Bethenny Frankel is off of the Real Housewives of New York, which seems smart because that can’t be good for your mental health. She’s got her Skinnygirl line, which includes drinks, snacks and clothing, and she’s doing fine. I tend to assume most of her success is from branding. Some women will buy drinks and snacks that say “skinny” in them, and we typically do want clothes to make us look thinner. Will women buy “skinnygirl” branded vitamins and supplements with a stick figure of a character on them though? Bethenny is betting that they will.
Bethenny… is announcing her latest venture, Skinnygirl Supplements, a partnership between Skinnygirl and VirMax to launch a new line of four daily supplements, available at Walgreens.
The four include one to strengthen hair, skin and nails with Biotin, a second (with collagen) to enhance skin, a third for relaxation and sleep, and a fourth to enhance female intimacy and “elevate sensation and improve blood flow,” according to the press release.
“These were all things affecting me as a woman,” says Frankel. “I was looking for something natural. It’s just for honest women’s issues. No crazy claims and unrealistic promises. Just maintenance.”
As for the “female intimacy” supplement, she says, “I feel like things aren’t always as spicy and sexy for woman as they get older. It’s not just about our bodies changing, it’s also about more responsibilities, having kids…”
“It’s more like a better mood enhancer,” notes Frankel. “It’s nothing crazy. You’re not popping a supplement and then rocking the house down all night long, but if you take it regularly, it works.”
As for Frankel’s boyfriend Paul Bernon, the film producer and real estate executive whom she’s been dating for over a year, she says with a laugh: “Let’s just say there have been no complaints.” Bernon, she says, is “all for it.”
“He loves the idea that I’m embracing that,” she says. “That’s one thing as we get older, we don’t lose that [desire] and I think women are embracing their sexuality more and also talking more about it.”
At least she’s realistic about the claims for these vitamins. She’s also trying to address specific issues we have, especially as we age, which is smart. I just bought a biotin supplement off Amazon. My hairdresser tells me biotin does work to increase and strengthen hair, as long as you continue to take it. Plus I’m taking that menopause supplement Amberen which I talked about on an Amazon post. So I’m definitely the target market for this, but I wouldn’t buy vitamins from Skinnygirl! I want vitamins to make me feel healthy and strong, and the Skinnygirl branding seems like “thinness at all costs,” you know? Plus I wouldn’t want to put those on an open shelf in my bathroom. They make it look like it’s not about health and wellness, but just being a thin bitch. I’m not going to lie, I’ve worked on doing that but it’s more about feeling good and being strong for me, especially when I’m buying vitamins or supplements. I’m not saying that these supplements don’t work as well as others on the market, I don’t know about that, just that they’re for a very specific niche of women and that seems short-sighted. Why not change the labels a little?
Photos via Skinnygirl, Instagram
Eating food helps with those things too, B.
Right? The branding makes this feel like a supplement for people who don’t eat food. All the nutrition, none of the pesky calories.
Just please, please, please make sure to divulge to your doctor and/or lab tech if having blood work that you’re taking a Biotin supplement. It can interfere with lab tests and give falsely low or high results on some very important parameters, such as hormone testing and most importantly, troponin, which is a marker for a heart attack. The last thing you want, especially as a women where heart attacks can present atypically, is for your hair vitamin to interfere with a test trying to determine if you’re having a heart attack.
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safety-communications/fda-warns-biotin-may-interfere-lab-tests-fda-safety-communication
Vitamins/Supplements are SO dangerous and not nearly well regulated enough.
Also make sure if you take a vitamin or supplement – no matter how “natural” it claims to be you HAVE to tell any medical staff you’re telling with. There are so many vitamins that can interact with regular medication – you NEED to make sure you’re being proactive and making sure your health team knows EVERYTHING you’re taking.
This is a terrifying industry. And I implore anyone who wants to start anything new to really spend the time researching and consulting with your pharmacist or doctor before you put it in your body. And if it’s from a multi level marketing scheme you should probably just avoid it in general.
What’s next for her?
Skinny Girl toilet paper? Ugh.
No I don’t like you Frankel or your crap
She is awful.
Everything about Frankel is WEIRD.
I don’t know ANYONE who buys all her crap. I don’t get it. I guess people might buy the margarita but there are so many other options on the market that are far healthier (I prefer ritas from scratch but if I’m lazy then I love tres agaves – just stevia and lime juice – and just add the tequila). Isn’t her stuff full of garbage and fake sweeteners? There’s a BIG difference between ACTUAL healthy and low calorie/low sugar “healthy.” Bethenny’s stuff is low calorie/low sugar “healthy.” There’s nothing healthy about that…
Would have been so much better if she called it: Skinnygirl presents: Healthy Girl
RHOBH’s Erika said had great shade on promoting those two words as aspirational, something like “I don’t know about her business — I’m not a girl, and I’m not skinny”
I knew a girl who bought her stuff – a nice older white woman who wanted to be thinner and was convinced she was too fat, which she wasn’t. She said Bethenny advocates eating 800-1200 calories a day in her book, and honestly that shocked me. That is lower than what a toddler needs. She is a grown woman pedding that? FOH. I am so over this stupid culture constantly telling women they need to lose weight, look younger, have the young sex drive and get injections for the skin of a 25 year old. and oh yeah take this pill instead of getting real medical help and/or being allowed to gain 5-10 pounds eating reasonable amounts of food.
When an indigenous or black or white cis or trans woman can look like Winston Churchill or teddy Roosevelt, all paunchy and old, and be President, that would actually be empowering to me. It is sad society directs women to make money off of women’s anxiety over beauty and age.