This week’s blog is about a new intimate cream called Olive and Bee. It has been on the market for over 2 years but I recently attended a conference in Hobart for the Continence Foundation of Australia and Claire Osterstock, an Adelaide based pelvic health physiotherapist and inventor of Olive and Bee, had a space there and I went and had a chat to her and learned more about her product. Soon after I went to an Australian Physiotherapy Association lecture night with the wonderful Dr Susan Evans, a pain doctor who shares her time between Adelaide and Brisbane. Susan was waxing lyrical about Olive and Bee at that lecture night. Fortunately I had asked Claire to write me a blog (when at the conference) and tonight that blog (see below) has popped into my inbox. I started trialling Olive and Bee with patients during this last week and I think it has an important role, particularly for those women suffering with vaginal dryness who are not able to use local oestrogen due to breast cancer concerns. (It is always important to check with your oncologist about using local oestrogen because many times you will be allowed to use it but it is up to the oncologist). Claire’s blog about her journey developing her product follows below.
Claire Osterstock
I am a Physiotherapist in Adelaide, Australia, with a special interest in helping women and men with management of pelvic pain. One part of my roles is to advise on personal lubricants, but I was disappointed with what was currently on the market. Almost all lubricants contain synthetic chemicals and preservatives which sometimes cause irritation. They can interfere with the sensitive vaginal tissues and clients would often report burning and itching after their use. Most women are also not comfortable buying lubricants, mostly due to their names and packaging. So I teamed up with a compounding pharmacist and went about creating a new all-natural intimate cream.
Simply Olive and Bee was born!
26 recipes later, the perfect product was created! Extra virgin Olive Oil was chosen as a base, as it is naturally antibacterial and anti-fungal and is high in antioxidants and is self-preserving without the need to add chemical preservatives. Olive Oil also has a low comedogenic rating, hence it is less likely to block pores than other oils such as coconut oil. It was formulated with beeswax as this is a natural thickener with anti-inflammatory properties. Both substances are anhydrous, which means they have low water activity and therefore don’t grow nasty bacteria, fungi or mould. The low water content also means that they won’t interfere with vaginal pH as other substances can.
Why an Intimate Cream?
We have decided to use the term “Intimate Cream” as opposed to “Personal Lubricant”. Firstly, this has less of a sexual connotation and we feel it makes the purchase easier. Secondly this product has multiple uses apart from intercourse! Women can experience vaginal dryness or itching from several causes such as menopause, breastfeeding, and skin issues. This product is safe to use as a vaginal moisturiser or for moisturising of sensitive mucosal tissues such as a protruding prolapse. It may be used to help insert a pessary, dilator or even a suppository. In fact it can be used anywhere on the body – we also use it as a body moisturiser and heel cream! Those people who need to keep their skin moist, such as people suffering from eczema will find it moisturises their skin to lock the bad bacteria out. It also makes a great massage oil without leaving a greasy feeling on the skin.
100% NATURAL. 100% ORGANIC.
ABSOLUTELY NO chemicals, preservatives, flavours, colourings or additives.
100% Australian Made.
I hope you enjoy my new product and find it soothing and helpful for vaginal tissues.
Thanks Claire for your blog and I hope some women who are suffering with an incompatibility with other lubricants or are after an organic product may be interested in trying Olive and Bee.
It is available from Olive and Bee website.
I am hoping the next blog will have some nuggets from the Melbourne Explain Pain conference (EP3) I am attending at the moment. This is the fourth EP course I have attended and each time there are multiple new gems of information which I hope to share with you.
It has been a sad weekend in Melbourne with the horrific incident in Bourke street.
An incident like this focusses your attention on the importance of saying plenty of “I love you’s” to those who you love when you finish a phone call or leave the house/country and to realise so much about life is luck.
I (foolishly) say to my kids who are overseas travellers “Always keep your wits about you” “Look behind you” “Be aware”…… when they walk around London and other European cities but as I was in the city yesterday to buy some food it was bleeding obvious that when it’s crowded (and it was crowded) there is no opportunity to really see stuff like that coming.
It’s just all about luck.
That restaurant owner of Pellegrini’s (who appears to have just gone out to help someone he thought was in need) was oblivious to the potential horror and was just doing what he’d done hundreds of times before – offered a helping hand to someone.
Unfortunately bad stuff went down and a much-loved man died. Such an abominable waste.
I was amazed at watching the bravery of the police officers and civilians. I hope they are able to keep contributing and don’t suffer too much with the absolute horror of that 10 minutes……….