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20th May 2025
04:13pm BST
Gwyneth Paltrow has told critics of her $75 vagina candle to 'go f***' themselves.
The actress, who is now better known for her wellness brand Goop, has reflected on the creation of her 'This Smells Like My Vagina' candle.
The lifestyle brand began as a weekly newsletter in 2008, and has now grown into the world of e-commerce, as well as a podcast and even a feature in a Netflix series.
However, the vagina candle sparked major controversy.
The extremely unusual candle was first released back in 2020, and immediately went viral for its obscenity.
The fine print of the candles citrusy, high-end ingredients was missed by the public, who were probably distracted by the insane name.
It wasn't the first time in which the businesswoman created vagina related products, with Goop attracting headlines for similar products such as a vaginal 'wellness' egg and a pot of mysterious 'sex dust'.
Now, five years on from the candle's launch, Paltrow told the Los Angeles 2025 Mindvalley Manifesting Summit how it came to life.
"That product is so fascinating because we were messing around with different scents one day," Paltrow explained in the interview, which has been shared on Instagram, referring to herself and Heretic perfumer Douglas Little.
"And I smelled something and I was like, ‘Oh, that smells like … you know'," she added.
"I was joking. And then [Douglas] was like, ‘Oh we should make that a candle and put it on the site."
She continued: "We broke the Internet again. And then it took us a long time to live that one down."
Explaining why the now-discontinued product remains on the Goop site, she said: "But I kept it on the site because there is an aspect to women’s sexuality that I think we’re socialised to feel a lot of shame.
"And I sort of loved this kind of punk rock idea, ‘We are beautiful and we are awesome and go f**k yourself."
