Fun and eco-friendly periods!

My lovely non-disposables!

EDIT: I just realized that the title of this was “My lovely disposables.” It should not have said that. I’ve been having a crazy life lately. I fixed it though :)

I honestly cannot say enough good about my disposable pads and Lunapads.com. There are definitely many other companies with probably equally amazing products, but this just happens to be the company I sprung for :)

I bought the Diva Cup first, because I thought to myself…Ehhh, reusable pads are probably too much to care for, and they’re probably so thick and uncomfortable. But I’ve been a pad girl pretty much my whole life! I like to wear tampons while working out and swimming, but pads for me! And after realizing how much I could do for the environment, I bought some reusables!

(I’m trying to cover my face, especially my right side, in all of these pictures because it has swollen like a BALLOON from my wisdom teeth surgery!)

Beyond the environmentally friendliness of these reusables, they’re just so damn cute, they almost make you want to be on your period just so you can use them. The pad I’m holding here is the Long version, and this is the part that you snap into your underwear, just as you would a disposable.

You don’t just wear that part of the pad though! These pads are made so you can wear them all day, and you just change the liner as you would a normal disposable. The liners are very very soft, made of fleece, so they are super absorbent as well. You can see the snaps a lot better in this picture too! They’re very small and flat, so you don’t feel them if you’re sitting down or crossing your legs or anything.

There is also a wing liner to prevent leaks on the sides. I just fold it down. It doesn’t stick to the bottom of your underwear like the adhesive pads, but they stay in place and stop blood from getting on your legs or underwear!

So then you just have to slide the liners into the squiggly gussets and you’re set! A lot of reusable pads look like these ones with the same mechanisms. There are other types out there which are more of an “envelope” where you tuck the liner inside the pad. The gusset mechanism allows you to use only one pad part throughout the entire day though, because it’s not really absorbing anything, and it’s just the liner doing the work.

Here is the long version of the Lunapad against a long disposable. They are almost the exact same length, and the Lunapad is even longer here! I wanted to take a picture of the thicknesses, but I could not figure out how to do it with a webcam…And I live alone so I don’t have any sort of help! The disposable, which is an overnight, is about as thin as the liner insert. So, added with the pad, the entire reusable is a little thicker than an ultra-thin, but it’s so comfortable and soft that I didn’t even notice a difference. So, no diaper feel at all!

Many people recommend soaking your reusables in cold water before washing them. Well, I’m still in school and I share a bathroom with no real good option to soak, so I opted for black fabric (and I’m rather lazy…). So even if I don’t soak, it won’t really matter if there are major stains. I do rinse them quickly, but that’s about all. Then I wash and dry on low like I normally would! For maximum stain removal, I would rinse, soak, then treat with a stain remover (there are plenty of green stain removal options!), then wash immediately and dry.

That’s pretty much the story of my lovely pads! If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask! I’m working on finding lots of companies with reusables so it doesn’t seem like I’m working for or pushing for Lunapads…It’s just the company I’ve done business with!