The star lets us peek behind the curtains of her lifestyle brand in the new Netflix series, the goop lab.
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Ever since Gwyneth Paltrow launched Goop back in 2008, the lifestyle brand has been surrounded by controversy. What she started as a new-age wellness newsletter for her friends and fans has turned into a full-blown website, and it’s become known for promoting alternative wellness products and procedures with questionable scientific backing.
Despite all of the drama and scandal, however, Gwyneth’s brand has persisted — and now, it’s the center of the star’s new Netflix docu-series, the goop lab. Before you make the decision to settle in and watch the buzzy new show, however, take a look back at these eight memorable controversies from Goop’s contentious history.
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The infamous jade egg controversy
Of the many Goop scandals that have occurred over the years, the Great Jade Egg Fiasco of 2017 is perhaps the most well-known. That year, the lifestyle brand began selling a $66 jade “egg” that it claimed could improve everything from orgasms and hormonal imbalances to “feminine energy” when inserted into a woman’s v*g*na. Gynecologists quickly responded to warn women that the eggs could actually be dangerous — and Goop was hit with a $145,000 fine for its “unsubstantiated marketing claims.”
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Bee venom therapy
Gwyneth first mentioned her experiences with apitherapy, or “bee venom therapy,” in a 2016 interview with The New York Times before she went on to sing its praises in an article on the Goop site. While she claimed that being stung by bees helped her “completely” eliminate an old injury, most of the reported benefits of apitherapy have been anecdotal, according to the BBC. One woman even died in 2018 after two years of regularly undergoing the procedure.
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Risky v*g*nal steaming
Back in 2015, gynecologists were quick to counter a Goop article’s claims that v*g*nal steaming procedures — a.k.a. “V-Steams” — could offer any cleaning or hormone-balancing benefits to women. Pittsburgh ob-gyn Draion Burch, MD, told LiveScience that there’s no scientific evidence backing v*g*nal steaming as a cleaning procedure. Plus, steaming comes with a risk of second-degree burns. (Ouch.)
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The “NASA spacesuit” stickers
Now this grand Goop claim was just downright bizarre: In 2017, the lifestyle brand published an article promoting pricey “healing stickers” that were purportedly made from the same “conductive carbon material” NASA uses to make spacesuits. Needless to say, a representative from NASA shut down that story stat: “Wow, what a load of BS this is,” Mark Shelhamer, former chief scientist at NASA’s human research division, told Gizmodo. (NASA also does not use carbon to make its spacesuits, FYI.)
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Water has feelings?
You might actually be able to hurt water’s feelings, if Gwyneth is to believed. In a May 2014 edition of her Goop newsletter, the star wrote to readers about Japenese scientist Dr. Masura Emoto’s studies on how “negativity changes the structure of water.” Other scientists haven’t even really tried to debunk this one, according to Vox, as the claims are pretty out-right ridiculous.
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The $15,000 sex toy
Once upon a time back in 2016, Gwyneth released a sex-themed edition of her Goop newsletter in which she recommended a mix of “not-so-basic s*x t*ys.” The one that really caught skeptics’ attention? The $15,000 24-karat gold number from Lelo. Sure, Goop might be known for its unrealistic price points, but this particular recommendation seemed to come with an even more ridiculous price tag than usual.
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The viral “v*g*na candle”
Sure, this recent controversy might be more harmless than Goop scandals past — but that didn’t stop Goop’s “This Smells Like My v*g*na” candle from going viral when it first landed on the lifestyle brand’s site. No matter what you think of the gimmicky $75 candle, though, it’s already sold out on goop.com. So, I guess it worked?
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In Goop Health summits
Last but not least, we have the annual Goop summit, in Goop Health. Gwyneth’s been putting on these exclusive (and expensive) events in cities around the country for three years now. But some who attend end up walking away disappointed as a result of the “pretentious” and “greedy” vibe — and some writers have even called the summits “surreal” and “intoxicatingly selfish.”
