Gwyneth Paltrow Celebrated Her 50th Birthday Naked & Covered In Gold

While some people commemorate their birthday with a cake or party, Gwyneth Paltrow celebrated hers in her birthday suit, covered in glittery gold powder, for a Vogue photo shoot, an homage to body positivity. After all, September 27 marks a milestone birthday for the actor — her 50th — so why not dress it up in all that glitters.

“I feel great. I feel very happy and fulfilled and not scared and weirdly not freaked out about it,” Paltrow told Vogue in the interview. She stated that it’s been a lot smoother than she thought. “For the last year or so leading up to it, I have been ruminating on these different chapters in a woman’s life,” she said. “What does it mean to go through perimenopause and then later menopause? And why is that a taboo, and why are we put out to pasture?”

Wellness-wise, Paltrow stated she feels lucky to have her health and vitality, and is grateful that she started investing in them when she was in her mid-to-late 20s. “I feel like those choices that I started to make in my mid-20s around implementing a yoga routine; starting to really research and anecdotally experiment with healthier food, less processed food; and doing detoxes and stuff like that really set me on a path of getting to a place of turning 50, and crossing that threshold feeling great,” she said. “I’m so happy with wrinkles and my life.”

Of course, Paltrow is no stranger to wellness, having launched Goop in September 2008. In addition to health, the site covers an array of lifestyle topics, from beauty to style to travel. Plus, it sells an array of products, from bath soaks and clean beauty skin care to massage oil and vitamins.

Speaking of beauty, when asked about aging and getting wrinkles, Paltrow told Vogue she’s recalibrated how she looks at it. “Because in our Western capitalistic culture, we have conflated youth and beauty and we have very little outside of that margin to explore,” she said. “I don’t relate to a 26-year-old model. I don’t want her life. I don’t want her face. I don’t want her experience. I’ve earned my life. I’ve earned my wrinkles. I have been through so many highs and lows, and there’s a sweetness that starts to emerge from that, from having lived, from being wise, from being humble, from loving and losing and all of this stuff.”

Paltrow also wrote about turning 50 for the Goop blog. She thought back to when her parents had each turned 50 — how her mother embraced it, but her father did not. Paltrow seems to be taking her mother’s approach toward her milestone birthday.

“My body, a map of the evidence of all the days, is less timeless,” she said. “A collection of marks and irregularities that dog-ear the chapters. Scarred from oven burns, a finger smashed in a window long ago, the birth of a child. Silver hair and fine lines.” She went on to say that she does what she can to strive for good health and longevity, and has a mantra for any thoughts that try to derail her: “I accept.” “I accept the marks and the loosening skin, the wrinkles,” she said. “I accept my body and let go of the need to be perfect, look perfect, defy gravity, defy logic, defy humanity. I accept my humanity.” And that’s all any of us can hope for, milestone birthday or not.