Guest post by Jane Lloyd of Lovealittle - The Mooncup Mystery

Have you discovered Mooncups yet?

These mysterious but fantastic menstrual cups are on sale in Boots alongside the tampons and pantyliners, but they are on the bottom shelf and you have to be looking to find them. Information about Mooncups is spread virally on many Internet communities and blogs. The anonymity of a chat forum breaks down inhibitions and ladies share often-hilarious anecdotes about life with a Menstrual Cup. I first heard about mooncups on the TES personal chat forums and after about a year when Boots had a 3 for 2 offer I joined forces with two other TES-ers and went for the bargain.

I never looked back. The terrifying tales of slurping noises on removal were true but I soon got the knack and felt confident and comfortable with my chosen sanitary protection. The economy and reusable aspects of mooncups were fantastic and having a loo with a washbasin in the cubicle at work helped enormously. Managing with a bottle of water in a public loo was my only dodgy moment when it slipped out of my hand! Luckily I had a back up of tampons.

Photo : Jane Lloyd

The result was that I felt the need to spread the mooncup word amongst fellow UK Etsy sellers, friends, church ladies group and members of my Embroiderers’ Guild. Quite simply my first pouch was created because I couldn’t bear to put my new Mooncup into a small badly fraying calico drawstring bag with a telltale logo on the front. I posted the prototype on flickr to see if people thought it might be popular. Comments were favourable and the Ladybug Pouch was born. I only expanded the range of fabrics and pouches at the request of potential customers and now offer a wide range including Mumtopia’s favourite, the Moon Daisy. As you can see, my hand-made pouches are not only functional and practical, their cheerful designs and little details, like the ladybird bead, bring some fun and individuality to the world of menstrual products.

At a recent Embroiderers’ Guild meeting a friend said that one of her daughters used a Mooncup and the other didn’t and that they bickered and argued with each other about the merits of each. Another member had used her menstrual cup for 20 years; think of all that money saved on tampons and all the back up pads! It is an emotive subject. I gave my sister a Mooncup in a gorgeous pouch but she still hasn’t fathomed it a few years down the line. I offered my daughter one and she definitely wasn’t keen.

My pouch making continues as the most popular line in my online Etsy store, Lovealittle, where Pouches, embroidered bags, craft kits, Waldorf dolls and more craft items are for sale. I donate sales of my “Pretty in Pink” pouches to Breakthrough for Breast Cancer throughout the year.

I’m offering Mumtopia readers worldwide the chance to win a $25 voucher so that they can choose something from the Lovealittle Etsy shop, please enter via the rafflecopter box below. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And if you do nothing else, do google Mooncup – it’s a discovery worth making!

Want to write a guest piece for Mumtopia? Click here for more details.