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I recently went on a week-long hiking/backpacking trip to the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming and my period came the first day we were on the trail.  While I wouldn’t say it was entirely pleasant to be doing business in the woods during the peak of mosquito season, having a DivaCup and Lunapanties (along with a pStyle) was the best thing I could ask for.

With all the sweating and walking (the longest day was nine miles, which was also my day of heaviest bleeding), I’m sure I would have been chafed and in pain if I were still using disposables (not to mention probably picking up a pretty bad yeast infection from the lack of breathability).

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Name: Laura

Age: 28

How did you hear about reusable menstrual products?
Eco Friendly Website

Please describe your monthly needs:
2 days and nights light flow, 2 days and nights heavy flow and 1 day and night spotting.

What reusable menstrual products do you currently use?
Lunapads- long pads, liners, and panty liner.

Why do you want to switch to reusable menstrual products?
I switched because I didn’t like the number of pads I was using. I calculated over 4,000 pads by the time I am 35!!!

Anything else you would like to share about yourself?
I love to cook, I love to sing and going green!

Based on your own experience, what message do you have for other women who might be thinking about reusable menstrual products?
It’s much more comfortable then wearing plastic!!!

Our recommendations for this musical cook!

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Now that I’ve noticed a change in comfort and attitude from switching to Lunapads, I figured I’d share some deets about wearing Lunapads, Liner Inserts and Lunapanties:

1. I was a little nervous to take my Lunapad to the public washroom for the first time – how do you carry them discretely? I couldn’t lug my entire schoolbag. Then I realized that my purple little moon pad bag looked just like a makeup bag!
2. To put the pad on, you just snap the wings together around your underwear and slip the liner under the ribbon (called ric rac bands) at the top and bottom. Out of habit with other tags, I put the tag at the back, even though the pads are symmetrical. They are much easier to put on than disposables: no paper to peel off, no sticky stuff, no wings getting caught along the sides.
3. I found I could adjust how far forward or back the pad was by simply tugging it, not unpeeling and re-attaching the whole thing.
4. As a newbie, I found it a little easier to snap the pad to my underwear first, then put on my underwear when I was getting dressed.
5. I had the maxi pads, which, by my unofficial estimation, are about an inch longer than the “regular” sized disposable pads.

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We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about using Lunapads and Lunapanties while swimming. To cut straight to the chase: can you use Lunapads or Lunapanties to absorb your flow while swimming? The short answer is a simple sorry ladies, but no.

So what are your options? There are actually several, depending on your flow and swimming environment.

I am personally a huge fan of swimming in the ocean (I’ll take a lake as a close second, though!), and thanks to having fairly light flow and choosing more remote spots to take the plunge, don’t worry so much about flow management (or even a bathing suit, if possible – woo hoo!), but going au naturel isn’t always an option. For example, if I was on my first day or two and at a public pool, I would definitely use my trusty DivaCup. In fact, my #1 top tip for swimming menstruators is to use a DivaCup.

If the DivaCup isn’t for you and circumstances warrant menses mitigation, options also include organic cotton tampons (available at most health food stores) or a Sea Sponge tampon. In my pre-DivaCup days, I found that Sea Sponges were a great solution for me, and it always felt fitting to be using a natural product from the sea while I was actually in it.

How I wish that Lunapads’ and Lunapanties’ superpowers included non-waterlogging while swimming, but I’m afraid that that’s how it is. So what happens if you decide to go for it regardless? Britney isn’t wearing Lunapanties in the photo, but you get the idea – soggy and ineffective basically sum it up.

As a final tip, I just read this excellent article about drowning, and how the actual signs are deceptively unlike stereotypes many of us hold (drowning people are incapable of yelling or waving their arms, for example.) Please check it out, and have a safe and happy summer!

We actually call that color “cream”, but I used “beige” in the title in reference to a recent blog post in which Lunapanties are selected for a “beige” report at Ecosalon.com (also copped it from resident rock star Morgan’s ironic AC/DC reference in the June newsletter).

What’s the EcoSalon Beige Report? “Occasionally, the green goes beige and things take a turn for crunchy town. Granolaville. The ’70s. Introducing The Beige Report, where we cover the well-meaning, but unfortunate attempts of eco brands with the best of intentions and the not-so-best of products. First honors: organic period panties.” Needless to say, hearing this did not sit well with the Lunagals.

Fortunately a fabulous posse of Lunapanty-loving gals were quick to disabuse the writer (who was thrilled with the enormous amount of comments on her blog post) of her ill-informed notion (don’t dis them ’til you’ve tried them was the dominant response), and a Lunapads and Lunapanties “care package” was quickly dispatched to the EcoSalon office in San Francisco. We’re looking forward to hearing what they have to say once they’ve actually tried them! Thanks to everyone who commented – it’s certainly making for an interesting conversation.

Speaking of which, we have quite the little waiting list going here for (ahem) cream Lunapanties.  Good thing they’re finally back in stock, don’t you agree?  Enjoy!

Here’s a fun new video about Lunapanties. There are 2 parts: first, the basics of what’s special about them and what styles they’re available in, and second, about how to use  Liners with them (same as Lunapads as it happens, so it’s worthwhile to watch as a refresher there as well) – enjoy!

It feels good to start a new year with new things, and we have some fun ones lined up for you!

First off, we have just introduced new snaps for Lunapads. Closure is always a big issue with cloth pads, and we’ve chosen sew-on plastic snaps until now due to their durability.  We’ve finally invested in our very own snap machine, and feel that our new metal (plastic and nickel-free) snaps do just as good a job at keeping everything together with even less bulk. We anticipate that the complete switchover to all Pad and Pantyliner styles will take several weeks.

Our first product that will feature the new snaps is our brand-new Thong Pantyliner. Thong Pantyliners are 6″ (15cm) long, and 2.5″ (5cm) wide, tapering to 1″ (2.5cm) wide at the end. Featuring the same construction as our popular Mini and Teeny Pantyliners (2 layers of 100% flannel topped with 2 layers of 100% cotton fleece), Thong Pantyliners are tapered to work exclusively with thong-style underwear. Watch for them in new 7 Day Thong Pantyliner Kit, DivaCup Kit with Thong Pantyliners  and Deluxe DivaCup Kit with Thong Pantyliners, too!

Last but not least, they’re on special for 10% off for the month of January.

Before we ring in some news about what’s new for 2010, we wanted to reflect upon 2009, and how it brought Lunapads some great new people, products and inspiration.  Here are a some of the highlights:

Pads4Girls expands:  During 2009, we expanded our Pads4Girls program by eagerly partnering with new groups that reached out to communities in Cuba, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.  Thanks to customer support and the work of courageous individuals and NGOs, hundreds of girls and women are now able to stay at work or school while menstruating, and deal with their periods safely and with minimal environmental impact.

Recognizing there are practical solutions closer to home, we created our  “Make your own cloth menstrual pads” video series that has been viewed by thousands. These videos are regularly used by women in Africa (and here in North America) to make their own cloth pads. And in December 2009, Lunapads partnered with Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) by donating 20% of holiday sales for 2 of our top-selling gift items to their program, which makes biodegradable disposable pads from agricultural waste in Rwanda.

Fabulous folks and adventures abroad: One of the perks of our work is choosing to take some strategic business trips and while doing so, connecting with some truly amazing people.  During 2009, we had the good fortune to meet some real treasures and leaders in our community: In March 2009, we attended the always mindboggling Expo West Natural Products Trade Show in Anaheim CA and reconnected with our friends Francine and Carinne Chamers, founders of the DivaCup and also met Sarah Kraft, founder of the online Mindful Mama community.

While walking the trade show, we spotted Mothering Magazine Founder, Editor and Publisher Peggy O’Mara and couldn’t miss the opportunity to stop and tell her how much we adored her.  This conversation led to the plans for a personal visit from Peggy right here at Lunapads the following month.  Leveraging off of Peggy’s rock star status as a natural parenting pioneer and leader, we brought together a group of friends and colleagues to hear Peggy speak at a warm and inspiring tea party benefiting Pads4Girls.

In September 2009, I took a first-time trip to the ABC kids expo in Las Vegas, where I also had an insightful visit to Zappos.com‘s headquarters.  Meanwhile Suzanne had yet another transcendent experience at the Social Venture Institute (SVI) at Hollyhock, BC.  In November 2009, we both attended the Green America Business Conference and Green Festival in San Francisco.  While we were there, we had the great fortune to meet up with  SHE founder Elizabeth Scharpf and one of our business heroes, Reusablebags.com founder Vincent Cobb.

New products and fabrics: We expanded the Lunapads collection with several new products and fabrics: the P-style, Wysi-wipes, Cloth Wipes (which elicited one of our most discussed blog posts of the year) and our first-ever custom 100% organic cotton print, Magenta Mandala.

Lunapanties, our very own period underwear, made a long awaited comeback in November 2009, with the introduction of our new Hipster style and magenta colored organic cotton.

Staff changes: We bid a tearful and fond farewell to Sandra, one of our longest-term employees, as she moved on to continue her work as a bicycle safety educator. While it is hard to replicate Sandra’s incredible personal flair for customer service, Sara, the newest addition to the Lunapads team, is doing a fantastic job!

Media and accolades: In the summer of 2009, we learned that Lunapads and the DivaCup were featured in an entertaining and informative book by Canadian journalist Vanessa Farquharson called “Sleeping Naked is Green“.  At the end of 2009 Lunapads was profiled in our of our local papers, featuring a funny photo of Suzanne and I having a “tug-of-war” with a clothesline of Lunapads and Lunapanties.

By far the biggest highlight of the year was being voted into the top 10 of Green America’s People Choice Awards and so you can imagine our reaction when we found out that we had placed in the top 3 and received the newly-minted Shining Light award.

While Suzanne and I celebrated our award San Francisco, we never lost sight of the unsung heroes in the exercise: staffers Lisa and Morgan (whose idea it was in the first place), Facebook and Twitter (follow us! @Lunapads, @Luna_Diva (me) and @Luna_gal (Suzanne)) for providing the forums to drum up votes, and last but far from least, YOU, our awesome customers, for taking the time to cast your votes – it couldn’t have happened with you.

On that note, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for a great 2009, and wish you all the best for 2010 from the Lunagals!

If you had told me 16 years ago when I first started developing Lunapanties that one day they would take me halfway around the world and almost drive me crazy, I would never have believed you. How could underwear possibly do this?

Lunapanties, as their legions of fans will be happy to tell you (ladies, you can stop calling and emailing about when they’re going to be in stock now!) are no ordinary underwear.  The basic idea behind Lunapanties is a hybrid between Lunapads and underwear, where the pad is permanently sewn into the gusset of the panty, with added bands at either end to hold Liners in place like pad-style Lunapads do.

Lunapanties are highly functional underwear that happily accommodate what we have come to affectionately call everyday ”random leakiness” to full on menstrual flow. Think: everyday whatnot issues associated with sneezing, laughing, having stayed up late for some (ahem) fun, being pregnant, postpartum, or heck, even your plain old period. Just add liners as necessary, to accommodate your needs.

Knowing we had a fantastic product on our hands, we set out 2 years ago to find new production partners to improve the overall quality and meet customer demand for new styles and colors (cue the Gilligan’s Island theme song)! I’m going to pause for a moment of gratitude for all of you who have waited so patiently while our “3 hour tour” turned into an international odyssey. What took so long? Allow me to explain..

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I love to travel, and did my share of world roaming in my early 20s. The interceding decades (gasp!!) have been more to do with building Lunapads and raising a family, so my wanderlust hasn’t had as much expression. Lately, though, some great opportunities have come my way, and I am excited to talk about what great travel companions the DivaCup and pStyle are.

Here’s a funny story: back in the days before I started making Lunapads (I was a dedicated tampon user until I was 25), during a bout of the aforementioned wanderlust, I found myself in a village in Northern India with a freshly-started period and no supplies. Did I grab a sock, or improvise with a handkerchief? I am faintly embarrassed to admit that in those days I had yet to broaden my imagination to be able to conceive of an alternative to my monthly “necessities”, and wandered in a panic throughout the local market in a hilariously unsuccessful attempt to communicate my need to the local shopkeepers.

I’m not sure whether tampons have made it to Pushkar by now, but back then, not so much, and I was frankly stumped. Was there some secret women’s store somewhere? Just where were the women of Rajasthan hiding their pads and tampons? (Dear reader, are you laughing at me yet?) To be kind, let’s just say that my lack of imagination was matched only by my Western, disposable, privileged mind that simply couldn’t figure it out. Fortunately I ran into a well-stocked Australian sister traveler who took pity on me, and all was well.

So, back to my new travel buddies. Unlike certain fruit-picking, concert-going PStyle fans, I had yet to try mine until some very recent plane rides and, shall we say, tricky bathroom situations in faraway places that would have been downright unpleasant were it not for being able to do it standing up. While I found it a bit odd at first, once I got the hang of it it actually made me laugh. Any traveling gals out there, do yourself a favor and get yours today!

As for the Diva Cup, how I wish that 1) it had been invented and 2) that I might have had the willingness to give it a shot at the time. Better late than never. A recent holiday found my husband and I in relaxation mode of a swimming, tennis and the odd martini variety – with my period. As fabulous, comfortable and versatile as my Lunapads and Lunapanties are, let’s face it: bikini-wearing demands a different solution. The Diva Cup totally came through for me, and I had a great time. Happy trails, everyone!