Topline
A $3,500 piece of sensual pottery, $900 deck of playing cards, $360,000 jukebox and several luxury jewelry pieces worth upwards of $30,000 are among the most jaw-dropping gift suggestions on this year’s Goop holiday guides by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, which annually draw the shock and awe of fans online.
Gwyneth Paltrow speaks during the Goop Health Summit in 2021.
Getty Images for goop
Key Facts
Goop, Paltrow’s lifestyle brand, released 11 different gift guides this year with more than 100 suggestions for gifts ranging from olive oil and mascara, to an Hermès handbag and high-end jewelry.
Several jewelry pieces top the guides for women and fashion lovers, including a $39,900 gold and diamond bracelet from Jade Ruzzo, the $35,000 Bird on a Rock necklace by Tiffany & Co., a $29,900 Panthère de Cartier ring and a$35,200 Roberto Coin necklace.
The gift guide for hosts recommends a $70 pasta water candle, $930 deck of playing cards, $3,000 marble menorah, a private food tour in Italy that costs more than $8,000 per person or a Hermès jukebox, the price of which is available only upon request (but other styles have been priced at $360,000).
A guide named “Forward-to-Your-SO” recommends a $75,000-per-night stay at the Villa La Guittiere in France, a $3,995 blanket and a $5,799 red Vespa. For beauty and wellness lovers, Paltrow recommends an at-home laser treatment tool ($5,995), folding pilates reformer ($2,800) and full-body mat covered in infrared lights ($1,199).
The “Under $100” gift guide, which Goop introduced in 2021 after more than a decade of discourse around its ultra-luxury suggestions, includes items like a $46 bar of soap, $71 eyemask, $12 bottle of chili oil and a $105 face oil.
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Surprising Fact
One of Paltrow’s gift guides this year is devoted entirely to “pleasure seekers” and includes raunchy items like a $1,285 advent calendar that comes with gold-plated handcuffs and a silk blindfold, $3,500 custom clay pot shaped by two bodies pressing together and a $4,200 pair of diamond earrings the guide promises “won’t get caught in your hair (no matter what you’re doing…).”
Key Background
Paltrow launched Goop in 2008 as a lifestyle newsletter that saw her recommend everything from beauty treatments to recipes, all of which focused on wellness. Since then, she’s grown the brand to include clothing and beauty lines, a podcast, television shows and several wellness summits that cost as much as $1,000 per day to attend. The brand has been hit with criticism over the years, largely over its marketing and promotion of unsubstantiated health claims. Several years ago, the California consumer protection office brought a lawsuit against Goop over several of its products that made unscientific claims, including a “flower essence” Goop said could cure depression and a jade and rose quartz egg that the brand said could balance hormones and regulate menstrual cycles if inserted vaginally. Goop ultimately paid $145,000 to settle the lawsuit and said there was an “honest disagreement” about its claims. Goop’s gift guides, which create conversation every year, have been similarly criticized for their extravagant recommendations and slammed by some as “toxic white privilege.” Much-buzzed-about recommendations in the past have included a $1,995 Ouija board, an LED lamp made of real bread coated in resin and a $113 toothpaste.
How Has Paltrow Responded To Criticism Of Goop’s Prices?
Paltrow has defended Goop by describing it as an “aspirational” brand and more recently said the company’s ideal customer is a woman in her 40s with two children, who lives on the coast and is rich.
