DORÉ

Today I’m meeting with a woman that inspires me everyday, Gwyneth Paltrow. I feel like we all know everything there is to know about this multi-talented woman. She’s a fantastic actress who’s evolved in the public eye with grace, and she recently grew into a very forward thinking business woman.

But what’s most inspiring to me is how naturally she carves her own path in this life, not settling for what’s expected. How does she do it, how does she stay centered and what keeps her up at night? Well let’s see. Here is a moment with Gwyneth Paltrow on today’s Pardon My French.

[podcast_episode episode=”243210″ ]

On enjoying the routine of going into work everyday…
I love it! I really think I’m a businessperson trapped in an actor’s body. I didn’t like that gypsy life. I love being home. I love my routine and being in my office. It took me a while to get used to it because there’s a responsibility piece there that’s hard to absorb. But once I was like, no, this is your job now and you have to do this and I really enjoy it now.

On how her style survived her move from London to L.A….
I like to get dressed everyday. It’s one of the things I promised myself when I moved from London to LA that I wouldn’t wear Lululemon and Ugg boots all day long. I was like, I’m going to move to LA, but I’m going to get dressed every single morning!

On how she came up with the styles for her clothing line with Goop…
It’s very personal. I went through my closet and found things I loved and wanted to remake in a different way. Like I love this shoulder or this hemline and can we do it like this or that and tweak it. Certain things I kind of invented from scratch. Clothes I really wanted in my own closet, but couldn’t find and that weren’t trying to move fashion forward, just things you’d always have.

On how she gets ready on a typical day…
I usually pack my clothes in the morning so after I drop my kids at school I go to the gym and then I go straight to the office. I’ve made a lot of mistakes! I think ok, I’ll put this with that and I don’t try it on. I did that the other day. I hadn’t tried it on and my shirt was really short and my pants were really low, it was horrible! I had to go into our fashion closet and borrow a belt!

On how she balances everything…
I really try to do one thing at a time. It’s a lesson that’s taken me a long time to learn but I used to try to always be doing two things at once and I get very stressed out because it’s really hard for me to do that.

On what she is afraid of…
I go very big picture with my fear. It’s not like, is this perfume launch going to work or not? It’s like, am I doing the right thing? Am I failing? Am I a bad mother? I think because I am so caught up in the details of everything and execution, my fear comes in these big scary pictures.

On what inspires her…
I’m inspired by so many people and artists and other women in business. I’m inspired by fashion and literature and I find inspiration all the time. There is a hip-hop song called, “No Role Modelz” and I think it’s a really good challenge to have no role models and not to say, I want to do it exactly like she did it. And instead say no, I’m creating my own path, I have no role models here and I’m going to do this my own way.

On how Goop’s first fragrance is all natural…
It’s a completely natural fragrance and even the base of it is an organic sugarcane alcohol. A lot of times conventional fragrances use synthetic alcohol, as it’s very, very cheap. We’ve used all naturally and carefully distilled leaves and flowers, and all kinds of beautiful ingredients. It’s called Edition 01 Winter and I really wanted it to smell like you were in a beautiful old library with a fire going.

On the development of Edition 01 Winter…
The thing I love so much about it is that we really focused on the mystical and homeopathic aspects of all of the ingredients. I’m very into food as medicine, herbs and plants, so when we were mixing the perfume, I thought there must be healing properties to all of these ingredients like the labdanum, cyprus and frankincense, so we started to research what they all meant and their mystical, healing and homeopathic healing properties. It’s very clearing. So for negative energy and for meditation, it has calming and anti-depressant properties and also aphrodisiac properties!

On what is beautiful to her…
I love when I can see the woman and she is in her own skin and comfortable. That to me is so beautiful. More than makeup or style. You can always see pretense and for me, that’s tough because you can’t feel the woman. Nothing to me is as beautiful as a woman who is comfortable with herself. That’s the main philosophy. And, it’s important to take care of yourself as best you can.

On the idea of extreme beauty procedures…
I think at least for right now, I mean, I could change my mind, you never know, it’s extreme to do a crazy intervention. Talk to me when I’m 60 and I’m on my second face lift! For now, no, but check back in with me!

On why she loves working at Goop…
I get very emotional about the products. I was putting on our night cream the other night and I was like, wow, we made this! We worked so hard to get it right and make sure it worked and the right texture and the packaging and I’m using it in my bathroom! It was one of those weird, out-of-body experiences! That’s why I love working at Goop so much because I believe so much in what we’re doing and how we’re doing it and it’s amazing to be able to productize a value system.