appear in their commercials, to then realizing, why endorse someone else’s products when I can use my celebrity status and be the face of my own? I mean it’s a great move in my books. IYKYK.
Even though we sometimes see BTS marketing content suggesting these celebrity health and wellness brands, it’s impossible to know if this is just a show or if they’re legitimately heavily involved. Remember the time that Kylie Jenner got called out for “staging” pictures of her creating makeup magic? Ya cute photo op, but it didn’t bode well for her legitimacy and trust. I’m sure they’re on the important calls and are testing to give the final thumbs up, but unless they’re hiding their chemistry degree on the CV, there’s a good chance their R&D involvement is low. And how could it not be?
Like I’m sure the Kardashians know what probiotics are but do they understand how different unique strains perform in different mediums? Do they know how many CFUs you need? Do they know how to interpret high quality research on ingredients?
This stuff matters. So now lets take a look at some of the most popular celebrity health and wellness brands on the market right now.
LEMME BY KOURTNEY KARDASHIAN
Kourtney is quickly expanding her health and wellness brand with a variety of different products. There are way too many to get into here, so I thought I would zone in on one of their alleged best sellers, the LEMME PURR AKA a probiotic for your lady flower. I mean, whether or not Kourtney was actually hands on, this one definitely feels on-brand. But with a zippy pineapple flavour, PURR promises to support healthy vaginal pH balance and improve the smell and taste of little Ms Minky.
One serving of gummies contains 1 billion CFUs of bacillus coagulans SNZ 1969, 20 mg of vitamin C, and some pineapple powder, assumedly for flavour. Fun fact, it was allegedly Kim K who started the bunk rumour that pineapples make your kitty taste sweet. But believe it or not, there is no evidence that it works, nor should we want our lady flower to smell like flowers.
As for the active ingredients- SNZ 1969 is a really great spore based probiotic largely studied for IBS and digestion, but there’s only one study to my knowledge evaluating its efficacy for vaginal health. This study looked specifically at women with a yeast infection and found that a combination of the probiotic plus an antibiotic improved symptoms faster than the antibiotic alone. This makes total sense, antibiotics can be tough on our microflora and probiotics can help. But if you don’t have a yeast infection and are not taking antibiotics for it, I wouldn’t count on your basic carnation miraculously blossoming into a fragrant summer rose.
It also contains 20 mg of vitamin C, which is kinda associated with improved vaginal microflora, but the dose needed is over 10x what’s in the gummies, and you’re supposed to insert it like a suppository, not chew it like a piece of candy. So again, not sure this will do anything.
Generally speaking, I don’t love gummy vitamins since most gummies need to be sprayed with the vitamins, which can lead to huge inconsistencies and stability challenges. This is one of the reasons why when tested, gummy multivitamins tend to score poorly. The reality is, I don’t think these gummies can harm, like I said I love bacillus coagulan probiotics. But in my books, the probiotic is the only functional ingredient and functional for reasons completely unrelated to a nicer smelling vag. And to pay $42 for literally just 1 Billion CFUs which is not a lot, and may or may not be super stable in gummy form, seems honestly quite criminal to me. So no, the Lemme Purr does not pass my sniff test.
GOODLES BY GAL GADOT
If you’re a Kraft mac and cheese lover or what we Canadians call KD, this “healthier” boxed mac from founder Gal Gadot sounds like an answered prayer. But is it too good to be true? Let’s take a look.
Goodles is made from a combination of wheat and chickpea protein, along with whole food vitamins from a wide range of fruits, veg, and seeds. The cheese is made from real dairy in the original, and cashews and nutritional yeast in the vegan. The final result is a boxed mac and cheese with 270 calories, 7 grams of fiber, and 15 grams of protein per serving, along with a range of micronutrients.
It’s not a complete multivitamin but I’d say it’s a pretty good start. I especially love that we have some calcium, vitamin D, and iron. The OG, KD has an extra 100 calories, and only 2 grams of fiber and 11 grams of protein per serving. It doesn’t offer nearly as many nutrients, but interestingly, some of the nutrients it does contain are offered in slightly higher amounts – for example, 46% riboflavin in KD vs 25% in the Goodles. But generally speaking, these aren’t nutrients that are of particular concern, so the Goodles have an obvious nutritional edge. I’ve also tried these and I do think they are legitimately really good. So Goodles are definitely an Abbey-approved health and wellness brand.
KIN EURPHORICS BY BELLA HADID
If you went a bit crazy on the festive cocktails this holiday season, and are resolving to cut back on your alcohol consumption, you might be looking for some non-alcoholic bevvies to switch things up.
Bella Hadid’s Kin Euphorics claim to be non-alcoholic functional beverages designed using adaptogens to help you manage stress, nootropics for brain cognition, and spirit centering botanics to elevate taste. Some lofty claims for a virgin drink mix, so let’s take a look. There are a number of products now in their lineup, but let’s focus on the OG high rhode which is described as helping you “conjure captivating conversation and release contagious energy that flows out to those around you and reverberates beyond.” OKAY.
Naturally, all of the functional ingredients and piled together in a proprietary blend. And while these ingredients have powerful benefits, I’m skeptical of their efficacy in a product like this. According to their website, they add GABA to reduce stress, even though a systematic review found very limited evidence that it had any stress-relieving benefits. And if it does, studies are using doses up to 100 mg or more.
Kin also includes the adaptogen Rhodiola to apparently boost energy and vibrancy. Yes, the vibrancy is just marketing BS. Rhodiola has been shown to have benefits for stress and fatigue, though the research we do have requires pretty high doses of 400 mg.
And then 5-HTP is in there to apparently elevate joy? I don’t know who wrote this website copy, but I assume this is a super woo-y non scientific way to say it increases serotonin and reduces symptoms of depression, which 5-HTP is actually very effective at doing. But again, the dose is usually between 300-500 mg. Plus if we look at this 595 mg proprietary blend that contains these three active ingredient plus an ADDITIONAL 5 ingredients in the mix, and compare it to the combined 1000 mg clinical dose, it’s very likely none of the active ingredients are anywhere close to their clinical doses. Translation? It’s probably not going to do anything. That said, if you like the taste and are trying to cut back on booze, maybe it’s worth the $40 USD for 8 servings. But if you’re looking for legitimate stress, energy, and mood boosting benefits, you’re much better off buying these supplements at full dose, and/or experimenting with non supplement options like exercise and meditation. So yeah, this is getting a pass from me.
InBLOOM BY KATE HUDSON
I love the branding, and I mean, Kate is a natural beauty so it’s not surprising her products do well. But let’s take a look at her best selling immune defense blend.
First off, dont love the dishonest marketing; nothing will BOOST your immune system. If it did, all these celebrities would have debilitating autoimmune disorders because that is what happens with your immune system is working on overdrive.
But moving on, InBloom’s immune blend basically consists of a handful of antioxidant-rich “vital ingredients” including acerola, astragalus, elderberry, licorice, and ginger. Honestly, I think these are all pretty great picks for immune support. Acerola largely contributes antioxidants and the mega dose of vitamin C, which you’re mostly just going to pee out. Astragalus and elderberry do offer some evidence for immune support but at relatively high doses. Less is known in high-quality human research on licorice and ginger for immune and infection protection. Data on mice, fish, and test tubes show licorice offers some powerful immune support, and while the human research suggests it may improve upper respiratory tract infections, patients were given a high dose IV drip, not an oral supplement. Same with ginger. Ginger is packed with anti-inflammatory and antioxidants that enhance immune responses in test tubes and animals, but we don’t actually have any quality human evidence that it actually prevents infections or illness. That doesn’t mean they don’t work, they probably all help.
But if I were to add up the clinical doses of all of these potential immune modulators, you’d be looking at between 7000 and 13,000 mg which might be significantly less than what’s in the proprietary blend. The better immune supporting bang for your buck is in the trio of immune supporting nutrients: vitamins C, D, and zinc. Honestly, she could have just sold a supplement with those three vitamins for a fraction of the price and it probably would work the same.
So ya, I’ll technically call this Abbey approved because I think it’s a good product that probably does help support a healthy immune system, but at $69 per small jar, I do think it would have been better to have more clinical doses of fewer functional ingredients.
Final Thoughts
As a no BS dietitian, I’m usually pretty skeptical about reality TV starts trying to enter the health and wellness brands realm. However, not all of them out there are horrible products! As always, I recommend researching each product you’re interested in to ensure it would be a good fit for you and your lifestyle.
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Have you tried any of these celebrity health and wellness brands? Which ones do you love? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Updated on June 2nd, 2024
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