#and i got to buy all new Thinx underwear today

[justalittlebluetiefling]

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[sofialinitis]

Warning: This topic might be a taboo for some people and contain graphic TMI description so feel free to leave if you're feeling uncomfortable about this.

This topic is going to either be squeamish or interesting. Squeamish if you're a guy or have trouble with blood. Interesting if you're a girl who is either going through puberty or has gone through puberty or you're an attached man who TMI speaks with your partner or you're an open-minded woke single guy. We girls normally either use pads or tampons during our periods. Recently, there's been a rave about menstrual cup. I haven't use menstrual cup and I find tampons to be super mafan (troublesome). Now, a company called Thinx come up with this period panties that allow you to free bleed in them/serve as a backup for your pads, tampons, cups and liners. There's been some good reviews here, here and here and okay reviews here and here about them (and a slightly unfavouring review here). Long story short, I need to get myself some Thinx. Fortunately, somewhere in July, they were having this free shipping to UK and also a sale on the cycle set, meaning you build your own cycle set and depending on how many underwear you buy, you get some discount. I got myself five undies so I got 10% off (If I'm not mistaken). Yay! Then, Thinx decided to show up in London and I JUST HAD TO GO THERE to take a look and bought another 3 pairs (oops! Bank account, please forgive me). They come in various styles for different flow. Hi-Waist, Boyshort and Hiphugger are for the heaviest days. Sport for medium days and Cheeky and Thong for light days. I got them all (yes, including the Thong. Gasp!).

Oooh... so cute ^_^!!!!

Photo taken by me.

How it works

This is where I reproduce the whole thing from their website here.

Basically...

Thinx is made up of four bits of tech that makes ‘em anti-microbial, moisture-wicking, absorbent, and leak-resistant. The top layer fights bacteria and absorbs any liquid into the über thin layer right beneath it, so you always stay dry. This way, you can wear 'em all day long. And no, they don't feel like diapers, and it's not like sitting in your own blood. Boom. Yes, they are indeed reusable. That's the point! To take care of your Thinx, you rinse immediately after use, cold wash (waiting 'till laundry day is a-ok) and hang dry. Don’t use bleach or fabric softener! And yes, the rest of your clothes will be fiiine. My experience Day 1: Today is pretty light so I used a Cheeky just to experiment. My boyfriend had this Nike Night Run with his colleagues so being a good girlfriend, I tagged along to support them. Before that, we had late lunch at Bayswater then took a tube to London Bridge to go to the venue. Got home at 11. Slept using normal underwear and overnight pad.

Photo by Thinx

Duration of hour wearing them: Around 8-9 hours (Cheeky is said to absorb about 1 tampons worth of blood). Since this is my lightest day, it works great with no leaks. Day 2: This is when it starts to get heavy. I wore a Beige Hiphugger, which has a black lining, which is really good. First 4 hours was good. I almost forgot that I'm bleeding. I literally didn't feel any soggyness at all. Sure, I felt the blood coming out but that's about it. When it comes to the sixth hour, I felt weird like that feeling that I feel when my pad is full. Lo and behold, it leaks at the sides. What a disaster. Okay, I'm exaggerating but you know, Thinx claimed that their undies are leak proof and you can basically wear them all day but at the same time they DID recommend use to wear them the #knowyourflow way. Plus, the Hiphugger is said to absorb about 2 tampons worth of blood. Sadly, I don't really wear tampons cause they're super mafan and the most successful attempt lasted 10 seconds. Thinx, you gotta come up with a pad absorbency  measurement.

It's a bit like Cheeky except for extra back coverage and the mesh detailing top Photo by Thinx

Duration of hour wearing them: Around 6 hours. I recommend around 5 hours and change with another pair of Thinx or your usual go-to menstrual stuff. Day 3: Heavy day for me so I was debating between a Boyshort or a Hi-Waist. Settled for a Boyshort cause homegirl wants to feel sexy. I find boyshorts sexy but they can be uncomfortable af especially when they're trying hard to be a thong, as in they ride up your butt. First, they're tight but actually the comfiest boyshort I'ever worn because I don't really need to keep adjusting in the toilet (though they rolled up in the inner thigh). It absorbs really well.

Photo by Thinx

Duration of hour wearing it: Longer than the Cheeky. I recommend up to 8 hours. Day 4: This is somewhat medium to heavy day for me. I decided to try the Hi-Waist style. It was comfy. Despite being a high waisted brief, I feel kinda sexy (just like how I did with Boyshort) due to the sheer side with opaque middle design. I was skeptical about the sheer mesh because my experience with mesh ain't pretty like they tear easily but then again, I bought an shapewear in Bandung and the mesh is strong af. Like so strong it binds my stomach. Basically, I wore Hi-Waist for my BJJ class and I felt fine despite it cling to my body due to sweat. Other than that, it's fine. I don't feel any discomfort or wetness. I even forgot that I'm on period.

Do not fear the mesh. It's pretty strong. Photo by Thinx .

Duration of hour wearing it: About the same as Boyshort. Day 5: Day 5 is usually medium to light day. It can be my lightest day as well. It depends. My average is about 7 days. I'm using Sport style which is basically a bikini style except more coverage (yay!). Since it was my light day (though I felt that I bleed more today than yesterday), I felt dry throughout the day. No leakage or anything.

Now I know why it's called Sport. It's a bit like a sports short except you know, it's an underwear. Photo by Thinx

Day 6: Day 6 is my light day cause it's throughout the end of my period. So I decided to wear my Hiphugger (I bought 2) but decided to wear a pad with it. PS: I didn't wear the Thong. I have no courage to wear it yet.

Sorry, sis. Maybe some other time (or not)? Photo by Thinx

My thoughts Do they work? Hell yeah! I basically free bleed when I wear these babies. They absorb well and do the job. They're quite leak proof to an extent. Will I recommend them? Yes, for their functions. No, for the price. THINX ain't cheap, especially if you live outside USA. It costs about USD$24-39 per pair, depends on the style. Not only you have to take into account of currency conversion but also shipping fees and import duty. I was in the UK when I ordered it. The shipping was free since I ordered it during free shipping to UK promotion but I was slapped with about 15 GBP worth of import duty. Other than the price, what are the other downsides of THINX? Basically, you HAVE to know your own cycle. The heaviness or lightness of the flow depends from one person to another. I may have bleed more than one person and I may have bleed less than the other person. It was super hard to tell if you're 'full'. But then again, same thing for highly efficient absorbent pads (Kotex & Whisper, I'm talking to you). Basically, just treat THINX the same like you would treat your usual tampons, pads and cups. To a certain extent, if you wear them for too long, they WILL smell. So, despite them saying you can wear them all day long, please don't. At least, get those deodorant for intimate parts (though I don't recommend using them every single day). There is no other place to buy THINX other than their official website. There is no other way. Which actually sucks because they can run out really fast (especially the Hiphugger) and you will be competing with buyers from other parts of the world. Bummer. For those who are not used to it, you can't simply toss it into your washing machine with the rest of your laundry. Just don't. You have to rinse it first. You can either rinse it with just water or rinse it wish soapy water. I rinse mine with antibacterial hand soap. Might be mafan to some of you. However, if you're either from South/Southeast Asia or a Muslim, it might old news for you since we girls have been rinsing our pads/tampons/cups since we got our first one. Don't worry, the blood comes off well. Yes, there will be blood coming out so be prepared to bleach your sink or bathtub or the basin or wherever you guys rinse it. Who do you recommend it to? People who are willing to experiment on period panties. People who already know how their cycle is. People on the go People who are physically and socially active (that means you exercise and go out to meet your friends often, you nasty!) Basically, here are the pros and cons of Thinx underwear. Pros: It functions well Comes in different styles and absorbency rate Cute and stylish Comfortable It feels like a normal underwear Light Reusable Machine washable Stains come off easily while rinsing A really good investment You might forget that you're on your period Cons: Expensive Limited colours (only in beige and black) Not available in retail or wholesale You can only get them at the official website Non US customers will have to bear expensive shipping cost and import duty Not suitable for long wear if you have heavy flow (heck, even if your flow is pretty light, you ain't supposed to wear it all day anyway) Prolonged wear (ie: wearing them for a long time without changing) can make your Thinx reeked Not suitable for tumble drying Rinsing the underwear can be troublesome for some It's really hard to tell if it's 'due for changing' My favourite: Hiphugger, Boyshort & Sport

[floraexplorer]

Ten Eco-Friendly Products for the Traveller in Your Life

“Single-use plastics are the devil!”

I stood in the pharmacy aisle and staring at the dental floss picks in disbelief. Twenty different brands, all with plastic handles wrapped in cellophane, all supposed to be used once then thrown out.

I’d just come from a visit to the dental hygienist who’d told me to I needed to floss. She’d even recommended these picks because they’re easier to use than regular floss – but I couldn’t bear the idea of wilfully buying something so environmentally wasteful.

Five minutes of deliberation later, I eventually had to turn around and walk out of the store, my vow to improve my dental hygiene melting away.

It got me thinking about the choices I make when it comes to eco-friendly products. A lot of factors in my regular life at home are chosen on the basis of their environmental impact: I shop in charity shops and thrift stores for clothes; I recycle plastics and organic waste — and clearly I’m growing increasingly conscious of how much plastic I buy.

But how do I manage to be eco-friendly when I travel? 

Travelling is, in essence, an environmental problem – from a plane ride’s damaging carbon emissions to the excessive amount of waste generated by millions of tourists in countries ill-equipped to dispose of it.

Luckily, there are countries combatting the tourism crisis with bans on single-use plastic and aims to become entirely climate-neutral – but we still have a responsibility as individuals.

When travelling, we can be more eco-conscious by turning off the lights, picking up our rubbish, using public transport, and being conscious of the amount of water we use. In short, all the things we (hopefully!) already do at home. We can eat locally, travel more slowly, and buy from independent retailers.

But the biggest personal change we can make is to simply stop using so much. If single-use items grow less popular, eventually we’ll see a marked difference in our efforts to combat waste.

Over the years I’ve amassed a selection of products which make my travels a bit more eco-friendly. I know from personal experience that they’re all affordable, durable and worth the money you’ll spend – and each of them helps the environment in their own way.

Read more: Ethical mistakes I’ve made while travelling

Reusable bag

When I was younger, I used to watch my mum carrying multiple bags everywhere she went. I used to joke and call her ‘a bag lady’ – but now I remember that her newspapers, groceries and extra layers were always in tote bags, never plastic.

A brand she particularly loved was Onya. In an effort to challenge our disposable culture, Onya use yarn made from recycled plastic bottles to make reusable bags. Mum gave me a blue Onya bag over a decade ago, and despite it getting increasingly stained and worn out, that same bag is still going strong fifteen years later.

The silky material means it’s super light and folds up to barely anything: as a result, it’s been stuffed into my pack throughout long-term travels in Asia and South America, has visited dozens of other countries and is always in my bag even when I’m in London. There’s nothing like the ‘internal-high-five’ I feel when I successfully avoid using a plastic bag in a shop!

Onya now only sell their products in Australia, but there are plenty of other reusable bags out there – like Baggu bags and these foldable totes from Bee Green.

Price: from £8 on Amazon

TOMS slipon shoes

I first discovered TOMS shoes when living in San Francisco in 2009, when I put them on and immediately felt like I was walking on clouds.

I virtually wore out that first pair while traipsing the SF cement, the bright lights of Vegas, the Chicago cityscape and the muggy air of New Orleans – and when I brought them back to England, I continued wearing them around my university town until my toes got too cold (alas they’re only really suitable for warmer temperatures). Eventually TOMS were stocked in the UK and now I find myself buying a pair every summer.

The classic TOMS are lightweight which makes them easy to pack, they’re comfortable for a full day of walking around, and they look casual-smart enough to wear in a range of different scenarios. They’re made from natural hemp, organic cotton and recycled polyester, while their shoeboxes are made from recycled post-consumer waste.

But most importantly, TOMS operate under a ‘Buy One, Give One’ model: for every purchase you make, they donate a pair of shoes to a child in poverty. As of today, TOMS have given away 86 million pairs of shoes to children – and most recently the founder, Blake Mycoskie, has donated $5 million towards ending gun violence in the US.

NB: If you’re a US citizen, you can go to TOMS.com and send a physical postcard to your Congress representative urging them to pass universal background checks.

Get them from £13 on Amazon

LUSH solid shampoo and conditioner

Travel-sized toiletries, though somewhat adorable in stature, have always felt like a huge waste of plastic. Despite only washing my hair twice a week I still run out of travel sized shampoo on long trips – and if I travel with carry-on only, there’s no way I’m using up my liquid allowance with a full sized bottle of shampoo!

Enter: solid shampoo. This stuff can take some getting used to at first, but it’s an undeniably useful product to travel with. A single LUSH Solid Shampoo Bar can last for about 80 washes and is made from natural ingredients and essential oils.

I store mine in a silver tin which doubles as somewhere to place the bar when showering (if there’s a ledge available). Simply run the bar a few times over wet hair to create a lather. Make sure you don’t pack the bar away when still damp though, as it can melt away a bit. I’ve patted mine dry with toilet paper then had to pick tiny specks of paper off it again – so any tips aside from air-drying are welcome!

Available on the LUSH website from £7.50

Go-Toob squeeze bottles

If you’re like me and have really dry hair, sometimes you have to use a particular brand of liquid shampoo – which is where Go-Toob comes in handy.

Most refillable bottles are hard plastic, making it really difficult to shake out whatever substance you’ve got inside. Go-Toobs are soft, squeezable, reusable bottles made from silicone, with a wide lip for easy filling and a no-leak valve. They’re small enough for airline carry-on, easy to wash out before reusing, and there’s even a designated space on the cap to write what product is inside.

I first picked up a trio of Go-Toob’s reusable bottles when I was packing for South America, and now they’re a requisite element of my travel wash bag. One holds shampoo, another has body moisturiser, and the third is a spare for suncream or whatever else I might need.

Available from £16 for a set of three bottles on Amazon

Reusable water bottle

Reusable water bottles are one of the easiest eco-friendly switches to make: they’re cheaper than buying bottled water and they greatly reduce wasted plastic. 

I have a few in my collection: two different sizes of Ion8 bottles made from BPA-free plastic, and two metal bottles from Klean Kanteen – one with a wide lip and one with a sports cap. I find the latter easiest for travel because although a wide-lipped bottle is aesthetically appealing, it has the ability to jolt against my teeth if I’m not standing perfectly still. After an accident in the school playground where I broke my front tooth, I’m now really cautious about possible teeth-related accidents!

A word of warning when travelling: always check whether the tap water is safe to drink. If you’re unsure, you can use water purification tablets or a LifeStraw.

Price: from £18.95 on Amazon

Mooncup

After years of worrying about developing Toxic Shock Syndrome from tampons, I started using a menstrual cup when I went to South America and I’ve never looked back.

For female travellers, menstrual cups are a no-brainer: gone are the days of using up precious backpack space with tampons, or running the risk of not being able to buy them in your destination. But they’re really eco-friendly too. The average person goes through approximately 11,000 pads and/or tampons in their lifetime, all of which end up in landfill: in comparison, you only need to replace your menstrual cup every few years.

A Mooncup is made of soft medical-grade silicone which you fold and put inside yourself, where it then pops into its original shape and creates a seal with your cervix. To remove, you simply pinch the base of the cup and pull on the stem, then empty it out and clean before using again (a tip: it’s handy to take a water bottle to public toilets for this part!).

It’s understandably a bit nerve-wracking to use a menstrual cup the first few times, but you get the hang of it pretty quickly. And again, Mooncups give you longer lasting protection than other sanitary products so when you’re travelling and don’t have constant access to a toilet, there’s no panic about changing it in time! If you’re someone like me, who often suffers from thrush (which once happened after using a tampon for too long on an 18 hour night bus ride from Poland to Lithuania with a locked on-board toilet and no stops…), the non-absorbency of a menstrual cup means no dryness, which is also a lifesaver.

There are two sizes of Mooncup: choose A if you’re aged 30 or older or have given birth vaginally at any age, and B if you’re under 30 and haven’t given birth.

Price: from £21.99 on Mooncup’s site

[Image: Mama Loup’s Den]

THINX underwear

The second element to my eco-friendly period game are THINX: period underwear which are made with various absorbent materials to prevent any leaks. I ordered two pairs of these babies all the way from the US. Shipping costs were a bit of an annoyance, but nonetheless they’re bloody fantastic. Pun intended.

THINX are only slightly thicker than normal underwear, and come in six different styles with various levels of absorbency, including bikinis, boy shorts and thongs. I wear them along with my Mooncup for maximum peace of mind on the first few days of my cycle, but they’re also great to use before your period arrives so you can avoid spotting in regular underwear.

Cleaning THINX is pretty easy: just soak them in cold water first and then either handwash or chuck them in a cold washing cycle without fabric softener (as it can affect the antimicrobial materials). They do take a while to air dry, so it’s worth having more than one pair.

As with menstrual cups, using period underwear saves you using non-recyclable one-use sanitary products which end up in landfill.

(NB: If you’d be interested in an honest review about my experiences with THINX, let me know in the comments!)

Prices start from £27 at THINX (get £8 off your first purchase!)

Ethnotek backpack

My favourite backpack brand is Ethnotek, an ethically responsible social enterprise which use handmade textiles from artisans all over the world, from Vietnam and Ghana to Indonesia, Guatemala and India. 

I’d been following Ethnotek for a long time, but I was finally able to meet the two founders, Cori and Jake, in Bali earlier this year. We had brunch in an Ubud cafe and chatted about their passion for keeping traditional handcraft practices alive.

Sadly many local artisans are seeing less and less demand for their work, with handmade products being replaced by factories and machines which leads to loss of jobs and ultimately the disappearance of handicrafts. That’s why it’s so important to see Ethnotek creating new demand for these traditional practices by featuring tie-dye, batik, block printing, embroidery and handloom weaving on its bags.

Available from $89 at Ethnotek. Use the code ‘FLORA10’ at checkout for a 10% discount!

Reusable cotton rounds

Once I realised how wasteful it is to use disposable face wipes, cotton balls and cotton pads, I spent ages searching the internet high and low for reusable alternatives. It took a long time to find a stockist who wasn’t in the US and could deliver to England, but eventually Etsy came to my rescue.

A set of organic cotton rounds easily replace other single-use products: simply pop your cleanser or toner on the pad and use as normal, but then put them in the wash afterwards (courtesy of the thoughtfully included laundry bag!). Mine are made from two layers of cotton, along with a layer of antibacterial bamboo towelling on one side: as it’s slightly rougher, it removes more makeup!

My only issue with reusable cotton rounds is that some of them have stained slightly from over use, so I’d recommend handwashing them with some soap and warm water sooner rather than later.

Price: from £9 on Amazon

Bamboo toothbrush

You know there’s a global crisis when a company willingly gives away their product for free in the hopes of changing people’s minds for the better. 

When I saw an advert from ‘Giving Brush’ on Facebook I didn’t believe them at first – but when my free bamboo rainbow toothbrush arrived in the mail a few weeks later, I suddenly realised how irresponsible it is to use plastic toothbrushes which need to be changed every few months.

The handle is made from bamboo, a natural plant-based material so it will eventually biodegrade, and the bristles are made from nylon – not super recyclable, although some companies use the biodegradable ‘nylon4’.

Available from £8.99 for a pack of four on Amazon

What eco-friendly products do you travel with? Is there any product you wish could become more environmentally conscious?

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