Creator of Fullips reveals Kylie Jenner Challenge 'demolished' her brand

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The company's founder, Linda Gomez, says she created the lip enhancer years before Kylie's lips 'were even a thing'
Videos of teens using unsafe tools like shot glasses have hurt the brand's image and sales, though doctors have approved this particular product
Ms. Gomez, 60, says the brand has no association with the Kardashains or Jenners - and she wishes others would stop making the connection

Published: 13:00 EST, 20 July 2015 | Updated: 14:48 EST, 20 July 2015

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Think everything the Kardashians touch turns to gold? Think again. One business owner says that an association with the reality TV family has nearly destroyed her company.

Linda Gomez, the CEO of the lip suction cup company Fullips, is claiming that being mistakenly tied to Kylie Jenner - and a social media-based challenge to try to get lips just like hers - has hurt her sales and ruined her product's reputation.

The 60-year-old says that after being 'sucker punched by a misguided association with the Kardashians', she's now struggling to rebuild Fullips' good name.

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Mega mouth: Kylie Jenner's large lips have received endless media attention, but Fullips founder Linda Gomez says that Kylie has no official association with the brand

Plump it up: Ms. Gomez's Fullips suction cups come in three different shapes and, when used correctly, give a woman natural-looking fuller lips

Lip lookalikes: The Kylie Jenner Challenge had young people trying to replicate Kylie's look by inflating their own lips

Don't try this at home: These teens were using unsafe tools, like shot glasses, to puff up their pouts

Ms. Gomez describes Fullips as a 'small self-suction tool designed to give temporary fullness and a better lip line', without getting injections or fillers. She started using the suction cups herself ten years ago, and soon decided to sell them to other women, too. In 2009 - 'before Kylie's lips were even a thing' - she filed a patent and launched her company.

The negative press does to our sales what a shot glass does to someone's lips... it demolishes them

Besides selling well, Fullips was was able to donate to charities and give women - including breast cancer survivors who lost fullness in their lips - a chance to have a bigger pout. For a while, things 'could not have better'.

That is, until Kylie Jenner's lips became the focus of magazines and websites everywhere. For months, the 17-year-old denied that she used any type of filler to plump up her lips, instead crediting their growing size to natural techniques and expertly-applied lip liner. Fans began looking for ways that the teenager could have achieved such big lips without injections, with some settling on the conclusion that she was using a suction cup like the one sold by Fullips.

She was not, says Ms. Gomez. In fact, in a May episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashains, Kylie finally admitted to getting 'temporary lip fillers'.

But by then, Ms. Gomez says, 'some idiot' had already created theKylie Jenner Challenge - and the madness had begun.

'Kylie Jenner challenge' goes horribly wrong as mouth bleeds

That's gotta hurt: Many of the young people would see their lips swell, blister, and bleed

Breaking the rules: The few who used the Fullips device misused it, ignoring directions to use light suction for just a few seconds

What's up, doc? Ms. Gomez says that her product is safe when used correctly, and has even been positively reviewed by doctors

'People start using shot glasses and plastic caps, sucking as hard and as long as they can to see just how big and how much damage they can do to their lips and faces,' she says, adding that the few who were using actual Fullips devices were ignoring instructions, which explicitly say to use gentle suction for just a few seconds.

'Not surprisingly, many of these people injure themselves,' Ms. Gomez says. 'They go on to post their grotesque pictures and seem shockingly proud over what they have done to themselves. One disgusting picture after the next gets posted online.'

Those pictures, unfortunately, have been bad press for Fullips. Though the young people with these over-inflated lips aren't even using the Fullips product - or are using it improperly, against the instructions - the association has been cemented and the damaged has been done.

'The negative press does to our sales what a shot glass does to someone's lips... it demolishes them,' Ms. Gomez adds.

Girl struggles to breathe after trying 'Kylie Jenner challenge'

Oh no! The Fullips creator says that the connection to the Kardashians has hurt her company's sales

Setting the record straight: She wants people to know that Kylie does not use her product, and that Fullips should actually give you a natural look

No knockoffs: Since the Kylie Jenner Challenge began, Ms. Gomez says that 'counterfeit' products have begun being sold online

It's not just the unfair reputation that has hurt Fullips' bottom line, though - after all, there are clearly some people who still want the product, even if it is just to achieve a comically exaggerated version of the youngest Jenner's mouth.

But these buyers aren't shopping for the original Fullips suction cup. 'Counterfeits' from China have flooded the internet, leading to declining Fullips sales in the US and in international markets.

'Now, the market is flooded with cheap and likely harmful (just Google the dangers of Chinese plastic) fakes, while we work here to mend our broken reputation,' Ms. Gomez complains.

So the founder is fighting to restore the brand's reputation and point out that Fullips doesn't create the harmful effects seen in those horrifying Kylie Jenner Challenge photos. In fact, she says, several doctors have even approved the product as a safe alternative to injections.

But it's an uphill battle, as Ms. Gomez recognizes that the brand now seems inextricably tied to Kylie and her unnaturally large pout: 'We cannot seem to get out from under the dark shadow cast by the Kylie Jenner Challenge - a social frenzy that had nothing to do with us!'