The smell of success isn’t always so sweet for Gwyneth Paltrow.
Three years after her company Goop released a candle dubbed “This Smells Like My Vagina,” the Oscar winner shared the real meaning behind the product.
“It was a really strong feminist statement,” she shared in an Instagram Stories Q&A on Aug. 30. “So many women have been raised—at least in my generation—to think there’s something wrong with themselves, or that the vagina is weird or gross or something to be ashamed of. And so the candle was supposed to be a very strong, punk rock kind of ‘F you’ to anyone who ever made us feel like that.”
Explaining that the candle “was not supposed to actually smell like anyone’s vagina,” Gwyneth called out how tabloid coverage of it was “so clickbaity” and “people tried to make it about something else.”