Former Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester isn’t here for the kinds of strange and frequently unsettling beauty trends promoted by brands like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, and I feel like this is the first time in recent memory that a famous woman has made headlines for not being a proponent of a scientifically questionable and prohibitively priced beauty regimen.
When discussing her upcoming series (the time travel comedy Making History) with the website Byrdie, Meester was asked whether she or her character in the show (Deb) would be more likely to try “wacky beauty-related activities.” (I didn’t fully grasp the point of this exercise, but honestly, who cares.) When they got to Goop-approved vaginal steaming (aka a “vagina facial”), Meester reacted with “slack-jawed” disbelief and asks for an explanation of the process.
Writes Byrdie:
Uncomfortably, I proceed to describe the controversial treatment, which has you “steam” your nether regions, ostensibly to “balance female hormone levels,” as Paltrow has stated. Meester is genuinely horrified. “I personally don’t feel like you should be adding anything into your vagina—it’s self-cleaning,” she says, deadpan. “We’re fine; I’m going to say neither on the vag steam.”
Later, they ask Meester if she or Deb would be interested in trying that weird skin therapy where you inject bee venom into your face to “reduce inflammation and scarring.” Again, Gwyneth loves them. And again, Meester does not. “That sounds like something from My Strange Addiction,” she says. “It just doesn’t seem right.”
Byrdie calls this exchange “anti-Gwyneth” (quotes included) in its headline, as if Meester used the term herself. But as far as I can tell, she didn’t ever mutter those words. She just doesn’t want bee venom in her face, and honestly, who could blame her?