August 25, 2024 • 24 mins
Send Katie a Message with Your Questions/Thoughts! :)
You’re about to uncover the truth about the products you’ve trusted with your most intimate care. This episode isn’t just another discussion on periods— this is the information you deserve to know, but no one’s telling you.
Join me as I chat with Jennifer, the co-founder of Tampon Tribe, who exposes the dark side of mainstream menstrual products. From toxins that could be harming your body to the greenwashing tricks that brands use to keep you in the dark, we dive deep into the hidden dangers that could be affecting your health and well-being.
But it’s never all doom & gloom over here— Jennifer shares her personal journey with endometriosis and how it led her to get curious about what products she was putting in her body, which led to life-altering healing and the creation of menstrual products that can truly care for YOU, too!
From tampons to pads to menstrual cups to period underwear, we'll walk you through why making a switch could be the best decision for your health.
This episode is your wake-up call to reclaim control over your body and make informed choices that could change your life! Don’t miss out— your health depends on it.
Resources:
- Shop nontoxic, sustainable period products with Tampon Tribe (affiliate link)
- Follow them on social media @tampontribe
P.S. Be sure to subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode and follow us on Instagram & TikTok @ecomindedmama to stay connected! ✨
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Katie Kurpanek (00:00):
Welcome back to the show, everybody. If we
(00:02):
haven't met yet, welcome. I amKatie. I'm the host of the Eco
minded mama podcast. And, mymission in life is just to help
empower eco minded mamas likeyourself. You want to make an
impact on this earth. You wantto raise your family in a way
that is connected to nature andsomething greater than
yourselves. You want to reducewaste, and then also saving
(00:23):
money is a bonus that ends upcoming with that. So we kind of
talk about all those thingshere. I'm very happy to have you
on the show. And today we arejoined by an amazing guest. We
have Jennifer, the co founder ofTampon Tribe, joining us today,
and we're going to talk allthings sustainable period
products. So I'm very excitedabout this and welcome to the
show, Jennifer.
Jennifer, Tampon Tribe (00:44):
Thank you for having me, Katie. I'm
super excited to be here aswell.
Katie Kurpanek (00:48):
Awesome. I'm so glad this is actually great
timing too, because I recentlyjust had like, a couple
episodes, like a mini series oncycle syncing, and talking
about, you know, syncing up yourlife with the four phases of
your menstrual cycle. And I feellike this is a really good, you
know, episode to be kind ofclose to that. So I would love
to first hear a little bit aboutyourself and just the story
(01:11):
behind tampon tribe in general,because I know it's not just
you. You've co founded this, sotell us about it.
Jennifer, Tampon Tribe (01:17):
Yeah, sure, so you're totally right.
Tampon tribe was founded bymyself and my business partner,
Gabby, and we actually foundedthe company about, Gosh, I think
it's seven years ago now. Itgoes so quickly. Yeah, it's
crazy, right? Um, and it waskind of from a combination of my
personal journey throughendometriosis and our passion
(01:40):
for the environment. So, youknow, I was really suffering
from endometriosis, so it wasinteresting. You're talking
about cycle syncing, because allof this comes into play. Yes,
had really bad symptoms, likedouble over in pain. This is
awful. It's got to a pointKatie, where I was just
thinking, There's got to be abetter solution, like you just
(02:01):
told to grin and bear it, likethere's no grinning. This is
just awful, right? You know, wekind of started doing some
research, and we found that alot of the chemicals that were
in period products couldactually be exacerbating the
symptoms, mind blowing initself. And so I actually
thought, well, can't hurt. And Iactually found a a European
(02:24):
tampon brand at the same at thetime that was totally organic,
sustainably made, no GMOs, youknow, everything that we now
are. And literally, from onemonth to the next, my symptoms
stopped, wow. And I justcouldn't. I said, There's no way
it can be this simple. You know,it can't be. A few months later,
(02:48):
I was having this great noperiod pain. This is awesome.
And then I think it was on monthfour, pain came back. I thought,
oh, right, see. But no. Themonth before, I'd been traveling
and I'd used store boughtchemical tampons. Oh my gosh.
And so back to organic. Nowtruly organic, which is the next
part of the conversation, right?
I never had a period pain again.
(03:15):
And at the time, my businesspartner and I were in Los
Angeles, actually, and we werehere for another business. We've
been working together for a longtime, and we kind of had an
opportunity to start somethingnew. And so we thought, Look, if
I'm having an issue accessingthese great products, imagine
who else is, and I'm in LA,pretty resource heavy, right,
(03:37):
right? And there weren't theproducts on the shelves at that
time. I mean, at the same time,we were on Venice Beach, and we
kept seeing these plastic tamponapplicators, which was
horrifying, horrifying. Like,first of all, what are plastic
applicators? Why are they in ourenvironment, right? You know,
I'm from Australia, she's fromBrazil. We're super passionate
(03:58):
about our planet, and we'relike, what if we put these two
things together? And we thoughtit's impossible, or it would
have been done already, right,which we all think when we're
building businesses and brands,but it hadn't been done. And we
found the manufacturers thatcould do it with us, and we put
it to the test, and it's beensuccessful. So all of our
(04:20):
products, we only use GOTS andICEA certified organic cotton,
which is really important. Andwe're also 100% plastic free. So
we don't compromise. We have ourpads and panty liners are
wrapped in a potato starch film.
The backing is plant based. Wetotally vegan. We don't use
glue. We use biopolymers fromGermany, so we like outsourced
(04:41):
every tiny element. Ourapplicators, of course, are not
plastic. They're not BPA freeplastic, which is still plastic,
as you know, be really toxic toourselves and our planet. And
it's it's. It's interesting,because you get tempted, right?
Like, what if people wantplastic? No, we are so, for our
(05:04):
brand, for tampon tribe, we areso committed to stick with that
mission, because we just knowthe impact that it has, not just
on bodies, but also our planet.
Katie Kurpanek (05:18):
Yeah, you have your why so solid, you're so
grounded in it, and then youhave the personal experience to
back it up, which is sopowerful. And I think that this
is, it's, it's important to talkabout this so much more
frequently, I think. And I feellike our, you know, this
generation and the nextgeneration feels like it's
(05:38):
moving that way towards liketampons and periods like this
whole talk shouldn't be taboo,right? We should really, really
be talking about it, becausethis is an entire section of the
population that is heavilyimpacted by the choices we make
around our periods. At the timeof this recording, I think it
was in July that we just had,like, this major case study come
(05:59):
out that was revealing all ofthese toxic metals and chemicals
that were found in several likename brand popular period
products, I think specificallytampons on store shelves. And so
this is impacting countlesspeople, and I think a lot more
people have their eyes drawn toit right now. There's a
(06:21):
heightened sense of awarenessfrom what I'm sensing online. So
I just feel like this is a veryimportant time to talk about it.
So can you, I mean, you talked alittle bit already about the
products that you have withtampon tribe, but how do, how do
you and your products likereally stand out from this mess?
What is it specifically that youfeel like is the most toxic or
(06:42):
the most dangerous that you'reseeing in common period products
that is not found in yours?
Jennifer, Tampon Tribe (06:47):
Right?
Yeah. I mean, many things as thereport showed. And I think one
of the most significant parts ofthe report, well, two, sorry,
one of but one of them is thatmany organic, or so called
organic, brands were on thisreport, and is what really
opened up in our sector of theof the menstrual health industry
(07:09):
was and we knew this, but howmany brands were calling
themselves organic? But they'renot organic, right? They just
put the word organic on thepack. And I'm a consumer, if I
see that on the pack, I grab itright. What this report has
called everyone to do is to lookup the ingredients, and I speak
(07:30):
to people every day who are soaware, I'm sure, like yourself,
of what they're putting in andon their body, what they're
putting on their skin, theclothes they're wearing, and
they've never once picked uptheir pads or tampons and looked
at the ingredients. Never, yeah,never, right? And I was, I was
one of those people too, like, Inever thought that would be an
(07:51):
issue, because we trust theseproducts. So the report
highlighted a few things, onethat in a lot of the name brand
products in the in themainstream, I guess, realm. So,
you know, just they're made withsynthetics, they're made with
plastics. They're made withbleaches, toxins. You've got a
ton of metals. You've gotarsenic, lead, I think, cadmium,
(08:12):
you've got so many becausethey're made from materials that
are man made and so these manmade materials need these
chemicals to exist, becausethey're a fabrication or fabric,
right? And then you've got theso called organic and this is
the, this is a bit of aminefield, because people
(08:33):
thought that they were buyingreally safe products. And you
have some of these, many ofthese so called organic products
that have titanium dioxide,which is a carcinogen. It's
actually banned in Europe. Ithink it's banned in Australia.
You cannot use this. They alsohave lead, they have arsenic,
and that comes from a lot ofsources. It can come from the
(08:56):
water that's being used in thesoil when they're growing
cotton, you have a lot ofproducts that say they use
cotton. Now, cotton's a heavilyGMO crop, so anything that comes
with that comes through into theproduct and won't survive the
testing. And so this is the bestthing to do, grab the product,
see what certifications theyhave. Yes. So one thing, if you
(09:19):
are certified, it's a hard thingto get certified, and it's
expensive and difficult. Youwill have your certification on
the box, right? Yeah, 100% andit won't be like a Canva
illustration, which you see likea cotton saying organic. That is
not a certification. That isjust a picture. You see that a
(09:41):
lot. It's greenwashing. Why?
Which you know very well, iseverywhere. And you pick up the
look at this. Look at thiscotton picture. I'm like, I
couldn't make that cottonpicture. So have a look at the
certifications. If you can'tfind them on the box or the
package, they'll be on thewebsite. It's illegal. That is
(10:04):
one really strict thing youcannot put well, not for long,
the certification on thewebsite, because the certifying
body will pretty soon tell youto take them down. And that was
happening a few years ago. AndI've noticed a lot of them come
off because they're not trulycertified. Then there are
different organiccertifications, and not all
(10:26):
organic certifications are thesame. The two prominent ones
used in the tampon industry isOCS and GOTS. OCS has two
different certifications, theirbasic one requires 5% of the
product to be organic. Thereforetheir full one, the OCS, 100
(10:49):
requires a lot more. I thinkit's 80 to 100% okay, so if
they're different thosecertifications, then you have
GOTS, which is global organictextile standard, and ICEA which
is the Internationalsustainability certification. So
we have both of those, andthat's what we see. Is really
important for our products.
Every product is totallydifferent. And, you know, we
(11:10):
welcome every product in thisspace, but it's a matter of
being informed about what you'rebuying and putting in or on your
body. And so they're the keys.
And I hope that wasn't toocomplicated, but breaking it
down is just looking at thecertifications. And for us, GOTS
(11:30):
demands a minimum 70% organic,and the remaining 30% has very
strict, strict qualifications.
You know, you can't put asynthetic in there. We actually
have 100% we only use 100% inours, but that's the minimum
certification. We also put allof our third party testing on
our website, so we're verytransparent about that, and
we're very proud of it, youknow? So we have the GOTS and
(11:53):
the ICEA and they test, I thinkit's every year we get those
tests done, and then we alsosend to an independent lab, just
make sure every batch that runsthrough has no heavy metals, has
no chlorine in the any kind ofthe processing, plant processing
process, yeah, and also that oursoils are clean and sustainable.
(12:16):
And I think that's somethingthat you'll probably resonate
with is, as you know, soils tobe GMO free and to be ICEA
certified, which is a Europeancertification. So we get all of
our certified organic cottonfrom Europe, from small growth
farmers. That's important to us.
(12:39):
It ensures there are noherbicides. There are no
pesticides. There's nothing inthe soil that will get to the
finished product. And GOTS hassome other things that are
important to us when it comes tofair trade, when it comes to
fair wages and and you know thatother aspect of the business
too.
Katie Kurpanek (12:57):
Okay, yeah, I am so glad that you brought up
certifications, because that'sthe number one thing that I will
usually point mamas or justpeople asking questions in
general about greenwashing,because it is. It comes up all
the time, and it's sofrustrating, because we as the
consumers like should not thisshould not be a burden that we
(13:18):
have to bear to like be, youknow, checking that everything
we're wanting to put in or onour body is safe. That's so
frustrating. But in the UnitedStates, that's especially how it
is currently. And so I I've saidsimilar things that, like, if
you are looking at a brand thatyou feel is, you know,
sustainable and ethical, nontoxic, all of those good things
(13:40):
there, they should have nothingto hide behind. They should be
very, very proud of that factthat they're aligned with all of
those standards. If you arelooking at their website, or,
like you said, their packaging,and it seems kind of confusing
or just not very clear, they'remaking very vague, broad
statements, then that's a redflag immediately, because they
should have nothing to hidebehind. And you are obviously so
(14:02):
proud of what you've allcreated, and let's talk for a
minute about how they work,because your social media, by
the way, I'll have it linked inthe show notes. Anyone who's
listening. When you have aminute to pause, click the show
notes and like, go follow themon Instagram, because tampon
tribe has some really helpful,like informative reels. And I
(14:23):
watched one the other day thatshowed, like a an experiment
where you had two cups of waterand you put, you know, a generic
brand tampon in one, and thenyour tampon tribe in the other.
And it just was amazing to lookat how the longer they sat, all
of the different filaments thatwere coming out of the generic
(14:44):
tampon into the water. And youjust think about that being your
body, and how every single timeyou put a tampon in, this is
what's happening and beingabsorbed into your body. And
then compared to tampon tribetampons and how solid they held
up so. So I'd love if you couldtalk a little bit about the
functionality, because ofcourse, of course, there are
(15:04):
people listening who are like,you know, yes, I want to buy
something that's certified and,you know, good for the earth,
good for me, but they want toknow that it's going to work
too. So can you talk a littlebit about that?
Jennifer, Tampon Tribe (15:16):
Yeah, totally. So there are quite,
there are quite a fewdifferences between all of the
tampons on the market. Whenyou're making a tampon with
synthetics or with man madematerials, they tend to
dissolve, they tend to pullapart. And yes, you can do that
experiment at home, like putyour tampon in a cup of water
just for a couple of hours andsee what happens. Versus
(15:41):
something that's made from 100%certified organic cotton. So
it'll stay together because it'sa quality material, and I think
that's another thing to look at.
So even if someone has organicon their box of product, it
might say organic core ororganic cover or organic top
sheet, so That's level two onchecking out your
(16:03):
certifications. But when itcomes to the tampons themselves,
so the the generic ones willoften use a chemical within the
tampon to lock in fluid, in myopinion, that doesn't have a
great impact on your endocrinesystem or on your body. Yeah,
(16:23):
there are also reports that showthese chemicals can actually
prolong bleeding and can causeyou to use more product. Okay,
so that's also a consideration.
People will say, Hey, Jen, youknow, you sell 10 pads for X
amount of money. There's 28 ofthese pads. You've got to use
(16:47):
twice as many of those. Yeah,you know. So I always use the
analogy, like, you know, a goodpaper towel versus a really
crappy paper towel, right? Yeah,you're using, like you're using
a ton, right? Because it's justmade from cheap synthetic
materials. You get a goodquality one that's made from
(17:09):
maybe all natural ingredientsthat have high absorbency. You
only need to use one, yeah,there's just that to consider
when you're choosing theproduct. So for us, we have a
certified organic cotton coreand cover and string that's
woven in. So we don't useanything else. We don't think
(17:31):
you need to put wax on thestring to stop bleeding. We
don't think you need to usetitanium dioxide to make it
whiter. That's us, yeah, yeah,other companies that that's also
their choice, and it's just as aconsumer to decide what you're
putting in or on your body. ButI love to challenge people to
give it a go for a month. Yeah?
(17:55):
And it'll be an adjustment. Sothis is the other thing. With
tampons, you do need to changethem. Yeah? You know, you
shouldn't have a tampon in yourbody, really, for more than
three hours. I know some peoplesleep in them. It's that's okay
if it's organic, right? If it'sorganic, and depends on your
flow, there are a lot ofvariables here, but I've had
(18:16):
people well, you know, My oldtampon lasted me for eight
hours. First of all, what areyou doing wearing a tampon for
eight hours? Second of all, whydo you think that is? It must
have a chemical in it, because acotton cannot physically do that
once it's once it's full, onceit's fully absorbed, that's it.
(18:36):
Yeah, you need to change it. Soif it's if it's if it's got a
super absorbent and it'scausing, you know that capturing
that locking in in a tampon,it's because there's a product,
there's no magic. Pads is alittle different, because pads
sits below your body. You canhave, you can use certified
organic cotton that is woven in,which helps lock in menstrual
(19:00):
fluid, for sure, but a tampon,yeah, you have to just be
sensible, like, if something'smagic, then why is it magic, you
know? So that's just a questionyou can you can ask yourself.
And for us, we love being anauthentic brand and authentic
company. It's very important towho we are. And just knowing
(19:24):
that, you know, so many of ourcustomers have said, Oh my gosh,
my period pain has eased up. Youknow, people who suffer from
PCOS, they've, you know, reducedtheir symptoms, and the periods
have got shorter. They're like,I used to last a period. Used to
be seven, eight days. Now it'sfour. I'm like, Okay, wow, it's
worth trying. We're not claimingin any way that this is going to
(19:47):
solve all your all yourproblems, but sometimes we kind
of forget to look at the veryobvious thing in front of us,
right? And like you said, busy.
You know, we've got kids andschool and work and partners and
house and all these things. Sohow do we make even have time to
think about, let alone make theright choice? So we just do it.
(20:08):
Do your best. You know, don't behard on yourself about your
choices, but I think being alittle informed along the way
and choosing a product thatsuits you. For us, I'm a huge
advocate of the menstrual cup,yeah, all right. And I think
anyone kind of in the eco space,it's a fantastic option. Anyone
(20:30):
who's busy and running aroundmind blown with a with a cup,
and there are differentmaterials that the cups are made
from. So you will have asilicone menstrual cup, which is
the majority of the cups outthere, very rigid material, and
it's kind of designed to open ina cylinder inside your body.
Ours are a little different. Wemake ours from a medical grade
(20:53):
TPE out of Germany, which isdesigned for internal medicine.
So for us, that was a very safechoice. It's also a little more
malleable, so it actually sitsin your body and doesn't
necessarily pop out into acircle. It just sits there
because your insides are alldifferent shapes. There's a lot
going on in your body. And itcan also be recycled. So TPE is
(21:18):
a rubber so it's recyclable,whereas a silicone, as you know,
cannot, yes. So I think the cupis great choice. To be honest. I
love it personally, and that issomething you can put on the
beginning of the day and goabout your crazy day and not
even think about it, because itwill hold at least a full day's
(21:39):
worth of fluid. Maybe on a heavyday, you might want to change it
once in the day, like empty itonce a day. Yeah.
Katie Kurpanek (21:46):
Oh, man. And this is why I was so excited to
talk with you, Jennifer, justbecause not only do I think that
this education and resourcesneeds to be put out into the
world and talked about so muchmore often, but specifically
with tampon tribe, like mylisteners know I will only
feature products that I amgenuinely, like, in love with
(22:08):
and I and I've done theresearch, and I know that
they're credible and they'retrustworthy, because, like we
said, This is so frustrating tohave to deal with greenwashing
and to, like, sift through allthis confusing information and
false claims. So for mylisteners, I just want to make
this as easy as possible. Solike I said before, if you click
the show notes, just the episodedescription, you'll find all of
(22:30):
the links that you need to notonly follow tampon tribe on
social media and continue toeducate yourself, because
there's so much more that wecould be talking about that we
can't fit into this one littleepisode. But also, you know, go
to their website. Click thatlink that I'll have in there. It
is an affiliate link, giving aheads up, because I am, like a
proud affiliate with tampontribe. I've used their products.
(22:52):
I know how good they are, howgood they work, and how good
they are for the planet. Soclick that link as well, and
you'll be able to shop withtampon tribe, if you're
interested, and check out thevariety of products. Like, like
Jennifer said, There's tampons,but there's menstrual cups,
there's pads. You also havereusable, you know, washable,
period underwear, which I am ahuge fan of. That's my personal
(23:14):
go to. So there's a lot therethat you can find in the show
notes. Oh yeah, there's also anew feature for my listeners, so
I'm going to start talking aboutthis more. I've added a feature
into the show notes where youcan click a link that says
something like, you know, SendKatie a message. I want you to
send me a message and let meknow your thoughts on this,
because it's often like I putout these podcasts and then I
(23:39):
don't, I don't have a way tohear from people what they're
thinking. So this gives you avery clear way to like, send me
a message. Share with me yourthoughts, your questions, your
wonderings around periodproducts and how to do this
sustainably. Share with me likeyour horrible experiences, your
wonderful experiences, and Iwill be able to repost that,
whether it's on social media orshare it in another episode, but
(24:02):
I would love to hear from youall. So this has been such a
wonderful conversation, and it'slike the start of a conversation
that I hope to be ongoing.
Jennifer, I'm so thankful foreverything that you and tampon
tribe are doing and putting outinto the world, and thank you
for coming on the show today toshare with our mamas.
Jennifer, Tampon Tribe (24:21):
Oh, that's such a pleasure, Katie.
It's great to follow you and bepart of you. And if anyone has
questions too, reach out toKatie or myself. We're
available. You know, it'll getto me if you ask, and we're more
than happy to answer anyquestions, because it can be a
minefield. Oh, yeah, so we'llget there.
Katie Kurpanek (24:39):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much, Jennifer!
Jennifer, Tampon Tribe (24:42):
My pleasure! Bye.
Welcome back to the show, everybody. If we
(00:02):
haven't met yet, welcome. I amKatie. I'm the host of the Eco
minded mama podcast. And, mymission in life is just to help
empower eco minded mamas likeyourself. You want to make an
impact on this earth. You wantto raise your family in a way
that is connected to nature andsomething greater than
yourselves. You want to reducewaste, and then also saving
(00:23):
money is a bonus that ends upcoming with that. So we kind of
talk about all those thingshere. I'm very happy to have you
on the show. And today we arejoined by an amazing guest. We
have Jennifer, the co founder ofTampon Tribe, joining us today,
and we're going to talk allthings sustainable period
products. So I'm very excitedabout this and welcome to the
show, Jennifer.
Jennifer, Tampon Tribe (00:44):
Thank you for having me, Katie. I'm
super excited to be here aswell.
Katie Kurpanek (00:48):
Awesome. I'm so glad this is actually great
timing too, because I recentlyjust had like, a couple
episodes, like a mini series oncycle syncing, and talking
about, you know, syncing up yourlife with the four phases of
your menstrual cycle. And I feellike this is a really good, you
know, episode to be kind ofclose to that. So I would love
to first hear a little bit aboutyourself and just the story
(01:11):
behind tampon tribe in general,because I know it's not just
you. You've co founded this, sotell us about it.
Jennifer, Tampon Tribe (01:17):
Yeah, sure, so you're totally right.
Tampon tribe was founded bymyself and my business partner,
Gabby, and we actually foundedthe company about, Gosh, I think
it's seven years ago now. Itgoes so quickly. Yeah, it's
crazy, right? Um, and it waskind of from a combination of my
personal journey throughendometriosis and our passion
(01:40):
for the environment. So, youknow, I was really suffering
from endometriosis, so it wasinteresting. You're talking
about cycle syncing, because allof this comes into play. Yes,
had really bad symptoms, likedouble over in pain. This is
awful. It's got to a pointKatie, where I was just
thinking, There's got to be abetter solution, like you just
(02:01):
told to grin and bear it, likethere's no grinning. This is
just awful, right? You know, wekind of started doing some
research, and we found that alot of the chemicals that were
in period products couldactually be exacerbating the
symptoms, mind blowing initself. And so I actually
thought, well, can't hurt. And Iactually found a a European
(02:24):
tampon brand at the same at thetime that was totally organic,
sustainably made, no GMOs, youknow, everything that we now
are. And literally, from onemonth to the next, my symptoms
stopped, wow. And I justcouldn't. I said, There's no way
it can be this simple. You know,it can't be. A few months later,
(02:48):
I was having this great noperiod pain. This is awesome.
And then I think it was on monthfour, pain came back. I thought,
oh, right, see. But no. Themonth before, I'd been traveling
and I'd used store boughtchemical tampons. Oh my gosh.
And so back to organic. Nowtruly organic, which is the next
part of the conversation, right?
I never had a period pain again.
(03:15):
And at the time, my businesspartner and I were in Los
Angeles, actually, and we werehere for another business. We've
been working together for a longtime, and we kind of had an
opportunity to start somethingnew. And so we thought, Look, if
I'm having an issue accessingthese great products, imagine
who else is, and I'm in LA,pretty resource heavy, right,
(03:37):
right? And there weren't theproducts on the shelves at that
time. I mean, at the same time,we were on Venice Beach, and we
kept seeing these plastic tamponapplicators, which was
horrifying, horrifying. Like,first of all, what are plastic
applicators? Why are they in ourenvironment, right? You know,
I'm from Australia, she's fromBrazil. We're super passionate
(03:58):
about our planet, and we'relike, what if we put these two
things together? And we thoughtit's impossible, or it would
have been done already, right,which we all think when we're
building businesses and brands,but it hadn't been done. And we
found the manufacturers thatcould do it with us, and we put
it to the test, and it's beensuccessful. So all of our
(04:20):
products, we only use GOTS andICEA certified organic cotton,
which is really important. Andwe're also 100% plastic free. So
we don't compromise. We have ourpads and panty liners are
wrapped in a potato starch film.
The backing is plant based. Wetotally vegan. We don't use
glue. We use biopolymers fromGermany, so we like outsourced
(04:41):
every tiny element. Ourapplicators, of course, are not
plastic. They're not BPA freeplastic, which is still plastic,
as you know, be really toxic toourselves and our planet. And
it's it's. It's interesting,because you get tempted, right?
Like, what if people wantplastic? No, we are so, for our
(05:04):
brand, for tampon tribe, we areso committed to stick with that
mission, because we just knowthe impact that it has, not just
on bodies, but also our planet.
Katie Kurpanek (05:18):
Yeah, you have your why so solid, you're so
grounded in it, and then youhave the personal experience to
back it up, which is sopowerful. And I think that this
is, it's, it's important to talkabout this so much more
frequently, I think. And I feellike our, you know, this
generation and the nextgeneration feels like it's
(05:38):
moving that way towards liketampons and periods like this
whole talk shouldn't be taboo,right? We should really, really
be talking about it, becausethis is an entire section of the
population that is heavilyimpacted by the choices we make
around our periods. At the timeof this recording, I think it
was in July that we just had,like, this major case study come
(05:59):
out that was revealing all ofthese toxic metals and chemicals
that were found in several likename brand popular period
products, I think specificallytampons on store shelves. And so
this is impacting countlesspeople, and I think a lot more
people have their eyes drawn toit right now. There's a
(06:21):
heightened sense of awarenessfrom what I'm sensing online. So
I just feel like this is a veryimportant time to talk about it.
So can you, I mean, you talked alittle bit already about the
products that you have withtampon tribe, but how do, how do
you and your products likereally stand out from this mess?
What is it specifically that youfeel like is the most toxic or
(06:42):
the most dangerous that you'reseeing in common period products
that is not found in yours?
Jennifer, Tampon Tribe (06:47):
Right?
Yeah. I mean, many things as thereport showed. And I think one
of the most significant parts ofthe report, well, two, sorry,
one of but one of them is thatmany organic, or so called
organic, brands were on thisreport, and is what really
opened up in our sector of theof the menstrual health industry
(07:09):
was and we knew this, but howmany brands were calling
themselves organic? But they'renot organic, right? They just
put the word organic on thepack. And I'm a consumer, if I
see that on the pack, I grab itright. What this report has
called everyone to do is to lookup the ingredients, and I speak
(07:30):
to people every day who are soaware, I'm sure, like yourself,
of what they're putting in andon their body, what they're
putting on their skin, theclothes they're wearing, and
they've never once picked uptheir pads or tampons and looked
at the ingredients. Never, yeah,never, right? And I was, I was
one of those people too, like, Inever thought that would be an
(07:51):
issue, because we trust theseproducts. So the report
highlighted a few things, onethat in a lot of the name brand
products in the in themainstream, I guess, realm. So,
you know, just they're made withsynthetics, they're made with
plastics. They're made withbleaches, toxins. You've got a
ton of metals. You've gotarsenic, lead, I think, cadmium,
(08:12):
you've got so many becausethey're made from materials that
are man made and so these manmade materials need these
chemicals to exist, becausethey're a fabrication or fabric,
right? And then you've got theso called organic and this is
the, this is a bit of aminefield, because people
(08:33):
thought that they were buyingreally safe products. And you
have some of these, many ofthese so called organic products
that have titanium dioxide,which is a carcinogen. It's
actually banned in Europe. Ithink it's banned in Australia.
You cannot use this. They alsohave lead, they have arsenic,
and that comes from a lot ofsources. It can come from the
(08:56):
water that's being used in thesoil when they're growing
cotton, you have a lot ofproducts that say they use
cotton. Now, cotton's a heavilyGMO crop, so anything that comes
with that comes through into theproduct and won't survive the
testing. And so this is the bestthing to do, grab the product,
see what certifications theyhave. Yes. So one thing, if you
(09:19):
are certified, it's a hard thingto get certified, and it's
expensive and difficult. Youwill have your certification on
the box, right? Yeah, 100% andit won't be like a Canva
illustration, which you see likea cotton saying organic. That is
not a certification. That isjust a picture. You see that a
(09:41):
lot. It's greenwashing. Why?
Which you know very well, iseverywhere. And you pick up the
look at this. Look at thiscotton picture. I'm like, I
couldn't make that cottonpicture. So have a look at the
certifications. If you can'tfind them on the box or the
package, they'll be on thewebsite. It's illegal. That is
(10:04):
one really strict thing youcannot put well, not for long,
the certification on thewebsite, because the certifying
body will pretty soon tell youto take them down. And that was
happening a few years ago. AndI've noticed a lot of them come
off because they're not trulycertified. Then there are
different organiccertifications, and not all
(10:26):
organic certifications are thesame. The two prominent ones
used in the tampon industry isOCS and GOTS. OCS has two
different certifications, theirbasic one requires 5% of the
product to be organic. Thereforetheir full one, the OCS, 100
(10:49):
requires a lot more. I thinkit's 80 to 100% okay, so if
they're different thosecertifications, then you have
GOTS, which is global organictextile standard, and ICEA which
is the Internationalsustainability certification. So
we have both of those, andthat's what we see. Is really
important for our products.
Every product is totallydifferent. And, you know, we
(11:10):
welcome every product in thisspace, but it's a matter of
being informed about what you'rebuying and putting in or on your
body. And so they're the keys.
And I hope that wasn't toocomplicated, but breaking it
down is just looking at thecertifications. And for us, GOTS
(11:30):
demands a minimum 70% organic,and the remaining 30% has very
strict, strict qualifications.
You know, you can't put asynthetic in there. We actually
have 100% we only use 100% inours, but that's the minimum
certification. We also put allof our third party testing on
our website, so we're verytransparent about that, and
we're very proud of it, youknow? So we have the GOTS and
(11:53):
the ICEA and they test, I thinkit's every year we get those
tests done, and then we alsosend to an independent lab, just
make sure every batch that runsthrough has no heavy metals, has
no chlorine in the any kind ofthe processing, plant processing
process, yeah, and also that oursoils are clean and sustainable.
(12:16):
And I think that's somethingthat you'll probably resonate
with is, as you know, soils tobe GMO free and to be ICEA
certified, which is a Europeancertification. So we get all of
our certified organic cottonfrom Europe, from small growth
farmers. That's important to us.
(12:39):
It ensures there are noherbicides. There are no
pesticides. There's nothing inthe soil that will get to the
finished product. And GOTS hassome other things that are
important to us when it comes tofair trade, when it comes to
fair wages and and you know thatother aspect of the business
too.
Katie Kurpanek (12:57):
Okay, yeah, I am so glad that you brought up
certifications, because that'sthe number one thing that I will
usually point mamas or justpeople asking questions in
general about greenwashing,because it is. It comes up all
the time, and it's sofrustrating, because we as the
consumers like should not thisshould not be a burden that we
(13:18):
have to bear to like be, youknow, checking that everything
we're wanting to put in or onour body is safe. That's so
frustrating. But in the UnitedStates, that's especially how it
is currently. And so I I've saidsimilar things that, like, if
you are looking at a brand thatyou feel is, you know,
sustainable and ethical, nontoxic, all of those good things
(13:40):
there, they should have nothingto hide behind. They should be
very, very proud of that factthat they're aligned with all of
those standards. If you arelooking at their website, or,
like you said, their packaging,and it seems kind of confusing
or just not very clear, they'remaking very vague, broad
statements, then that's a redflag immediately, because they
should have nothing to hidebehind. And you are obviously so
(14:02):
proud of what you've allcreated, and let's talk for a
minute about how they work,because your social media, by
the way, I'll have it linked inthe show notes. Anyone who's
listening. When you have aminute to pause, click the show
notes and like, go follow themon Instagram, because tampon
tribe has some really helpful,like informative reels. And I
(14:23):
watched one the other day thatshowed, like a an experiment
where you had two cups of waterand you put, you know, a generic
brand tampon in one, and thenyour tampon tribe in the other.
And it just was amazing to lookat how the longer they sat, all
of the different filaments thatwere coming out of the generic
(14:44):
tampon into the water. And youjust think about that being your
body, and how every single timeyou put a tampon in, this is
what's happening and beingabsorbed into your body. And
then compared to tampon tribetampons and how solid they held
up so. So I'd love if you couldtalk a little bit about the
functionality, because ofcourse, of course, there are
(15:04):
people listening who are like,you know, yes, I want to buy
something that's certified and,you know, good for the earth,
good for me, but they want toknow that it's going to work
too. So can you talk a littlebit about that?
Jennifer, Tampon Tribe (15:16):
Yeah, totally. So there are quite,
there are quite a fewdifferences between all of the
tampons on the market. Whenyou're making a tampon with
synthetics or with man madematerials, they tend to
dissolve, they tend to pullapart. And yes, you can do that
experiment at home, like putyour tampon in a cup of water
just for a couple of hours andsee what happens. Versus
(15:41):
something that's made from 100%certified organic cotton. So
it'll stay together because it'sa quality material, and I think
that's another thing to look at.
So even if someone has organicon their box of product, it
might say organic core ororganic cover or organic top
sheet, so That's level two onchecking out your
(16:03):
certifications. But when itcomes to the tampons themselves,
so the the generic ones willoften use a chemical within the
tampon to lock in fluid, in myopinion, that doesn't have a
great impact on your endocrinesystem or on your body. Yeah,
(16:23):
there are also reports that showthese chemicals can actually
prolong bleeding and can causeyou to use more product. Okay,
so that's also a consideration.
People will say, Hey, Jen, youknow, you sell 10 pads for X
amount of money. There's 28 ofthese pads. You've got to use
(16:47):
twice as many of those. Yeah,you know. So I always use the
analogy, like, you know, a goodpaper towel versus a really
crappy paper towel, right? Yeah,you're using, like you're using
a ton, right? Because it's justmade from cheap synthetic
materials. You get a goodquality one that's made from
(17:09):
maybe all natural ingredientsthat have high absorbency. You
only need to use one, yeah,there's just that to consider
when you're choosing theproduct. So for us, we have a
certified organic cotton coreand cover and string that's
woven in. So we don't useanything else. We don't think
(17:31):
you need to put wax on thestring to stop bleeding. We
don't think you need to usetitanium dioxide to make it
whiter. That's us, yeah, yeah,other companies that that's also
their choice, and it's just as aconsumer to decide what you're
putting in or on your body. ButI love to challenge people to
give it a go for a month. Yeah?
(17:55):
And it'll be an adjustment. Sothis is the other thing. With
tampons, you do need to changethem. Yeah? You know, you
shouldn't have a tampon in yourbody, really, for more than
three hours. I know some peoplesleep in them. It's that's okay
if it's organic, right? If it'sorganic, and depends on your
flow, there are a lot ofvariables here, but I've had
(18:16):
people well, you know, My oldtampon lasted me for eight
hours. First of all, what areyou doing wearing a tampon for
eight hours? Second of all, whydo you think that is? It must
have a chemical in it, because acotton cannot physically do that
once it's once it's full, onceit's fully absorbed, that's it.
(18:36):
Yeah, you need to change it. Soif it's if it's if it's got a
super absorbent and it'scausing, you know that capturing
that locking in in a tampon,it's because there's a product,
there's no magic. Pads is alittle different, because pads
sits below your body. You canhave, you can use certified
organic cotton that is woven in,which helps lock in menstrual
(19:00):
fluid, for sure, but a tampon,yeah, you have to just be
sensible, like, if something'smagic, then why is it magic, you
know? So that's just a questionyou can you can ask yourself.
And for us, we love being anauthentic brand and authentic
company. It's very important towho we are. And just knowing
(19:24):
that, you know, so many of ourcustomers have said, Oh my gosh,
my period pain has eased up. Youknow, people who suffer from
PCOS, they've, you know, reducedtheir symptoms, and the periods
have got shorter. They're like,I used to last a period. Used to
be seven, eight days. Now it'sfour. I'm like, Okay, wow, it's
worth trying. We're not claimingin any way that this is going to
(19:47):
solve all your all yourproblems, but sometimes we kind
of forget to look at the veryobvious thing in front of us,
right? And like you said, busy.
You know, we've got kids andschool and work and partners and
house and all these things. Sohow do we make even have time to
think about, let alone make theright choice? So we just do it.
(20:08):
Do your best. You know, don't behard on yourself about your
choices, but I think being alittle informed along the way
and choosing a product thatsuits you. For us, I'm a huge
advocate of the menstrual cup,yeah, all right. And I think
anyone kind of in the eco space,it's a fantastic option. Anyone
(20:30):
who's busy and running aroundmind blown with a with a cup,
and there are differentmaterials that the cups are made
from. So you will have asilicone menstrual cup, which is
the majority of the cups outthere, very rigid material, and
it's kind of designed to open ina cylinder inside your body.
Ours are a little different. Wemake ours from a medical grade
(20:53):
TPE out of Germany, which isdesigned for internal medicine.
So for us, that was a very safechoice. It's also a little more
malleable, so it actually sitsin your body and doesn't
necessarily pop out into acircle. It just sits there
because your insides are alldifferent shapes. There's a lot
going on in your body. And itcan also be recycled. So TPE is
(21:18):
a rubber so it's recyclable,whereas a silicone, as you know,
cannot, yes. So I think the cupis great choice. To be honest. I
love it personally, and that issomething you can put on the
beginning of the day and goabout your crazy day and not
even think about it, because itwill hold at least a full day's
(21:39):
worth of fluid. Maybe on a heavyday, you might want to change it
once in the day, like empty itonce a day. Yeah.
Katie Kurpanek (21:46):
Oh, man. And this is why I was so excited to
talk with you, Jennifer, justbecause not only do I think that
this education and resourcesneeds to be put out into the
world and talked about so muchmore often, but specifically
with tampon tribe, like mylisteners know I will only
feature products that I amgenuinely, like, in love with
(22:08):
and I and I've done theresearch, and I know that
they're credible and they'retrustworthy, because, like we
said, This is so frustrating tohave to deal with greenwashing
and to, like, sift through allthis confusing information and
false claims. So for mylisteners, I just want to make
this as easy as possible. Solike I said before, if you click
the show notes, just the episodedescription, you'll find all of
(22:30):
the links that you need to notonly follow tampon tribe on
social media and continue toeducate yourself, because
there's so much more that wecould be talking about that we
can't fit into this one littleepisode. But also, you know, go
to their website. Click thatlink that I'll have in there. It
is an affiliate link, giving aheads up, because I am, like a
proud affiliate with tampontribe. I've used their products.
(22:52):
I know how good they are, howgood they work, and how good
they are for the planet. Soclick that link as well, and
you'll be able to shop withtampon tribe, if you're
interested, and check out thevariety of products. Like, like
Jennifer said, There's tampons,but there's menstrual cups,
there's pads. You also havereusable, you know, washable,
period underwear, which I am ahuge fan of. That's my personal
(23:14):
go to. So there's a lot therethat you can find in the show
notes. Oh yeah, there's also anew feature for my listeners, so
I'm going to start talking aboutthis more. I've added a feature
into the show notes where youcan click a link that says
something like, you know, SendKatie a message. I want you to
send me a message and let meknow your thoughts on this,
because it's often like I putout these podcasts and then I
(23:39):
don't, I don't have a way tohear from people what they're
thinking. So this gives you avery clear way to like, send me
a message. Share with me yourthoughts, your questions, your
wonderings around periodproducts and how to do this
sustainably. Share with me likeyour horrible experiences, your
wonderful experiences, and Iwill be able to repost that,
whether it's on social media orshare it in another episode, but
(24:02):
I would love to hear from youall. So this has been such a
wonderful conversation, and it'slike the start of a conversation
that I hope to be ongoing.
Jennifer, I'm so thankful foreverything that you and tampon
tribe are doing and putting outinto the world, and thank you
for coming on the show today toshare with our mamas.
Jennifer, Tampon Tribe (24:21):
Oh, that's such a pleasure, Katie.
It's great to follow you and bepart of you. And if anyone has
questions too, reach out toKatie or myself. We're
available. You know, it'll getto me if you ask, and we're more
than happy to answer anyquestions, because it can be a
minefield. Oh, yeah, so we'llget there.
Katie Kurpanek (24:39):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much, Jennifer!
Jennifer, Tampon Tribe (24:42):
My pleasure! Bye.
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