Review – Casco Cup
I am really sorry I haven’t reviewed this sooner. I’ve had a challenging couple of months (lets just say) and haven’t been able to get the review done. Also I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, so I wanted to wear it over 2 periods to test it out more.
Lena – review
I’ve been excited for the release of this Lena cup for a while now, after being involved in the development process and having tried out prototypes of the design…. and having to keep tight-lipped about it until it was officially released 😀
With the package Lena sent, they also sent me a little card thanking me for my help and support! Awwww 😀
I’m always very impressed when cup companies have spent in contacting people like me to get feedback and discuss cups with them. To me it shows a company is trying to do as much research as they can, to try and bring out what they believe to be a great cup.
Even a little sticker on the back 😀
The boxes they come in are really lovely and unique. They have an interesting feel to the box, it’s hard to explain…. almost sort of suede-like… almost like the “peach skin” texture cups have. The boxes are 100% recycled and printed with vegetable ink! Environmental win!
The boxes are sealed with a little clear sticker, so you would be able to see any tampering. Tampering or knowing if the box is factory sealed is not something I would have thought of, but it’s something I have seen people comment on, so I thought I’d mention that. Removing the sticker on both my boxes destroyed the sticker. So I imagine any tampering would be evident on the sticker.
The booklet gives the standard instructions you’d expect, but an interesting addition is a diagram of the positioning of the cup for both a high and low cervix. Explaining that if your cervix is high you may not need to trim the stem, but if it is lower you may need to. I don’t recall any cup instructions specifically talking about cervix position before.
The cup has a flat tab stem with a rounded bottom, good grip rings on the stem and base of the cup. Overall a smooth sided cup (no ridge or protrusions), in “peach skin” sort of feel.
Currently only available in pink, which is a sort of rose pink with a touch of apricot. Hopefully it will come out in other colours (like purple) in the future 😉 (I love purple cups!)
The inside of the cup has a slight ridge and has “Lena” in slightly raised letters. 4 large airholes, horizontal with a slight downward angle.
(My camera isn’t detailed enough to show the inside ridge properly)
The silicone is reasonably soft – In my squish test, the small measured 28mm (the same as Eco-cup), and the large 24mm (the same as Fleur and Lily Compact). The silicone feels much the same in squishyness between the rim and the body of the cup.
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Since I tested out the prototype, I already know that I really like this cup – I love the tab stem, I am unable to feel the stem while the cup is in place, and I find the smooth outside cleans easily and is more comfortable to insert (than cups with a pronounced ridge). As with a lot of softer cups, I did have to use my finger to push against the vaginal wall to make the large size cup open fully, but the small cup opened up without any trouble.
I’ll write up a more in-depth review in a month when I’ve had a chance to test it with my period.
Unfortunately at the moment they are sold through Amazon and not able to be shipped Internationally, however Precious Stars in the UK does sell them, and ships Internationally. Hopefully once the cups have been out for a bit longer, International shipping will be available.
If anyone in the US would like to try out this cup, I’ve been given a discount code OBSIDIAN that can be used for a 15% LENA purchase discount from http://amzn.to/1MYBOEP
Mami Cup – Review
This cup has a frosted silicone, in a more “peach skin” type feel. The sides of the cup do have very obvious seams, and there are also raised lines up the opposite sides that aren’t seams (they are only half the height of the cup) – I’m not sure what those are for, maybe to give extra rigidity to the cup? I can’t feel the seams on cups, so that isn’t something that affects me – but I know some people are sensitive to seams on cups, so this may be an issue for them.
Inside the cup, around the rim it has “made in Italy” and the Mami cup name, also the size marking. There are also 2 measuring lines inside.
The airholes (4 of them) are punched through cleanly, and are horizontal with a slight diagonal.
I must admit, when I have seen pictures of this cup online, I didn’t think the looked like the stem would be comfortable, since it almost looked like a serrated knife 🙂
But the grip lines around the stem are pretty much like the other cups, just a little more pronounced and that gives even better grip. The stem I found to be very comfortable, I couldn’t feel it, and I like this high grip stem a lot.
Even though this cup is actually quite large, a little larger than some of the other large size cups (and I normally find the smaller sizes fit better), I did find this cup opened up ok. It would feel like it hadn’t opened up, since the bottom of the cup still felt a bit squishy. But when I felt around the top of the cup to check, it did seem to be fully open and I didn’t have any leaks. I didn’t get a small cup to try that size out. But I was happy with the large size.
In the “Squish test” it measured 23mm.
This blue colour my cup came in has a good amount of colour to it (not too pale and a pretty shade of blue). The “lilac” I’ve seen photos of sometimes looks a bit grey, that I don’t like the look of (like the photo above), and sometimes looks good. So I assume this photo below is a more accurate picture of the colour?
All in all, I really liked this cup – I would have liked to try a small size to see how that felt and to see what the size comparison is, but I found the large size was fine for me (I just wasn’t sure if it had opened up fully or not). I like that they come in purple 😀 I also quite like this tab stem as it has a lot of grip while still being nice and soft and flexible so I couldn’t feel it.
This cup would have to be up there with my favourite cups!
This cup was kindly donated to me by Coppetta Mestruale for review. Thank you 🙂
Eco-Cup (Lybera) – review
The cup I have tried is the “Eco-cup”, but I am assuming it is the same as the Lybera, so if that is true, then this review would be the same for both.
I got the large size in pink and the small size in clear. The cups have a nice “frosted” sort of “peach skin” silicone. While I don’t like the colour pink, I do find this darker, almost magenta pink that some of the cups have to be quite pretty. So I’d probably pick that coloured one over the clear one.
The holes on both cups weren’t punched all the way through. Basically they were punched through right up to the outside edge, so that there was like a thin film of silicone covering the holes, with like a pin prick through the film. The clear (small) one only had 1 hole that was affected, the larger one had 2 and a half holes affected (5 holes in each cup). When the holes are not punched out fully like this, the blood can get trapped in there, so they need to be manually cleared.
The large cup also has a little flaw in the silicone along the rim at the top – where there is often a line around the rim, in the pink cup it almost looks like there was an airbubble in the silicone there? You can sort of see it in the photo below. They are otherwise good looking and feel nice to touch.
The stems are a hollow tube with a spiral pattern on them. As with most of the hollow tube stems, I found the stem irritating to wear, so I would have to trim the stems off/down.
The grip around the base of the cup has “Made in Italy” and a roman numeral for the size marking (I = small and II = large)
In “Squishyness”, The small measured at 28mm and the large at 26mm. (“Squish test” info here)
The small size cup I had no trouble getting to open up. The large size cup did have a few issues – where I had to press against the vaginal wall to give it space to open up. Both cups did not leak and felt comfortable to wear and insert, other than the stem issue.
These cups were kindly donated to me by Coppetta Mestruale for review. Thank you 🙂
Gaia Cup – Review
The Gaia Cup pouches are a bit different to the other pouches – they have the brand name on a clear plastic tag on the side, and they have a flat base!
The Gaia Cup comes in 2 sizes, but according to the measurements, there is only 1mm difference between the sizes, so I’m really not sure what the point of having both sizes is…..
Both cups look identical, it’s only the writing inside that tells you which size that lets you know. If you put them against each other, you can see the rims are the 1mm difference, but it’s such a small amount. Though their website only seems to have the large size now, so maybe they don’t offer the smaller one any more?
The silicone has the “peachskin” sort of feel to it. Very soft, my “Squish Test” measured it at 21mm compression – the same as the Si-Bell. It has a nice feel to it.
Because I like having a good stem to grab onto, I found this short little stem to be quite slippery and not have enough grip – even though it does have grip lines on it. I found it quite difficult to remove because of this. But, on the plus side – I couldn’t feel the stem, so if you’re someone who normally has to cut stems off, then this might be a good compromise.
As with all the softer cups – I have to push against the vaginal wall to give the cup enough space to open up fully. Because there was no smaller diameter version to try, this would be a problem for me, as normally a softer large cup has trouble opening but the smaller sizes are usually ok. So I personally prefer a firmer cup.
The outside is smooth, no ridge, so it is comfortable for insertion and removal. The inside rim of the cup has the brand name and size. The airholes are a good size for cleaning.
These cups were kindly donated to me by Coppetta Mestruale for review. Thank you 🙂
Bassrose – Review
This cup is interesting because it has a hollow stem, with a marble ball at the end that forms a stopper. So that you can push the ball back up the stem to release the “valve” and let the cup empty without needing to remove it.
At first it seems really long. But it isn’t actually much longer than some of the long cups. Shown below with a small size LunaCup and DivaCup. The body of the cup is quite small too.
In the stem you can see there is a larger rounded part – this is where the ball is pushed to, when the cup needs to be emptied. The ball is then pushed into the narrower part of the end of the stem to seal the stem off again.
The silicone is the more “sticky” kind, and about a medium level of softness. When measured in my “Squish test” it compressed to 28mm. Making it one of the firmest small cups I have. There are no airholes in the cup, but I had no trouble with leakage or removal. There are no measuring lines or markings on the cup.
To be honest, I don’t really see this design as being as much benefit as it gets advertised as – I don’t think cups are that difficult to remove for cleaning, and there are some issues with the design. But I can see it being of benefit if you are out of the home and don’t want the hassle of having to empty a cup. I imagine it would be difficult to tell if the cup was emptied properly while you are wearing it though. I only tested it by removing the cup and emptying it – so that I could see how well it emptied and cleaned, so I could better review it. I haven’t yet tested emptying it while still inserted.
I also would be worried about the ball dislodging and the cup emptying while you are wearing it. While it seems that it needs a decent amount of force to get the ball dislodged to empty the cup, I do still worry if it is possible it could dislodge by itself and allow the cup to leak. I would only feel confident wearing it if I had a pad on – but that is partly because I am already paranoid about leakage thanks to a white-pants-tampon-mishap back in my teenage years 😛
I was also worried about the ball falling out while cleaning – but I’ve actually tried to push the ball out of the stem, and you’d have to really try hard to do it. I did try while it was dry, so maybe when it’s wet it could be easier, but I wasn’t able to get the ball out through the end, but if I really tried hard I could push it up the stem towards the body of the cup (I don’t recommend doing that though, it’s difficult to get it back into place again :P) and the cup does come with a spare ball just in case it did somehow manage to fall out. But I don’t think that would be likely.
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I tried it a couple of times, and I must say – I was pleasantly surprised. I actually found the stem more comfortable than some of the hollow tube stems! I barely felt it. Because it is longer, and rounded on the end, I think it pokes less than a shorter stem with a straighter end. I also did not have any troubles with the ball moving or the stem leaking.
One of the things that I have seen discussed with this design of cup (and also the Victoria Love, which is a similar design), is that menstrual blood is thick and sometimes clotty – so we wondered if it was possible for it to flow out of the stem easily. The Victoria Love design seems to have smaller holes on the sides of the end of the stem, whereas the Bassrose has a larger hole right at the end of the stem. So out of the 2, it seems like the Bassrose design will work better for clots or thick blood. I don’t know if I had any clots when I tried it, but it emptied fine – I did have to sometimes press the stem a bit to move the ball back up into that larger section, but no blood seemed to get stuck in the stem.
To better show people how the valve/ball works, how easily it emptied and how it doesn’t seem to leak when the cup is full – I have a photo and a video of the cup containing menstrual blood, to show you how it actually works. Yes, actual blood 😛 I will put the links here so you can choose to look at them or not, if you think it’s gross, just don’t look. I won’t be approving any “eww that’s gross” comments either, you can keep those thoughts to yourself 🙂
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Click at your own risk 😛
Bassrose Cup with blood Photo | Bassrose Cup emptying/cleaning Video
Anytime – Review
This is one of the Sckoon “knockoffs” (potentially copied design) – it came without a box, and with a pouch marked “Lady Cup”. I basically just got it to see if it was an exact copy of the Sckoon, or if it was different at all. It does have a couple of very slight differences, but it is essentially a copy.
The Anytime stem is longer, it doesn’t have the Sckoon branding around that flower base. It also doesn’t have that frosted silicone band or the strange “water drop/stretch marks” effect the Sckoon has. The body of the cup appears to be the same though, and the flower grip pattern on both cups appears to be exactly the same.
The Anytime cup has messy airholes. They have obviously been drilled from the inside out (Sckoon’s appear to be from the outside in, and are higher and neater), since 1 of the 5 holes doesn’t break through to the outside at all and the remaining holes aren’t fully punched through. There is also ‘damage’ (for want of a better word – where the silicone is marked) around the edges of the holes on the inside.
The Anytime is a little firmer than the Sckoon, and it is not as translucent.
While I don’t like to recommend a “knockoff” cup, nor the very cheap Chinese made cups of any brand… If you like the shape/style of the Skoon but want it a little firmer, then (airhole/legal/safety issues aside), this cup may suit better, since it is identical in shape/size (other than the longer stem)
iClean – Review
My iClean came with no box, a little instruction leaflet and a really poor excuse for a pouch – one of those organza bags you usually find jewellery or something like that put into. Not really suitable for a menstrual cup pouch – but these are very cheap cups, so you can’t expect much.
The holes weren’t punched through as neatly as other cups, with some displaced silicone on the outside and inside of the cup.
I got this one in the small size, so that I could see what it was like compared to the large Aneer I bought – since they look identical. In look and feel, they do seem to be in the same silicone and basically from the same mold. The only difference I can see is that the Aneer stem is slightly more rounded on the very end, and has a slight more of a lean to it.
I thought that this cup, being small, would be able to open up (since I had trouble with the large Aneer opening up), but I did have trouble with it too. I did only try it once,so things could be different if I tried it again, but I fiddled around for a few moments trying to get it to open and it didn’t. So I think it’s just too soft for me.
I know I’m supposed to be impartial and give all cups a go, but I don’t really trust the safety of the silicone of the ultra-cheap cups, so I really got it only for visual comparisons, and so that I had one of this brand for my collection – rather than to actually test the cup out by wearing it.
Cup Lee – Review
Cup Lee has been one of the cups I’ve wanted to try for a while. They were a cup brand available in colours quite early on – and they have a purple 😀
The packaging I got has a (folded up) sheet of something (in Russian) as the top of the bag. Which is an interesting way of doing it – but the problem was that unless you use a staple remover, or remove them carefully, you can tear that.
The instructions came in English and Russian. The pouch it comes in has a sort of linen look/feel to it. The cup is a pinky-purple (magenta sort of colour), a bit more pink than I like my “purple” to be. but it’s still pretty. Some of my photos make it seem slightly more pink than it actually is, the photo above looks right to me.
The silicone is the more “sticky” kind of silicone, which in some ways doesn’t feel as nice as the more “peachskin” ones, but it does give a bit better grip I think. The stem is a hollow tube, with raised grip rings. I usually find the tube stems can feel a little uncomfortable when they are not trimmed, so I could feel the stem of this cup, and I don’t find the tube stems have as much grip as a tab stem.
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The cup has a low profile ridge area around the top rim, which I find makes it more comfortable to insert and remove than cups with a more defined ridge.No writing or markings on the cup at all. No branding, no measuring lines and no size markings.
“Squishyness” wise, it’s very soft…. In my “Squish test” the large compressed to 22mm, which makes it firmer than Sibell (21mm) but softer than Juju/Sckoon (23mm).
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I found that as with the softer cups, with the large size I had to press against the vaginal wall to help it open up. But it did not seem to have as much trouble opening up as some of the other soft cups have.
All in all, I was quite happy with this cup. As I say in most of my reviews, I prefer other stem types, but other than the stem (and that I personally prefer a more blueish-purple colour), I did like the shape of this cup.
Review – OrganiCup
The OrganiCup box has the instructions printed on the inside of the box – which is cool. The pouch it comes with is a very stiff feeling cotton. Almost like a canvass. I wonder if it will soften up with washing? But I guess it will be durable 🙂
These cups came squashed to fit into the box , but bounced back into a round shape after a few minutes of being free.
They have a stem that is a little thicker than the long thin stick stems of cups like the Sckoon, Si-bell, Juju etc. But not as thick as the tube stems. They have really thick grip lines on them.
Testing them out
I found the stem design was very comfortable, I couldn’t feel it at all. It’s also not stretchy (like some thin stick stems can be), so pulling down on the stem brought the cup down, without just stretching the stem. Because the stem is a bit shorter than other cups, in the smaller cup in particular the stem was about at the limit I could easily reach up, so for that aspect I preferred the larger size because it was a bit easier for me to reach.
The smooth outside was easy to clean and comfortable for insertion/removal. White frosted “peachskin” type feeling silicone. Quite squishy. The slightly firmer silicone on this cup made it open slightly better than the Si-bell and other softer cups. Overall I like this cup a lot.
Review – Si-Bell
One of the Si-bell cups came in a cotton bag, the other came in a silicone (I assume) bag. I have to say though, the silicone bag feels AWFUL! It’s just a disturbing type of feel to it, hard to explain but not nice to touch at all. It also picks up all manner of fluff and dust. I dropped it on the carpet by accident…. and lets just say…. I have 2 cats….. that pouch got very furry, I had to wash it off 😛
But anyway…. the cups are nice 🙂
They are indeed identical to ClariCup
Although Si-bell has slightly softer silicone
Testing it out
When I tested out the ClariCup I was really impressed with it, it was the first cup I’d tried with a thin “stick” stem that gave a good amount of grip. So since the ClariCup seems to have been made with the Si-bell cup mold, they are obviously the same in how they feel when worn. The smoothness of the outside of the cup makes for easy cleaning and comfortable insertion/removal. The stem is excellent, I can’t feel it at all when it is in, yet it also has great grip.
The Si-bell airholes are properly punched through, when ClariCup holes were a bit messy.
It has a white frosted look to the silicone. A “peachskin” type feel, it feels nice to touch.
Conclusion
I personally prefer a coloured cup to a clear one, because I don’t like the golden colour cups get and a colour is more fun to me….. and I prefer the slightly firmer silicone of the ClariCup – so since the Si-bell and the ClariCup are identical in design, I would choose ClariCup over Si-bell. But if you don’t like the blue colour of the ClariCup, then Si-bell would be the better choice, as it seems to be slightly better made. You’d probably want to get a new pouch for it though 🙂
Review – Aneer
I thought I’d better get an Aneer brand cup, to see what it was like.
No box, just those in a mailing envelope. I purchased it off ebay.
I see a lot of Aneer and other Chinese tab stemmed cups with bent stems, and when mine arrived, the stem was squashed into the corner of the bag – so I wondered if that is what causes it – but when it came out of the bag, the stem was pretty much straight, just a little lean.
This is supposed to be the “purple” colour…. I don’t have a pink one to compare it to, but looking at it on it’s own, I’d call it pink not purple, so it must be only very slightly more purple than the pink one. Which is a shame 😦
The silicone is the more “sticky” kind, that some cups have. It feels ok though. I find some of the frosted silicones can feel a bit “plastic” so I think I prefer a “sticky” silicone to one of the “plasticky” ones. It has 2 very small airholes.
I don’t have a large Diva to compare it to (Since this Aneer is large), but it does seem to be a cross between a Diva and a Lunette in style.
Compared with my (small, old style) Diva, you can see if does closely resemble that shape. It’s a bit taller and narrower than the Large Lunette. Also the ridge area is longer on Aneer – so it is more similar to a Diva, but with a tab stem. I have heard Diva changed their rim from the more pointy to a smoother one too (Diva refused to send me a new one, so I’m only able to go by what I’ve heard)
Testing it out
Since this one didn’t have a chemical smell to it (like my moon stem cup), I felt more confident trying it out to see what it was like. It is *VERY* soft, the softest of all the cups I have. in hindsight I should have realised that it was going to be very soft and bought the small. So unfortunately since I have trouble getting the soft large size cups to open, I wasn’t able to get this one to open up at all. No matter what I tried. I imagine if I had the small size, I’d probably be able to get that open, so it’s a shame I didn’t get a small. I guess I’ll have to get a small size and try that out and update this.
But, I wore it for a few mins not being opened fully, so I could see how the stem feels, and I was not able to feel the stem at all. So in that respect, I think the very soft silicone is good for stem comfort. Though I do find the tab stems to be a comfortable design anyway. It is a quite long stem, so even if you have a high cervix you may need to trim some of the stem off.
Conclusion
As I’ve made pretty clear, I’m hesitant to recommend very cheap cups, because I do wonder if the quality of the silicone is as good as the more established and more expensive brands. But other than the difficulty of opening for me (which I do have with a lot of soft cups), and a potential difficulty cleaning airholes that are so small…. there is nothing else really wrong with this cup, style/design wise.
Stem is comfortable, it has good grip, the silicone doesn’t feel any “cheaper” than other similar (“Sticky”) silicone cups…. there were no defects – in fact I’ve had Lunette and other brands of cups that have a little rough silicone around the seams… whereas this one is perfectly smooth all over. All in all, it looks pretty good.
Review – Yuuki (new)
Since Yuuki redesigned their cup, and I hadn’t tried the new one, so I asked them to send me one. Then I realised they have different versions now, and I’m not sure which one they sent me. I assume the “Classic”?
They came with containers you can use for storage/soaking the cups, which is nice. Other than the Lily cups (which came in special printed packets), these are the first cups I’d received where the cups were packed in plastic bags.
For some reason my old Yuuki, which I only used for one cycle to review it, turned golden. So apologies for that in the following comparison photo between the old and new…
They seem to be the same shape, except the old cup had smaller holes and the new cup has larger ones, and the old stem was a filled tube with rounded end, and had more grip. Here’s the original Yuuki cup before it yellowed.
I must admit, I preferred the old one. The newer silicone is a bit more frosted, but it feels a bit more “plasticky” to me, and doesn’t look as nice IMHO. The older one was a bit more of the “sticky” sort of feel, but I prefer the feeling of the older one. I also prefer the solid stem, since there’s less chance of blood getting caught inside.
I assume this is the “Classic”? as the silicone feels about the same as the old one I have. I know Yuuki now offers an economy and a soft version too. But I’m not sure how those feel in comparison to this one.
Testing it out
I’ve been testing out a lot of softer silicone cups lately, which usually require me to push against the vaginal wall with my finger to give it space to fully open up. So I must say, I did appreciate testing this out and having it pop open perfectly without me needing to do anything! I’d forgotten how much easier the firmer silicones are able to pop open for me.
I can feel the hollow tube stem more than I could feel the solid one (and more than I feel tab stems) – I think perhaps because the solid stem was rounded on the end, whereas the hollow one is cut straight across. I still prefer other stem types, but I like the rest of the shape of this cup.
Review – Luv Ur Body
When I got the package I was very surprised by how thin the box was! But I suppose it is far more eco-friendly to minimize packaging where possible, and possibly cheaper to post too.
Inside the box the 3 sizes of cups were in separate bag packaging
To keep the packages flatter, the cups have plastic tags (the ones that attach price tags to clothing) through the airholes, to hold the cup folded. Which is quite clever! It does mean the cups are a bit more oval than round when you first open them, but they seem to bounce back to fully round if you squish them the other way.
The cups are fairly large. The small one is only a little smaller than a large cup in other brands, and the large cup is very large. Here’s a comparison with the Large Lunette and Large MeLuna
The cups have a frosted look to the silicone, with raised flower designs all over the outside of the cup. Medium level squishyness – to me they feel quite good. The stems are little leaves which are cute, and they are very flexible. They seem to be designed so that you can cut the leaf part off, leaving a small ball if you wanted to. The base of the cup has small flower designs for extra grip.
The small cups have the option for the flower designs to be coloured. I’m not sure what they use for this, or how they do it, but those coloured raised sections feel the same as the rest of the cup, and scratching it with my nail doesn’t affect it at all.
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Using the Cup
I tried the large size first, but I found it way too large for me. I couldn’t get it anywhere near opening up. So then I tried the medium. I was able to get it open, but the longer length of the cup meant that it felt annoying, as the base of the cup it was almost at the entrance of my vagina, with the stem poking out. The small cup however, I found to be the right size for me. With the small size I wasn’t able to feel the cup while being worn at all – I couldn’t feel the stem.
I had no leaking with the small or medium sizes.
Cleaning was easy, the airholes are big enough that they don’t stay clogged, and the raised design on the outside didn’t seem to make cleaning any more difficult.
Conclusion
I didn’t like the large or medium sizes, I felt they were much to big for me, and I wonder if there are many women who would find those sizes better than the more standard sizes for cups (though I suppose it is good to have options for longer and wider cups). But I did like the small size. I think the flower designs on it are very pretty, though I do wonder what they are made from and the safety aspect of that. I like the leaf stems, they are comfortable but also give a good grip.
Claricup – Review
I got one of each size, plus the “Clarigyna” – which is a washing solution for my “intimate parts” (tee hee), and can be used to wash the cups.
The cups come with multilingual instruction sheet and a black plastic storage box
Interestingly, the instruction sheet says that the Claricup is “the only menstrual cup made of biocompatible ANTI-MICROBIAL medical grade silicone.” (their bolding) – So I’m not sure what makes theirs antimicrobial (supposedly the addition of silver). The instructions are more detailed than some of the other cups instructions which is good, but it basically covers all the usual things.
Now I just want to point out that (sadly) this cup is NOT purple, as it will appear to be in most of the photos. The flash in the photos makes it look purple, but it is definitely a blue colour. It is a very dark (unusual colour) blue, and does have a purple hint to it, but this colour below is what the colour looks like.
The black storage containers are a cool addition
Claricup softness/squishyness compared with a Sckoon
Again, these photos make the cups look purple, but they are actually dark blue, like you can see in the squish photo above.
The holes aren’t drilled through well, I do have to say… In the large size some of them look a bit messy on the outside. The small cup some of the silicone around the holes on the inside is poking out into the cup (which is what is appearing white in the photos).
And interestingly, in the instructions, the second note in the “precautions for use” section says to “make sure the 4 perforations an the top of your Claricup are correctly pierced“. I’ve never seen a cup company list that before, so obviously it’s a known defect with this brand. It doesn’t bother me, as the holes are drilled through, just not as neatly as other cups.
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Using the cup
Now I do frequently say that my favourite stem type is a flat tab (Lunette style), and I don’t tend to like any other stem type….. well I have now found a stem type that I like even more than the flat tab!!!
The stem on these is BRILLIANT!
My main issues with the thin “stick” kind of stems I’ve tried with the Juju and Sckoon are that they are stretchy, so when you go to pull the cup down the cup tends to stay put and you’re stretching the stem, and they are slippery. This stem is not too stretchy, so works well to pull the cup down, and it has really good grip. So I find it has just as much grip as a tab stem, but is even more comfortable to wear. I could not feel this stem at all. A great stem design!
The cup itself I like the shape of. No “ridge”. The silicone has that soft “peach skin” type feeling, it’s a nice soft (“squishy”) silicone. No writing on it anywhere, so that makes cleaning easier.
The colour is interesting. It’s not what I would choose, and at first I thought it was a bit unappealing, but it has grown on me and now I find it quite pretty. There are too many pink and very “girly” coloured cups, so in a way I think it is nice to have a cup that isn’t so pink and girly. Especially since there are people who menstruate who don’t identify as female. I’m sure there are a lot of people who appreciate cups that aren’t pastel colours.
This cycle I’ve had 4 cups to test out, so unfortunately I haven’t been able to wear the cup for very long to give it a proper test. Over the coming months I will try it out more, and update this review if needed.
I tried both the large and small cups. I wore the large cup for a few hours during the day. I found it opened up ok, I just needed to press against the vaginal wall a bit to give it room to open (as I usually have to do with the softer cups). I did have a slight amount of leakage (just a little spotting), and the cup had not got very full, but maybe that was just a once off issue, I also had another cup I was testing that leaked that day when it hadn’t when testing it the previous day.
The small opened up fine. I wore the small one overnight on a lighter flow day, and had no leakage overnight (the cup didn’t get very full though).
I’ve been using the “Clarigyna” wash to clean the cups before and after use. Other than being a little too liquid (so if you store it so it’s standing on the cap, it can leak a little), I have found it good – no irritations or anything. I’ve even put a little into one of those little fish shaped bottles you get soy sauce in, so I can take some with me if I’m camping or out.
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Conclusion
To be honest, I got this cup mostly so that I could review it and see if it was like the Si-Bell, I wasn’t expecting to be as impressed with it as I am – given how I usually prefer the tab stems. I really like the stem, I do actually like the colour and I find it is nice and comfortable and easy to clean. While it doesn’t come with a pouch, it does come with a storage container (that can also be used for soaking/steralising), which is really useful.
I think I would have to put this cup up there in my top favourite cups!
Lily Cup and Lily Compact – Review
The Lily Cups come sealed in little pouches, with a little book of multilingual instructions. The Lily Cups come with a pink (lycra?) drawstring pouch. The Lily Compact comes with a little plastic storage case. The instruction book is the same for both cups.
To me, the Lily Cup has always seemed very…. “Sophisticated”. perhaps even “elegant”… I guess. Because of the shape of it. But then that also makes sense since LELO (the company that makes them) also makes what I’d consider to be more “sophisticated” looking sex toys too.
They have an anti-spill lip around the top rim
They also have, which you can just see in the light coloured cup above, a thicker “spine” that runs up each side of the cup. I assume this is to help it pop open easier and make them stronger when being pushed up into the vagina.
You’ll notice also that the top of the cup is not straight like all the other cups, it is angled. Presumably this is to conform to the shape of the vagina better.
It seems to me, that a lot of thought and effort went into designing these cups! Which makes sense, LELO know vaginas 😉
I must admit that I’m not a fan of the colour pink, but the darker pink they use I actually find quite nice. (Sometimes the flash makes the dark pink cup look brighter than it is)
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The Lily Compact is a fantastic and novel idea I think.
They are designed to collapse down very small, so they can be carried around more conveniently!
I really think that is such a fantastic idea! They don’t fold down as easily as I’d have expected, but then you wouldn’t want it compacting in your vagina, so I suppose that is for the best. It just takes a bit of fiddling to get them to fold down. The compact cups are a smaller capacity (only 20-25mls to the rim), so wouldn’t be ideal for a heavier flow. But having one to keep in your handbag for emergencies would be very handy, and with the case, it means it’s protected, won’t take up much space and won’t be embarrassing if it falls out of your bag!
The silicone feels lovely! While the extra lip of the rim of the Lily Cups, and the more solid base, makes them feel a bit stiffer… the compact is lovely and soft. The silicone itself feels very soft and almost suede-like. It just as a very good quality feel to it.
Wearing the cups
I was testing out 4 cups this cycle, so I wasn’t able to wear each cup for a full cycle to test it, but here are my results.
I started with the Large Lilycup. I did a C fold and tried to insert it, but it wouldn’t open up at all, it also seemed to suction against the wall of my vagina and I had a bit of trouble removing it. But I also had trouble with another cup I tried (a different brand) that day – so I think maybe my vagina was being weird that day 😛
So after not getting the Large to work, I then the small. That one seemed to open up fine, but I wasn’t able to reach up to the rim to feel if it was fully open, and the shape of the sides meant I couldn’t tell (with the regular bell shaped cups I can tell from how firm the body of the cup is, if the rim has opened fully or not). But I didn’t have any leaking, so it must have been opened fine.
I wore the Small cup for a few hours, I was aware of the feeling of the stem for a little while, but it wasn’t uncomfortable, and I forgot about it after a while.
When I removed it, it was about half full, and I didn’t seem to get any spillage when I removed it – so I think the anti-spill lip really does work well.
Then I tried the Large size Lily Compact. It rode up quite high (because it is shorter than other cups), so I found I was just able to reach it (I have short fingers though). I wasn’t able to feel the stem though while it was being worn, which is a bonus. It was my heaviest day, so after a couple of hours it did start to leak, but when I removed it, with some spillage, the cup was very full, so it may have filled past the rim and that was probably why it leaked.
The next day I tried the large Compact again, no leakage. The cup was about 3/4 full when I removed it.
Then I tried the Large Lily Cup again. With the punchdown fold rather than the C fold. This time it opened up fine. Again no sign of any spillage when removing the cup, so I am impressed with the lip on the cups.
Lastly, I tried the small Lily Cup again, I did have a small amount of leakage, and the cup was only about 1/4 full when I removed it, so I’m not sure if maybe I’d positioned it wrong or something. It was only enough leakage to make slight spotting on a pantyliner though, so it wasn’t that bad.
The cups all rinsed clean easily – no airholes to clean on the non-compact versions, but you will have to remember to clean under the lip to make sure nothing stays under there. The extra bumps of the compact cups may require a little more effort to clean than a completely smooth cup inside, but I didn’t have any issues with just a rinse out.
The stems had a good amount of grip, and the stem portion of the Compact was just long enough to give me enough to hold onto to pull the cup down, without being too long that it has extra to poke you with. I think the fact that the bottom of the Lily Cup base is quite firm, is why I could feel that. But it does appear to be able to e trimmed down if needed, and it certainly wasn’t “uncomfortable”, I was just aware that it was there for a little while after inserting it (I personally wouldn’t need to trim any off).
The first 2 times, I kept forgetting which side is supposed to be aligned where, so I had to keep checking the instructions. The instructions show to do the punchdown fold and to press down on the shorter side, inserting the longer side first (so that the long side is against the tailbone). Though this is something I’m sure I’d remember the more I use it. The instructions also show rolling the Lily Cup up to make it as small as a tampon to insert, I wasn’t able to get it to roll up like that. The punchdown definitely seems to be the best folding method to use.
Conclusion
I quite liked both styles of cup, but I was really impressed with the concept of the Lily Compact. I personally don’t mind using pads, and I don’t like to use a cup without a liner for backup just in case, so I’m happy to have a cloth pad in my handbag for emergencies, but if you are a person who prefers cups to pads, and wants something to keep on hand for if your period starts while you are out – I would definitely recommend these! I imagine they would also be really handy for traveling. Not that a normal cup takes up much room, but these can be folded down really small, in a nice discreet protective case – and I found the cup to be comfortable too.
I did have a couple of issues with the non-compact versions, but I didn’t have the chance to use them enough before writing this review to get the hang of using them, and occasionally with any cup there can be days were they don’t seem to want to work properly. So I wouldn’t think it would be fair to be turned off a cup based on a couple of hiccups I had. I do have more cups to review, and only a certain amount of menstruating days to do it – but I will definitely use the Lily again to give it more of a go, and I will update that when I have tested them some more.
Nameless moon stem cup – Review
I’ve been wanting one of these cups for a while, because they are purple, and have a cute moon stem – and I wanted to see what these cheap Chinese cups were like.
I tried to buy one in the past, from Aliexpress, but it never arrived – I contacted the seller and they said they would send another – I never got it. So I decided never to buy from Aliexpress again (no buyer protection), so when I saw one of these cups on ebay, where I could pay with paypal and have some recourse if it never arrived, I figured I’d spent a whopping $3.80 (including postage!) and buy one.
This one actually did arrive!
In no expense spared packaging 😛 (I know, you can’t expect anything more for $3.80!)
The first thing that struck me.. physically… was the SMELL! I’d heard people comment on the fact some of these cheap cups have a plastic/chemical small, and now I know what they mean. It was really strong. The more the cup has been left out of the bag and allowed to air out, the less smell it has, but it was very offputting!
Which really concerns me…. No other cup I’ve had smelled. So I don’t know what type of silicone they used, or what additives are used… but something seems not right. The listing just says it is made from “Silicone” – so it does not specify it is Medical Grade silicone…. which means it might not be.
That aside… it’s a really pretty colour and a really pretty design!
It is however basically a Lunette with a moon on the stem
Same size (maybe a mm smaller), same shape, same size ridge around the top, measuring lines in the same location and the same spacing… Which… (copyright infringement aside) would work well for me since I do love my Lunette, and I love purple!
The silicone is really really soft, with that “peach-skin” (smooth, not sticky or plasticky) feeling. It does feel really nice.
Surprisingly, I didn’t have too much trouble getting the cup to open, which I often do with softer silicone cups. It might be because I’ve been wearing other cups all day, not sure. I did have to press against my vaginal wall to give it enough space to pop open as I normally do, but I didn’t have as much trouble as I expected I would.
Here it is with a squish test, compared to a large Sckoon.
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There are a few sections where the seams are a little rough, but frankly, I have a couple of cups including a Lunette that have that too…. so that doesn’t really bother me. The airholes however, haven’t been punched all the way through. My camera isn’t good enough to show this well, but on the outside they look like they go through, but on the inside there is no hole, just a piece of silicone poking out where the hole should go through (which looks white against the purple cup). I think I could probably pull on that slug of silicone and I could cut it off which might open the holes, but I won’t use the cup again so there is no point.
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Wearing the cup
As I’m sure you’ll suspect…. sadly, a pointy ended moon shape is not the most comfortable stem design 😦
Normally I am aware of the stem of a cup for a little while after inserting a cup – not uncomfortable, but I can just feel it is there. This one was more irritating than a regular tab stem. I could feel the point of the moon stabbing/scratching me as I walked or did anything with my legs squeezed together. It didn’t “hurt”, but it was annoying and uncomfortable. It was however not as irritating as I find the long hollow tube stem that the Mooncup UK has.
Maybe it is something I would get used to the longer I wore it, and I am stubborn enough that the cuteness factor could make me put up with it more than I would have if it was clear or something 😀 but the fact the silicone had a funny smell meant I was already a bit wary of the cup, so I didn’t want to wear it for too long. The main feature of this cup is the moon, so trimming it off would be a shame – although it would still be purple, so that would still be a bonus for me 🙂
— There are however heart shaped stem versions, for the smaller size, which would likely be a lot more comfortable to wear.
I wore the cup for about half an hour, and then removed it. Now whether or not it was the stem poking/scratching which caused some irritation to my skin, or if there is something in on the material it is made from that has caused some irritation – I don’t know…. but I’ve tested out a lot of cups and I’ve never had any feeling of irritation before, but after using this cup, for about an hour later I had a “warm”, not quite stinging or burning, but almost like a milder version of that type of feeling in my vagina, which I presume was a mild irritation from this cup. It felt to me that it was irritated more than just where the stem was poking, so I think it was a reaction to the material. So I won’t be wearing it again.
Someone pointed out that it could have been the “mold release” that was what I could smell. (which did lessen after it was washed and aired out, and gone completely now). I do freely admit that I don’t boil or sanitise the cups before I use them, I give them a good wash with water and that is it – so while I’ve never had any issues with other cups doing this – maybe the “mold release” chemical stayed on the cup enough to cause the reaction and it might not have been the material. I don’t know. I did do a burn test to see if it was silicone, and it turned to ash and performed like burning silicone is supposed to do. Which is not conclusive to show it is any particular form of silicone, but it proves it isn’t plastic.
Now, I am allergic to elastic and most metals – so I have sensitive skin that other people probably don’t have. But then no other cup has been an issue. So I strongly feel there is was something in the material of this cup (or the mold release) that is not the same as the normal (more expensive) Medical Grade Silicone cups.
Conclusion……
I personally don’t trust the safety of a cup that sells for such a low price. I paid $4.80 for it, including the cost to post it to me…. and ebay fees, paypal fees and postage has to come out of that $3.80. It wouldn’t be leaving much profit left for the seller. I do have to wonder how much it cost the manufacturer to make them, and if they took any shortcuts or used inferior materials to make it cheaper. The fact it smelled very much like “new plastic”, when the other cups don’t, is of concern to me.
That issue aside, the stem design is not very ergonomic. It might be ok for some people, but then it is easy to cut the moon off if you need to. Also the holes weren’t punched through, so you would need to punch them out yourself. But if you’re paying less than $4 for a cup, you really can’t be picky about the quality.
The shape of the cup and feel of the silicone though are very good. the shape is obviously copied from Lunette, like so many other cheap cups on the market… but legalities of that aside, it is a good shape I think. The colour is quite pretty. So other than the pokey stem issue (easily dealt with), the cup itself is a comfortable fit, and it didn’t appear to leak (though I didn’t wear it for long).
I love the look of this cup, but I would be hesitant to recommend it (or any of the other no-name cup brands being sold for less than $10 on ebay and the like) to others, because of the potential safety concerns, and the moon on the stem is uncomfortable. The heart version would be a better choice.
Femmycycle – Review
I’d been curious to try one of these cups for a long time. Such an interesting design for this cup!
It comes with a CD – it shows a documentary about the Femmecap (contraceptive device made by the same company) and the Femmycycle menstrual cup – as well as a video about the cup and how to fold, insert and remove it. Probably not necessary to be honest, but it’s nice that they have the extra touch of the CD to give people a visual instruction on how to fold, for those who can’t look it up online.
The pouch is very different to the other cups pouches I’ve seen. It is made from the type of material that reusable shopping/grocery bags is made from. It also has a snap closure and a “gusset” – rather than just being a rectangle of cloth with sewn edges and drawstring like the others.
The cups themselves are surprisingly large. Very soft and squishy.
This cup has a… I don’t know what you’d call it… “anti-spill rim”?
It pops in/out of the top rim of the cup, making it into a sort of funnel type design, so the blood can flow into the cup, but can’t flow back out again when tipped on its side.
That part pops out so that you can properly clean inside.
Here’s the Regular (large) size Femmycycle compared to the large size Juju (which was just the first large cup I grabbed), so you can see that compared to the conventional shape of menstrual cup, it’s quite a bit wider, and shorter.
Though the rim is smaller than the Juju
Here are the “regular” and “Teen” versions compared to a large Lunette for reference of “squishyness”.
Wearing the cup…
I’ll be honest, I had 4 menstrual cups to test out this period, so I wasn’t able to wear each cup for a full cycle to be able to test it fully.
I tried the “regular” (large) size first. While the silicone itself is very soft, the extra “anti-leak” part around the rim makes that part a bit stiffer and thicker, so folding is probably about equal with one of the medium-squishyness cups in terms of the pressure needed to keep it folded.
I tried inserting it using the C fold while on the toilet, and I found I couldn’t get it to open up at all. But I’d also had trouble earlier in the day with the Lily Cup too, so I think at that time, it was an issue with the contours of my vagina as well as the size/squishyness/shape of the cup.
So I tried the “teen” (small) size. That seemed to open up ok, but because the base of the cup is so squishy and bulbous, and I couldn’t seem to find where the rim was to feel around there, I wasn’t sure. Normally I can tell by the way the base of the cup feels, if the rim is fully open or not… and normally I can reach up to the rim to feel there. I suspect this is something that I would find easier the more practice I have using this cup.
I figured I’d know if it wasn’t opened and sealing, if I leaked. I didn’t have any leaks, so it must have opened fine.
Normally I am aware of the feeling of the stem part of the cups after I first put them in, I was not able to feel the Femmycycle at all. While the feeling doesn’t normally bother me, not being able to feel it at all, is much nicer!
I wore it for several hours, and I’d checked a few times and no leaking – but after a few hours I could feel the telltale “bubbling” sort of feeling that let me know it was leaking. I did spill some when removing the cup – because the cup is so squishy, when you hold it to remove it, you’re like to so squish some out if it is too full, and the “anti-leak” guard thing can only do so much…. The cup was still about half full when I took it out to have a look – so it probably started leaking because it got too full. Either because it overflowed or maybe it got heavier and slipped down a bit? not sure.
I found it had ridden up quite high – I am used to wearing cups with a long stem – as I have short fingers and I presume a long vagina – so I need to be able to pull the cups down to better reach them, I was just able to reach the ring to pull it down, and I definitely prefer a ring stem to a ball or narrow stick stem – The ring was the perfect size to get a finger into to grab it, but yet I couldn’t feel it while inside me at all. So I was very impressed with that aspect.
I decided to try the large size out again, for overnight. I don’t normally wear cups overnight, but with so many to test – I felt I should wear it overnight. I didn’t have the same trouble as earlier in the day with getting it to open, it seemed to open up, but I still wasn’t completely sure. But I had no leaking at all overnight – the cup only got to about half full and I didn’t spill any when removing it – so I think the anti-spill spout feature does help reduce spillage when removing the cup – if you don’t let the cup get past about half full.
Cleaning was very easy – with no airholes to clean, it is simply a case of flipping up the spout thing, tipping out the blood, rinsing out the cup and you’re all good. Because of that spout part, you can actually give the cup a shake and swirl the water around inside it – which helps to get it clean – you can also stick your finger into the cup to wipe around the inside. I’m not sure I’d call it “fun” – but because of that ability to swish the water around, it was maybe the most “entertaining” cup to clean 😀 it made me think of how wine people swirl wine around in the goblet…. which made me giggle…. (I’m childish though!)
One aspect I appreciated was that I felt more secure being able to carry the cup around while it was full of blood. I know what sounds weird, but let me explain 🙂 See, our toilet is in a separate room to the bathroom where the sink is. I find that just emptying the cup into the toilet lets the blood sink to the bottom of the bowl and needs a second flush or a toilet brush to remove it (or you need to put toilet paper into the bowl first) …. So what I often do if the cup isn’t too full, is slowly put some toilet paper into the cup to soak up the blood, then put the toilet paper into the toilet…… but with this cup, I rested the cup in the end of a toilet roll while I finished up in the toilet (empty toilet paper rolls make perfect cup stands!), then I carried it into the bathroom and tipped the blood down the sink and gave the cup a good rinse. So I actually found that a more convenient way to empty it.
All in all… I was very impressed with this cup. It isn’t a cup I would have thought to buy if I was deciding on which cup to buy, since I must admit, it looked a bit weird and I wasn’t sure the anti-spill design was really needed. But after trying it, I found it to be more comfortable than other cups, easy to remove, easy to clean and less likely to spill. My only criticism would be the fact that I wasn’t able to tell if it was fully opened, but I think that would be something I would get used to the more I used the cup – whereas I unfortunately didn’t have enough time to spend getting used to the cups before writing this review.
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Vcup – Review
I was sent a Vcup to review 🙂
It wasn’t addressed properly, so there was a little hiccup in receiving it, but it arrived the other day and I had a chance to try it out. Sadly my period ended the day before it arrived, so I haven’t yet had a chance to test it with my period, but I’ve tried it and here are my thoughts….
The box was a little squished in transit, but that’s to be expected sometimes. On the box it listed contents, which I was surprised about – I didn’t realise the cup came with extras! So I was excited to see what was inside. The box lists no sizes, so I presume the cup is 1 size only, which seems to be a small. The box does however have boxes to tick for white, pink or green – and one side of the box shows a pale green cup – so it obviously comes in those colours. I got clear.
Inside the box, there is a tube (they call it a “pen”) of hand sanitiser, a little packet of soap sheets, 4 little “coin tissues”, the cup, a pouch and instructions.
I already took the instruction booklet out and forgot to put it back when photographing it… I think it was lying on the top.
The booklet talks about the cup and the benefits of a cup over tampons and pads, gives the measurements of the cup and shows how to do 3 folds (“c”, “punchdown” and “triangle”) It also gives some helpful tips on insertion and removal. All in English and quite well written.
The hand sanitiser is quite cool actually. It’s a bit like a thick marker in size, and has a spray top so you can spray some onto your hands. It has a reasonably pleasant smell, dries fast and is not sticky or anything. I personally don’t feel the need for such products, but I think this is a convenient way to do it (rather than the tubes of sticky-feeling hand sanitiser you get)
The soap strips are another interesting idea. I’ve seen this sort of soap before, designed for keeping in your handbag. I notice that they are keeping with the green and white theme for everything!
The directions say (paraphrasing) to wet your cup and hands then wash the cup with the soap to get a rich lather. Rinse the cup and store the rest of the soap sheets in a dry place. Basically these soap sheets are paper with a thin layer of soap. They don’t seem to be very soapy, but if you want to wash your cup with a bit of soap while out and about, then this could be a convenient way to do it.
I will say though that I tried one sheet (just rubbing it between my hands), and while the dry soap has a slight pleasant floral smell (frangipanni?), on my hands it left a weird lingering vomit smell I notice from some public restroom soap… I don’t know if you are familiar with what I mean?… The hand sanitiser does counteract that thankfully – I wouldn’t be able to use the soap personally…. but I think (from a bit of googling) that some people seem more affected by the vomit-soap phenomenon than others, so maybe I’m just sensitive to it (I am one of those people who is VERY intolerant to both the sound and smell of vomiting!)… anyhoo….. moving on 😛
The “coin tissues” are cool – they are those incredibly tightly packed washcloths! The instructions in the booklet say to put 3 drops of water onto the coin – I needed a bit more than that… But they unfold out to a 23cm/9inch cloth. A bit like a “chux” cloth – open weave. Presumably designed to be disposable (I imagine they are not flushable), they seem sturdy enough you could reuse it a few times (though you wouldn’t be able to make it go back into the coin shape)
Now the cup…. it’s quite long, I’d say it’s a medium squishyness silicone – about the same as the Diva I have. It has a band of frosted silicone around the centre, with clear silicone elsewhere. The centre of the frosted section has a slight line through it, a bit like a seam – though I think this is intended to give extra grip. The clear section at the bottom of the cup likewise has a line through it, but more pronounced. The ball stem has a grip line around it, to help grip there. There are 2 tiny airholes just under the ridge. The ridge is very low profile (not very raised).
I didn’t think to wash the cup before taking photos, so there are a few dust particles from storage/manufacture on it which you can see in the photos.
Here’s a length comparison with some of the other small cups
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Using the Cup
I haven’t tested it with my period yet (will update this post when I have), but I’ve tested the cup and I was quite pleased with it.
Now, as I always say, my first preference is for a tab stem, so I don’t tend to like any other stems as much as I do the tab stem. I didn’t find this one too slippery though, the grip line running through the centre of the ball helps give it a bit more grip I think. I do find a ball stem less easy to use/grip than a tab or tube stem, but since the cup is so long, I don’t need to use the stem to be able to pull the cup down to grab the body of the cup – as I do with other cups…. and if it had any other kind of stem, that would be too annoying and you’d have to cut it off.
It (like the LunaCup) are longer than I would ideally like in a cup – the ball stem was only just inside my vagina – which does make it easier to remove I suppose.
When I reviewed the LunaCup, I did find the stem slightly irritating, because the cup was so long, but I didn’t find that with this cup – Maybe I need to try them both more to see how I go with them over several days.
Insertion and removal was easy. I had no problem getting the cup to open up (though it is equivalent of a small size, and I normally wear the large sizes). I could not feel the cup while inside me.
—- Edited to add —
I’ve now had a chance to try this cup when I had my period. I wore it for about 6 hours, the first 4-5 hours I had no leakage, but I had some slight leakage after that, the cup only got to about 1/4 full, so I’m not sure why it started leaking.
Mostly the cup was comfortable and I couldn’t feel it, but there was a few times when I was sitting on the couch, and I leaned forward to get a drink from the table, I could feel the stem poking into me a bit.
Luna Cup Review
I got this cup a few months ago, and I’ve been meaning to write up the review!
I got given 2 sizes, the “M” and the “G”, with an instruction pamphlet (not in English), and packaged in a tin.
Not sure if the have English instructions available 
Large and Small cup size difference
Large Lunette, Large Lunacup, Small Lunacup, Small Diva
This cup felt quite long. Even though overall it is actually shorter than the Lunette I normally use, the ball of the stem was poking out of my vagina, which was a bit annoying because I could feel the ball stem when I wiped after going to the toilet, and I could feel it inside me. It didn’t feel like it was poking me though, just that I could feel it was there. So I found it more comfortable than a tube stem, which I find poke me. But less comfortable than a shorter bodied cup.
It is about as squishy as a Diva cup or Fleurcup – so softer than Ladycup, but not quite as soft as Skoon – so I’ve given it a squishyness rating of 3/10. I found it folded nice and easily, I had no trouble getting it to open up. Removal was easy, although I had to hold the ball of the stem from side-on instead of up&down if that makes sense, as my fingers slipped off otherwise. But for ease of removal, this stem is definitely preferable to the thin stick stems like Juju has.
The top of the cup has a very slight “ridge” with a larger rounded rim, I find this sort of smoother shape for the rim of the cup to be more comfortable for insertion and removal than the cups that have a very pronounced ridge (eg Mooncup UK style)
The cups are a frosted whiteish silicone, with a pretty leaf design on 2 sides of the base of the cup as the grip lines.. The ball stem has little lines on it to help with grip. There are 2 lines on the outside, presumably for measuring, but there is no indication of what those lines are.
The outside of the cup, near the rim, has a “G” or an “M” on them to signify the sizing – “M” being the small and “G” being the large. There is no company name or branding on the cup. Completely smooth on the inside, the inside of the cup at the base comes down to a point (is not flat inside like Mooncup (UK)), which helps you to be able to squish the base of the cup (though can mean it needs a slight more rinsing to get blood from inside that area.
The airholes are big enough that they didn’t trap any blood inside, so that was good – overall the cup only needed a rinse to be clean.
I personally found the longer shape to be slightly more uncomfortable than other shorter cups, but for those who prefer the longer cups, I think this one could be a good choice.
Review – Sckoon Cup
A long awaited review 🙂
Way back near the end of 2011, I was sent an e-mail, asking if I would be willing to try their prototype cup to give them my thoughts – but I was sworn to secrecy, so wasn’t allowed to give out any of the details of the cup or the company making it. It turned out to be Sckoon who were making it. A company I’d known for a while, because they make organic cotton pads. Over the next year and a bit, I had a few discussions with them over the design and colours, as they were very keen to try and make the best cup possible. I think it is really great that they took so much time and effort to speak with cup users like myself (other cup reviewers I know also got the prototypes to sample).
Starting out I love the shape! Slightly different to the other cups on the market, and I think it is a lovely shape. I found the stem design originally was a bit too slippery, with the bumps not really adding enough grip. So we discussed that issue and they ended up changing the stem to the smaller one with raised grip lines, and they increased the grip on the base of the cup by raising and thickening the lines and adding an additional line in. You can see the changes in the pic below.
Here’s a photo of the 4 samples I have from them, where you can see the changes made from the first prototype:
- The first (left) shows the first prototype they sent me – a small cup, in a sample (opaque) silicone. The stem on that had small bumps in it.
- The clear one is the second prototype, in a large size. The stem design is slightly different to the original prototype and the pattern on the base is raised and has the brand name in it.
- The Orange one, I can’t remember now if it was another prototype or if it was a finished design (I can’t remember if I got it before or after the clear one – probably before?). The silicone on that one is semi-translucent. Not as transparent as the finished product turquoise one, but not completely opaque like the first green one. It is slightly smaller than the prototype one. You can see that the grip lines on the base of the cup have a slightly whiteish look – it seems like the silicone there is slightly bubbled or something, which it isn’t on the final design large cup. The lines might be a fraction thinner too.
- The last one (right) is the final design in large. The only difference I can see with the final design (coloured) cups and the clear prototype is that the tip of the stem of the prototype is flat, whereas the tip of the final version stem is rounded (also the silicone may be slightly softer in the large final version than it is in the clear).
So, my thoughts.
I found the small size fit well, I had no leaks, it was easy to insert and remove. The large size I found also very comfortable to insert and remove (the lack of the protruding ridge a lot of the cups have, means it feels more comfortable [to me] to insert and remove the cups). I did however have the slight issue that I have had with the other soft large cups – in that they don’t fully open on their own, and I need to press my finger against the vaginal wall to push it out a little, to give the cup room to open out. I put this down the the fact that while I am 35, I had a caesarian delivery, so perhaps my muscle tone is good? 🙂 as it only ever happens with the large cups. I don’t consider it a big problem though, I’d prefer that to a cup that is harder silicone.
I tried both the small and large sizes with my period and I didn’t have any leaking with either of them, even wearing them all day. Though I don’t know how much of a measure that is, as I’ve never had leaking with a cup except when I’ve let a cup overfill on really heavy flow days (where it’s filled above the rim), and when I tried the Diva cup sample – but that had a hole punched in it, presumably affecting the seal.
I find the stem to be very comfortable – I can’t feel it at all. So it’s better feeling than a tube stem (other than the Ladycup stem, all the other tube stems I can feel poking into me), and slightly more comfortable than a tab stem (I can feel the tab stems slightly, but I don’t find them uncomfortable). However I find that it stretches when you pull on it, so its effectiveness is less than a tube or tab stem in that regard as those have enough rigidity to be able to pull the cup down with the stem, whereas these stems stretch rather than allowing the cup to be pulled down – I found this more pronounced in the large cup size than the small (because as I said, the large one seems to fit more snugly than the small).
This is a similar problem to the JuJu which has a similar thin solid stem. The JuJu stem likewise I find stretches and is slippery making it very difficult to use the stem to pull the cup down, so the Sckoon cup has a lot more grip on the stem, but it is still stretchy. However, the Femmecup also has a thin stem a bit like these cups, but theirs is about half the length and more rigid so it doesn’t stretch and can easily pull the cup down.
However, where this cup differs from the Femmecup and JuJu is the base of this cup, which has a good amount of grip. So while I may not be able to use the stem to pull the cup down, I’ve found that I can grip the bottom of the cup and pull it down easily that way. Femmecup has some grip on the base of the cup but not as much as Sckoon. JuJu has a butterfly design on the base of their cup, but it’s barely raised at all so I don’t really consider it adds any grip at all
— Now I know that some cup manufacturers usually say that the stem is not for pulling the cup out with (though realistically, that’s what you do, and they know that – otherwise there wouldn’t be a need for a stem ;)) – but I find because my fingers are short, it’s easier for me if I pull the cup down a bit lower, where I can more easily reach up to break the seal, and I do tend to pull the cups out by the stems. Where cups have a stretchy stem like this, or no stem, I find it slightly more difficult to use because I can’t pull the cup down as easily as I can with a tab or tube stem. But I find most of the tube stems really uncomfortable, so that is why I prefer the tab stems.
The airholes are nice and large, so cleaning I have found is easy. Likewise with no lettering or markings on the inside out outside rim, means it’s very easy to clean this cup.
I love that they have brought them out in colours – A lot of cup companies are doing coloured cups now which is great – cups don’t have to then be a medicinal thing and can have a sense of individuality and style 🙂 It’s a shame they didn’t bring out purple *cry*, especially since my poll results that I did for them showed that as being the most popular colour…. but the colours they have brought out are very nice and bright, and appear to have a good level of colour (not too pale).
The silicone feels less soft in the small size than the large (as is usually the case). The small one feels about as squishy as a large Lunette. The large slightly softer. Softer than a Mooncup UK, but not as soft as a Fleurcup. I think it is a good level of softness… You don’t want them too soft or they can have trouble opening, and too hard can be hard to keep folded.
There are some small marks in the silicone of the last 3 samples I received. Which don’t show in the photographs, and are obviously just cosmetic blemishes in the finish of the silicone. The silicone still feels smooth, so it seems to be in the silicone. Almost like flat (non-raised) waterdrops. It’s hard to describe what they look like….. but interestingly the cups have a line near the base where the silicone changes from a sort of frosted look to a slightly shinier (but still frosted) look, and it is in that shinier section where the blemishes are. The inside of the cups are not frosted at all, and are not marked with these blemishes. So I assume it is part of the frosting process causing the blemishes. I have had blemishes in MeLuna cups as well – neither of which are bad as having specks of dirt or something in the MPower cup I got
All in all – I’m impressed. I’m impressed with the effort the company went to while designing it, and I love that they took some of my suggestions on board. I love the fact Sckoon is already a company interested in sustainability and has added this product onto their already successful line of cloth pads (and baby products) – I also discovered recently they do padded underwear, so you can buy undies with a built in pad with leak resistant layer for cup backup, which is a great idea.
So the only negatives I can see are the stems (which I am picky about, moreso than other cup users, as I do like my cups to have tab stems), and the slight blemishes in the silicone – which don’t bother me personally. So if you don’t think the stem issue would be a problem (if you like to cut stems off for example), then I would definitely recommend this cup.
Review – Ruby Cup
I was lucky enough to be sent a Ruby Cup to review – thank you very much 😀
It came in a pink post envelope, with the cup, pouch and instruction sheet.
The cup is a nice soft silicone. It’s “squishyness” is about comparable to the Fleurcup. The stem is about the same size as the tube stems, but the walls of the tube are a lot thicker, giving a very sturdy stem. It has a series of raised bums on the stem for extra grip. I found this stem to have a good amount of grip because it felt so solid, yet it’s flexible enough that it was not uncomfortable to wear without the stem trimmed. If I really thought about it, I was aware of the stem sometimes, but definitely not as much as a Mooncup/Keeper’s stem. The stem being hollow however, did manage to collect some blood, but that rinsed out without problem. I find this stem definitely more comfortable and easier to grip than most of the other tube/rounded stems. My favourite stem design is still the tab stem however.
I’ve tried so many cups now that it’s hard to compare them against each other for things like feel and ease of insertion removal…. but I found this cup inserted without trouble, popped open cleanly without trouble, was removed without trouble and cleaned without trouble 🙂 The airholes on the cup rinsed clean without holding onto any blood, as did the inside writing (the words “Ruby Cup” and measring lines are in raised writing inside the cup)
The cup shape is very similar to the Fleurcup – with the exception being the stem of course. There are also a few other differences between the cup – the Fleurcup’s base grip lines are different (more pronounced and not complete rings), and the Ruby Cup has a slightly different rim, with there being an extra “bump” (Tiny ridge) where the Fleurcup’s is smooth.
All in all, I was quite happy with this cup.
The other Menstrual cup wikipedia “book”
So here is the other “book” (again, using that term lightly) I bought to check on ….. (see the first one here) – which I bought because a few of us were concerned that with the claim the information came from “free sources online” that our content may have been used without permission… but it’s exactly the same as the first – a complete and utter waste of money, and a total scam. Again it’s just printed and bound wikipedia pages – no editing, nothing. Which is apparently what Hephaestus Books does. At least they had the decency to charge less than the other “book” for it though.
Again they make the claim:
“Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Hephaestus Books represents a new publishing paradigm, allowing disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and informative books. To date, this content has been curated from Wikipedia articles and images under Creative Commons licensing, although as Hephaestus Books continues to increase in scope and dimension, more licensed and public domain content is being added. We believe books such as this represent a new and exciting lexicon in the sharing of human knowledge. This particular book is a collaboration focused on Feminine hygiene.”
Which is apparently bullshit speak for “we’ve printed some vaguely relevant wikipedia pages to scam people into parting with their money – haha suckers!”
http://www.amazon.ca/Feminine-Hygiene-Including-Vulvovaginal-Pantyliner/dp/1243296844
So, like with the other book (see my review of that here), I used that as a reason for a refund, as it was not as described. The “book” does not say it is only using wikipedia, so it’s misleading consumers into thinking there is more to this “book” than there is – and consumers have the right to demand a refund.
Merkin…. lol!
So there you go.
Menstrual Cup Book
“Menstrual Cup” by Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, John McBrewster (Ed.)
Background story – (see more here) This book concerned many of us who have websites about reusable menstrual products, because of it’s description claiming “Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.“ As we feared some of our websites may have been copied and put into this book. So I bought a copy, so that we could see for sure if any of our work was in the book. Long story short – it wasn’t.
When the book (using the term “book” lightly) says “the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from wikipedia and other free sources online“ – they actually mean just wikipedia. As in, essentially they have pressed the print screen button on their browser, printed off some pages from wikipedia and then bound it to make a “book”. (apparently wikipedia basically has a button you can press that will make you a copy of the site for your printing and exploiting pleasure – hence “books” like this.
I almost wish they had ripped off websites like mine, at lest then the poor people who paid for this piece of excrement would have had something actually usable and informative. (please note, that’s not an invitation to copy my stuff :Þ)
Now, given that wikipedia articles are subject to a creative commons license (they can be freely redistributed, even commercially) and that anything that uses them must also be likewise free for people to redistribute – and this is stated in the license at the front and back of this book. I could scan the entire book and make it available freely for anyone who wants to download it, but frankly there is no point as it’s all just on wikipedia, and 90% of it is utter rubbish you’d not be interested in anyway. Which is a shame, I can’t even make this book useful (or get my money’s worth) by being able to freely distribute it among others…. it’s not even worth the time to scan it! URGH! So what I’ll do is just link to the wikipedia articles they used. Infact that’s more useful than this “book” because wikipedia is updated frequently.
So….. The in depth look.
It’s very thin…. I’m sure I’ve seen Woman’s Weekly magazines that are thicker. Though they made the font miniscule to save on pages, so I suppose there’s something good to be said about not wasting as many trees to bring this bound pile of uselessness to the unsuspecting customers.
The chapters (aka “wikipedia pages they printed out”) are as follows (an apologies from here on in, my camera isn’t high enough resolution to really show enough detail, but trust me, you’re not missing much):
- Menstrual Cup
- Vagina
- Menstruation
- Tampon
- Sanitary napkin
- Thermoplastic Elastomer
- Diaphragm (contraceptive)
- Latex
- Silicone
- Endometriosis
- Adenomyosis
- Food and Drug Administration
- Toxic Shock Syndrome
Then we have “references”
- Article sources and contributors
- Image sources, Licenses and contributors
Then the Licensing information (which is just saying it’s free to distribute under the creative commons license and a whole page of copy and paste of what that actually means).
The inside cover is a bit interesting… (easily the most interesting thing in here really….)
As it shows not only are the people whose names are on the front of the book not “authors” (no, really?), and it’s the only part of the book someone actually took the time to type onto a keyboard instead of just printing off the web…. but it shows how crap the actual publisher is. You can click that image for a larger one you can read, but here’s some highlights (bolding is my own):
“all parts of this book are extracted from wikipedia”
(so what about the other “free sources online” they claimed?)
“you can get detailed informations about the authors of this collection of articles at the end of this book. The editors (Ed.) of this book are no authors. They have not modified or extended the original texts”
(in actual fact there is no information about the editors in the book at all)
It says the information was gathered by volunteers and that “nothing found here has necessarily been reviewed by people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate or reliable information. Some information in this book may be misleading or wrong.”
It also says it’s printed in USA, UK and Germany, and specifically says not in Mauritius (which is where the VDM publishing house that’s responsible for publishing this load of steaming horse poo is from)…. wonder why they felt the need to say that?….
So… anyway… what follows is just page after page of printed out wikipedia articles. Some of which are vaguely related to menstrual cups (like the page on pads and tampons)… some really not relevant at all. Not even grouped into logical sections… not even alphabetically…. quite the hodge podge!
What makes me laugh is that on a couple of the pages, they still keep in the “see also” links from wikipedia. Of course since it’s a book, and you can’t have a hyperlink in a printed book, and those articles you could “see also” don’t appear in this “book”, so it’s completely stupid and irrelevant.
(Graphic pic of a vulva there, just FYI)
Nice one, genius! Or should I say geniuses, since it apparently took 3 people to collect all this highly useful information!… Which says a lot about their editorial skills really, as I’m sure I could train a monkey to press ctrl+P on a wikipedia page, and apparently it took 3 of them to do much the same…
… moving on…
Now I guess including the articles on Thermoplastic Elastomer, Latex and Silicone are being “thorough”, but really…. without actually introducing people to why you’re including those pages in this book, it just looks like half a science text book got mistakenly bound in with a feminine hygiene book.
(that last one is another “see also” page)
So this is how they did the article sources…. they basically took the wikipedia page, and then listed all the contributors to that page. Fair enough I guess, since you have to credit the people who wrote it, even if what they wrote could have been deleted by someone else. Looks a bit silly though….
Except….. Look Ma! I’m famous!!!
(sorry, camera flash)
Images sources are likewise just the wikipedia url of the image and the name of the person who uploaded it if wiki had that information. I checked, there was nothing I could see that wasn’t from wikipedia. Not that the photos were anything spectacular anyway.
So… there you have it…. wow… that’s certainly worth $50 isn’t it!
JuJu – Review
I got my JuJu cup in the mail today – but I was surprised by not one, but 2!!!
The packaging, is gorgeous!
Which opens up like a flower
With your cup in the centre!
Inside the bottom is a leaflet on how to use the cup, a discount coupon and the cup of course. The inside of the box has information on the meaning of the name JuJu and some facts about using cups. I like that the company is Australian and has carbon neutral packaging. No plastics! it was shipped in that cute giftbox thing, inside a similar sized white box for shipping.
The pouch is satin and double layer – pink on the inside. The green pouch has light green inside and the dark blue pouch has a silvery light blue inside.
The only downside of a double thickness pouch though is that the cups are a bit sticky with the satin, so pulling out the cup has a habit of pulling the satin lining out – so you have to poke it back in. It’s not a major problem though (you could sew a tiny dot to make both layers stick together if you wanted). The double layer satin feels thicker and nicer than single layer though I think.
The cup itself.
Smooth outside. The bottom has a butterfly design as the grip. The inside has “JuJu” in ever so slightly indented writing, and the size on the other side (a small “2” for the large cup). The holes are nice and large.
The stem is a very flexible stalk (don’t know what to call it lol) and it’s actually not round, it’s a rounded-triangular shape – so it’s got straight sides to grip!
Squishyness seems to be able the same as a large Ladycup (though I haven’t compared it to other cups yet)… it is softer than Lunette. The silicone feels nice, and it’s quite clear (clearer than it looks in the above photo)
The large and small sizes
Quite a big difference in the 2 sizes
A photo trying to show the smoothed triangle the stem is
it’s hard to see… but if you look closely you can see it’s a rounded-off triangle
…Update…
I gave it a “dry run” so to speak. I’ll be able to test it fully when I get my period next (next week).. but here are my thoughts based on the dry run:
Lunette Cynthia!
My Cynthia arrived today. The one I won in the tagging competition on facebook back on 8th March. It was posted on 7th June (according to the shipping label)… So not sure why they waited so long to post them out? – they said they were posting out when they official launched at the beginning of April. but they could have said something earlier if they weren’t going to get them out by then… (several people on facebook were asking where they were), so we weren’t all sitting around waiting. I was wondering if they were stuck at customs or something…
Speaking of… good thing I’m not shy about menstrual stuff – The package came with a “make your periods greener” sticker on it, and the customs form has “lunette menstrual cup” written on it… the least discreet menstrual cup I’ve ever received it must be said (and I’ve been sent one or two!)…. but then I suppose the first cup Lunette sent me had no customs form on it at all so it was opened by customs. Wish I was a fly on the wall that day! lol Personally I don’t care if the people at the post office see, but from several years of selling cloth pads and being in the reusable menstrual cup community, discreet labelling does come up, so I feel sorry for anyone who does get embarrassed.. since if they labelled it as just a “Lunette cup” and without the period sticker, it would be nice and discreet while still being perfectly fine for a customs declaration.
But anyway… it was free… we shouldn’t complain 🙂 Onto the pics!
pretty!
The pouch is a lot nicer than the original Lunette pouches I must say – I hadn’t seen the newer ones myself, only photos, but the original pouches they shipped with when they first came out were quite stiff satin, this is nice and soft… and, you know… purple… which is excellent! 😀 Also it’s got no branding on it, so it could be useful for a makeup pouch or something if you’ve already got other pouches to use, which is nice (I’m all for dual purpose).
As I’d come to expect, the cup is a disappointingly less purple colour than I’d anticipated… which is a shame, I so dearly wanted a really *purple* Lunette. I live in hope that they will one day revise the colour recipe and make it like the darker colour in the pouch (or better yet, the same colour as the Ladycup purple)… and I’ll buy one then.
I do like the colour better in person than it appears in the official pics I’ve seen of it… It’s definitely a more pinkish/reddish tone though… I’m going to think of it as “rose”… it sort of reminds me a bit of weak black currant juice. If I wasn’t expecting it to be “purple”, I wouldn’t be disappointed. It’s not a bad colour.
I took one photo taken bright light (in shade) in the middle of the day – the other at the end of the day when the sun was down… so you could get an idea of the colour in different light conditions.
Fleurcup, Ladycup, MeLuna (old style), Miacup, Lunette Cynthia
It also came with some stickers… I think I’ll pop these into the local shopping centre toilets – over the tampon ads 😀
Some of them I am left scratching my head over though… like “your lover will lick this idea a lot” – is that supposed to be like? I assume so… surely?…. or do they mean lick? That’s a bit saucy! Thank goodness they say “lick this idea“…. if they’d left that word out… dear, me! 😀 but why would my lover (over anyone else) like the idea? If I had a female lover, we could maybe share the cup… that could be convenient I suppose… but My “lover” (who is a man) doesn’t really care that much about cups to be perfectly honest, so I can’t say he’d “like” it.. other than a “hmm, that’s nice dear” 😀 (just like I don’t take much of an interest in the socks, undies and other things he buys that don’t relate to me)… and the majority of menfolk people talk about with regard to exposure to all things menstrual seem to want to avoid it… so they definitely wouldn’t “like” it… so the whole thing (licking aside) leaves me a bit baffled, but we’ll move on.
“get some silicone” – also seems a bit weird to me… I mean…. surely I’m not the only one who is silently adding the obvious “in you” on the end of that? lol We’re talking about a product that’s going into an intimate part of a female anatomy, I don’t know if a sticker that can be taken in a slightly crass way is really the right way to go… Now… see, what they should do is make it a pic with a woman who has cups instead of boobs (get it… not your usual silicone chest!)… Something like this:
Except that’s using a Miacup, but it was the only non-transparent cup I happened to have a photo of that was the right angle to make the pic! (image from Zigf – edited by me – image may not be used without permission!)
I do however like the “it’s a lot simpler than your other cup size” – if you’ve ever tried to go bra shopping for a nice pretty DD or E cup bra in a department store than only stocks those sizes in a beige, granny “over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder” scaffolding styles in anything larger than a D…. you’ll appreciate the sentiment in that one! In fact, I think I may stick that sticker on the front of my bra drawer!
….anyhoo…
MeLuna Glitter cup
I asked MeLuna for a sample of their softer (preferably a glitter!) cups… since I really wanted a comparison with their original ones.
To be honest, I didn’t like the stiffness of their original cups, and I would not buy one myself, or really recommend them to others (especially newcomers to cups) because of that… but I knew they had brought out a softer version and updated the ring/tab/ball ends, so I wanted to see how these improvements had gone.
I didn’t get any reply back from my e-mail. Which I was a bit surprised about, since they originally were really good with offering samples to me and replying to my e-mails.
Anyway, Feminine Wear came to my rescue (again :D) and we did a little trade and she sent me one of the blue glitter cups to try.
I love it!
I don’t know why the pouch is so long…. but it is a gorgeous soft purple suede sort of thing. The first lot of samples I got from them had a blue (shorter) similar bag… I’m thrilled this is purple 😉 I really like the material they use, it seems a lot more fancy and plush than the satin or cotton bags other companies use. And it has a double drawstring (where you pull both sides to close it, rather than just one), which is awesome.
The new glitter one is a Large. It’s narrower than the larger cups of other brands. The stem is much thicker than before, being about as thick as a tube stem, but solid. This might be thick enough to be irritating for those who don’t like stems, so it is good that the MeLuna comes with different stem options. When I first put it in, I could definitely feel the stem… and it’s… weird lol… It’s not physically uncomfortable, but I’m definitely aware of it being there, and while it’s ok if I’m sitting down/not moving, when I walk I can feel it… but after a while I wasn’t aware of it. Either I got used to it, or it moved into a better spot… not sure.
A casual comparison (eg just putting the 2 together and going by looks rather than actual measurements) of that and the Lunette show about the same width at the rim, but the MeLuna is narrower in the body of the cup, and overall a little shorter than Lunette. I don’t have a large Diva, which is another narrow cup, to compare it to.
As for the material. This one is more like the silicone of the other cups. In fact I’d never know it wasn’t silicone. A lot softer than the old cups. So unlike the old style cups, this folds easily, and doesn’t unfold with a sudden pop like I found the other ones did. The material is a great improvement
Blue, pink and silver aren’t my most favourite colours (I’ll always pick a purple cup over anything else), but I tell you, if they came out with a purple glitter cup, I might just have to get one! The glitter feels smooth, it doesn’t feel rough to touch… Such an innovative idea to have a glitter cup – it’s pretty fancy – cup bling!! 🙂
New Femmecup pictures
My new Femmecup arrived yesterday – woo!
The bag is a white cotton, a little stiff (though still easy to close, so nowhere near as stiff as the denim MPower bag) .. it feels kinda starchy, so I think it will soften when washed for the first time (as fabric tends to do)
The cup is crystal clear, very flexible, and looks quite different to the old cup. I like the new look! And I like that they kept the spiral, which starts at the base of the cup and goes up the stem…
The stem…. is now different! It’s a solid, thin tube…about 4mm wide, and a lot shorter than the previous tube stem. Which IMHO will make it a lot more comfortable than the tube stems (I’m really not a fan of tube stems)
The airholes are quite large, so there should be no problem with cleaning. Interestingly, there is no branding on the cup now. The old cup had the website in raised letters on the inside as well as measuring lines and amounts on the inside. This has just the measuring lines (and amounts)
I love the feel of the new silicone. The old silicone was a very “plastic” feeling one… This one is completely different, and IMHO nicer. The rim is stiffer than the bottom, as you’d expect, so it feels sturdy at the rim, but the base is really flexible (not in a bad way, just an observation). I’d say overall its the most “squishy”/flexible of all the cups I have. The original Femmecup was pretty soft/flexible/squishy anyway, but this is slightly moreso
Fleurcup – Review
I asked Fleurcup twice for a cup for me to review here. Both times they refused. But luckily I was given one (I’ll have to ask if my source wishes to be named or not lol) so I can review it!
Firstly… pictures!
I have the pouchless version (you can buy them with or without one – an interesting idea, and great to have that choice). It came in a “ziplock” bag, with an instruction sheet. No pictures of how to do the folds (they would have fit alongside the diagram of the cup I’m sure), but a decent amount of information there, with a link to their site and an e-mail address…
The cup itself is a pretty frosted purple. Very light purple. It’s more frosted than the LadyCup cups… probably about as frosted as Lunette, but it’s hard to tell since I don’t have a coloured Lunette to compare it to.
The ridges on the bottom of the cup are quite pronounced, and I think the fact they are broken probably adds to the grippyness. The ridges on the stem are probably ever-so-slightly more pronounced than the other cups, as this feels the most grippy of any of the cups I’d felt. I think it’s actually a very attractive looking cup. The colour it appears here isn’t very true to colour…the packaged one is closer to the true shade.
The holes are large and drilled on an angle… and I notice they have 2 at the front and 2 at the back, and are angled to the outer edges… (eg the left hand hole angles to the left, the right side hole angles to the right)
As luck would have it, my period arrived when the cup did, so I was able to try it out straight away 😀 It’s about as flexible as the Yuuki or Diva (though I have an older style). I had no trouble folding it or inserting it, and I had no leaks. As with the other tab-stem cups, I can’t feel this at all while it’s in, and as I like to be able to pull the cup down with the stem, I do find a stem to be useful to have. As there are no markings anywhere on the cup, it was very easy to clean, and while I was at first concerned with the fact the holes are angled (meaning they are longer, so could get clogged more easily), they rinsed clean without even needing to squeeze the water through.
So, all in all (other than the fact the cup company refused to send me one), I’m pretty impressed with this cup. It has the flat tab stem I like, it has no protruding ridge, so insertion and removal are a little easier/more comfortable than the ridged cups. I think this might now be my favourite cup! (though I’d have to have a few more goes with it to say for sure)
Being a purple lover, I’d ideally like the colour to be stronger, it really is only slight hint of colour, but given that the Lunette had been my favourite cup and it’s doesn’t come in purple, having a slight amount of purple is definitely better than no purple at all 😀
Mpower – Review
I was lucky enough to be sent an Mpower cup!
The lovely www.femininewear.co.uk sent me one!!!!
(it’s worth noting that they are apparently going to be changing their cup design, so the new cups may be different to this)
Observations
I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet… but some observations from just handling the product. To be honest… I don’t know if I managed to get a faulty example of this product. But based on this cup I have – I would not recommend anyone purchase this product.
I like the box… it’s got shiny stuff on it, and I like the logo (and I like the name – “empowering” – I like that aspect). That’s the good stuff…..
I don’t like the pouch… the denim is quite stiff and it’s just a single loop of ribbon, so I guess you’d have to just tie a knot in it to keep it closed (the denim is too stiff for it to stay pulled closed).
The cup itself does look “cheap” – VERY cheap…. You can see the extra silicone from the mould… particularly around the rim. Now this would be easy to just rub off yourself I imagine, but if you’re comparing it to other cups where this isn’t present…. it just makes this product look a little less well made.
The rim, you can see the rough look.
(click for closer view)
One of the holes already has a 4mm crack running down from it. This is a cup that I had not even folded yet, and came in a box that didn’t appear to have been squished… It’s a good mm deep split for a few mm, then gets shallower. One of the other holes seems to be developing a split (a bit less than 1mm). Another of the holes appears to have been drilled halfway through and then slightly repositioned and drilled again, because you can see the hole starts off bigger, is drilled about halfway through and then continues through a fraction over.
The ridges on the stem are the other thing that lets this cup down. While they look fine, I noticed on mine here (which is a proper retail version, not a sample or seconds quality)…. it almost looks like the ridges were applied later, since they are almost like a rubberband stuck to the stem. I can actually lift them up. 2 of the 3 ridges are stuck down on one of the flat sides of the stem, but not stuck down on the other, the other ridge is only stuck down at the narrower “side” sides… if that makes sense. I imagine these ridges would completely fall off within a few uses.
Here I’m lifting it up with a pin – the line you see where it should be is the ridge on the other side. Where it should be stuck down is completely unmarked – so it’s obviously never been stuck down.
I can lift it right up to the other ridge
Edit — Now after taking those pictures and putting the cup into the box with the other cups I have, and rummaging a little through the box to find another cup to compare squishiness with while writing up about the Fleurcup, I’ve now noticed that the bottom ridge of the stem has broken off. Just from gently brushing against other cups in the box. Now you can say that’s because I was poking about with it before, but I have no doubt it would have broken off after the first time it was used – regardless of me playing with it. I can’t say I’m impressed. Even though it’s not really an essential part of the cup, this shows a lack of quality of this product, and to me, that’s unacceptable.
You can see the ridge has broken. You can also see the split in the cup coming up from the hole on the right hand side.
And… I also noticed a brown inclusion (speck) in the cup… I’ve tried to scratch it off, it’s most definitely not something *on* the cup, it’s *in* the silicone. Again, it’s only a minor thing, but personally I’d prefer a cup that doesn’t have a weird brown speck in it….
(I turned the cup inside out to try and photograph it better)
About
A menstrual cup is form of reusable menstrual protection. It is inserted into the vagina to collect menstrual fluids. Once in place it forms a seal, preventing blood flowing out of the vagina by collecting it in its “cup” shaped reservoir. Unlike a tampon which absorbs the blood along with the vagina’s natural secretions, a menstrual cup simply holds the fluids until you remove it – so they do not dry out the vagina and do not hold the TSS risk that tampons do.
They hold around 20-30ml, which is for most women will cope with a full day without emptying, and at most perhaps you would need to empty it a few times a day for a very heavy flow. A menstrual cup will last (with proper care) for around 10 years, perhaps longer, so while the initial outlay is high, it pays for itself with savings pretty quick.
This is a sister site to www.clothpads.org. For information on cloth pads, please check that website.
This blog is a place to find information about the different cup brands I know about. All the brands I am aware of, are listed in the menu – Clicking on these brand-name links will take you to a page of information I have about them.
Menstrual Cups 
