Naomi Watts' Stripes Beauty Sells a $65 Gummy for Arousal. The Brand Says It Won't Boost Desire.

Midlife, in gummy form

Menopause brands have covered hot flashes, sleep and skin.

Stripes is going after a topic most of them skip, how your body responds during sex.

What it is

According to the Stripes product page, Rite of Passion is a 28-day supply of gummies packed in daily sachets of four. It’s $65 as a one-time purchase or $55 with a subscription that ships every 28 days, sold on stripesbeauty.com. Stripes says it developed the formula with Cindy Meston, PhD, who directs the Sexual Psychophysiology Lab at UT Austin, and Somi Javaid, MD, FACOG, a board-certified OB/GYN.

Stripes says the gummies support physical arousal, sexual responsiveness, mood and mental clarity. Those are structure and function claims, marked with the standard note that FDA hasn’t evaluated them.

A celebrity brand that tells you what its gummy won't do is rare. Read that part first.The WellWham perspective

What's in four gummies

Stripes describes it as hormone-free, vegan, gluten-free and made with no added sugar.

What Stripes says it won't do

Two lines on the product page are worth reading before you buy. In the FAQ, Stripes asks, “Will this increase my desire?” and answers, “No.” It says the gummies support your body’s response to intimacy, “not the creation of it.” And on its research section, Stripes says the studies it cites evaluated different ingredients, combinations and doses and “did not clinically evaluate Rite of Passion’s finished formula.”

Our read: menopause care is moving past hot flashes

This is our analysis. The midlife aisle keeps growing, from Bonafide’s creatine and collagen to celebrity-founded brands like this one. Sexual wellness was the obvious gap. Stripes deserves credit for saying plainly what the product won’t do. It’s also a celebrity brand selling a $65 monthly habit that hasn’t been tested as a finished product.

The reality check

This is a supplement, not a treatment. Stripes tells you to check with a doctor if you’re pregnant or nursing, or if you take anticoagulants, antiplatelets or other medications, and to talk to your provider before adding it to hormone therapy. If changes in arousal or desire are bothering you, a menopause-trained clinician can look at causes and options a gummy can’t. Note, too, that Rite of Passion isn’t new. Stripes first listed it in early October.

The close

Most supplement pages promise more than they can show.

This one tells you where the gummy stops. Start there.

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