My Comparisons and Ratings

I’ve tried most of the cups, and these are my thoughts to compare them. I tried to be as neutral as possible in my opinions – referencing back to how I find they feel/look/work compared to each other to see which I felt performed better in each category. And this was done not being influenced by the companies themselves (eg I didn’t rate a product higher if I liked the company), just their products.

Cups that are not rated, are not rated because I do not have a cup of that brand in which to perform the testing/comparisons. The companies have been shown this site, and a request for a cup has been made, but I was either refused or my request ignored.

By Ratings
What I’ve done is give points for features I liked, and remove points for ones I did not like. If I had no feelings either way, I gave/took no points. Where I felt a feature was exceptional, I gave more than 1 point. Where I found something detrimental, I removed more than one point. See the chart in the link below.

http://www.clothpads.org/Cups_chart.html

The top scoring cups in my table are (in order):
MeLuna
Fleurcup
Miacup
LadyCup
Lunette

This doesn’t necessarily mean they are the “best” cups… or that I would recommend them in that order. That total is based on adding up the positive attributes of the cups. However I probably would recommend these 5 cups over the others, as I feel their positive attributes make them worthy of more consideration than other brands.

See my detailed rundown in each section I’ve rated:

Stems & Wearing | Insertion & Removal | Cleaning | Visual Appeal

By Personal Preference
Everyone is different, and everyone has different needs and different preferences. So this is just based on what I would recommend to others based on what I personally would choose.

In a perfect world – my most ideal cup would be a Lunette or Fleurcup in the same purple silicone the LadyCup uses. I have always preferred the shape of the Lunette (and Fleurcup is perhaps just a fraction better because it’s more flexible and smoother on the outside), and I love that LadyCup purple. I love the Miacup colour purple too (and it’s flat tab stem. I would always pick a purple cup over other colours, and a purple cup would appeal to me more than a clear one. I admit I am swayed by colour!

Taking colour out of the equation, the next thing I look for is a tab stem. I have found these to be far more comfortable to wear (untrimmed) than the tube stems. My next choice over the tab stems would be Femmecup’s stem, which is a thin “stick” (solid).. and then LadyCup, as their stem was flexible enough not to be bothersome, even though it’s a hollow tube that I don’t especially like.

The other thing I look for is less ridges and markings on the cup – the smoother the cup, I find the nicer it feels. And the larger the air holes, the easier they are to clean. So cups with very small holes, I would avoid.

So… ignoring colours, and my personal feelings about the companies who produce the cups – My Rankings

Choice #1 – Fleurcup
Lunette has been my favourite cup from the beginning because of it’s shape and stem design. Fleurcup brings those same positive features but slightly improves them with a slightly softer silicone, a smoother outside (no ridge) and more pronounced grip lines on the base and stem. While I don’t think the grip is a point to sway me either way, I think it probably has enough slightly better features than Lunette. It also offers more colour options, putting it ahead of Lunette in that respect too. (However on a personal, and not included in this ranking, level – they refused to send me a cup to review, and their website is less professional than other companies – which would influence my decision on buying one).

Choice #2 – Lunette
As I said, Lunette has been my preferred cup due to it’s shape, until I tried the Fleurcup, which I have to admit, I do prefer a *tiny* bit more. However, Lunette still remains the cup I recommend to people (unless they want a specific colour that isn’t available with Lunette), because of other factors (eg I prefer them over Fleurcup as a company). Which I’m not including in the reasoning for my rankings, just the actual cup – which is why it ranks #2 here. Smooth outside, no annoying markings to make cleaning harder, and a tab stem. All the features I like in a cup.

Choice #3 – Miacup
This cup has a lot of positive features I love. (It’s purple) It has a tab stem, offers a money back guarantee, has fantastic customer relations and donates to charity. But it does have the more pronounced ridge that I prefer not to have on the cups, and I believe it is one of the most expensive cups, which drops it to #3.

Choice #4 – MeLuna
I had rated the old-style versions of this cup at about a #6. I think with the new softer silicone I’d put it here. While I do like a tab stem, MeLuna offers different types of stem, and that is a huge positive, which I think earns position #4, even though I personally prefer the Femmecup stem to the stems I’ve tried with MeLuna (older style ball and ring, and newer style stick). As I didn’t like their new stick stem as much (it’s thicker and I could feel it). I haven’t tried the ball or ring stem in their new design however. I have found the outside nice and smooth, and the new material they use is as soft as the silicone cups, so a vast improvement on the very stiff cups they first offered. (Of course the colour options, including glittered, which I’m not ranking on, would increase it’s appeal greatly )

Choice #4 – Femmecup
With the newly designed Femmecup, I think I would rank it here. The solid stick stem I find to be a more appealing option than the hollow tube stems, and the new cup has a nicer feeling silicone than the old one. Still with the pretty spiral on the stem, the silicone of this cup is much nicer to that of something like the Mooncup UK, which is yellowish.

Choice #5 – Lady Cup
Lady Cup is very easy to clean, easy to insert/remove and a stem that I found comfortable enough to wear untrimmed. However it does have a tube stem (which I don’t like as much as solid stems) – although it is bar far the most comfortable of all the tube stems.  I also found the softer silicone *ever so slightly* harder to get to open up. (However if I was considering colour, then the coloured cups would put Ladycup above a clear Femmecup…. and if we’re considering colour, the purple Ladycups are my preferred purples, so they rank very highly to be based on my love of purple )

Choice #6 – Yuuki
I did like the one I tested, however I have heard that they have replaced the solid stick stem with a hollow tube and have made the silicone firmer. Which in my opinion are both negative changes, which would lessen my recommendations of this brand. The new version may rank lower, but I have not tested it, so this is based on the one I have.  There is nothing wrong with this cup, but other cups have features that I feel rank them higher than this cup.

Choice #7 – Moon Cup (USA)
Although I didn’t try it, if it’s basically the same as the Keeper and Mooncup UK (eg the same shape/size), then I’d prefer it over the Diva and Mooncup UK (because I’d prefer clear to yellowish). The main problems I have with the Keeper are it’s colour, the fact it’s latex and the fact you can’t see the holes, which the silicone cup would solve. Since I’ve never seen one in person though, nor tried one, I don’t know if I can rate it any higher. And of course this is not including my personal feelings about the company (Their use of the “Mooncup” name) – as if it did, I would rank this lower.

Choice #8 – Mooncup (UK)
The Mooncup is marginally less attractive because of the yellowed silicone. yes, I am that picky. I can’t help it. I also found the stem to be more irritating than the other forms of stem. Based on the stem, I would choose other (softer stemmed) cups before this cup.  I also prefer the outside of the cup to have a flatter ridge.

Choice #9 – Diva
The holes are why I rank this cup lower than the others… they annoyed me… *a lot*.. Plus it’s longer length poked me more despite the short stem, and I like the longer stems to grip. I have heard that they brought out a new design with less ridge and larger holes, but I have not tested this myself, so I am not sure.

Choice #10 – Keeper
The fact you can’t see the holes, it’s brown and in my opinion unattractive …and that it’s latex mean I’d choose most other cups before this. But, I would still chose it over a tampon (unless I had a latex allergy)… so it isn’t all bad, it’s just that compared to the others, it wouldn’t be high in my list of choices. The latex does have the advantage that is is the most natural of the cups however, which I’m sure will be important to some women. I would choose the silicone “Moon Cup USA” over the keeper if I had to choose between the two, because of the brown colour and latex issues.

Choice #11 – MPower
Going purely by the one example I have – I would not recommend this brand to anyone. It will always be the very last in the list to recommend. It’s better than a tampon, sure, but I would choose *all* the other cups before this brand. (and that’s not taking into account the fact that there are disputes about whether the MPower was copied off the Lunette cup). The MPower cup I have is of such poor quality that I do not hold much faith in the quality of the brand. It’s completely unacceptable quality, and I find it worrying that my one cup has so many faults (one or two you can pass off as being an inevitable flaw in manufacture, but not so many and of the type they are) – It was given to me by a reseller – from normal stock, that would have gone out to other customers. My MPower, straight from the box, had:

• 2 splits coming down from the holes, one fairly deep – This could have been caused by the cup being squashed in transit, however all of my cups have been though transit and none of them have been affected (with the exception of the Keeper having a slight oval shape rather than round, I presumed from being squished in the mail)
• 1 hole has been partway drilled through then the hole shifts over about 1mm and then continues through
• A brown speck is embedded in the silicone
• Rough silicone around the rim, end of stem and in the outside base of the cup – basically looking like overflow from the moulding process, and I have heard other cups are “sandblasted” – presumably to remove this sort of stuff
• The ridges on the tab stem are not attached properly – most are able to be lifted up as if they were an elastic band placed around the stem and only stuck on at a few points. One ridge has already broken and is hanging on only by a small point of attachment on the side.

About these ads