Of Periods, a Reason to Celebrate Being a Girl and Kotex Design Pads

I have never been so excited to have my period. And no, not for the reason that adults think of.

One of the painful shackles a girl woman has to live through most of her life is her monthly visitor -- the period. As any woman can attest to, it is a disturbance of some sort: we cannot swim{unless using a tampon doesn't bother you, like with me}, we cannot use our pretty undies, for fear of irreparable staining, there is that blasted bloated feeling, the cramps, the mood swings {well, period or no period I guess I'm truly moody}, can't have sex {or IDK, endure the damn bloody mess, pun intended} and basically, how does one ever assume a girl would be fine seeing blood coming out of her every month? I still get terrified sometimes, really.

I recall the very first time I had my period. It pretty much was like most things in my life: I came to have it later than everyone else. So when I had it, I kind of knew what to do, I even had a bunch of napkins stowed in the deepest recesses of my Benetton bag {haha, so 90s!}. But I've always thought pads were boring, so when a brand came up with pads covered in colored sachets {what else do you call 'em?}, I was so happy but the happiness only lasted until such time I just kind of stopped caring because I figured pads will never ever be really exciting, won't they?

Until of course, this came:

Printed, Colored PADS! Can you believe it?

I had no idea what Kotex was launching when they invited us. I just said yes and attended the event because

a) It definitely had something to do with sanitary pads because duh? and

b) I always want to see my blogger girls so why not? I definitely did not count on it being something so revolutionary and girly!

But of course, if I had my way, my designed pad would look something like this:

I would have written a poem or an essay on it, or maybe excerpts from Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues but I wanted to still gab while doodling so I settled for words of affirmations, because truly, going through your period is such a pooper, you need all the affirmatives that you can have. {It's funny though that the design doesn't really matter, they'd get ruined eventually but we don't like simple things, sometimes.}

Now that that time of the month came for me, I've never looked forward to lining my menstruation-proof underwear with pretty pads from

Kotex. Actually, I already did and here are my thoughts upon usage:

• It is ultra - thin and ultra - light so if you usually have a heavy flow, you wouldn't want to use this and change more often than usual or use another pad for the first two days and as the flow dies down, shift to the Kotex Luxe pads. I don't really belong to the heavy flow category {being anemic and all} so this works perfectly for me. I've never been a fan of the bulky pads because I don't like filling them out anyway and I like changing pads often.
• After the launch, I asked Golda Gomez, Brand Manager of Kotex for Kimberly Clark, if the pads being printed would mean it could be irritating and she said no, because the pads are still made of cotton. I tested it out and confirmed: no irritants!
• There are pads that barely stick to the underwear and doesn't hold up as long as the others. Then there are ones which you'd think if they were dipped in too much adhesives that they leave nasty sticker marks on the underwear upon removal. Thankfully, Kotex Luxedid not fall into either of these categories.
• They have wings! IDK 'bout you but wings for pads are a must. I am absolutely an active girl, I move around so much {not sports, hrhr} and I don't want my pads bunching up at any given point. No, sir.
• Kotex Luxe is as classy as it can be. The other day when I had my first signs of my period, I was at a company event and because I barely had time to know what day it was, let alone chances to think of my own cares, I forgot to bring more liners and pads I had to ask for my colleagues. Of course she wasn't aware yet of Kotex Luxe so she handed me a pink pack of pads and incidentally, a group of officemates passed by us as she was handing them to me, all of whom flashed me a knowing smile. If pads came in black packs, as Kotex does, I could avoid situations like that {not that I'm embarrassed but it was totally unnecessary.}
• Having printed pads really cheer up the girl in me. <3 That's enough for me to celebrate being a girl.
• Well, that and having really great wine and conversations with blogger friends after an event. Or even without an event.

Sasha of Stylemanila.com {after two years, we finally meet! I also declared we're going to be really good friends after five seconds of talking to her}, my sister from the same cloth, Shen of Shensaddiction.com and Me of Chronicles of Vanity. Photo taken {and credit} by the ever fasyon Liz Lanuzo, blogger and editor extraordinaire of ProjectVanity.com and The POC's Beauty Channel

Photo (credit) and taken by Sasha Manuel That's Liz, Me {obviously in a non-fishing outfit} and Shen And really, just like love, and friendship, if you've had the caviar of pads, you really wouldn't want to go back to the catfish {thank you, B. Waldorf for the inspiration}. I am so sticking with this one for my monthly fix of pads and girly-ness because it kicks every pad's butt.

Colors, poems and the beauty of the written word,