Gwynnie’s organic Goop? It’s full of chemical gloop
SHE has built a reputation as a lifestyle guru who extols the virtues of clean living on her website, Goop. But Gwyneth Paltrow’s organic beauty range may not be as green as it first appears.
An MoS investigation has found that three of the actress’s own-brand products contain artificial ingredients which are most certainly not organic, including one linked to foetal deformation.
The worst offender is the $140 Replenishing Night Cream, which contains retinyl palmitate – a manufactured form of vitamin A listed by the Soil Association as one of its 10 most hated ingredients.
Although often found in skin products and sun creams because of its anti-ageing properties, it can lead to an overdose of vitamin A, which can cause developmental problems in unborn babies.
Products also contain diheptyl succinate and panthenyl triacetate, which are both derived from petro-chemicals. They can be found in Gwyneth’s $100 Revitalising Day Moisturiser and her Exfoliating Instant Facial cream, which costs $125.
Goop says the Instant Facial cream, which ‘brightens and softens skin’, is formulated with ‘organic ingredients and contains approximately 86% total organic content’.
Gwyneth, 44, has become as well known for her website, which attracts four million visitors a month, as her acting. But she might find our revelations embarrassing as last week she collected an award in recognition of her clean-living philosophy. Beauty bloggers say it is disingenuous to mislead customers if ‘organic’ ingredients are not what they seem. Jacqueline Staph Jones, who runs thebeautyproof.com, said: ‘Any brand which deliberately lies about ingredients should be held accountable. That said, it is common practice in the green beauty industry for brands to use borderline
questionable ingredients. Because there’s no consensus on what makes a beauty product natural, the term can be stretched and pulled.’
The Soil Association is set to campaign for greater accountability in the beauty sector after discovering other products containing hidden ‘nasties’. A recent report by the organisation revealed that products from well-known industry names such as Boots and Faith in Nature were similarly ‘misleading’ customers.
Professor Vyvyan Howard, of Ulster University, who conducted that study, said: ‘I was shocked to find ingredients which could contain human carcinogens in products with labels which could misleadingly suggest that they might be organic.’
A spokesman for Cosmos, the only independent international standard for organic and natural cosmetics, said: ‘Goop products are not certified to our standard and we understand some of the ingredients are not allowed by Cosmos.’ Goop did not respond to a request for comment.