"We are socialized to feel a lot of shame" - Gwyneth Paltrow defends selling candle that smells like a woman's private parts

Gwyneth Paltrow made an appearance at the 2025 Mindvalley Manifesting Summit in Los Angeles on Saturday, May 17, 2025, and defended selling one of her Goop candles. The actress spoke about her candle that smells like a woman's private parts and revealed that the idea began as a joke.

In 2020, Paltrow broke the internet when her brand, Goop, launched a controversial candle, labeled "This Smells Like My V*gina." While the candle has been discontinued, at the time, it retailed for $75.

Talking about her decision to sell the product, as seen in a video shared on Instagram by Mindvalley, Gwyneth Paltrow explained why she kept it on the site, despite the backlash.

"I kept it on the site because there is an aspect to women’s s*xuality that I think we’re socialized to feel a lot of shame."

She continued to say that she loved the "kind of punk rock idea" that women are "beautiful" and "awesome."

"And I sort of loved this kind of punk rock idea, 'We are beautiful and we are awesome and go f**k yourself," the Goop founder said.

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"It took us a long time to live that one down"—Gwyneth Paltrow about her controversial candle

During her conversation at the Mindvalley Manifesting Summit on Saturday, Gwyneth Paltrow explained how the This Smells Like My V*gina candle was made. She said that it started as a joke between her and Heretic Parfums founder Douglas Little.

"That product is so fascinating because we were messing around with different scents one day. And I smelled something and I was like, 'Oh, that smells like... you know'," she noted.

The Iron Man star added Little told her they should make the scent into a candle and "put it on the (Goop) site." Thinking it was a joke, she sarcastically told him it sounded like a winning idea.

"All of a sudden, it was literally on the website. And then we broke the Internet again. And then it took us a long time to live that one down," Paltrow quipped.

According to Page Six, the candle featured notes of geranium, citrusy bergamot, cedar absolutes, Damask rose, and ambrette seed. Since it has been discontinued, the viral product is being sold for $400 on the resale market, per the outlet.

The success of This Smells Like My V*gina, spurred Gwyneth Paltrow to introduce similar products. These included This Smells Like My Orgasm, This Smells Like My Prenup and Hands Off My V*gina. It is worth noting that Hands Off My V*gina was launched in honor of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It featured scents like coconut milk, Damascena roses, vanilla, hinoki cypress, and cacao.

The particular candle retailed for $75 and the brand donated $25 from each sale to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation’s Reproductive Freedom Project.

However, this is not the first time Gwyneth Paltrow has defended her product. During a September 2023 Instagram Stories Q&A session, she asserted that the candle sent out a "really strong feminist statement," according to People magazine. Elaborating that it didn't actually smell like a woman's private parts.

She explained that many women, especially those from her generation, were made to believe that the "v*gina is weird or gross or something to be ashamed of."

"The candle is supposed to be a very strong punk-rock kind of f**k you to anyone who ever made us feel like that," she added.

Gwyneth Paltrow echoed the sentiment during a 2022 appearance on Sunday Sitdown on NBC’s TODAY segment. The actress maintained that the candle was meant to start a conversation about women and their agency.