Goop Review: What You Need To Know Before You Buy

Published by Bridget Reed on January 13, 2024

Goop Intro | Vitamins and Supplements | Wellness Soft Chews | Superpowders | Vitamin Packs | Balls in the Air | Why Am I So Effing Tired | Customer Reviews

The market for wellness brands is a lot like a shoreless ocean. It keeps going and going and going. Some might even label the wellness market “over-saturated.” They’d be right.

New wellness companies crop up every day, promising the latest and greatest. Most fall embarrassingly short. But, there are some that do bring quality products to the marketplace.

Even so, the wellness market’s in a constant state of flux. Companies that understand the market and consumer buying habits tend to hang around or evolve when they must. But few have that kind of staying power. 

Goop — founded by actress Gwyneth Paltrow — is a combination wellness and lifestyle brand looking to stay the tide in the e-commerce retail market.

The brand has transformed itself from a weekly email newsletter showering new age advice to dedicated subscribers into a comprehensive website complete with advice columns, wellness products, and more.

Goop’s e-commerce retail shop focuses on a combination of beauty and wellness products, with its own fashion line to boot.

But, is star power enough to make a successful and quality brand? Stick around for an honest review as we give you the information you need to know before you buy.

A Brief Look at Goop

Goop (branded and stylized as goop) was launched in 2008 by Gwyneth Paltrow. According to Paltrow, the name itself means nothing but can mean anything — that’s one way to keep your options open.

It’s marketed as a conversation-changing lifestyle brand and was officially incorporated in 2011. Originally, Goop served as nothing more than a homespun advice newsletter by the founder.

Over time, it evolved into a full-fledged website with written columns covering food and recipes, fashion, travel advice, and wellness. Today, goop features its own print magazine, a podcast, and even its own docuseries on Netflix.

Its biggest success has come from its e-commerce storefront. Goop also has a few brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S., and some of its products are available in various stores across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

Goop’s online store carries everything from beauty products and wellness supplements to clothing, jewelry, home décor, and books.

Since the selection’s so vast, we focused on Goop’s wellness line, which features everything from supplements to feminine care products.

Goop’s Wellness

Since 2017, one of Goop’s main focuses has been wellness. In fact, Goop held its very own wellness summit in June 2017. With tickets starting at $500, attendees were able to enjoy wellness panels and keynote speakers.

Goop’s categories are broad and take a holistic approach to wellness.

Wellness topics include:

• Career and Money
• Fitness and Health
• Mindfulness
• Parenthood
• Relationships
• Sexual Health
• Spirituality 
• Detox

Goop’s Wellness Products

We’ve found that Goop’s wellness product line has a pretty broad range:

• Aromatherapy – Features diffusers and a wide range of diffusible scent oils.
• Mindfulness – Features things like heated mats, coloring meditations, oracle cards, and more.
• Oral Care – Natural toothpastes, floss, tongue cleaners, and more.
• Workout – Infrared sauna mats, yoga mats, Theragun personal massagers, foam rollers, and more.

Goop also features feminine care products and sex toys under their wellness product line, but we mainly tried their line of vitamins and supplements.

Goop’s Vitamins and Supplements

Goop’s vitamin and supplement lines feature a little bit of everything with 58 items in their online storefront, but not every item on the storefront is a goop product. They’re also an online retailer, featuring items from other brands, like Genexa, Gaia Herbs, and Cure Hydration.

Goop Wellness Soft Chews

Goop wellness features a line of soft chews with three products in total. Soft chews have been on the rise in recent years, and they’re a great alternative to pills and capsules. But, are they as effective? We took a look at each soft chew and some of their ingredients.

> Perfect Attendance for immune support

These blackberry flavored soft chews feature two active ingredients, organic elderberry fruit extract and EpiCor^® dried yeast fermentate.

Elderberry’s one of the most popular herbal remedies for immune health because of its antioxidant effects. Elderberries are rich in flavonoids called anthocyanins, which provide potent defense against oxidative stress, a real bummer for the immune system. As a yeast, EpiCor® acts as a probiotic for gut health and immune support.

> Nerd Alert for total focus

Goop’s Nerd Alert café au lait flavored soft chews feature L-theanine and caffeine to help kick out brain fog. Caffeine for energy needs no introduction, but it’s important to remember that not everyone can tolerate it. This blend boasts 100 mg of caffeine per serving. L-theanine, another nootropic ingredient, improves focus and mental clarity.

> Knock Me Out for sleep support

This chocolate mint-flavored soft chew features melatonin and L-Tryptophan. Melatonin’s a naturally occurring hormone in the body that helps control our sleep-wake cycle (circadian rhythm). It’s widely used as a natural sleep aid. L-Tryptophan, an essential amino acid, helps support the body’s natural production of melatonin.

> Costs

We found that these soft chews are quite expensive. A 15-day supply (30 chews) costs $30. A 30-day supply cost us $55. Although these ingredients are commonly used in soft chew and gummy supplements, Goop’s prices are much higher than what we usually see for soft chews. Goop made it clear that these products aren’t intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Goop Superpowders

Goop also features a variety of “superpowders,” filed under Beauty and Wellness. They came in single dose packets and we mixed them into water. These superpowders can be purchased on a subscription basis or a one-time purchase:

• Metabolism-Boosting Superpowder – These metabolism support blends feature key ingredients such as DHEA and an ayurvedic botanical known as Holy Basil. These cost us $50 with monthly subscription.
• G.Tox Detoxifying Superpowder – This product features a nutrient blend of selenium, zinc, magnesium, vitamin C, and milk thistle extract to support the detoxification process. The G.Tox monthly subscription ran $55.
• GOOPGLOW Morning Skin Superpowder – Key ingredients feature an antioxidant blend to support skin health, including vitamins C, E, CoQ10, and Grape Seed extract. We paid $55 for a monthly subscription.
• GOPEGENES Marine Collagen Superpowder – This product boasts marine collagen peptides derived from wild Alaskan Pollock. Collagen’s a structural protein that plays a key role in your skin’s elasticity, hydration, and density. It cost $86 with a monthly subscription.

Again, these supplement ingredients are fairly common, but we noticed that Goop’s prices are well beyond most other brands’ prices.

Goop Vitamin Packs

Goop seemed to really be pushing their line of multivitamin packs. They feature five different packs, each with head-turning names, like Balls In The Air, High School Genes, and Why Am I So Effing Tired?

We paid some big bucks for these vitamin packs. Each monthly supply (30 packets) cost a whopping $90 for a one-time purchase; it’s $75 if you subscribe to the monthly service, which is a decent discount, but still higher than a lot of similar competitor products.

Multivitamins are a huge market — what makes these stand out? Are they really worth the price? We took a look at three of their most popular multivitamin packets.

High School Genes

This multivitamin pack’s specially formulated for women, aiming at optimal metabolism. In fact, it’s marketed as a metabolism-booster for premenopausal and postmenopausal women who feel like their metabolism’s slowing down.

Phytoblend Multivitamin

The Phytoblend Multivitamin features over 20 antioxidant-rich vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, such as vitamins A, C, D, E, K, and B-complex vitamins. Minerals include magnesium, selenium, manganese, copper, and more.

Omega-3 EPA-DHA 1000

This pack includes 1,000 mg of omega-3 fatty acids for cardiovascular support. Omega-3s are an ally when it comes to managing triglyceride levels and reducing cardiovascular risk factors in healthy adults.

Metabolism Boost

In addition to essential vitamins, the Metabolism Boost capsule features a botanical blend of green tea, Chinese cinnamon, and alpha-lipoic acid for glucose and energy support.

Free Radical Scavenger

This capsule offers another 300-mg dose of alpha-lipoic acid for antioxidant support. Antioxidants are essential for fighting off the effect of free radicals and oxidative stress.

Gut Balance

The gut balance capsule features an herbal blend of licorice, ginger, berberine, and more to support digestive health.

Balls in the Air

This multivitamin packet’s made for women who function at an “intense pace.” It provides an antioxidant-rich blend of vitamins for energy metabolism and immune support.

This packet also has the Phytoblend multivitamin and Omega-3 EPA-DHA 1000 we got in the last pack, but adds Superpower Support and Superpowder Sidekick capsules.

Superpower Support and Superpower Sidekick

These capsules feature some antioxidant superstars, such as vitamin C, niacin, calcium, and broccoli seed extract. Vitamin C certainly needs no introduction for its pivotal role in immune support as a potent antioxidant. We thought broccoli seed extract was the most interesting ingredient by far, which has some antioxidant effects as well.

Why Am I So Effing Tired?

This multivitamin regimen wants to support balance and energy during times of stress. In addition to the Phytoblend multivitamin and Omega-3 EPA-DHA 1000 capsules, we got an adaptogenic blend to help manage stress.

Adaptogen Blend

The two main ingredients in this proprietary herbal blend are Holy Basil and Ashwagandha. The latter’s an ancient medicinal herb with a clinically researched track record helping reduce stress and anxiety.

What Customers Are Saying

Goop offers no customer reviews on their website, which we found odd (though they do have a few video testimonials). Finding reliable customer reviews for their products was a challenge.

Most reviews are for other products, such as fashion or accessories. Plus, the vast majority of the reviews we saw weren’t positive. Many people complained about Goop’s high prices. We did manage to track a couple of reviews down — you’re welcome.

Here are two customer reviews, each at opposite ends of the spectrum:

I have been battling exhaustion with this virus stuff. Having to wear a mask for 8+ hr to work. I take this set of vitamins around 10 AM after I eat something small. About 1030 I finally feel awake and in an actually good mood. I absolutely love these vitamins. They are helping me survive the rona fatigue.

—    Susanna, 5/5 stars on Sephora

Does not help fatigue or tiredness at all. Get a great B-Complex instead.

—    J. Williams, 1/5 stars on Sephora

What We Like

• Works well as a comprehensive lifestyle website.
• Many of the supplement ingredients are clinically researched.
• Supplement ingredients are non-GMO and gluten, dairy, and soy-free. 

What We Don’t Like

• Supplements are way overpriced; paying more for brand and star power
• There’s a real lack of reputable customer reviews.

The Bottom Line

Goop’s certainly an interesting company, and its brand has grown a lot since the early days of email newsletters. As a lifestyle brand, it dabbles in a little bit of everything, from fashion to travel, to beauty and wellness.

To us, Goop feels more like a lifestyle brand that simply dabbles in the supplement world. While it’s true that their wellness products boast some strong, clinically-backed ingredients, we paid more for the brand than the benefits.

In a market saturated with wellness supplements, we can easily find more affordable options that offer the same ingredients and boast the same benefits. Plus, the lack of customer reviews for these supplements is problematic.

At the end of the day, we like Goop as a niche lifestyle website. But, before you take the plunge with their supplements, you may want to explore more affordable options.

Sources:

What’s goop?: The Story Behind the Brand | goop 

Advanced research on the antioxidant and health benefit of elderberry (Sambucus nigra) in food – a review | Science Direct

Melatonin: What You Need To Know | NCCIH

What are nootropics and how do they work? | Brain Facts

Goop Wellness – Vitamins & Supplements Designed By Doctors | goop

Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (Fish Oil) Supplementation and the Prevention of Clinical Cardiovascular Disease | AHA Journal

Lipoic acid: energy metabolism and redox regulation of transcription and cell signaling | NCCIH

A prospective, randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study of safety and efficacy of a high-concentration full-spectrum extract of ashwagandha root in reducing stress and anxiety in adults | NCCIH

Bridget Reed( Medical Writer, Editor and Contributor )

Bridget Reed is a Tampa-based content development manager, writer, and editor at GR0; specializing in content related to varying fields including medicine, health, and small businesses. Bridget went to St. Petersburg College and majored in Management and Organizational Leadership.

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