Setting standards for sustainable periods
The Mooncup menstrual cup was born of a desire to drastically reduce the waste produced by throwaway sanitary products. Created in 2002, we produce the world’s first medical grade silicone menstrual cup: putting an end to the waste, expense and discomfort of throwaway tampons and pads and setting the standard for sustainable period care.
Su Hardy is the woman to thank for the invention of the Mooncup menstrual cup. She first came across a menstrual cup when she was travelling around Australia in 2000 with her husband, young daughter, a bucket and stash of washable nappies. On her return home to Brighton, Su started selling an imported rubber cup to friends and friends-of-friends and soon realised that she wasn’t the only one ready for a better period. When she discovered that some had a reaction to the latex in this rubber cup, she researched hypoallergenic alternatives. So, in the Spring of 2002, Mooncup® was born and manufacturing in the UK started.
Su built up the company from her spare room, working around the clock with a few friends to build Mooncup Ltd to what it is today: a multi-award-winning, ethical, international business. Mooncup Ltd became employee-owned in 2014 when Su was planning her retirement. It made perfect sense that a company manufacturing a sustainable product should adopt a more sustainable business model too.
Busting the period taboo
Reusable period products were seriously niche when we first started. There was no category for sustainable period products on supermarket period aisles. To bring reusable period products to the mainstream, we needed to bust some taboos.
Our ground-breaking advertising campaigns on the London Underground, guerrilla stickering of toilets around the country and powerful word of mouth campaigns made the ‘Mooncup’ a household name (at least among menstruating folk) and paved the way for reusable period products around the world.
Thankfully, the Mooncup menstrual cup is no longer a secret, with millions of us freed from using tampons and pads. From the beginning, it’s been the real Mooncup users who have helped us to smash the menstrual cup taboo. From early day whispers to Whatsapp groups with sisters, the Mooncup secret has spread like wildfire!
We are using the power of our brand and business for good. While we know that the Mooncup can’t change the world, we hope and believe that by helping people around us see our everyday choices differently, we can create change.
Here are some of the key moments in the business’s story…
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- Thanks to Su, the Mooncup® is born in 2002! Stickering and leafleting begins. Our packaging sure has come a long way…
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- Every year since 2002 we’ve set up our stall at Glastonbury, stickered the toilets and chatted with thousands of curious people about periods, vaginas and environment.
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- The first retailer to stock the Mooncup on-shelf: Infinity Foods, Brighton, in 2002.
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- in 2004, Mooncup goes multilingual as its popularity grows in Europe .
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- Due to popular demand, Boots starts stocking the Mooncup in 2005. The new packaging was designed to normalise our game changing reusable option: to sit ‘quietly’ next to tampons and pads on the ‘feminine hygiene’ aisle.
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- Mooncup Ltd launches a unique advice service run by nurses, in 2005.
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- …one giant leap for Mooncup! First full-page Broadsheet coverage in The Times Newspaper, in 2006.
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- In 2007, our charity work begins with UK humanitarian charity, Grassroots, supporting Tanzanian women with the Mooncup.
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- Taboo-bashing, powerful period documentary, The Moon Inside You, sells out to audiences at Brighton Fringe Festival in 2010.
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- Our “Love Your Vagina” campaign in 2010 caused a stir! It saw massive posters around the London Underground featuring names we use to lovingly describe our vaginas.
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- The UK is encouraged to Love its Beaches and vaginas in 2011.
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- 2012 -10 years of smashing the period taboo and revolutionising the menstrual product industry – if that ain’t a cause for celebration, what is?!
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- In 2013, we decided to take the battle to the toilets- our natural habitat! Watch the Mooncup crew take on team Tampon in a rap battle for periods everywhere.
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- Menstrual cups are a revolutionary way to manage your period, right? So what about a revolutionary way of running a business? Mooncup Ltd becomes officially Employee-Owned in 2014.
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- 2015-17- when the period taboo begins to shift?
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- The Mooncup Period Drama campaign, 2017. The owner of the horse originally casted, didn’t want his animal associated with “such a product”. It hits TV screens for the first time in early 2017 – a first for Mooncup Ltd!
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- Comedian Lily Phillips sings about her love for the Mooncup in a giant Mooncup cocktail glass in 2017.
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- The Mooncup menstrual cup well and truly lands into the fashion world as it hits the screens of international online retailer ASOS, in 2018.
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- The Mooncup menstrual cup well and truly lands into the fashion world as it hits the screens of international online retailer ASOS, in 2018.
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- Mooncup annual beach clean in Brighton with the Marine Conservation Society – 2019.
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- In 2020 the state schools in England are given are budget to offer free period products to their pupils, including the Mooncup!
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- In 2020 we invited six #RealMooncupUsers to Brighton to chat about their experience with the Mooncup – and all things period.
