Gwyneth’s At-Home Spa Day Routine

Published on: July 31, 2022

The right routine can change your life, unlocking a framework for making meaningful transformation. When I was younger, I didn’t have any sort of routine (except for my morning coffee and Camel Lights). But when I was about 25, I started this serious, six-morning-a-week yoga practice. Very quickly, I found out—for the first time—that I had real discipline.

Routines continue to help me make meaningful shifts in the way I live, from morning skin care and intermittent fasting to our sacred Faltrow clan dinners. (Every Wednesday, we have a special dinner with all four kids where we’re all around the table together. It’s something we did religiously all through their high school years, but as the girls are off to college in September, we’ll create a new ritual of some kind.) Flexibility is important, too—you have to respond to the fluctuations in life, and there are always opportunities to create new rituals.

Making space for a routine might look like simply setting an alarm for yourself to remember to meditate or scheduling a regular physical therapy appointment, taking a bath, booking some private time for yourself, even putting a call with a friend in your calendar. (One caveat: Type A folks have to be a little careful with routines—just be sure you don’t create a situation where you’re using the routine as a tool to punish yourself with.)

I’m excited about my relatively new spa routine—our home spa in Montecito has a cold plunge, hot tub, steam room, and sauna—all of which get used often. Brad is an obsessive cold plunger, and we both love a good sauna schvitz. But you definitely don’t need a spa in order to do this routine.

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Infrared Sauna Blanket
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STEP 1

One of my favorite wellness rituals before I sweat, work out, or even take a shower is to dry brush. I brush toward the heart to encourage blood flow. It’s tingling and invigorating—and it’s an amazing exfoliator. It just wakes me up.

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G.Tox Ultimate Dry Brush
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STEP 2

My hair is color-treated and gets a lot of wear and tear, so I wanted to create something active that would help strengthen it. This serum makes my hair manageable and soft and shiny. I love to apply it to dry hair—I really work it in from root to tip—and it smells lovely. I leave it in for at least 20 minutes before I shampoo.

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GOOPGLOW Restore + Shine Hair Serum
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STEP 3

“The Martini” Emotional Detox Bath Soak is one of my absolute favorite products that goop makes—I bathe in it practically every single night. We named it “The Martini” for two reasons: One, I love a really good martini. And two, in the filmmaking world, the martini is the last take of the day. I developed it with an amazing acupuncturist, Paul Kempisty, who’s a really good friend of mine and incredibly skilled in the art of essential oils. I put it in very warm water and soak in it for at least 20 minutes at the end of every day. It smells so good, and it’s made with these beautiful Himalayan salts and incredible essential oils like frankincense, myrrh, and vetiver. It’s special.

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“The Martini” Emotional Detox Bath Soak
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STEP 4

Our Himalayan salt scrub shampoo is an unbelievable hair product—and you need only a small scoop, so it lasts for ages. It’s got this great pillowy texture—the shampoo itself is so sudsy and luxurious—but you can also feel the salt crystals deeply cleansing the scalp for a nice, fresh feeling. It leaves my hair soft, shiny, bouncy, and full, every time.

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G.Tox Himalayan Salt Scalp Scrub Shampoo
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STEP 5

This body butter is actually the best red-carpet skin secret that I know of. It’s super, super rich and ultrahydrating. Plus, it’s firming, like the rest of the GOOPGENES collection. I massage it into my skin and it gives this incredible glow.

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GOOPGENES Nourishing Repair Body Butter
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