Forget vaginas. This smells like false advertising.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle company — which recently released a $75 “This Smells Like My Vagina” candle — is getting called out yet again for supposedly phony health claims.
Industry watchdog Truth in Advertising says Paltrow’s Goop website is back to “deceptively marketing products” less than two years after getting slammed for claiming its stone eggs, which are inserted into women’s vaginas, could balance hormones, regulate menstrual cycles and increase bladder control.
Goop forked over $145,000 in September 2018 to settle those and other claims after Tina.org’s concerns made it to the Orange County (Calif.) District Attorney’s office.
On Thursday, Tina.org released a new complaint accusing Goop of violating its 2018 agreement with the DA by asserting that its perfumes, powders, supplements and candles (not including the infamous vagina candle) can treat a range of ailments from anxiety to menopause.
In an 11-page complaint sent to California regulators, the watchdog flagged products like Goop’s $90 Madame Ovary supplements, which claim to help with “smoothing the menopausal transition,” and its $165 Edition 02 perfume made from ingredients that Goop says “removes stress and anxiety,” like shiso leaf.
“Goop currently claims that ingredients in two perfumes and two candles can treat numerous mental disorders,” Tina.org alleged.
The complaint even brings up the vaginal eggs again, saying materials tucked inside the product’s packaging from November 2019 claim the egg “increases chi, orgasms, vaginal muscle tone, hormonal balance.”
The marketing materials attribute those assertions to “fans” of Goop, “which does not shield the company from liability,” Tina.org said.
Goop disputed the findings, saying it has a “robust legal and compliance team that works closely with our science and research group to vet product claims.” The company, which has stores in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and London, said it takes “all legitimate issues around product claims and efficacy very seriously.”