Category: Articles

Did you know that more than 140,000 people with vaginas in the U.S. are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year? It’s not too late to make a resolution to care for your cervix! In fact, that’s exactly why January is designated as Cervical Health Awareness Month.

Your cervix is the lower part of your uterus that connects it to your vagina. It looks like a donut with a tiny hole in the middle—that hole lets period blood out and sperm in. The cervix also stretches open (dilates) during birth. You may be able to touch it if you put your fingers deep in your vagina. It feels squishy but a little firm, kind of like the tip of your nose.

To keep your cervix healthy and prevent cervical cancer (according to Planned Parenthood), it’s important to:

Get Tested
A Pap Smear is a type of test where your doctor or nurse opens the walls of your vagina with a speculum to collect cells from your cervix for HPV screening and other cytology testing. In most cases, cervical cancer takes years to develop; having a regular Pap smear detects these changes long before they become cancerous.

Get the HPV Vaccine
The HPV vaccine—known by the brand name Gardasil 9—is a safe and effective way to protect against the types of HPV that cause cervical cancer, genital and throat cancers, and genital warts. Anybody of any gender, from ages 9–45, can get the HPV vaccine. But it’s most effective when you get it years before you start having sexual contact, which is why it’s a good idea if you’re a parent or guardian to consider getting your child vaccinated around ages 11–12.

Practice Safer Sex
Using condoms or internal condoms during vaginal and anal sex, and dental dams during oral sex, you can help lower your chances of getting and spreading HPV. Condoms and dental dams also help prevent other STDs, like chlamydia and gonorrhea. Those infections can cause cervicitis, which is inflammation of the cervix.

Remember to use a latex and silicone safe lubricant like Smooth Operator whenever you’re using condoms!

Somehow, it’s been nearly three years since COVID-19 brought the entire globe to a grinding halt. While employers have rolled out return-to-office plans and toilet paper is back in stock, our dating and sex lives are still adjusting to the new normal.

For one, there has been a huge increase in dating app use—OkCupid reported a 700% increase in usage, and Tinder broke its own record for the most swipe activity in one day at 3 billion swipes!

With a shift to online or app-based dating, Match.com’s Singles in America report says that 53% of singles on their site are open to a long-distance relationship, up from 35% last year. 

The virtual trend hasn’t just been for finding dates, either, video dates exploded during the pandemic, with Bumble reporting a 70% increase in video calls on their platform. 

More virtual encounters, lingering hesitation around vaccination status and risk, and the rising cost of dating (up 40% over the last 10 years!) has led to a decrease in the amount of sex people are having overall and an increase in people looking for a long-term relationship rather than casual hookups.

The sex people are having, though, is only getting better! Over one-third of singles say they’re more sexually empowered now than they were before the pandemic and 38% say that they’re more interested in exploring their body and sexuality.

Looking to do some exploration of your own?

Our products might be just what you’re looking for.

It’s not just chapped lips and cracked skin, winter can also have a big impact on our libido.

For starters, the winter’s lack of sunlight—and thus vitamin D—can take a toll on our bodies in more ways than one. Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.) is linked to this decreased daylight and affects over 10% of the population. Even in people without documented S.A.D., it’s common for libido to be lower as energy levels in general dip this season.

Additionally, the colder weather not only makes us less interested in stripping down, but it can also cause real fatigue that makes sex tiring and even uncomfortable. It’s not just the weather that’s got you down, either.

Testosterone levels start to fall from peaking in the fall and estrogen levels are typically at their lowest in winter (for folks not on hormonal birth control), causing difficulty in both getting turned on at all and reaching orgasm.

If that wasn’t enough, tiring family gatherings and a prolonged increase in alcohol intake can cause lasting mental stress on top of these physical and hormonal shifts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While things like light therapy lamps and vitamin D supplements can help you find balance in the winter months, don’t despair if you notice your libido dwindling—you’re not alone!

On the plus side, all that time inside can lead to even more time between the sheets 😉

Squirting is a colloquial term used to describe when a person with a vulva releases fluid from the urethra or vulva area during arousal. While some components of urine have been found in squirt, experts disagree on whether it should be defined as pee, ejaculate, a combination, or something else. Some people report the sensation of squirting to be similar to having an orgasm, while others say that the two feel completely different.

Just like not everyone experiences orgasm, not everyone squirts. ​​Some studies estimate that anywhere from 10-54% of people with vaginas have experienced squirting.

The terms “squirting” and “ejaculation” are often used interchangeably for people with vaginas, but that isn’t necessarily accurate. Recent research and many experts now lean towards the two being distinct phenomena, associated with different types and volumes of secretions. Squirting, it seems, is not necessarily connected to orgasm, but can include fluids classified as ejaculate.

One reason why there is still so much left unknown about squirting—clinically and culturally—is the well-documented lack of research on pleasure for people with vaginas, coupled with the stigma and censorship of these discussions. Additionally complicating our understanding, pornography tends to exaggerate… well, everything. These scenes create the impression that squirting always involves large amounts of fluid. The reality is that it’s different for everyone, and small amounts of fluid are normal.

While there’s no surefire way to induce squirting, you can increase your chances of a mindblowing orgasm by:

– pairing internal and external stimulation,
– strengthening your pelvic floor and vaginal wall muscles,
– and using lots of lube, of course 😉

Whether you squirt, ejaculate, orgasm, or do none (or all!) of the above, you’re totally normal and we’re here to support you. We believe that happy vaginas make for better, more intimate sex, and our plant-based formulas are designed to make vaginas happy.

Go ahead and get satisfied your way. Your body, your pleasure, your rules. #YouKnow

Do you experience painful sex? You’re not alone! According to statistics from the American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians, 75% of people with vaginas experience pain during sex at some point in their lifetimes. Sometimes this pain can stem from a lack of lubrication (Smooth Operator can help!), while more persistent pain can be indicative of more serious issues. It’s important to pay attention to your body and any symptoms that you experience during sex.

If you’re experiencing pain:

During external stimulation or superficial penetration

This can feel like a burning, ripping, localized pain. Any condition that responds negatively to friction could cause this; such as hemorrhoids or scarring from surgery or childbirth. Conditions that decrease lubrication of the vagina and vulva such as breastfeeding, menopause, and hormone replacement therapy can also make this type of sex uncomfortable.

Only during certain positions

If you notice a relationship between certain positions and pain, try rocking your hips or adjusting your knees to see if relaxing your pelvic floor changes the sensation. The pelvic floor muscles are slack when the legs are together and the hips are neutral and are maximally stretched when the hips and knees are flexed and the knees are moved away from the body, like in a deep squat or in a happy baby pose.

During deeper penetration/thrusting

This might manifest as a dull ache or muscle cramp, which may be hard to locate, even reaching into the abdomen or hips. This kind of pain could be due to overactive pelvic floor muscles, or problems with the hips or the low back. The hip muscles share a fascial plane with the pelvic floor muscles—because they’re physically connected, one has the ability to affect the other. Deeper and internal self-massage may be helpful or you may want to consider seeing a pelvic floor therapist. If your pain is only provoked with very deep penetration, keep things comfortable by trying positions or modifiers that allow you to control your partner’s depth. And did we mention Smooth Operator??

~~~

Remember, it’s always a good idea to talk to a doctor, gynecologist, or pelvic floor therapist if sex has become too painful for you to enjoy, but we hope these tips—and our all-natural products—help you have a happier vagina and better sex! After all, Prevention didn’t rank us “best for pain relief” for nothing 😉

Partnered or solo, toys can absolutely enhance your sexy time. From vibrators to dildos, butt plugs to strokers, there’s a toy out there for every kind of play. Now, toys AND lube? That’s a match made in heaven!

Here are some helpful tips to keep your health and your pleasure at 100% when playing with toys and lube:

FOR SILICONE SAFETY

Silicone is a commonly used material for toys. It’s durable, non-porous, long-lasting, safe for sensitive skin, and soft to the touch while staying structurally firm. The catch? It’s susceptible to breaking down when in contact with silicone-based lubricants. Keep your favorite toy in mint condition while staying wet by pairing with a water-soluble lubricating serum like Smooth Operator.

FOR STICKING IT HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE

If you’re using your toy both anally and vaginally, remember to clean thoroughly between insertions, or use a new condom each time, to keep bacteria from transferring between your anus and vagina. Smooth Operator is both silicone- AND latex-safe, so you can keep it healthy and silky at the same time.

 

Let’s face it: this time of year is stressful. The days are getting darker and colder, and the upcoming holidays have everyone feeling frazzled. It’s the perfect moment to take it down a notch and invest in rituals of self-care. Here are the top three ways we’ll be proactively caring for ourselves this season:

ELEVATE BATH TIME

The soothing effects of hot water are well documented. Help stress-tightened muscles to loosen and the mind to unwind by dedicating time to a hot bath or a steamy shower.

MOVE THAT BEAUTIFUL BODY

Exercise is a potent stress-reducer double-whammy, helping to both decrease stress hormones in the body and to release endorphins (a.k.a mood boosters). No need to run a marathon, but be sure to get up and get moving throughout the day.

SURROUND YOURSELF WITH SOOTHING SCENTS

Some research indicates that aromatherapy can actually alter brain waves. Try some essential oils, candles or teas for relaxation and let your senses take over.

And what do all these things have in common? They’re perfect companions to a daily Happy Clam self-care ritual, of course!

Being born and raised in the Bay Area of California, I forget that not a lot of people grew up celebrating holidays like 4/20 at their local park or aspiring to write for a company that sells weed lube, but hey, we are who we are.

California does things differently than other states—California was the first state to legalize medical cannabis in 1996, and the fifth to legalize recreational cannabis in 2016. In 2018, the cannabis industry brought in an estimated $345 million in state tax revenue from cannabis sales alone. In 2019, the number of state felony cannabis arrests went down 27%. 

And yet: California still enacts racially targeted policing (surveillance, harassment and arrests) of Black and Brown communities. And all that money being made on cannabis? It’s not going to those equity applicants and communities hit hardest by the War on Drugs as was originally promised by Californian politicians.  

Meanwhile, in the rest of the country, someone is arrested for a marijuana offense every 58 seconds on average (country-wide info from the Drug Policy Alliance). According to the American Civil Liberties Union, as of 2018 cannabis still accounts for 50 percent of ALL drug arrests in the United States to this day. 

How does that make sense, you ask? Simple, it doesn’t.

Who’s the Real ‘Menace’ to Society?

How is it that at any given time, I can download an app on my phone and within 30 minutes have up to an ounce of weed legally delivered to my doorstep—while at the same time, just two states over, some kid, likely black, is being arrested and sentenced to time in federal prison after getting caught with half of a joint in their pocket that they weren’t even actively smoking.

Upon realizing the dichotomy between the legalization of cannabis in some states, and the continued criminalization of it in other parts of the country, a lot of us want to point the finger at Richard Nixon, who in 1971 declared that drug abuse was America’s “Public Enemy Number One.”

When Nixon ordered that cannabis be categorized as a Schedule I controlled substance, he did so despite scientifically based recommendations that cannabis be decriminalized for adult use (see the Shafer Commission).

And before Nixon, it was Harry Anslinger, founding head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who came up with reefer madness and duped Congress into passing the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act, which essentially marked the dawn of federal cannabis prohibition. 

Anslinger, the man who started all this, used to publicly say things like, “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” 

Crazy, right?

For nearly a century, the so-called War on Drugs has single-handedly led to a mass incarceration epidemic, political destabilization and corruption, and unprecedented violence to Black and Brown communities.

Millions of lives have been, and continue to be, negatively impacted by the current drug policies and classifications. The politicians and bureaucrats said they wanted to create a ‘drug-free’ country—which has never existed in the history of civilization—and instead, they created an industrial prison complex.

Focus on These Unanswered Questions

So how is it that we’re still having this conversation? Why are people holding on to cannabis fear and reluctance in 2022? Why are we still punishing non-violent cannabis offenders? 

After all, this is a plant we’re talking about here. One that has been medically proven to heal and transform lives in ways that traditional western medicine has failed us.

How is it that in a country of “arguably” some of the most educated human beings of our time, we allow failed Nixon-era policies to remain the status quo? Are we as a country so incredibly inept to not be able to see this for the gross injustice that it is? 

Shouldn’t drugs be considered a public health issue rather than a criminal issue? 

Why are we letting bureaucrats play doctor? Why do they get to make medical decisions without having a medical license? Isn’t that against the law?

Why do we still allow them to throw harmless people in jail and to destroy families?

The War on Drugs has warped every institution in the U.S., and it should have never happened in the first place.

Maybe the greater crime – knowing what we know now – is allowing it to continue.

So, what do we do now? Where are the reparations for the millions of lives that have been negatively affected by this series of tragic injustices carried on from one presidential administration to the next ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first year in office?

Let There Be No Confusion

While there are a handful of initiatives taking shape in California and other states to ensure people from disproportionately impacted communities have a fair chance to participate in the legal industry, there is still a long way to go on the national and global scale as far as reparations are concerned.

The War on Drugs was enacted not because drug use was the number one threat, but because Black and Brown people were. 

Let there be no confusion or question as to what the driving force behind these laws and policies has always been, punishment, separation, and the disempowerment of Black and Brown communities.

If a solution to the “drug problem” was really what they were hoping to solve, you’d think, they’d ease up after a decade or two of failure. Maybe we’d start to think of some new ways to go about the issue?

If you want to eradicate drug abuse, you treat the addiction with rehabilitation – not punishment. They’ve been doing this successfully in Portugal for years. 

Now, if your goal is to disempower a whole generation of people, well, you over-police their communities and imprison all of their men and boys – never actually providing them with the help or rehabilitation they need – so that ultimately the family unit is fractured beyond repair and the cycle of struggle and lack continues to rear its ugly head.

Today, as women, as cannabis consumers, and as people of color, we have to decide if we’re going to continue to wait on the same people to get their shit together and make room for us at the table. 

Seems a little naive to me… 

Becoming Agents of Change

Don’t wait on others to empower you when they have no interest in seeing you thrive. Wake up sleeping beauty – you are your own damn prince charming.

Javier Hasse, cannabis journalist and author of Start Your Own Cannabis Business, said it best: “There is still a lot to do to make the cannabis industry really inclusive. As we build a new industry that reflects the ethos of our time, it’s important to emphasize equality and inclusion in all its forms.”

And that’s the big question: What do we the people do about the vast inconsistencies between the booming cannabis industry and the criminalization of cannabis everywhere else in the world? 

As women and as people of color let us continue to educate ourselves on the complexities of this industry so that we can put ourselves in positions to create more opportunities for the empowerment of our people.

I am not here claiming to have all the answers or solutions, but I am here to provide you with an opportunity to wake up and empower yourself and your communities. 

We need to look in the mirror and seriously ask ourselves, are we going to remain victims of circumstance or are we going to be active agents of change?

Sincerely yours,

Imán B. Lewis

Some men have vaginas.

This has become a mantra for me and is of *peak* utility when occupying binary gendered spaces like public restrooms, locker rooms, and the occasional visit to the OBGYN.

The first year into my medical transition, when I began navigating spaces designated for “Men,” the cis-normativity of it all left me feeling energetically and emotionally castrated. In most public spaces, especially non-LGBTQ designated ones, I passed as a cis-male. The combination of hormone replacement therapy (through weekly intramuscular Testosterone injections) and a double mastectomy, commonly known as “top surgery,” had transformed my gender presentation to a notably masculinized one. But the heaviness left over from decades of feeling insufficient in a “female” expression, and incongruent to a “male” one, can stubbornly and internally cling to us.

In bathroom stalls, I often found myself in a stressful squatted position—and not just because I was perfecting my Utkatasana while pooping… though I’m down for that productive-sounding combination (I’m a slut for wellness tbh)! Rather, I was overcome with a tense mixture of relief and anxiety, enjoying the pleasures and affirmation of emptying my bladder in the Men’s Restroom, and terrified that the direction of my feet on the floor, and specificities of how my stream of urine “sounded” when hitting the bowl, would all amplify my willful and intentional deception towards my fellow men.

The question of deception proved to be a powerful framework that, coupled with years of therapy and the support of my loving families, I’ve been able to positively reorient as a circular mind-body-spiritual dialogue: I live in a society that has deceived itself into thinking that moving through the world as a man means—and is dependent on—being phallic-ly endowed and too often, guided by toxic, big dick energy. But reminding myself that #notallmen have cis-dicks, and some men have vaginas with big clit energy, meant leaning away from self-deception and instead, leaning into a form of consciousness that invited me to exist in my body in a more truthful, less fragmented, way.

In her endlessly quotable book, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit describes the two disparate meanings of the term lost. “Losing things is about the familiar falling away, [while] getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing.” The simultaneous and, at times, contradictory experience of transitioning genders can be exquisitely described as both losing and getting lost. I chose to lose a part of myself that was familiar, yet harmful, and in turn, have stepped into the experience of getting lost—a sometimes terrifying, often affirming, but always curious journey.

I feel acutely, though not painfully, lost in my exploration of how my body consensually, affirmatively, and intimately can exist in relation to both cis-women and men. The familiar solidarity I had long enjoyed with women, rarely linked through our gender expressions, or sexualities, but rather, a shared experience of moving through the world with vaginas, had shifted into a lonely, unfamiliar, and insecure territory. Likewise, my fraught and inherently politicized relationship to the cis-male body, long marked by repressed envy, disguised as, and reduced to, sexual desire, is now marked by and forced to contend with dominant expectations of masculinity and a performative, #nohomo attitude that I flippantly and naively mock. Currently, I am holding more questions than answers on this topic, and as my therapist likes to remind me, I can enjoy just being in the excited state of exploring “a wide spectrum of possibilities for intimacy,” right now.

At the risk of sounding like sponsored content, I want to raise up Quim’s Happy Clam Everyday Oil for becoming an unexpected page in my personal field guide to getting lost. My body’s shifting relationship to that of cis-women’s feels a little less isolated and a lot more connected when I can share a pump or three with a friend or intimate partner. Our vaginas may differ in shape and hormonal charges, but a CBD-enhanced, moisturizer is a luxurious middle ground, warm and spacious enough for a diversity of big clit energies.

xoxo,
Max—ambivalent academic, powered by nootropics, adaptogens, and air4air energy

I think about kegels maybe once a week. I think that’s about where kegels are in the culture, no? Somewhere between, Am I supposed to be doing these in my office chair? And, Kegel weights?? Cosmo wants me to stick pastel green weights in there like I’m Rhonda A-rousey?? (sorry).

First off, let’s dispel that loose vagina myth one more time for the people in the back. Give it the Cardi B treatment. The AOC treatment. Clapping emojis implied. No amount of sex loosens your vagina. Period. If you refuse to trust a reddit thread, ask a trusted male friend (or someone who has sex with vaginas). Preferably when he isn’t around that Kevin Federline-looking friend of his with the Supreme boxers. Tight pussy isn’t a thing. You can thank the good ol’ patriarchy for centuries of tight pussy (aka virginal, chaste, child bride) mania. A collective anxiety kept alive for the sake of porn search bars, vaginal surgeons, that horrifying opening scene in Kids, and the sale of jade eggs. (Of course, childbirth will likely leave it hanging loose, and many doctors and midwives do suggest various exercises to help you tighten up your pelvic floor muscles to help regain bladder control).

But the last time I thought about them I was admittedly on some Rhonda A-rousey shit. Somehow I had sex during a nasty case of bronchitis this week because men are insatiable sex monsters… No, obviously, it was me, I lost all self-control and seduced my partner with this kind of whisper purr thing I improvised through suppressed coughs. Something sly that said: Me? A death trap?

Then, in a delightful moment of sexual slapstick. At, er, peak pleasure a violent cough exploded out of me, shot my guy out like a cannon, but I caught it in the knick of time. Clung onto it— and his dick— like a prize claw and sucked that thing right back up.

First thought–Bow down bitch, I am so powerful!! Second thought, how did my vagina get so powerful? Have I been doing my kegels? I had not–never had–but now the thought was intriguing.

The main benefit Cosmo and the like tout out is a better orgasm for yourself and your partner. I’m weary of any mindset that treats an orgasm as a work hard, play hard mechanism.

It’s hard enough to get out of your head to solve that Rubik’s cube of a thing in the first place, so I prefer to explore the area without strategy…without a “gains=better sex” mindset, even if next-level orgasms are in reach, as advertised.

So I say, stay with the hippie stuff—fantasies of boa constricting bad boy dicks into oblivion aside, your vagina is more or less your body’s physical center. The sensation of familiarity and control over the tiniest muscles at my center felt like a useful anchor, and a good starting point to explore what else kegels could do for me. A lot of yoga classes and mindful meditation enthusiasts will tell you to start with becoming physically aware of every part of your body, to reacquaint yourself with it.

Use your kegels to reacquaint yourself with your sexual center. Sure, this could mean flexing all those little gals with your partner inside you, and maybe you guys will colonize a whole new orgasmic planet. It can also mean checking in with the space station and taking a breath with the whole team before all hands in, and blast off. Enjoy!

Mindfully Yours,
Neha Talreja, aka Rhonda A-rousey