Ra ra skirt

[slemslempike]

Previously on slemslempike, I made a post about tampons with skirts.

I initially locked it because of paranoia about Tampax hunting me down for breaking the rather loose security thing I ticked and leaving me in a pool of (blue) blood). Now they are advertising it, according to notmarcie, so I needn't have, but since there are comments I will leave it locked, in case people didn't want to share.

Anyway, further to that post, in which I signed up for a trial, I have received my box of clothed tampons. I am to use them as I normally would, not allow my friends and family to use them, and send back any unused ones. They came with a sheaf of informative leaflets, the first of which told me brightly that these tampons were definitely not harmful! At all! The rest of the leaflets were mostly warning me about the dangers of Toxic Shock Syndrome.

Anyway, my lady time is not yet upon me, and so until I can report properly on the actual experience of using a tampon with a skirt, I bring you the experiments of slemslempike and the frilly tampon.




So here we have a filly tampon. It's less of a skirt, if you ask me, and more of a kind of useless bunch of material at the base. So there's the main bulk of cotton (or whatever it is) that is the tampon, and then over that there's another covering, which goes right over it and then has excess material at the string. It's sort of on one side of the string, if you can see that.

For my first experiment I got a glass of water, coloured it with red food colouring for verisimilitude, and dipped the tampon into it until the top half was quite heavily saturated, and then turned it upside down.



This wasn't a very good way of doing it, it turns out. The skirt thing held off bravely for a while, but then was entirely red. So I tried a different thing. I got a small toiletries bottle, filled that with blood-substitute, wedged the tampon in the mouth, and turned it upside down.



This worked better! Although I got a bit bored of holding it upside down, and wished I were a proper scientist with clamps and things. This time, the skirt thing did hold off for a bit longer, though I'm not sure how much time that would buy you, but then succumbed gradually.



So. Not that much of an advance, you might think. But I beg you to note that in both experiments the string remained spotless. At last an end to tampon-string-staining misery!

Now, bring on the bleeding, and I can try it out for realz.

Comments

[notmarcie.livejournal.com]

Very good scientific work. I think I might scout about in Superdrug this week to see if I can buy a box for my own scientific experiments as I have a normal tampon at home. We need to do a side by side comparison I think.
I am still debating how to test the scented ones for the ability to mask "odour" without having to actually use it during my special lady time.

[edithmatilda.livejournal.com]

What actual difference is some flimsy porous stuff supposed to make, frilly or not? I am confused.

Maybe it is there to make the process of removing the thing nastier.

I am just grateful that scented tampons are not the norm in the UK. I lurk in that bit of Boots sometimes to see if the Mooncup section is still nicely at visible height (yes, very sad and a bit creepy, I know) and I have yet to see anything that sinister. I live in fear, though.

[jekesta]

You don't need clamps and things to be a real scientist, because better than that you have a tiny monkey orangutan in the background which you are probably experimenting on AS WE SPEAK. Dude.

Generally you bleed all the time at the moment, don't you? Probably we won't have to wait long for pROPER BLOOD EXPERIMENTS. Good.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I saw an ad for those on the telly. It was a horrid demeaning thing involving a woman with a very short white skirt tucked into her pants, with the tagline 'it could have been worse' since, presumably, the pants could have been stained with the BLOOD OF HER SHAMEFULNESS.

I haven't had fewer cramps since I started using the mooncup, but it is so brilliant in other ways that I don't care.

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

When I first saw these pictures I thought you had actually posted pictures of your used tampons, and I was in awe of you.

Putting that initial reaction aside, however, I will note that although I have never been concerned about whether or not the string on my tampon gets "stained", I do care about whether it gets wet with blood, because then when I pull a tampon out blood gets all over my hands. And not that they can't and won't be washed, of course, but I just don't really like it. This may be because... actually, I'll wait for you to ask me further questions before I explain my problem here, as it involves rather detailed descriptions of my own menstrual issues.

Anyway, though. Your original post about this business is kind of horrifying, the questions they asked.

[tornyourdress.livejournal.com]

I so wish that you were a tampon advertiser lady.

[aldenmacrae.livejournal.com]

1. 'Lady time.' Heeeee.

2. THANK YOU FOR USING RED LIQUID. Seriously. I can't stand it when advertisers use blue liquid!

3. So, does the skirt, um... no, ok, I have no real questions about the skirt because I am mostly just going: ~boggle~ at it.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

Science NEEDS you, Clare. And that thing looks diabolical. I think that's not so much a tampon with a skirt as a sort of half unravelled tampon that they never finished making. DON'T TRY IT. Well, do, but then write awful responses to it. Good.

[ex-rita.livejournal.com]

What did you use as a blood substitute?

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

I love the experimenting and am very impressed :)

How about THIS for a tampon?

[pisica.livejournal.com]

http://www.americaninventorspot.com/security_system