Gwyneth Paltrow is simply glowing on her 50th birthday.
After all, the Goop founder was dipped in gold in a series of nude portraits celebrating the milestone on Sept. 27. Shot by Andrew Yee, the images were inspired by the James Bond flick Goldfinger and featured the Iron Man actress with nothing but metallic paint covering her naked body.
"I feel so good turning 50, and this is about expressing that sense of energy and optimism that I'm experiencing," Gwyneth shared in a statement. "It's more about the female gaze and just a sense of fun."
The photos come just days after Gwyneth penned a lengthy essay about turning the big 5-0.
Pointing out her "silver hair and fine lines," the Oscar winner explained how she's embraced signs of aging as "evidence of all the days" she's lived thus far.
"And while I do what I can to strive for good health and longevity, to stave off weakening muscles and receding bone, I have a mantra I insert into those reckless thoughts that try to derail me: I accept," she wrote on Goop's website. "I accept the marks and the loosening skin, the wrinkles. 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."
Appearance aside, Gwyneth noted that self-acceptance also means "owning my mistakes" and "praying I have learned from them all."
"I have hurt people, never intentionally, but I have done so just the same. I have let people down by not being who they needed me to be," she explained. "I have betrayed myself to keep the peace. I have crossed lines, the thoughts of which sometimes rip me from sleep and suspend me into the hollowness of shame for a long, dark night."
And while she acknowledges that she's made a few "lasting mistakes" in her 50 years on Earth, Gwyneth wrote, "I'm not sure I believe in going back in time to correct mistakes; every one of those sleepless hours that came from one of these transgressions against myself or others has led to something."
"If nothing else, they have led me to a path of questioning. Of seeking a better version of myself," she continued, writing that the advice she'd give to her younger self would be to "know my boundary and hold on to it more tightly than my life itself."
As for her future plans, Gwyneth shared that she "would like to slow down" and "retreat a little bit" in the next chapter of her life.
"I would like to make my circle smaller. I would like to cook dinner more. I would like to see misunderstandings become understandings," she wrote, adding that she'd also like to "continue to open the deepest part of myself" to husband Brad Falchuk.
The Shakespeare in Love star also vowed to hold herself in a "higher standard of compassion" as she looks ahead and forges new memories with her daughter Apple, 18, and son Moses, 16, who she shares with ex-husband Chris Martin.
"I hope that they can feel me feel all the things and hold in the complexity of that notion," Gwyneth wrote of her kids. "That they know I am both good through and through, yet sometimes not. That my feelings of regret and my mistakes can act as scaffolding for what I build from now on. That they are the greatest accomplishment of my life."