Life Conversations with a Twist
Join me once a week for a new interview with a local, badass woman who has an amazing story to tell. Join me in conversation so you too can gain inspiration and empowerment from these stories! If you love hearing about leadership, relationships, families, motherhood and navigating hard times, then tune into my podcast and share with others. If you love what you hear, share and tag me on Instagram at @heathernelson.life. You can also visit my website at heathernelson.life.
Life Conversations with a Twist
Why We Deserve Better Than Tampons— And The Health Risks No One Told You with Arielle Loupos
"When you're in tune with [your period cycle] and you recognize what phase of the week, or the month you're in, it's a game changer. And I just encourage women to embrace that, in addition to choosing the best possible menstrual option that supports your body." —Arielle Loupos
Tampons and pads aren’t the only way—and for a lot of us, they’re not even the best way. Most of what we use every month was designed decades ago, with little thought for comfort, health, or the planet. There’s a better option, and it starts with rethinking what we put next to our most sensitive skin.
Arielle Loupos, founder of Flower Girl, turned her own frustration with pads and tampons into a mission to create period underwear that’s comfortable, sexy, and made from natural fibers. Her background as a consumer who refused to settle gives her a fresh, no-nonsense take on women’s health products and why we deserve better.
Hit play to hear how she developed leak-proof underwear that supports women through every stage of life—periods, pregnancy, postpartum, and bladder leaks—while protecting your health and the environment. Heather and Arielle also cover the hidden health risks of traditional products, why natural fibers matter, the challenges of bringing a new product to market, and how cycle syncing can transform the way you care for your body.
Connect with Heather:
Episode Highlights:
01:35 Transitioning to Period Underwear
04:01 The Science Behind the Product
11:06 The Dangers of Tampons
16:30 Styles, Colors, and Product Features
21:00 Cycle Syncing & Women’s Health Education
25:24 Thoughts on Investors, Margins, and Bootstrapping
27:44 Standing Out in a Crowded Market
31:21 Beyond Period: Incontinence and Postpartum
Connect with Arielle:
Arielle Loupos is the founder of Flower Girl, a women’s wellness brand dedicated to creating sustainable, body-safe period underwear. Frustrated by the discomfort of traditional pads and tampons — and unimpressed with the existing options on the market — Arielle set out to design underwear that was as comfortable and beautiful as it was functional.
Over the past two years, she has developed leak-proof, breathable underwear made with natural fibers to support women through every stage of life, including periods, pregnancy, postpartum, and bladder leaks. Flower Girl products are crafted with fabrics that protect intimate health by preventing irritation, odor, and infection, while offering an eco-friendly alternative to disposable products. Arielle’s mission is simple: to empower women with products that honor their bodies and the planet.
Heather Nelson: Welcome everyone to this week's Life Conversations With A Twist. I'm honored to have Arielle on. Her and I just met, and she reached out, and has this really cool product. I was just telling her, I love supporting other entrepreneurs, especially women. Hearing their journeys, and how they get there, and the hard work that they have to put to be successful.
Welcome to the podcast.
Arielle Loupos: Thank you so much, Heather. Honored to be here.
Heather Nelson: So tell everyone a little bit about who you are? Where do you live? And what are you doing in the world?
Arielle Loupos: Cool. Yeah. So my name is Arielle. I live in Los Angeles. I have worked as an E commerce consultant over the past decade, helping direct to consumer brands launch, manage, scale their websites, and marketing efforts. I kind of fell into E commerce in the corporate fashion world when my career started. This was before online shopping was big. So I kind of had this hunch like, oh, I feel like this department is going to really become something. And I'm grateful I stuck around. Because obviously, online shopping really took off. I was able to work my way up in the department, see how an online business was really built, function, and efficiently scaled. So using all of that knowledge, I then incorporated myself. I kind of always had this itch to do my own thing, and I thought that by working as a contractor, I would scratch that itch. Turns out I went from working like a 9 to 5, to working like 24/7. Because then, I was always on. I had multiple projects. I was working more than ever, which is fine. But I still had that urge to do my own thing.
I always thought, if I do something, I really want to solve a problem for myself and for other women. So after wearing pads and tampons for most of my life, and hating those as menstrual options, I started to explore period underwear. These new brands were emerging, and I loved it as an option. But I still felt like the quality really wasn't there. The comfort, the materials were lackluster, so I started researching textiles. And I was also like, you know what? I want to take advantage of the fact that I live in Los Angeles. And I started driving around to manufacturers and different production facilities, and I got connected with people who connected me to people. And I was like, I want to start trying to make my own period underwear. So that's what I did. I was in product development for two years with this product. The more I was learning about textiles, the more fascinated I became because I've learned the importance of what we wear against our skin, how it impacts our health, and how important that is. And especially as women, our menstrual products. So really proud of the materials that I landed on to make this product. I launched at the end of last year, and here we are.
Heather Nelson: And are you doing this full time?
Arielle Loupos: I am still working full time consulting. This is the first month that I'm scaling back a little bit. I still have part time clients. But I'm like, I really want to give Flower Girl an honest full time effort after coming up on almost a year. I'm finally in a good place after having bootstrapped it to where I'm like, I have no debt. I just want to put all of my effort towards marketing now.
Heather Nelson: My gosh, I have so many questions. I want to back up to E commerce, what is that like? Give us some examples of somebody who you might work with?
Arielle Loupos: I started in the fashion world at BCBG Max Azria, and E commerce is online website marketing. So I did everything from merchandising hands on, editing product details, website banners, content building landing pages. I've worked with mainly fashion houses, and then towards the end of, not the end of my career, but over the past decade. It's important for me, from a marketing perspective, to work with brands that I resonate with. I believe that to be a really good marketer, you have to be able to tell the story really well, and pull extracts like, what is a key value message for this brand? So I found myself working with more beauty and wellness brands, and this is when I started to get really educated on ingredients and the products that we use. And then it goes, again, going back to fashion, and understanding where clothing is produced, how it's produced, what textiles are being used? Because all that information, obviously, translates over to the website. So being an E commerce, it really taught me to tell a good story, I would say, from a brand perspective.
Heather Nelson: Take things like health, beauty and fashion, and combine them into one. So you had this idea, when you started? Did you ever use the product before you made your own product? Have you ever used it? I'm a tampon girl. I want you to squash this for me, why don't I like pads? Essentially, it's because I don't want to sit in my blood. So how does the underwear change from a pad, and what's the difference?
Arielle Loupos: Yeah. Pads, I think, were so much worse because you are really just sitting in like wet plastic. So with period underwear, like I said, a lot of the brands, I never found one that I really loved. So as I started to explore textiles more, I'm really proud of this fabric mill that I found in America where I source my three layer gusset. So the gusset or the crotch area of the underwear is composed of three layers. So there's a top, porous layer that also keeps you cool and dry. This fabric technology is really incredible. And then there's a middle absorbent layer. Mine in particular is anti microbial, antibacterial. Meaning, it prevents the growth of bacteria, as well as odor. And then there's a bottom waterproof layer. Mine is completely made toxic free unlike a lot of waterproof material that you'll find nowadays that's just made with a lot of chemicals, and that obviously keeps flowing out of the underwear. So those three layers together, the fabric technology really is great for keeping you cool and dry. You don't feel like you're sitting in a wet diaper. It's really incredible. And that's why I always advise women to just try one. Just start with one pair on a light to moderate day to get comfortable with it. Because I can't tell you how many women I hear that feedback from, or they're scared. I get it that we were raised with products that keep our flow from flowing out of us, but I would never go back.
Heather Nelson: How do you have to change? Like changing partway through the day. Can you wear it all day?
Arielle Loupos: You can wear it for up to 8 hours. Totally dependent on your flow. Some feedback I get from a lot of women is that they have extremely heavy flows. We're all different. Of course, you can get a sense for how long you can wear it. But it is good for up to 8 hours. You can go out, have a full day in it, and not have to worry about changing a pad. The same way that you change a tampon.
Heather Nelson: What about swimming?
Arielle Loupos: Okay, swimming is different. There are swim bottoms. I've got to tell you, I haven't tried them yet. I am not making them right now. I do get a lot of women who ask, are you going to swim? I'm focusing on this product first, but it exists. And I'm fascinated by it. I definitely want to try it, because I can't wrap my head around how that works. But it does exist.
Heather Nelson: I feel like this is such a great product. I have a teenager, she actually had her period since she was 10. Poor thing. She doesn't use tampons yet. She's still using pads. But she wants to go swimming, and then they feel uncomfortable about that. Or sports. And so I think this is such a great alternative for that. Do you have a target market right now? Are you seeing the same demographic of people, age of people buying your product?
Arielle Loupos: I live in California and Los Angeles. It feels right now, the feedback I'm getting from women is a little more of a progressive product. I'm seeing more of the urban cities, my friends are like, oh, yeah. Or women that I talk to are like, I know what that is. Versus I'm from Florida, and I have family back in Florida, and a lot of friends are like, what the heck is period underwear? I think that it's still such a new product. It's funny when people are like, who's your demographic? I'm like, women. There's so much education I'm seeing that needs to be done around the product still, and explaining what it is, and introducing it to women. So I'm still trying to get a sense of who exactly, like, what woman. But if I had to answer that question right now, I would probably say more progressive women who are in their late 20s, 30s. Who are just looking for more of a quality product to invest in. And I will say, it's definitely a pricier product than going to the store and buying pads or tampons. It's top quality material I just shared, and then it's good. It's tested to withstand 300 plus washes, so you're going to have this product for a while. I can't tell you the last time I went to the store and bought pods or tampons.
Heather Nelson: I want to go back to product development. What did that look like? But before I touch on that, obviously, we all know that tampons are not great for our bodies, and the toxic risks behind that. Did you have to do a ton of research to figure that out? And can you enlighten our listeners on why?
Arielle Loupos: Yes, I would love to. So for me, it truly was such an energetic thing, it never literally sat right with me in my body. I was always like this. I don't like this. And news actually broke when I was in product development. Now, this was back in 2024. The first study ever done on tampons came out, the first study ever. And tampons were invented in 1931 by a man, by the way. And nobody up until this point, it blows my mind, had ever tested to see what was in them. So some top Ivy Leagues last year tested what was in tampons, and found over 30 different toxic chemicals in all of the samples tested organic and non organic. All of the household name brands that we grew up with, which by the way, I found during my time researching this that the manufacturers of these brands aren't required to write legally, put what's in the ingredients in the box, which isn't really a huge surprise to me just knowing how messed up our food system is and everything. So there's that.
And then the second study ever done on tampons actually came out this year. It was done in the UK. And they found glyphosate, which is a toxic weed killer at levels higher than is legally permitted in the tampons that were tested. So unfortunately, because tampons are made of cotton, they're sprayed with these pesticides, and then women were inserting them into the most absorbent part of our bodies. Our vaginal wall is 10 times more absorbent than our skin. Anything that's inserted in there goes directly into our bloodstream, bypassing our body's natural detoxification system. It's really sad to me that this is the case, and these are the products that we've been given our whole lives. And much women's health research, which is massively underfunded, and a lot of medical studies are, unfortunately, just done on males bodies. And the information is put out. There really has not been a lot of research done on these products.
Heather Nelson: I have to say, I know every woman that this has probably happened to you, how many times have we forgotten it's been there? Oh, my God. Like three days later, and you're like, what?
Arielle Loupos: That was another reason I don't like it. When I was wearing them, as a kid and college, and then you're out. No, I'm not doing that.
Heather Nelson: Okay, so what did product development look like? I love that you said that you source here in America, because I was going to ask you if you didn't. What these tariffs are going to do to your business.
Arielle Loupos: I was so honestly excited. I was like, oh, what? Perfect timing to produce in LA, in America, and not have to worry at all about what's going on. I do pay a premium to produce here, which I understand why people go overseas now. However, it's still worth it to me because I got to be so hands on with the product and learn.
Heather Nelson: How does it even work? You go to these materials, manufacturers, and touch it, feel it, what does that like?
Arielle Loupos: It was a fun process. I tell people, I went into it naively, thank God. It's so fragmented, and there's so many parts to it. But again, fortunate to live in LA because I went to the LA textile show. I got to feel different types of fabric. I met a sales rep for one that I really liked in particular. So my best selling styles are made of Tencel modal. Tencel is a fiber derived from trees, so it's extremely soft, it's extremely sustainable. And then I went to different manufacturers, had conversations, I started producing samples, and made sure the fit was perfected. And then I was like, oh, my god, I chose a really technical product that has to work. I'm not just making a T-shirt, or even just regular underwear. This product has to work. So then once that nailed the fit, I was like, okay. I have to nail the function. So it was two years, anytime I got my period, I was like, I have to test this underwear. I got to the point where I was doing so many different iterations of the material used in the crotch, the gusset that I was literally cutting up samples of fabric and layering it to see what works best. I made over 100 different iterations of the pad itself.
Heather Nelson: You personally did it. You didn't have someone make it for you.
Arielle Loupos: Sampling is such an expensive process that I got to the point that I was like, I need to just test this material. I was testing it, and then the final product, of course, put it into a sample, tested it and everything. But yeah, it was a crazy process over the past two years when I'm traveling. I'm like, I need to take this with me because it needs to be tested.
Heather Nelson: And you only have a certain time limit. How many different skews, styles and colors, and then you even choose all that.
Arielle Loupos: I probably did way too many skews right now. It makes me tired thinking about it. I started with a thought, okay, actually, my first style is a brief. A flower cutout brief. And then what I loved about these, and this was my first idea. It's underwear you could wear on and off your period. So I made reusable pads too, a single and a double layer. You can insert these pads into the underwear when you're on your period. It has a built-in pad holder, and then you can take it out and wear the underwear when you're not on your period. So I thought that was really clever, and they're great. I love them. If anyone has worn reusable pads, you're probably familiar. There's like a button closure on them. But when you go to the bathroom, and even when you're wearing pads, your pad is like falling out, or doing somersaults around your underwear. So I designed these so that they securely stay in place. So I have those. And then I made a thong, which I'm really glad I did because women are loving this thing. It's got a built-in gusset. It's great to just wear. You don't have to put a pad, and it's in or out. And then because everybody loved the thong and the Tencel material so much because it's so soft and sustainable, I made a brief and a little boxer short. And then I have each of those styles in three different color ways. So I just did a lot for my first round of product.
Heather Nelson: I'm not into the product world. You found your product person, you found your man, your manufacturer, and then do they make a bunch, and then you're just sitting on inventory? Or is it custom to order? How do you figure that out?
Arielle Loupos: I do have minimums. This is another reason I was happy to produce in LA, because the minimums here are much less than if you're going overseas. They typically want you to produce thousands of units, and that's typically why it costs. It's cheaper to produce overseas as well. So here, I do have a minimum of 300 units per style, which is still a good amount. I have inventory as well with my manufacturer. And then it's 300 units per style, which I was happy to invest in, and give this product a first go.
Heather Nelson: And then do you have a team that ships them out and stuff? You're not doing it at your home right now. I feel like anybody who has a product, that's what they do. I cannot do this physically anymore.How can people find it? And what can we do to support you?
Arielle Loupos: I am on Instagram. That's my favorite social media outlet right now, and my handle is @flowergirl.co_, because there's people squatting on all of the good names. And then my website is flowergirl.co. If you send a DM to Instagram, you're talking to me. So if you have any questions, if you're hesitant to try, just reach out. I'm happy to share any information about the product, how it's made, and how fabulous it is. I've got a ton of reviews on the website that I'm really proud of. Women are really loving this product. My goal with it is to not only get women to embrace free bleeding in their cycles, but it's a lot of education around our cycles as well. Cycle sinking has changed my life. It's something that we're not taught as women growing up. You literally get your period, you're handed a tampon, and that's it. And for me, throughout this journey, learning how impacted we are by our cycles, we literally have four different brains throughout the month, because that's how much impact our hormones have on our bodies. I truly believe that when you're in tune with that and you recognize what phase of the week, or the month you're in, it's a game changer. And I just encourage women to embrace that, in addition to choosing the best possible menstrual option that supports your body.
Heather Nelson: Do you do education around that?
Arielle Loupos: That's my goal with Flower Girl right now. That's a big reason that I feel really called to make this product in particular, and to use podcasting as a medium for telling the story because I like having these conversations. And again, I don't think it's something we're taught as women, and as somebody who believes women are like the most intuitive beings on earth. And I feel like our society gets distracted so much from being in tune with ourselves, that my big goal is to get us back in tune with our bodies through sharing this information.
Heather Nelson: Can you break down our five brains in the month?
Arielle Loupos: So our four brains, we have four cycles. We're menstruating, that is when we're bleeding. After menstruation, we jump start over, back into our follicular phase. And then that's when our energy levels peak, again, we're creative. There's all these different best practices for cycles, thinking about what you should eat, how you should work out, how you should schedule meetings and go about your day. So in addition to this, because we're cyclical, we operate on a 28 day cycle. And granted, this is all give and take. We're all a little different. So just understanding the general guideline, I say, is the best practice. So then after follicular, we go into, oh, my gosh, I'm having a total brain fart menstruation, follicular, ovulation, and then luteal. So those are the four phases. Ovulation is, again, our bodies are peaking. And then luteal, I don't know if you've ever heard the phrase when our body starts to ramp down, and you're a little more moody.
Heather Nelson: And then during the week, I hate my husband.
Arielle Loupos: There's that week when we're called crazy, that's the luteal phase. And then back into menstruation. So, that is a cycle sinking in a nutshell. My goal is to really educate women to understand what those cycles are. And I've heard that scientists have scanned our brains during these phases. And again, there's four completely different brains depending on what phase we're in.
Heather Nelson: How do you track it?
Arielle Loupos: There are apps. I can't say one that I would like to recommend.
Heather Nelson: This week, I'm in this zone. I'm going to be super freaking creative, so I schedule creative things for that week.
Arielle Loupos: I use my Google Calendar, my phone calendar. I look at that every night, every morning. That is my tracker. I'm a huge fan of calendar blocking, I think it is what they call it. And so I will schedule out my day. And then just knowing, again, this is why I say to use it as a guide. I have an issue with routines and certain influencers. When people are so rigid about the things that they do, it's like, you gotta have fun. You gotta live your life. I hate to be so tied to my calendar. However, I am to the point where I'm like, I know what I am this week. I know what interviews I'm going to be scheduling, how I'm going to show up, how I'm going to create my social calendar. So using it as a general guide. And then I'm like, I'm going to be luteal this week. I'm definitely going to lighten up my load. Probably not plan any meetings. Go be myself.
Heather Nelson: I love that. I've been hearing more and more of that. There was a podcast I listened to where they talked about that, and then, you can schedule your creativity around that. Here's the week that I should just hibernate, because I'm probably going to scream at everybody. Oh, my God, that's so great. I had a thought for you, something that comes to mind around the product is Shark Tank. Have you done it? Have you tried it?
Arielle Loupos: No. Everyone's like, you need to go on Shark Tank. Let me tell you right now, admittedly, because I produce in LA, because I'm small batches, I feel like they would eat me alive. I feel like they would look at my margins and would be like, admittedly, I'm not a profitable business yet. I just invested in my first round of inventory this year. I know my goal with this brand, and I know I will be profitable, and I'm going to make this money back. But I have not reached the point of scaling yet, and so I'm a little too afraid to go on there and then be like, oh, honey, your margins.
Heather Nelson: Does a business need an investor? And at what point do they need an investor?
Arielle Loupos: I had a lot of conversations about this, because I was very curious myself, obviously. And my takeaway, the advice that I got was, if you can bootstrap it right now, bootstrap it and go improve product market fit before you're taking someone else's money before you have to answer to somebody else. Sure, it probably would have been more fun to do all of this on someone else's dime, if they would have let me. I'm just someone who I would have had to pay them back. I would stress out about living like that. So for me, I can bootstrap this right now. I want to bet on myself. And I think it also helps to make you a little scrappier, if you will. Like, how am I going to market this on a smaller budget? Let me get really creative here. So that was my thought.
Heather Nelson: You probably learned so much. Of course, you'll probably learn from an investor as well, especially someone from Shark Tank. But yeah, how do you learn how to grow and scale a business on your own? It would be more rewarding than having to pay back an investor. I had another question for you when you said that.
Arielle Loupos: I would definitely apply to Shark Tank. Give me like two, three years. It's such fun brand awareness too. It sounds like so many families and people are watching, so I would love to go and give my spiel about the product.
Heather Nelson: That was my question for you. Do you have a lot of competition? And what sets you apart from your competition?
Arielle Loupos: I didn't invent period underwear. It's definitely a saturated market. However, what I went into with the belief of how I could do this differently was one I wanted to make a product that felt really cute and comfortable. And honestly, sexy underwear. And when shopping the other brands, I was like, I don't really resonate with this marketing. I don't really love it either, if I'm being honest. I wanted to do it and create really beautiful content images, and have shoots that were appealing. So for me, creating really cute styles was a big differentiator. And I'm really proud of the cuts that we ended up with. Again, the fabric is what I think really sets us apart. The body of my underwear is made of a tencel modal, which is so soft, silky and luxurious. When I was in product development, the two biggest brands in the market were hit with lawsuits for having PFAs, forever chemicals in the underwear. So again, it's just more menstrual products that, unfortunately, weren't really being regulated. And having been in this process, I've learned PFAs, which are these forever chemicals, they're everywhere. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of regulation you can do around these certain materials. So I feel for those brands, you can't market your product as being sustainable and non toxic if you're mass producing and using synthetic materials. So that's something else that really sets us apart, that I'm proud of the sustainability message.
Heather Nelson: I support you. I want to buy some, because I want to try it. I hate being on my period and all the things. But if you can wear something that's comfortable and sexy, so what? What's next for you? What can we expect from you?
Arielle Loupos: Awesome. At least in the next four or five years, I'd say, because E-commerce is a long game and raising a brand too. When I talk to friends who have business ideas, I'm always like, you better love your WHY? Because you're going to be talking about that WHY. That reason for a long time. And I literally am something else. I'm always like, I bet the house. I literally bet any form of a down payment that I would have had on a house like, this is it now. I bet the house on this brand and this product. So my goal is to really focus on doubling down, scaling this, like I shared in the beginning, I'm finally in a place where I'm going to give Flower Girl a full time effort. Starting now, I'm just going to be shouting about this brand from the rooftops and educating women, and then also the long term goal. Hopefully, not too long. But I would love to incorporate a lot of mission driven values into the brand. Period poverty is something that impacts a lot of women globally. And however the next phase, I would love to figure out how I can perhaps incorporate the one model I've always been so inspired by, like Toms Shoes for this brand.
Heather Nelson: I think that they always say to the younger generation, that's what they want. They want sustainability. They want to make sure the product that they're doing has an impact and stuff. So I think you're on that trail to do that. The one thing that I did want to mention that was intriguing to me about your product is not only the period, but you had talked about, if you pee a little bit, it's good for that. And for somebody who's had four children out of my hoo ha, I see it in my pee.
Arielle Loupos: I've gotten that feedback. So a lot of my friends are first time moms. So as I was creating this product, I really was able to have a lot of insight into that world and postpartum. And my friends were trying it, and they were giving me the same feedback. We had a vaginal birth, and I have been unable to get back into my routine because I'll go to pilates and I'll pee a little, or something will happen. And I'm like, oh, my God. Wear the underwear, and they love it. And I'm getting the most amazing feedback from moms. I'm also pulling these friends into incorporating them as part of the content and campaign. Because I feel like that's something you don't really see a lot of in the marketing world for incontinence, so totally tapping into that angle as well. And the product works great for that.
Heather Nelson: Yes. Even postpartum. They send you home with these freaking diaper events that you have to wear, and you're like, cool. I just gave birth, and now I have to wear this diaper, literally.
Arielle Loupos: And then another friend to that point, she shared that she was like, I feel like I healed so much quicker because I was wearing natural fibers versus these synthetic materials by an area that is so insanely sensitive, and just went through so much trauma. Those are some of my favorite reviews that are on the website.
Heather Nelson: I love that. Well, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for putting a beautiful product out in the world for us, and being very strategic and thoughtful, because we need more people doing that kind of stuff in the product world. So thank you.
Arielle Loupos: Thank you so much for sharing your platform with me. It was an honor.