Organic Cloth Menstrual Pads: Lunapads (Women Issues, Eco-friendly products)

I realized I never reviewed Lunapads! Lunapads are one of the most popular and well known menstrual reusable cloth pads, which are made in Canada. I bought three of the organic cloth menstrual pads about five months ago (when I first bought cloth pads to try).

What I liked about them:

They are really soft (but not as soft as my beloved organic bamboo, hemp, or bamboo-cotton, or hemp-cotton fabrics from other companies. But much softer than the cotton flannel from Gladrags).

The backing is a very effective leak proof cotton canvas material.

When I first got them I liked the idea that you could just change the top liner layer and didn't have to change the whole pad.

Excellent customer service and shipping.

What could be improved:

They were thick (much thicker than my all-in one pads from other companies, though not as thick as the Gladrags). I may just start using them without a liner.

I thought the design was a bit strange. The pad consists of the canvas backing, and then is topped with a couple layers of a cottony soft flannel, and then you can place a liner on top of the whole thing (there are straps to hold the liner in place). But the flaps/'wings' of the organic cotton flannel were not attached to the wings of the backing, so when you snap the backing's wings around the panties, the cottony flannel wings just kind of stick out. Kind of a bulky design. But though it felt a little bulky, the bulkiness can not be seen through clothes. I just looked on the site, and it looks as if maybe they redesigned them, so if you use a wingless liner, maybe you won't have the problem with the wings sticking out like I do. When I bought them many months ago, they were onsale and the organic kind so maybe an older design. I haven't tried a non-organic one so don't know if they are the same design as the organic ones (the pictures on the website are of the non-organic ones and the design looks different than what I have). For the non-organic ones, it looks like there is now only one snap instead of the few snaps I have on mine (the multiple snaps are kind of annoying, so I am glad it looks like they changed it).

The wingless liners just aren't wide enough. I am a small framed woman and have a light-medium flow, but because they aren't wide enough, I end up changing the whole pad instead of the liner, which defeats the whole purpose of the liner concept. I guess I could get the liners with wings, but then would have the wing problem. But for the most part the liners stay put and the pad is comfortable. Though they are not my personal favorites, others may prefer them. I just saw on their site, they now have wider maxis available (and as mentioned above may have redesigned their pads) so I may give them another try sometime in the future.

Other things to consider:

They are a tad pricier than some of the other brands, but when they have sales on their site, they are very good deals.

The organics only come in cream/uncolored. So be sure to add oxyclean to your soak bin so they won't stain.

Overall I think Lunapads are okay. I tend to usually use them at night because of the design though. I'm interested in trying their all-in-one panty liners (so no problems with the wings sticking out!), and maybe another maxi since they may have redesigned them (or at least that's what it looks like from the pictures). They also have luna cups and lunapanties, I haven't used these but other women I've talked to have and love them.