How To Make Your Period More Sustainable
Emm
Best For: Being more in control of your cycle
Emm’s smart menstrual cup is a first-of-its-kind product. While the cup itself offers a bespoke fit, adjusting to all body shapes and sizes, it also monitors key metrics like volume, flow rate, cycle length and regularity and displays the data in its app, allowing you to understand your body better and track your menstrual health without lifting a finger. Over time, Emm gets to know your menstrual health baseline and knows when you’re in your normal range – you’ll get alerts if things change and tangible data you can take to your GP or gynaecologist.
Hero Product: With the same capacity as four tampons, the cup provides up to 12 hours of uninterrupted protection – you’ll even get notifications when it’s approaching the limit. The UV cleaner is also portable and small enough to carry on-the-go, sterilising within minutes at the touch of a button.
Launching 2023.
Grace & Green
Best For: Impressive eco credentials
Since 2019, Grace & Green has worked tirelessly to reduce waste in the world of period products. Headed up by an environmentalist who spent over a decade in the water and sanitation sector specialising in international development, the brand champions period products that do you and the planet good. Three years in the making, the range is 100% certified organic and plastic free, as well as being intelligently engineered, ethical and sustainable. The range is surprisingly affordable, especially if you set up a subscription (working out at around £3.60 per month) and for every order, the brand will also plant a tree.
Hero Product: Made with certified organic bamboo, Grace & Green’s new range of day and night pads and liners is plastic free, and free from chemicals, fragrances and allergens. Pads and liners are also ultra-absorbent, hypoallergenic, lightweight and breathable – the five-star reviews speak for themselves.
Visit GraceAndGreen.co
Ohne
Best For: Full-spectrum period care
Ohne is not only ahead of the game in the world of period products; it’s also one of the only brands dedicated to providing support for menstrual care, sexual wellness and wellbeing. From period pants to vibrators and adaptogenic supplements, it has you covered. Plus, sustainability is at the heart of everything it does. From wrappings to delivery boxes, everything is recyclable and biodegradable, and to this day it’s the only organic delivery service in the country to have been certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and the Soil Association. Moreover, for every month a user subscribes, the brand will donate a portion of revenue to the Girls Programme run by the School Club Zambia.
Hero Product: Ohne’s tampons were the brand’s initial product and remain a bestseller. Designed with the female form in mind, the Ohne team believes nasty toxins – often found in mainstream tampon brands – shouldn’t be near the thinnest, most absorbent skin on your body. Ohne’s tampons are also unscented and unbleached, and boast a clever protective sleeve to prevent shedding.
Visit Ohne.com
Daye
Best For: Painful periods
No one in this space does innovation or chic branding quite like Daye. Three years in the making, Daye’s first product was a game-changing CBD tampon, offering gentle relief on days you’re experiencing cramps and discomfort. It also created the world’s first flushable tampon wrapper – made from wood pulp, it’s water soluble and dissolves in seconds. Tampons and plastic-free pads (made from super sustainable bamboo) are Daye’s bread and butter, but we also rate its recently launched probiotics, designed with the vaginal microbiome in mind – perfect if you’re prone to thrush and other infections.
Hero Product: Daye’s clever subscription model allows you to build your own box of tampons depending on your needs – choose from naked (plain) or CBD-lubricated tampons across a range of absorbencies to be delivered to your door every month.
Visit YourDaye.com
Freda
Best For: Supporting period poverty
The founder of Freda was inspired to start the brand after seeing refugees stuck at various border crossings in Europe on the news, many of whom didn’t have access to period products. Coming from a refugee background herself, she is now on a mission to remove the societal taboos and stigmas surrounding period products. The entire Freda collection contains no nasty chemicals and there’s no compromise on protection or comfort – the tampons are made with 100% organic cotton and are biodegradable and hypoallergenic, while the eco-friendly pads are made from 70% natural, renewable materials. Plus, a portion of every Freda purchase is donated to initiatives worldwide tackling period poverty.
Hero Product: The tampons – available as both applicator and non-applicator – come highly recommended. Made with 100% eco-friendly materials, even the applicators are made from sugar cane.
Visit MyFreda.com
Dame
Best For: Stylish solutions
The most wasteful part of single-use tampons is the dense plastic applicator that lingers in landfill for 500 years before decomposing. This is where Dame comes in: its self-sanitising, easy-to-use reusable applicator works with all your tampons, regardless of brand or size. Plus, unlike its cardboard counterparts, Dame’s ergonomic design allows for a smoother application and its anti-microbial technology will actively stave off bacteria. If you’re looking for a tampon alternative, its reusable pads also get our vote, and period pants are due to launch soon.
Hero Product: Dame’s Reusable Applicator is the brand’s original and bestselling product, but special mention also goes to its organic tampons, which are 100% biodegradable, hypoallergenic, pH neutral and free from bleach and plastic. Studies even suggest toxin-free tampons can help with period pain, so they could be worth a try if you’re prone to cramps.
Visit WeAreDame.co
Flex
Best For: Something different
If you’re looking for an alternative to tampons, pads and cups, Flex is doing things differently. Designed to fit the shape of any woman’s body, Flex’s discs are made from medical-grade polymer and are BPA, latex and silicone free. Each disc can be worn for up to 12 hours and holds five tampons’ worth of fluid, meaning Flex is single use but still produces 60% less waste than tampons. Unlike tampons and menstrual cups, Flex sits just past the vaginal canal and can’t be felt at all once in place. In fact, 70% of users said they forgot they were on their period while using Flex.
Hero Product: If you’re someone who finds tampons uncomfortable, the Flex disc is worth a try. Studies show it’s ideal for those prone to cramps, as it claims to alleviate period pain by up to 70% compared to regular tampons, which can fill with fluid from all angles and press against the vaginal wall. A box of 24 discs – a three-month supply – costs £40, with subscriptions also available.
Visit FlexFits.uk
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