Latest news with #vaginaCandle
The Guardian
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Gwyneth Paltrow's ‘vagina candle' is still burning bright – at five times the original price
I have a foolproof way to make millions. It's a little tricky to execute, but hear me out, OK? Step one: find a time machine. Step two: travel back to 2020. Step three: quickly, before they all get nabbed, buy the entire stock of the This Smells Like My Vagina candle that Gwyneth Paltrow notoriously sold on Goop for $75 a pop. Then come back to 2025 and sell them on eBay for $400 each. Seriously, that's what they are going for now. We're talking a 433% return! How do I know this? Not, to be clear, because I am spending my evenings searching for vagina-scented candles. No, I know this because the chatter around Paltrow's candle is impossible to fully extinguish; it keeps popping back up in the news. In 2021, for example, there was a big hoo-hah because a Texas man claimed that the candle exploded on his bedside table. No one was injured but a lawsuit was filed for the Texas man and others who 'through no fault of their own, bought defective and dangerous vagina-scented candles'. That case was later dropped. The candles are now back in the headlines because Paltrow was speaking at an event called the Mindvalley Manifesting Summit over the weekend and revealed that her famous creation originally started off as a joke. The perfume team were apparently messing around with scents when she said, 'Oh, that smells like … you know.' And, well, you know what happens next. Paltrow also revealed that she thinks her candle was very 'punk rock' and challenged the shame around female sexuality. And if you don't agree, she thinks you should 'go fuck yourself'. Anyway, back to the details of my get-rich-quick plan. A time machine might seem preposterous but, according to the Mindvalley Manifesting Summit's website, manifesting means 'bending time and reality through intention, intuition and aligned action'. So manifest the damn thing and start getting that vagina candle money! Perhaps you're wondering if it wouldn't be easier to just manifest a bunch of cash instead? Yes, come to think of it, probably. Although, honestly, you shouldn't take financial advice from me. I started my working life as a corporate lawyer, then went into advertising, and now I am a freelance writer. Instead of climbing the career ladder chasing pay rises I slithered down it chasing pay cuts. Still, here I am living the dream and writing about vaginas for a living. It's very punk rock! Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Daily Mail
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Gwyneth Paltrow DEFENDS selling Goop's controversial 'This Smells Like My Vagina' candle
Gwyneth Paltrow suited up to attend the Mindvalley Manifesting Summit 2025 in Los Angeles on Saturday where she was confronted about Goop's controversial 'This Smells Like My Vagina' candle. In 2020, the 52-year-old Goop CEO-founder teamed up with Heretic Parfum founder Douglas Little to create the $75 candle scented with geranium, citrusy bergamot, cedar absolutes, Damask rose, and ambrette seed. '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,"' Gwyneth recalled during the sold-out Q&A. 'I was joking. And then [Douglas] was like, "Oh we should make that a candle and put it on the site."' Paltrow thought Little was kidding and she sarcastically agreed that it 'sounded like a winner.' '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,' the Oscar winner said of the discontinued candle that now sells for $400 on eBay. 'But, I kept it on the site because there is an aspect to women's sexuality, that I think, we're socialized 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*** yourself."' But it wasn't all rose-scented success as Texas customer Colby Watson filed a $5M class action lawsuit against the lifestyle brand in 2021 when his vagina candle allegedly 'exploded' after burning for 'an estimated three hours or less.' Months earlier, London customer Jody Thompson alleged that her vagina candle 'exploded' in her living room and sparked a similar 'inferno.' In 2022, Goop released a $75 'Hands Off My Vagina' candle benefitting the ACLU in honor of the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which was overturned by the Supreme Court the same year. Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh all declared Roe v. Wade was 'precedent' and 'settled law' while under oath during their confirmation hearings, but then promptly overturned it with Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. The LA-born nepo baby originally launched Goop in 2008 as a weekly e-mail newsletter providing new age advice before expanding the brand into e-commerce, a wellness summit, a print magazine, a podcast, and a Netflix docuseries. On the personal front, Gwyneth has two children - daughter Apple, 21; and son Moses, 19 - from her decade-long marriage to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, and they 'consciously uncoupled' in 2013. Apple has been acting in plays when she's not studying law, history, and society at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. Moses fronts the band Dancer Dancer Dancer Dancer when he's not busy with his freshman studies at Brown University in Providence, RI. But it wasn't all rose-scented success as Texas customer Colby Watson filed a $5M class action lawsuit against the lifestyle brand in 2021 when his vagina candle allegedly 'exploded' after burning for 'an estimated three hours or less' Paltrow originally launched Goop in 2008 as a weekly e-mail newsletter providing new age advice before expanding the brand into e-commerce, a wellness summit, a print magazine, a podcast, and a Netflix docuseries (pictured in 2020) Last year, Paltrow wrapped her role as Timothée Chalamet's much older love interest in Josh Safdie's solo feature directorial debut Marty Supreme, which hits US theaters December 25. A24's $70M-budget ping pong drama also stars Tyler the Creator, Fran Drescher, Penn Jillette, Abel Ferrera, and Sandra Bernhard. The empty nester will also have a cameo in Rachel Israel's indie comedy Miracle on 74th Street alongside Drew Barrymore, Jill Kargman, Justin Bartha, David Krumholtz, Christine Taylor, and Jason Biggs.
