GOOP Clean Beauty + Win a copy!

What we eat, how we sleep, how we deal with stress — all have a huge impact on how well (and how beautiful!) we look and feel. Which explains why so many of us feel so garbage-y at the start of the new year after weeks of indulging and running on fumes. And why beauty from the inside out is the focus of GOOP Clean Beauty, the first book from the editors of the popular lifestyle brand and online magazine, goop. 

Nutrition and gut health are a key focus of the book, which opens with a “beauty detox” prescribing a diet free of alcohol, caffeine, dairy, eggs, beef and pork, shellfish, gluten, soy, etc. for a minimum 10 days, along with several “clean food” recipes like breakfast porridge with cinnamon and blueberries, loaded miso soup and kimchi turkey burgers. Each recipe is beautifully photographed and simply styled — the food looks fresh, flavourful and satisfying, like Californian comfort food. Goop contributor Shira Lenchewski weighs in with do-able suggestions on how to eat healthy in a hurry, and there’s a helpful primer on gut health with Dr. Alejandro Junger. The tone is informative, but not overly rigid.

“… though it’s not realistic for most of us to follow the detox rules compulsively outside of a set cleanse, our bodies can still reap some serious rewards even if we’re not religious about it — the “cleaner” our everyday diet, the better. So while it feels good to eat well, don’t beat yourself up over the slip-ups — that never feels good.”

Yoga, saunas, dry-brushing and foam-rolling are heralded as key “next-level” detoxers and a five-step foam roller sequence is demonstrated in photos by “body whisperer” and Taller, Slimmer, Younger author, Lauren Roxburgh.

I like the questions and answers peppered throughout — everything from sleep to superfoods to skin and hair health:

• Is there a real health benefit to drinking wine?
• Are colonics a good idea?
• In order to keep a healthy Vitamin D level, how much — and what kind of — sun exposure do we need?

The editors have taken care to break up the information with photos, sidebars and bulleted points to make reading easy on the eyes, not unlike a high school text book. I would have liked to see more of goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow (and at the same time, more models of varying ethnicities) like we do in her cookbooks, but the step-by-step how-to’s for beachy waves and an effortless-looking top knot make up for it. I feel like it’s a resource I’ll be turning to again and again, especially for the recipes.

Giveaway!

To enter to win a copy of GOOP Clean Beauty, tell me one question you’d like to see answered in the book. (This entry is mandatory. Please leave your answer in the comments below.)

For an additional entry, follow try small things on Facebook and share this post, then tell me you did so and your name on Facebook in the comments below.

For a third entry, follow try small things on Instagram, like this photo, and tell me your Instagram handle in the comments below.

And feel free to tweet the following once per day and leave the url for your tweet in the comments below (one entry per tweet). Make sure you’re following try small things on Twitter for your entry to count.

New year, new you: #Win a copy of GOOP Clean Beauty from @trysmallthings http://wp.me/p4xBed-48j CAN 1/31 #goopcleanbeauty

The giveaway is open to Canadian residents 18+ and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on January 31, 2017. The potential winner must respond to prize notification within 48 hours, including the correct answer to a skill-testing question, otherwise another winner will be selected.

Update February 2, 2017: Congratulations Victoria E! 

Hachette Book Group Canada sent me a copy of GOOP Clean Beauty in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.