In Your Pleasure

DJ Krystina Bouboulena created In Your Pleasure CBD- and magnesium-infused Pleasure Suppositories to manage her debilitating menstrual cramps sans over-the-counter pain meds. A huge proponent of them based on her experience, Bouboulena and her IYP co-founder Katie Kaps, who’s also co-founder of wellness company Higherdose, believe the benefits of suppositories transcend generations. As such, the brand partnered with Stacy London’s menopause care brand State Of for its launch on a cobranded version of IYP’s suppositories. State Of acts as the retail partner for IYP, and a box of 10 suppositories retails for $69.

“They’re kind of a Swiss army knife for your vagina,” says Bouboulena. “Whether its menstrual cramps, endometriosis, painful sex, vaginal dryness, it takes care of all of that.” She enthuses that London’s following agrees. It’s been very receptive to the suppositories. Bouboulena says, “It’s good to see how the menopausal audience responds to the product.”

There are vaginal suppositories already on the market from brands like Hello Again, Foria and Mello Bottoms, but it remains a niche product that faces customer adoption hurdles, mostly due to the perception of suppositories as OTC medication inserted anally. When consumers know they’re designed for vaginal insertion, there’s still an “ick” factor for many.

“There’s the pushback of, ‘It’s kind of gross to shove something up my vagina, especially if I’m on my period,'” acknowledges Bouboulena. “But once you wrap your head around the fact that it’s so much more effective and absorbent in your vagina versus anywhere else, I think it will open people’s minds to getting over something that seems a little uncomfortable at first.”

Kaps is betting on it. With her Higherdose co-founder Lauren Berlingeri, she’s been diving deep into the world of biohacking through a woman-centric lens in the YouTube series “Biohack-Hers.” She’s convinced suppositories can play an important role in the future of wellness. “We’re definitely on trend with this shift towards health and wellness and how it’s booming and consumers are becoming more educated,” she says. “As they learn how much more efficacious suppositories are, I think it’s going to become more of a mainstream product.”

Kaps is pumped about developing a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) suppository. She explains NAD is “a great anti-aging longevity molecule. This longevity movement is going to become huge in the next five to 10 years, and suppositories are one of the best ways to get NAD.”

Freya

The shaving category has been energized of late with upstart brands like Hanni, Oui the People and Flamingo arriving in the space with stylish tools and accouterments, but nothing that’s hit shelves in the past few years is nearly as distinct as premium body brand Freya’s inaugural offering, a razor-cum-vibrator.

At 18 years old, founder Xin Hamilton moved to the U.S. from China, where, growing up, says she was taught “masturbation is a big no-no.” Sex toys were an even bigger no-no. She adds, “You don’t talk about it. It’s almost a little bit disgusting if someone starts talking about this sort of thing.”

Once Hamilton became a wife and a mother, she was looking for ways to carve out time for herself, but faced guild and shame if she deigned to consider self-pleasure. It was her husband who bought Hamilton her first vibrator. When she realized that, especially for moms, the only me-time they get is in the shower, the lightbulb went off, and the idea for Freya, a company with the mission to empower all people, regardless of gender identity, to make self-love a daily experience, was born.

The subscription-based premium safety razor system and vibrator is available in three cheery colors. With a twist and click, the handheld tool goes from hair remover to stress remover. The razor’s $49.99 starter kit comes with two replacement five-blade stainless steel five-blade cartridges and one in-shower wall-mountable handle. The four-pack blade subscription starts at $9.99. The device’s rechargeable lithium-ion battery is designed to last for two hours.

Hamilton conducted almost two years of focus groups with real women from different backgrounds. She knew she was on to something because, while conversations started out awkward, when she presented the idea for her product, she reports, “Everyone’s first reaction is, ‘This is genius. I would totally buy it.’ That’s how the journey starts.”

Playdates

For the last decade, entrepreneur Ali Tate has been focused on cultivating self-love and eradicating body shame. She got a crash course in both as Victoria’s Secret’s first plus-size model in 2019—before the company’s recent inclusive reimagining. Her passion for self-love has evolved into a new venture: organic, intimate care brand Playdates. The brand debuted in May with a single offering, intimate area herbal restorative mist Yoni Aftercare.

The idea for Playdates arose during the early days of the pandemic. “A couple of friends were sitting in a living room and chatting about intimate skin concerns,” recounts Tate. “Together, we realized that there were precious few spaces to talk about totally normal bodily issues, things like cold sores, smelly nether regions, inflamed genitalia, ingrown hairs, all the fun stuff. The more we talked, the more we realized that not only were these issues not openly discussed as they should be, but there weren’t many natural remedies available in the clean skincare market.”

With Yoni Aftercare, Tate set out to create a a plant-based product that could soothe and rejuvenate the intimate area not only after sex, but also for transitioning from the gym to work, after waxing or hair removal, post-swim and times when showers might not be available like red-eye flights or adventurous travel days. A clinical herbalist tapped by Playdates worked for over a year to source clean, gentle ingredients for Yoni Aftercare such as aloe vera, witch hazel, colloidal oat, rose water and calendula. Tate says, “We like to remind our community that the vagina is self-cleaning, but our vulvas require maintenance.”

Yoni Aftercare retails at $43 for a 100-ml. bottle. Along with selling in direct-to-consumer distribution, Playdates is planning to expand into retail. The brand is currently available at a handful retail locations nationwide and will launch at Revolve later this month. “We are working to create a loving space to normalize bodily concerns that all should feel free to embrace,” says Tate. “Our motto is, ‘Your body is a playground.'”

Press Pause

Women’s wellness brand Press Pause isn’t a new launch, but a post-acquisition rebrand. Initially launched in 2018, founder Dawn Fable developed it after CBD improved her generalized anxiety disorder, a condition more common in older women than older men. The revamped Press Pause addresses women’s wellness with four pillars: cognitive wellness, sexual wellness, hormonal wellness and physical wellness.

“We feel like this group of women has really been ignored as it pertains to these topics they struggle with most and also happen to be very stigmatized topics,” says Fable. “We want to open up a narrative around these topics and have the middle-aged female be supported as she’s going through these things.”

In March 2021, the brand was acquired by British consumer goods firm Tenacious Labs, and the rebrand process began. Significantly, Kendra Mark, who’s also co-founder and VP of product development at wellness brand Nature of Things, joined Press Pause as head of product innovation. Mark got to work creating a collection of premium topical and ingestible products for women. A notable result is the brand’s Love CBD Intimacy Spray. The product, which has quickly become a customer favorite, is priced at $60 or $51 a month on subscription. “[One of] our most famous quotes that we’ve heard is that ‘it will make your vagina fly,’” says Fable.

Mark explains the edible spray isn’t a lube. Rather, it’s used for sexual arousal enhancement thanks to warming ingredients like cinnamon bark oil and ginger root essential oil that produce a tingling sensation. There’s 500 milligrams of full-spectrum CBD in the 30-ml. bottle as well. “The active ingredients in it open the capillaries and increase blood flow,” says Mark. “It’s a way to more deeply connect with yourself, tune in, feel your body becoming more receptive to intimacy, whether it’s with yourself or with someone else.”

Press Pause also offers a caffeine-free Harmonizing CBD Bloom Tea formulated with plant ingredients like organic shatavari, fennel, lavender, and hibiscus in tandem with water-soluble CBD isolate to help balance hormones. It’s priced at $34 for 10 bags. Mark is busy perfecting additional sexual wellness products that will launch soon. One will be a CBD-infused vaginal insert that, 15 to 20 minutes after being inserted, generates a hydrogel. Unlike some oil-based suppositories, Mark says it’s not messy and gooey. She elaborates, “It creates a really nice gel-like consistency and environment inside of the vaginal canal to help women deal with the painful effects of vaginal dryness.”

Vaginesse

Though friends Gloria Albarrán, Paula Bosque and Vivian León are “way older” than 34, the trio created the vegan, sustainable intimate skincare brand Vaginesse for a target audience of on-the-go women roughly 22 to 34 years old. Its debut collection has three products—The Towelettes, The Wash and The Moisturizer—priced from $9.99 to $30. “That bracket, they are more active,” says Albarrán, CEO of Vaginesse. “They go to the beach, they shave, they wax, they laser. So, they are in need of these products.”

Albarrán underscores that women and girls of any age can use Vaginesse’s products—“I use it. If you are 15, you can use it,” she shares—but she thinks young women will be the most apt to try them. “Older women are a little harder to change their habits. ‘I never used this before. I use my old soap.’ Young women are very open to receiving stuff like this,” says Albarrán.

Vaginesse worked on its formulations for about a year before launching in the spring via DTC distribution. Its branded Amazon storefront is set to go live this month, and the co-founders are in talks with retailers to open up physical distribution.

The Wipes were the last item of the launch collection that the co-founders finalized, but the product has emerged as an early bestseller and will be prominently featured on Vaginesse’s Amazon storefront. Albarrán says their popularity makes sense as they’re “the easiest to understand…To tell women they need a special cream for that part of the body because it’s pH balanced, for older women, it’s harder to understand that.”

Vaginesse’s objective is to create a daily intimate care ritual for women. The brand offers several bundles on its website to encourage that behavior. The Ultimate Collection, containing its three products, including three packets of the wipes, retails for $49.95. A membership program will be a big focus for the brand as will be churning out more innovative products. A dry shaving gel that can be used on the run is in the pipeline as is a menstrual care kit.