Do you know what’s in your tampon?  Cotton!  …Right?  Sadly, no.  Most conventional tampons include rayon, polyester, synthetic fragrance and dye among other toxins in their product – a product that happens to sit inside of your body for hours.  The FDA does not regulate the ingredients in or composition of tampons, and it does not require manufacturers to provide the consumer with an ingredient label on the product’s box.  Is this unacceptable?  Yes.  Is there an alternative?  Yes.

A couple of months ago, my friend, Hillary, alerted me about Lola.  Jordana Kier and Alexandra Friedman got together and launched a brilliant subscription service that delivers safe, 100% cotton tampons directly to your door.  (I don’t usually love subscription services, but this one is simple, saves you from embarrassing moments and you can cancel/adjust/skip anytime, really.)  You can also personalize your own monthly assortment according to absorbency.  And, the packaging?  It’s…. chic(!?)  Seriously, you can leave this box on the counter.  Even the packaging it is shipped in is discreet – your mailman will be none the wiser.

I bet you are wondering, “But, do they really work?”  Yes, I promise that they do.  I’ve been using them for two months and I don’t just prefer their ingredients, I prefer their performance.  They look and feel very familiar, but better.  I like them so much, in fact, that Bare Beauty Readers will get 50% OFF their first order with the code BAREBEAUTY.

Since smart, honest women have the power to save this world, I thought I’d pick these Ivy-League grads’ brains a bit:

How was LOLA born?  What was the void in the market that LOLA initially set out to fill and what did you learn along the way?

We founded LOLA with a simple and seemingly obvious idea – you shouldn’t have to compromise when it comes to tampons. Like most women, we’d been using the same feminine care products since we were teenagers.  But when we found out that feminine care brands – the same ones we were loyal to all those years – aren’t required to disclose exactly what’s in their products, it made us wonder: what’s in our tampon? Contrary to popular belief, cotton isn’t the primary ingredient. In fact, tampons are typically made from a blend of the artificial fibers rayon and polyester. To us, it didn’t make sense. If we care about everything else we put in our bodies, this shouldn’t be any different.

So, we set out to create LOLA, a modern approach to feminine care. Made from 100% cotton certified by Cotton, Inc., our products are hypoallergenic and don’t contain any synthetics, chemicals, or dyes. LOLA tampons are wrapped in a compact plastic applicator so you don’t have to compromise simple and natural ingredients for comfort.

I am assuming that you did a lot of lab testing on conventional tampons during R&D.  What did you find in them?

This is actually a category that has been very under-researched, as people just haven’t paid attention to it. And many of the reports that exist were sponsored by the big companies themselves. The issue is that we don’t know what’s in their products and companies aren’t required to tell us. We don’t have the compositional breakdown or the full ingredient list to be able to make informed decisions like we do when we choose our food or other personal care items such as shampoo. That just didn’t feel right to us.

What effects can these ingredients have on a woman’s body?

In the absence of data, LOLA’s stance is that if we have the choice between an all cotton product (an ingredient we interact with on a daily basis and know) and one with an incomplete ingredient list, we’d choose the 100% cotton version ten times out of ten. We want to have peace of mind about what we’re putting in our bodies.

What sets LOLA apart from other environmentally conscious tampons?

LOLA provides the most seamless and convenient experience with the best of both worlds: a 100% cotton tampon in a compact plastic applicator. With LOLA, you can customize your absorbency assortment and delivery cadence so your tampons are completely tailored to your needs. We built our subscription model with the utmost flexibility to adjust the assortment, quantity, or delivery anytime, so LOLA is there whenever you need us.

What is next for LOLA?  Are cardboard applicators in your future?  (Please say yes!)

Our goal right now is for women to feel good about what they’re putting in their bodies and have peace of mind about what’s in their feminine care products. Overall, we want LOLA to provide a better feminine care experience in a relatable, straightforward, and transparent way. Cardboard applicators are definitely on our radar, but we decided to launch first with a 100% hypoallergenic cotton tampon with a compact BPA-free plastic applicator since most American women prefer plastic applicators. Our grand vision is to provide every product for all women throughout their entire reproductive cycle and beyond. We want to empower women to make proactive decisions about what they put in their bodies.

Thanks, ladies!

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