Gwyneth Paltrow has said her new candle – called This Smells Like My Vagina – started off as a joke before it became a bit of a “punk rock” statement.
The Hollywood star released the unusually-titled product through her wellness and lifestyle platform Goop earlier this month and it has already sold out.
Paltrow, 47, said the candle can be seen as something to hit back against the “shame” many women feel about their bodies, while also joking she was high on hallucinogenics when she came up with the name.
She told US chat show Late Night with Seth Meyers: “So it sort of started as a joke, I was with (perfumer) Douglas Little for his brand Heretic, and we were kind of messing around and I smelled this beautiful thing and I was like, ‘This smells like my vagina’, and I was kidding, obviously.”
Paltrow quipped “we were on mushrooms”, before adding: “No we weren’t!”
The Oscar-winner added: “But then it actually became kind of a funny thing, where it was really funny to us but also a little bit punk rock.
“I think women, a lot of us have grown up feeling certain degrees of shame or whatever around our bodies or whatever, so this is just a little bit of a subversive candle for all of us out there.”
Meyers congratulated Paltrow’s marketing team, saying: “I’ve never heard more people say, ‘Have you heard about this candle?’”
The candle, which retails at 75 US dollars (£58), is described on Goop as having “a funny, gorgeous, sexy, and beautifully unexpected scent”.
It says it is 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”.
During the interview, Paltrow joked several times about being under the influence of hallucinogenic mushrooms, including when she mistakenly said she had partnered with Royal Caribbean to launch a Goop cruise, rather than Celebrity Cruises.
“I got the cruise wrong because I’m on mushrooms,” she joked.
The actress and businesswoman looks into the impact of psychedelic drugs, including mushrooms, in The Goop Lab – her new Netflix documentary series about her lifestyle and wellness brand.
The programme takes a closer look into Paltrow’s company and follows the star and her team as they explore topics including energy healing and female sexuality.
Netflix says the series is “a curiosity-driven exploration of boundary-pushing wellness topics”.
Goop is often criticised by health professionals for making unsubstantiated health claims, such as the importance of vaginal steaming and the use of vaginal eggs.
In 2018 the lifestyle company paid out more than £100,000 in civil penalties over products including egg-shaped stones intended to be placed into the vagina to improve health.
Prosecutors in eight California counties announced the settlement after an investigation found some of Goop’s health claims were unfounded.