at first I thought it's not my cup of tea...turns out I was wrong.

a long overdue post/review/afterthoughts on the reusable period products - a journey which started less than a year ago, yet I can hardly remember the times before that... bahaha that sounds like an introduction to LOTR-style adventure story...

now you squeamish people may want to stop reading, this post may or may not contain TMI and for sure there'll be a lot of period-talk...

 anyway... I've promised to tell you more once I got a lil' bit more experience with the cloth pads and so here I am...  but let's start with a funny picture ...

so... since I wrote the first post where I answered some of my own questions from the times before I got my first set of cloth pads, my collection grew.

As you already know at first I had PIMP (party in my pants) and Yurtcraft pads.

Then I decided to order some more .

Now, I was completely satisfied with the quality and function and design of the pads I had but even though I loved everything about them, I've decided to try yet another brand.

I've been asking myself (while doing my research about different brands - why people using cloth pads have all those different brands - if you love one kind and don't have any complains, why do you keep trying new ones???) - and here I was, browsing fabric options in yet another online shop.

The Silver Liner - why? 

well, they have very reasonable prices, incredibly cute fabrics and a bit different shape of the pads. I wanted to try minky and they have pretty cute minky prints...And it became my favorite.

so.. here's what I've learned about cloth pads and MY PERSONAL PREFERENCES (witch may not apply to you - it's just my point of view)

-I LOVE minky fabric for night pads (it's a little bit too bulky for the day if you wear skinny jeans or something similar. Minky washes super easily - no... whatever you're thinking right now, it's 100 times easier - promise. No stains and no scrubbing.

-10 inch pads are fine for night and heavy days and I like the length also for medium absorbency pads. 7inch pads for light days + for liners as a back-up for my Ruby cup (I'll get to that later). I do have one 6 inch liner which works just fine but I'm a bit paranoid so 7 inches to keep my mind at peace.

-I choose cotton for all my day-pads. Flannel didn't work that well for me - as it shows a little bit that it's been washed few times - and I like my pads to look as new as possible 

...that's pretty much all of my new "findings" ...

I was staying in a caravan at the lake side with my friend and we've  (unexpectedly) decided to stay 4 days longer - eek - for me that meant emergency shopping and a day of disposable pads - eeew, I hope I never have to do that again...

........

Ruby cup 

I've been thinking about getting a menstrual cup for a long time... trying to decide if I should try one or not, the idea itself seemed even crazier to me than cloth pads before I tried them. 

how on Earth was I supposed to get something that big in there????  so the answer was "No." for a long 10 months I was content with my cloth pads. Happy period. (Pun intended).

But one day, my friend who is working with Femme International posted a link on facebook, telling people about Ruby cup. And I was instantly hooked. 

What Ruby cup company does, is that for every cup you buy, they donate one to a girl from Kenya.

This may not seem as such a big deal at first, but did you know that period is number one reason why girls miss school? and missed classes and worse results matter, if you can't take your education for granted. 

And can you imagine getting your period and having no pads or tampons and no way to just run to the store to get some? what would you do?

And so I thought, this is good enough reason to try it. If it doesn't work for me, at least I'll help a girl who needs a way to manage her own period but doesn't have any other options.

I've been "learning" to use the Ruby cup at vacation in a camp. Now, you may think that camping at the sea side isn't the best place to try use the cup for the first time - and believe me I did have few moments of pure panic in the shower there - but that's probably TMI... it can get tricky at first but if I could do it, you can too.

Ruby- cup has awesome FAQ section on their site, they have blog with very interesting articles and great instructions. If you've been thinking about getting a menstrual cup yourself but you didn't decide yet, check out this one. And if this idea is new to you, go read about it.

There's one negative thing about the cup. I can no longer choose from all those cute fabrics for cloth pads as the cup will last for 10 years and I have enough liners (which I still use as back-up - paranoid me) ...other than that, 100% awesome.

should you have any questions, please do leave a comment or send me an e-mail (contact - on top of my blog). I'll try to answer them.