Intelligent care down "there."

INSIGHT

Our social values tend to make taboo all things down and dirty, but our nether regions deserve as much care as our faces.

Without getting too much into the psycho-social reasons as to why we place shame and disdain on our genitalia, this post will focus on the mere lack of shelf space dedicated to the bodily region. With plenty of care needs, our nether regions (apart from being the orifices from which bodily waste is excreted/discharged) are covered with sensitive skin that not only needs to stay clean but healthy. And those are not necessarily one-and-the-same depending on practices.

Though there are plenty of feminine hygiene products — relegated to the sanitary napkin aisle — and butt wipes (often disguised as all-purpose wipes) — they tend to fall squarely into the clean and disinfect categories, like you’re dealing with an industrial spill. With thinner, more sensitive skin and a healthy pH value of between 3.8-5.5 to keep the right balance of bacteria, our genitalia are getting the shaft when it comes to complete care. Layer in the form-hugging micro-fibers of Lycra and other elastic fabrics that make up our “athleisure” wardrobes today (yoga pants and boxer-briefs-all-day-long) and you’re turning up the heat to a formidable breeding ground for bacterial and fungal over-growth. Surely, there is a middle ground between the pendulum swing of infestation and disinfection — perhaps through practicing a regime of care that gets one out of such a vicious cycle.

This could look like replacing your current daily care items with pH-appropriate soaps (no SLS-sudsing alkaline cleaners), lightly acidic mineral spritzers that promote overnight healing or post-workout mustiness, and even personal lubricants that are below pH 4.5 to ensure vaginal lactobacilli are keeping the kingdom protected from nasty pathogens. The marketplace is still sparse with options but that trend is slowly shifting with consumers getting more savvy with what they need down under.

INSPIRATION

Female Rituals

Our inspiration this week modernizes an age-old feminine tradition of herbal care. Female Rituals provides a line of loose herbal mixtures for vaginal steaming at home with the intention of soothing the sensitive skin around the genitalia while supposedly alleviating discomfort and symptoms from menstruation, menopause, uterine inflammation and pH balancing for odour control.

Not a cleansing or curative product, steaming is instead a gentle soothing ritual with healing properties. Akin to giving your sensitive bits a light sauna/steam in the comfort of your home without subjecting your entire body to the process.

Also in their line of products are a supplemental Steaming Seat and Pearl Therapy (small detox beads of cleansing herbs that are inserted into the vagina for a day).

INNOVATION

“Steamy Clean”

We think steaming is gender neutral. Everyone could do with some "down there" care: not with over-arching claims to bring the fountain of youth to your junk or promise fertile outcomes, but mostly to care for sensitive skin, with specific pH balances, for more optimal cleaning and general care. Steamy Clean is a kit of pH-appropriate genital care soaps and herbal pouches that can be used daily and weekly to manage the microfloral environments of your nether regions.

• Commercial soaps tend to have high levels of surfactants, glycerols and parabens that can be harmful to the delicate nature of our vaginal environments. Keeping the pH "down there" is highly important for the natural cleaning that takes place along with preventing irritating yeast and skin infections due to the abrasive and chemical nature of most soaps on the market. This line of soaps are balanced at a slightly acidic level to match your genitalia's pH of 3.8 rather than the classic 5.5 or highly alkalizing soaps of 7+.

• Reusable pouch that holds a one-time use tea-bag-like sachet and is placed in a pot of boiling water before securing on the toilet bowl under the seat.

• Sitting above this normally on the toilet for five minutes is a relaxing experience that supports vaginal or penal inner and outer skin health. Especially with yeast overgrowth (smegma/thrush), during cramp time or when needing to "clean out" post-menstruation or post-sexual activity.