To think more women want unscented sanitary towels than scented ones?

[SinkGirl]

It comes up here often. And maybe there are some women who want scented towels (no judgement if you do!).

But I had to buy some pads in an emergency today and they were all scented. In the supermarket I have to hunt out the only ones that aren’t scented. It’s bad enough I can’t get Always Infinity anywhere any more but this is inexcusable - the scented ones literally burn my skin, I can’t be alone.

Who are these companies using for their focus groups? Surely women aren’t saying “yes, make all your towels scented please!”... are they?

So time for vote. If you had a choice and if all else was equal would you...
YANBU - prefer unscented pads
YABU - prefer scented pads

Scented pads are nasty and everywhere with no warnings on the label! Utterly evil things. Genuinely wistful for the days you could wander into any shop and grab any brand or type of pads in an emergency. Now it's a constant battle of sniffing the bloody things to make sure they haven't turned to the dark side. I don't want an itchy yeast laden vag, red raw with a horrible artificial scent! Horrible itchy evil argh!

Seriously they should just be banned. Foul foul foul.

YANBU - I appear to be mildly allergic to whatever chemicals they use to create the scent

Absolutely bloody hate scented and they bring me out in a rash. Worst is when your usual brand goes scented without telling you. I use washable pads now

I have also switched to Natracare

Another vote for Natracare! Unscented and don’t have the horrible sweaty plasticky feel of normal pads. I buy them online. I don’t know how absorbent the heavier ones are though as my periods are quite light.

Also I just did a market research survey about pads and made my feelings about scented pads clear so I’m trying to do my bit

YANBU. The scented ones are horrid. I tend to buy supermarket own brand ones, as they’re largely all unscented!

My dd uses reusables. No scent at all obviously.

Reusables here too, they’re so much more comfortable. And after the initial outlay, a hell of a lot cheaper.

I’d love to use cloth if it worked for me as I spend a lot on pads but so far have had no joy, even after getting recommendations.

Pads where the top stays wet / stuff leeches out when you’re sitting just destroy my skin, which goes for all the cloth I’ve tried and most disposables too. This is why i practically had a party when Infinity came out as the foam literally pulls everything to the bottom layer until it’s almost full and the top fabric is so soft. But yeah, hard to find now.

Will try some natracare as haven’t tried those.

I wouldn’t say they should be removed from the market as clearly from this thread / poll there are a small number of women who prefer them. It doesn’t make sense though to have so many scented products, to the exclusion of unscented ones, if the vast majority of women react to them / hate them (or just aren’t bothered either way).

I've used Natracare and another organic and found them to be terrible... Just like a was of tissue in your pants that doesn't absorb anything (and I'm not especially heavy). I want to buy organic but it just reminds me of periods in my teens when you leaked everywhere because STs were so rubbish.

Yanbu, OP. You can smell other people are on their period if they're wearing scented towels, not if they're not. The irony.

New products are heavily advertised its bizarre how scented isnt mentioned at all.

I'm wondering if they realise the whike thing was a huge mistake and rely on accidental purchases whilst shops seem to stop stocking regular pads to help shift the things.

It used to be pads were available from most shops. You could pick up a pack of plain basic always from your local.corner shop, garage, off license etc

Now even in Tesco or boots where theres a whole aisle dedicated to san pro finding unscented is such a mission.

Things like kotex you find in a bargain bin occasionally on the corner of a pharmacy if u are lucky....

Another vote for Natracare here. I'd never go back to "normal" brands now, they feel so plastic-y and synthetic and uncomfortable compared to Natracare. Plus you don't have to worry about the stink/irritation.

They also need to work on the packaging so it doesn’t rustle so much!

@sinkgirl

Try kotex pads, I use them and they are unscented

YANBU

I use Always Infinity for both me and dd. It annoys me that they are dearer generally.

Also just to mention that Natracare do fine for my super heavy periods. I also use a Mooncup which avoids the whole issue and is an absolute godsend for heavy periods.

They burn me. But in the plus side it pushed me into buying reusable pads which are so comfy.

I've never noticed the smell in the supermarket or from other women and don't know anyone in RL who has only on here.
I'm not really bothered whether they are scented or not so long as they don't have wings, I find wings really irritating.

@onanothertrain you must have a really poor sense if smell. As soon as you go near the aisle in the supermarket the aroma is overwhelming.

I can’t imagine using pads without wings - I leak enough as it is! Awesome if you don’t need them though!

I actually saw an ad recently that referenced it but it said something like “new fresh scent”. Bleugh.

The scented ones give me an itchy foof. Not good when you're bleeding!
Have only ever brought the scented towels or tampons by accident, and boy have I regretted it when the burn starts...

Well, I’m past the age, but no I am in the no scent camp.

YABU - I buy scented and unscented. Depends on my mood. I have no objection to scented liners at all, they don’t cause me any burning, It wouldn’t even cross my mind that you can buy scented ones because society thinks I’m ‘unclean’ (some people really need to stop thinking so hard and taking offence so easily 🙄) and periods, especially towards the end, can smell and whilst I know no one else can smell it, I can and I’d rather smell a clean fresh smell than period/discharge thank you !

They burn me to. Moved to modi bodi period pants and have never looked back.

Misogyny!!! Really??? 🙄🙄🙄

Maybe it’s about having a choice!