The Goop founder, 50, launched the US$75-a-pop ($126) product on her wellness site in January 2020 and it quickly sold out after it grabbed headlines over its bizarre name.
But she has now said – as part of a stream of Instagram Stories in which she answered questions from fans – her firm has stopped making it, and complained the press had made the creation into a “clickbait” item instead of treating it as the “feminist statement” she intended.
The infamous This Smells Like My Vagina candle has notes of geranium, cedar, bergamot and damask rose. Photo / Goop
Paltrow said when asked: “What was the thought process behind the infamous candle?”: “This is a great question. So, the thought process behind the infamous candle, essentially, was that it was a really strong feminist statement.
“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.
“It was not supposed to actually smell like anyone’s vagina. It smelled like roses and all kinds of things, and that was the point.
Gwyneth Paltrow's wellness brand is home to some controversial products. Photo / Getty Images
“But unfortunately, you know, the media being what it is and things being so clickbaity – people tried to make it about something else, which is kind of a shame because it was really meant to be this strong feminist statement.
Despite Paltrow hitting out at “clickbait” stories, her vagina-scented candle was hailed as a piece of marketing genius when it was launched.
Her Goop firm – valued at $250 million – described it as “a funny, gorgeous, sexy, and beautifully unexpected scent”, made with “geranium, citrusy bergamot, and cedar absolutes juxtaposed with Damask rose and ambrette seed to put us in mind of fantasy, seduction, and a sophisticated warmth”.
In June 2020 the firm followed it up with a the This Smells Like My Orgasm candle.
Last year Goop also released the Hands Off My Vagina candle to honour the Roe v Wade ruling made in 1973, which saw the US Supreme Court hold that a woman’s right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.
The launch came months before outrage over the ruling being overturned in the US.
