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(FYI, for all of the men that follow this blog, you might want to sit this one out. Or, show it to a lady in your life who still gets her cycles.)
So, keeping up with my tradition of reviewing not just vegan restaurants, but also vegan products, I decided to also review sanitary napkins aka menstrual pads. (Disclaimer: I don’t wear tampons so I can’t give a review on those.)
As I become older and bit more health conscious, I want to make better choices. And as much as I love the Always brand and been using it for years, I also discovered what’s good for me may not have been that good.
I began to wonder…is there a correlation between heavy, painful periods and certain chemicals in the maxi pads?
In all fairness, a woman can have painful, heavy periods for various reasons – weight, diet, certain types of medication, environment, etc. I wanted to do my own non-scientific and totally biased experiment on my own.
For a whole day in my recent cycle, I decided to switch out my usual Always pads that I get and try something different. I chose Natracare pads for the day and Always Pure & Clean during the night. I wanted to see if there was a significant difference in how I felt in comparison to the previous full day of bleeding.
This is where it gets interesting:
When I wore the Natracare pad, it seemed I didn’t bleed as much. I felt lighter and I didn’t need to take so much Advil. I had a lot more energy and was able to do a ton more.
I think the biggest difference was Natracare was just that – natural. It’s nothing but cotton. In fact, the packaging is cotton:
I also didn’t leak and the pad stayed put despite how active I was. Color me a new fan. I will purchase nothing but Natracare pads, period. (Ba dum tsss!)
However, how great these are, they’re a little pricey: a pack of 10 can range from $4 to $6. Most women would need to buy at least two boxes, possibly three. So, for being natural it does come at a cost, however, your overall health has no price tag on it.
NatraCare is 100% vegan.
Bottom Line: Highly recommend.
Next up, the Always Pure and Clean:
I’ve tried the daytime version of this and I did like it, though not as much as the Natracare brand. I decided to try the nighttime version.
The very first thing I noticed on the packaging is how it’s free of dyes and fragrances. Always is known to have rather colorful pads and some of them smell fragrant to take away the period stench. It’s one of those incidentals where you probably think, ‘Hey, this is cool’ until you realize, ‘maybe that’s not so cool.’
So, I decided to test-drive these pads for nighttime. I have to say I’m impressed. The pad stayed on (I toss and turn a lot), and there were absolutely no leaks. The packaging isn’t cotton, but rather the typical plastic Always has used:
Just like with Natracare, these were a bit on the pricier side. Some were as low as $6 and some were as high as $8. Unlike the Natracare pads, you do get a bit more for your buck with the Always brand.
The Always brand didn’t state it was vegan (most products do), so I can’t recommend this for absolute certainty, you’re getting a vegan product. However, Always has been known to be a product that does test on animals, so if you are vegan and cruelty-free, this is something to be very aware of.
Bottom Line: Buyer beware: they do test on animals and aren’t considered to be cruelty-free.
A follower did recommend I try the Diva Cup, so I’m going to do some more research on that before I do a review. I hope to do one later this year. 🙂
