Pads With Wings

Yes! Organic cotton is a natural, gentle & hypoallergenic fibre. Renowned for its softness & moisture wicking qualities, organic cotton is also breathable so it doesn’t restrict airflow and cause you to feel sweaty & sticky.

Mainstream period care brands on the other hand, bleach their pads using chemicals called dioxins to give them their signature white colour which are found to be highly toxic, disrupt hormones and even cause cancer. And it doesn’t stop there. These brands use a chemical cocktail of plastic, pH disrupting perfumes, dyes, fertilisers & superabsorbent polymers which can create an environment where bacteria thrives and potentially cause nasty infections like thrush, BV or contact dermatitis. This is also bad news for anyone who suffers from dry skin as these chemicals will only cause irritation and worsen symptoms. 

So, if you’re looking for period care that’s free from harmful chemicals, breathable & will not cause irritation, organic cotton pads are for you. 

As we say here at &SISTERS by Mooncup®: there is no such thing as normal. So, the answer to this question really does depend on your flow. On average, a period can last between 4-6 days and you can lose between 10-35ml of menstrual fluid. You should change pads every 4-6 hours, depending on how heavy your flow is. You may find you get through the day on 2-3 pads or if you’re experiencing a heavy period then it may go up to 4-5 pads a day. Changing your pads regularly will help you feel fresh & comfortable. 

Here’s how much menstrual fluids our pads can absorb:

• Light - 35ml
• Medium - 70ml
• Heavy - 90ml

If you find you’re soaking through pads within 1-2 hours, then you may be dealing with heavy menstrual bleeding. If this is affecting your daily life and experiencing severe pain, then it’s best to get checked out by a healthcare professional.

We offer a range of absorbances to suit any flow:

• Light - absorbs around 35ml of menstrual fluid. Perfect for light flow days at the beginning or end of your period.
• Medium - absorbs around 70ml of menstrual fluid. Ideal if you’ve ever bought ‘regular’ or ‘normal’ tampons & pads.
• Heavy -  absorbs around 90ml of menstrual fluid. Great for the heaviest flows, choose these if you’ve ever found yourself soaking through pads & tampons quickly.

Fun fact: our period care absorbs almost twice as much menstrual fluid than other brands on the market!

We do! Our Heavy absorbency period care range actually absorbs almost twice as much menstrual fluid than mainstream brands, so it’s perfect for heavy days.

Although this does depend on your flow (e.g. if you’re experiencing a particularly heavy day) a good rule of thumb is every 4-6 hours. 

No, pads aren’t ideal for swimming, as they will just absorb the water and then become ineffective at absorbing menstrual fluid. Stick to tampons or period cups when it comes to hitting the beach. 

Bamboo requires more processes than organic cotton to make it suitable & absorbent enough for period care, in fact, in Australia it’s a legal requirement to call it ‘bamboo viscose’. Manufacturers have to use wood pulp (which take years to regrow & replace) and SAPs, also known as superabsorbent polymers, to provide the absorbency that natural bamboo fibres lack. 

Superabsorbent polymers are tiny artificial beads designed to absorb up to 300 times their weight in fluid. Commonly composed of sodium polyacrylate, a synthetic substance that absolutely never biodegrades, that means it’s living in landfill forever. Kind of cancels out the sustainability factor of bamboo, right?

It doesn’t end there either. Not only a danger to the environment, superabsorbent polymers are known to cause rashes, irritations & even toxic shock syndrome (SAPs were banned from tampons in the 1980s due to a link to TSS). These chemicals are dangerous and we believe they shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near your vagina or anywhere else for that matter.

For more details, check out our blog all about bamboo period care.

Our organic cotton period care on the other hand is just that: organic cotton. 100% free from bleach, plastic, SAPs & endocrine disrupting chemicals.

Our organic cotton period care range is entirely free from plastics, bleach, fertilisers, herbicides & pesticides, it’s also 100% biodegradable and compostable. In fact, our organic cotton pads, tampons & liners biodegrade faster than a banana!

Here’s our to compost our organic cotton period care:

1. Start by creating the ideal conditions, ie warm and damp, by making or buying a sealed bin. Adding to your compost bin regularly, ensures the optimum conditions. It is a good idea to have a balance of both ‘brown’ and ‘green’ compost. 

2. Organic cotton pads and liners are considered to be brown compost along with paper, cardboard, egg cartons and more fibrous plant stalks and stems. These do take longer to break down and biodegrade than ‘green’ compost and so it’s a good idea to cut or pull these apart by hand, before putting them in the compost bin. 

3. And wait! Although our organic cotton period products are compostable, they will take around 18 months to completely break down and for nature’s building blocks to be returned to the soil.

However, if composting isn’t possible for you don’t despair. Even when disposed of with your regular refuse, our organic cotton period care will still naturally biodegrade, so you’re still helping save the planet from products ending up in landfill.