Mooncup Monday: Week 2 (partici-pants equipped)

Men, you may wish to stop reading now...

Invented in 1930, with no bleach or harmful toxins, it's greener, safer and cheaper than tampons not to mention diverting waste from the sewers, sea and landfill. The Mooncup, a reusable sanitary cup, sounds great in theory but what about in practice? Three Leith's ladies will find out...

Week 1

It started a week ago, our three ladies were feeling a mixture of apprehension, disgust and excitment. You can read about it here. We gave them a week to purchase a mooncup, take a photo of it and let us know how they got on. Here are the results:

Purchasing my first mooncup from the ladies (A, B and C)

MCA:

I purchased the mooncup via amazon, mostly because I very rarely get into town and partly because of the prude in me!! Unfortuanately with the bank holiday my period arrived before the mooncup did!! It did make me feel gulity having to use tampons knowing the mooncup was on its way, but needs must and it would give me the chance to compare! When it did arrive in the post my first thought on seeing it was 'thats enormous how on earth will it fit?!'.....

MCB:

This whole mooncup malarkey is definitely a talking point! Since starting this I seem to be incapable of having a conversation with a female friend without mentioning it! Responses have ranged from hugely enthusiastic to hugely repulsed. Loving it!! Interestingly, no-one I've mentioned it to has actually tried the mooncup, but most have heard of it. I've asked why no-one has used it, and the general response seems to be that is too much to pay in one go, they prefer to just spend the odd couple of pounds on regular sanitary protection. Most also seem a bit wary, never having met anyone else who has actually used one. This will soon be changing ladies!! I will soon (hopefully) be an enthusiastic mooncup ambassador!

I toddled along to Boots yesterday, armed with my advantage card (lots of points, wahey!) and purchased my mooncup. They are hidden on the very bottom shelf of the "feminine hygiene" section, and are £21.99 at the moment. The lady at the counter looked a bit surprised when she scanned it and saw the price, seems a lot for a small box. I waited until I got home to open the box, and - shock horror - the checkout lady hadn't realised that the mooncup itself isn't kept in the box, I'm guessing they're kept elsewhere because of the price. So, I still haven't actually seen one of the flipping things yet! Will go back to Boots today, waving my receipt, and demand my product.

Check your boxes ladies!!!

MCC:

It was raining. I cycled to boots, Princes Street all the way from Leith in jeans, straight from work. Mail order mooncup would never come in time, I'd started a couple of days earlier. I'd tried Asda Leith already but no mooncups.  Wet and grumpy I discovered there was more then one type! Was I size A or a B? You're A if you've had children or if you're over 30, I'm nearly 30. Does being 30 really do the same thing to your body as having a child? My Mooncup name is C but that size deosn't exist. So I went for B, I'm not 30 yet.

It cost 21.99! A man served me at the checkout but he didn’t seem at all embarrassed. When I made eye contact I noticed he was actually quite attractive, I enjoyed chatting to him about needing a new advantage card and other such things. And the purchase got me a £5 skin care voucher. I bought some eye gel (to help those wrinkles I'm getting being nearly 30). It wasn't so bad but then..

I unlocked my bike and I was trying to unlock it quickly from the lamppost (since it was near a puddle and I didn’t want to get splashed by a bus) but somehow it all went wrong and my bike tipped over and my bag fell in the puddle. I felt like a right idiot. "She clearly just bought a mooncup" (I felt like they were thinking). Stupid Mooncup.

Join the Challenge

Let us know how your purchasing experience went, what's the cheapest place to get them? Are their any local shops selling them or is it just Boots? 

Week 3 Challenge

Your challenge is to use the mooncup for the first time and let us know how it goes. OK, so ladies don't bleed on demand, we have monthly cycles but thankfully two of our ladies have already put theory into practice, you can read all about their blood, sweat and tears next Monday. On that note, a tip from MCC: Do not trim the little stalk too short, beware of mooncup migration.

And to make sure you all know what you're doing, here's a video from mooncup ltd, don't worry if you're easily shocked. It doesn't show anything you wouldn't show your Granny (it's just hands showing how to use it on a table top and a voice explaining it):

Your Support

The support for Mooncup Monday has been tremendous.  We had over 50 facebook likes for the week 1 blog and many of you let us know how you felt by commenting on it too. On our Facebook page the Brass Monkey in Leith asked for Mooncups for their Monday pub quiz. @MoonCupMonday on Twitter now has 25 followers, you can follow it here. Mooncup ltd even got in touch to say we were doing a great job.

Thank you all so much for your support and good luck. Go Mooncup!

UPDATE: Read the week 3 challenge here

Read more from Emily on Sustainable Stories, Twitter or Facebook.

Comments

[MCB]

Week 2 update!!
This whole mooncup malarkey is definitely a talking point! Since starting this I seem to be incapable of having a conversation with a female friend without mentioning it! Responses have ranged from hugely enthusiastic to hugely repulsed. Loving it!!
Interestingly, no-one I've mentioned it to has actually tried the mooncup, but most have heard of it. I've asked why no-one has used it, and the general response seems to be that is too much to pay in one go, they prefer to just spend the odd couple of pounds on regular sanitary protection. Most also seem a bit wary, never having met anyone else who has actually used one. This will soon be changing ladies!! I will soon (hopefully) be an enthusiastic mooncup ambassador!

I toddled along to Boots yesterday, armed with my advantage card (lots of points, wahey!) and purchased my mooncup. They are hidden on the very bottom shelf of the "feminine hygiene" section, and are £21.99 at the moment. The lady at the counter looked a bit surprised when she scanned it and saw the price, seems a lot for a small box. I waited until I got home to open the box, and - shock horror - the checkout lady hadn't realised that the mooncup wasn't in the box. I'm guessing someone had pinched one! So, I still haven't actually seen one of the flipping things yet! Will go back to Boots today, waving my receipt, and demand my product.

Check your boxes ladies!!!

[Cheryl]

You can buy them directly from mooncup online. If you google you can find a discount code that makes them a lot cheaper.

I've used one for YEARS, they are fab. I had the same feelings at first but now I wouldn't use anything else.