People behind the Lunette

Heli / Finland

When I was growing up I was waiting anxiously my periods to start, to be a woman. They did start quite early but it wasn't so great after all. I liked my periods from the beginning but soon I learned that it was something I should be ashamed of and important was that nobody knew I had my periods. Time went by and everything was well, I got used to use tampons and didn't really think about my periods at all. The first reaction when I heard about the menstrual cup through internet was "Eeeew, that's disgusting!" but then I thought that after using washable nappies with my children I might give it a try. So with my hands shaking I ordered my first cup online and started to use it. The first time wasn't so great (I thought I lost it!), the second one was better but the third one convinced me: this is the future! After using the cup for a while I figured that it could be even better and started to design my own ideal cup. And Lunette was born with a flat stem and smooth inside surface...

My path with Lunette started from my desire to tell the world about this amazing new product. I wanted other women to know how much a one small piece of silicone could change their lives; they could really live their lives without limits throughout the month like I was! Quite soon after that I realized that this is also a real environmental issue. I live in beautiful Finland in the countryside so this wasn't that obvious to me. And after talking about menstruation with our lovely distributors and customers all over the world I understood that menstrual cup is much more than just a cup. It might really change the world!

Now I know that my mission in the world is to spread the word of nicer periods. To be a woman is all about enjoying life every day of the month. It's all about loving the nature and respect the living. It's all about not being ashamed and being proud to be a woman!

Mira / Finland

My sister Heli gave a menstrual cup as a gift for me in 2004, and I was really skeptical with the idea of it. Before this I used mainly tampons and I considered them so easy to use.  I started to use a menstrual cup but it wasn't that easy than I thought. However I was determined to learn. When Heli decided to design a new improved menstrual cup, Lunette, I was excited and enthusiastic to try it. I didn't have any problems with it and it didn't felt uncomfortable like the other brands I've tried. I fell in love with Lunette at the first use and since then I haven't use any other sanitary product. Nowadays I am just wondering why I haven't heard anything about menstrual cups before.

In 2006 I started to work with Lunette team and my mission is to get young girls known about a alternative menstrual product, Lunette menstrual cup.

Eija / Finland

I got my period when I was twelve. They were rather painful and uncomfortable from the start. Using pads at first and tampons later as a teen didn´t help, they just made the whole thing messier and more uncomfortable. That added to the mood swings and painkiller-popping – aarghhh!

When I became a mother periods also became easier to bare. And that is when I first heard of menstrual cups. Lunette had just started manufacturing and I ended up using it, loving it and selling it to other women. After my first try with Lunette I have never used a tampon or a pad (except Lunette menstrual pads) ever again. And my life is better for it!

Now working as a part of Lunette team I want to spread the word about Lunette to as many women as possible. Nicer periods is real, for You too!

Liz & Carol / Australia

Greetings from Australia!!

One of our earliest memories of menstruation as teenagers was the sewer pipe in the back yard being blocked. Our dad & brothers spent a whole weekend digging it up & working an electric eel through to find the blockage. On Sunday afternoon my father joyfully & proudly found the cause -3 metres of used tampons swollen & entwined together totally blocking the pipe!! He couldn't wait to tell the neighbours - what a discovery & cause for celebration he thought!! Aaaaagh! The embarrassment & shame for my sisters & I!!!!

We lead very active & sporting lifestyles ranging from kite surfing, surfing, aquathons, hiking, dancing, running, scuba diving, snorkelling & just being all round very busy! The Lunette menstrual cup has been an amazing break through for us - so convenient & cost friendly too. We almost feel like we don't menstruate anymore - the cup is so comfortable that you could almost forget about it being there! If only we'd known about these when we were younger!!

I have three young daughters now & it is reassuring to know that when they begin to menstruate they can enjoy the same natural freedom that we do now (not to mention how much money I'll save as a provider of these goods!!). They will also never suffer the same embarrassment that their mother & aunties did too of blocking up a sewerage pipe!!

Long Live Lunette!!!

Anja / Finland

I first got to know Lunette when I moved to a little village in Finland. Before that I´ve never even heard of menstruation cups. Up to then I´ve always used tampons and I was never really happy using them because I hated the dryness at the end of the period. It also hurt. I was instantly convinced when I held the Lunette cup in my hands for the first time. I knew that this soft, little thing would make my periods a lot easier. And so it was; it also felt great to throw away all my tampons. I´ve been using Lunette for 4 years now and I couldn´t be more satisfied.

I always wonder why women are still using tampons, being that there is a better and healthier alternative. We have to spread the word even more!

Miggi / Switzerland

All started with my idea to make a shop where women can subscribe to get every month their disposable sanitary supply and I wanted to get big companies to install machines in the female toilette's that women can buy supply if urgently needed while working because it is something what is very usual and no woman can stop bleeding when it happens.

I still feel disadvantaged as a woman in the year 2008. 

I was one of the many busy working women, always forgot to buy my menstrual supply, worked till late when shops already were closed, had very long meetings and so I thought to help women who are in the same position. I was fed up with this situation when I had to grab carefully my pads in the office and making sure that my male colleagues did not notice it. I was fed up with the situation to ask my boyfriend to buy and bring me sanitary napkins from Germany because they were less expensive there. He did but he was little embarrassed to stand in the queue with 10 packages of pads (what I do understand) :) I was fed up to see women flushing disposables down the drain and I was fed up with the problem of disposable in a flat sharing community.

I traveled around the world with my backpack through many countries and I spent several months in South America. I spent hours in some public buses and had no chance to change my pads and tampons before 6 hours and there have been no toilets - It was horrible!  I had maybe 3 pads on and a huge tampon and hoping that it is not going to leak. Also the fact being somewhere out there in the Amazon jungle or the desert I had to carry all my trash with me for days in some plastic bags. I had no chance to trash the stuff away. On my last bicycle tour somewhere out there in the nature 1 year ago I have had enough with this fact. I had to carry 1 week all my trash with me. After this tour my boyfriend saw a cup through the Internet in an outdoor store and told me about it. I saw it and all my dreams came true and I instantly decided to try this cup and to make this cup know in my country. This cup was more then I expected. Never again a bad BO, always being prepared, always having it with me when going to the toilet and able to sit 2 hours or longer in a row in a meeting without worrying.

IT IS LIKE ALL MY DREAMS CAME TRUE - AND NOW I FEEL URGED TO TELL TO OTHER WOMEN IN SWITZERLAND ABOUT IT.

I LOVE THE LUNETTE CUP!

Sarah-May / Great Britain

I started using a silicone menstrual cup when a friend told me they existed. We are both active women. I found them so brilliant I wanted to tell all women about them.

Originally it was purely self-interest as a menstrual cup sounded such a simple and easy idea. Then I realised how much rubbish I would no longer be creating, they are re-useable, environmentally friendly alternatives to disposable sanitary products. The amount of money saved through not having to buy sanitary supplies every month did not go un-noticed either.

I researched which products are on the market and tried different ones. Lunette has definite unique advantages. I eventually learnt that this is because a woman from Finland who used a menstrual cup decided it could be better. She improved on the concept and designed Lunette. 

In the process of telling every woman that there is an alternative to disposable products that is easy to use, environmentally friendly and healthier (menstrual cups are not covered in chemicals to make them absorbent. Also I find I get less period pain than I did with tampons) I have been fortunate enough to be able to work with Lunette. I have become the distributor for Lunette menstrual cups in the UK. My personal objective has always been to do small day-to-day things that make a difference to the world.

I aim to promote the product so that it becomes known about and easily available, not just a secret known to a few women. Short term my aim is to get Lunette onto the high street, particularly in regional chemist chains (it is available in chemists in both Finland and Germany). I want it to be easy to find and easily available. Once this is done I want to step up the promotion and advertising so every woman knows what it is and where to get one if she wants one.

Genevieve / Quito - Ecuador - South America

I began using my lunette 8 months ago, a really close friend that lives in Zurich brought it as a gift to me. I was asking for a rock climbing helmet or a Thermarest! and he brought me a menstrual cup??? It was quite a change but I loved the idea. During the past few years, I began feeling responsible every time I tossed a disposable pad on the garbage, so thinking about not needing to do that anymore, really made sense to me.

Its clear that I began using the Lunette because of an eco friendly purpose, but something different and unexpected happened to me. I fell in love with my moon and with myself. I had heard that menstruation blood is full of nutrients, vitamins, hormones, and that is necessary that this components go back to the earth and fertilise it. For some reason on ancient civilisations women were fertility goddesses, so... I tried it. I found that our menstruation has a bigger purpose that giving us cramps, and some shitty days; and that changed the way I feel with my femininity forever; with myself as a woman. 
Because of this little monthly ritual, now I wait for my period, and bless it when it comes... I don't suffer of cramps anymore nor this crazy desires of killing everyone on the days before my period. 
Now I am a happier woman with a real and beautiful connection between me and the Pachamama, la Madre tierra, the Mother earth, and this happens every month of my life!!!

Later, I also began using our own Ecuadorian brand of cloth pads. A group of lovely friends that live close to my house began sewing LUNAS. I love them too. I use the Lunette when I got a lot of things to do, or for doing sports. But when I am chilling at home or on the night when I don't need the Lunette, because I have lighter flow, I use my LUNAS... For me, is the perfect combination, and both of them give me the chance to continue my harmonic cycle. That is why I decided to distribute the Lunette, and share this experience with other women. I feel this is my way to make women's life happier and contribute to the welfare of our world.

Are you a happy Lunette user or Lunette retailer? 

Do you want to share your story with us?

Please send an email to info@lunette.fi. Thanks!