Starting in 2008, goop originated as a newsletter birthed out of Gwyneth Paltrow’s kitchen showcasing some of her personal interests in travel, health, and shopping. Fast forward 11 years and goop has become an all-encompassing brand, boasting an online hub of lifestyle articles, along with a diverse marketplace providing brands across beauty, fashion, and wellness, including Paltrow’s own brand, Goop Label.
We caught up with goop’s Senior Vice President Erin Cotter on the newly opened goop mrkt in Toronto, which focuses on the brand’s massive beauty repertoire.
What are goop’s main objectives as a brand?
“Whether it’s clean beauty and wellness trends or healthy recipes and tips for vacation packing, our goal is to make every choice count. We strive to move the needle forward and provide our readers with information that’s relevant to them. Judging from the incredible feedback our goop community provides, we’re doing something right.”
What inspired the move of goop to Toronto?
“Canada has become our second biggest international market behind the UK. We expanded internationally to Canada in 2017, which was the first time that goop had shipped outside the United States. Then in the fall of 2018, we held our first international goop Health summit in Vancouver, so a Toronto shop is a very natural next step for us.”
What categories of beauty products can shoppers expect from goop Toronto?
“We stock the clean beauty apothecary with skincare, makeup, and body care from vetted clean beauty brands, as well as goop’s own collection of high-performance, clean skincare; skin-boosting ingestibles; and artisanal fragrance, bath, and body essentials. Shoppers can expect to find cleansers and scrubs, serums, eye creams, oils, and moisturizers formulated specifically for the delicate skin on the face, as well as scrubs, washes, lotions, and oils for the body.”
Why does goop have such a commitment to natural beauty products?
“In the US, the personal-care industry is effectively unregulated—in fact, the last piece of regulation was passed in 1938—which means that companies are essentially free to do whatever they want, with no government oversight. The result is that many products that we use every day are loaded with toxic ingredients. What we’re trying to do at goop is create a new standard of beauty, one that we simply call ‘clean.’ We apply it to our own beauty lines, to our clean beauty shop, and in our editorial stories.”
What are your favourite products from goop in the beauty category?
“It’s really hard to pick just one, but I do drink our GOOPGLOW Morning Skin Superpowder every single morning. I wear much less makeup now that I’m getting older, so I focus on taking good care of my skin. Living in LA, I get a lot of exposure to sun and pollution, which are top causes of aging, and the GOOPGLOW drink was designed to fight the damage from the inside out. Plus it’s so easy to take (you just mix it with water), and it tastes delicious! I think it’s really changed how my skin looks.”