A Certain Age, Glow Talk, April, 2021
Ready to treat yourself with more reverence and love?
Show Snapshot:Meet Christine Marie Mason, the founder of Rosebud Woman, a line of luxury, plant-based intimate wellness products. A former software CEO and six-time tech founder, Christine is also a yogi, tantric, co-founder of a mediation center, and a student of plant medicine and intentional living.We uncover the genesis of Rosebud Woman and how Christine identified a need for luxury vaginal and vulvar skincare formulations, why body love is an imperative, and what can get in the way of self-love. Bonus, we explore how designing a life of integrity is the ultimate form of self-care.In This Episode We Cover:1. What made Christine, a six-time tech founder, launch Rosebud Woman, a line of luxury intimate wellness products.2. What’s body love and how do we create it for ourselves?3. Beyond spa days – the shape of true self-care.4. Self-love practices Christine incorporates into her daily life.5. A surprising tool for connecting to your deepest needs.6. Fixes for painful sex and intimate wellness– products that address loss of moisture, resiliency, and thinning tissues.7. The upsides of entrepreneurship and running a family-owned business.8. Why Christine embraces being a grandmother in an ageist world."Self-care for me is about living in integrity. Is my yes, a yes? Is my no a no? Am I being honest? Am I living with people who are being honest? The ultimate self-care is designing a life that is coming from this integral place.""I recommend silence. Make a buffer zone where your ears can open, and inspiration can drop in. Stop doing, get quiet and start listening and let your magnificent body and the wisdom of the environment, tell you what you need."
Snackable Smarts:
- During 20 years of leading businesses and companies, Christine ran a parallel track, working to reclaim her feminine self, learning yoga, massage, plant medicines. After selling her last company, she couldn’t get the idea of Rosebud Woman out of her head, so she integrated the two themes in her life – business and reverence for the feminine and nature.
- Christine observed that the pelvic basin – the center of a woman's intimate life – was really separated from the rest of her body. It was shrouded in lack of information, misinformation, shame, sexual shame, period shame, and a general lack of understanding.
- In order to reduce shame and help women love their bodies, Rosebud Woman focuses on filling in the gaps in education.
- Daily love for your intimate self can be practiced by touching your body, massaging it every single day, and saying, “Thank you, feet. Thank you, shins. Thank you, knees.” Accepting and deeply looking at your unique configuration. Practices like dry brushing, caring for your skin, avoiding toxic loads, good nutrition, and talking to yourself with kindness can reinstate your own reverence and connection to your body.
- We can appreciate and think a lot of different shapes and sizes are beautiful. Turn that same kind lens on yourself.
- The media has women internalizing a “should” message early on. I “should” get my 45 minutes of cardio in. I “should” do this. I “should” look this way. I “should” wear things that squeeze my body into a smaller shape. When we are quiet, ignoring the “should” messaging, the body's own wisdom will reveal itself.
- Self-care goes beyond spa days. Self-care is about living in integrity. Is my yes, a yes? Is my no a no? Am I being honest? Am I living with people who are being honest? The ultimate self-care is designing a life that is coming from this integral place.
- Ask yourself, “What do I desire?” before you impose the desires and the needs of other people on yourself.
- Self-care is also a shift in attitude about being worthy. Self-love is a political act. Because once you begin to say, “I am worthy -- a magnificent creature of the divine,” – you begin to say, "Hey, I believe that I deserve equal healthcare. And I believe that I should be protected from abusive systems.”
- To better listen to your deepest needs, Christine recommends silence. Put a bubble around yourself where there are no inputs. Take 20 to 30 minutes every day. Make a buffer zone where your ears can open, and inspiration can drop in. Stop doing, get quiet and start listening and let your magnificent body and the wisdom of the environment tell you what you need.
- To launch Rosebud Woman, Christine skipped the venture-backed financing that she used to launch her tech companies, and instead used her own capital to start the business. Having worked with VCs in the past, Christine knew they would not understand the new category of product she envisioned – beautiful, exquisite, high-quality ingredients for vaginal and vulvar care. Christine chose to trust her instincts that products that fostered adoration, reverence, and offered super high-quality ingredients were going to resonate with a certain sector of women.
- An astonishing 60% of women have moisture issues in the vulva and the vaginal canal which is not often talked about because it’s embarrassing. But women who have lost a significant amount of estrogen, whether it's through aging or it's through cancer treatments, or through medications like for bipolar or circulation conditions, can experience painful sex and a lack of resilience in the tissue. Rosebud Woman’s flagship product the Honor Balm is a beautiful, intimate moisturizer that goes on like a thick balm and turns it into oil with heat and restores resilience.
- Christine on aging: “There is so much ageism about older people, not just women, that I think is completely misplaced. I'm at the peak of my career, the peak of my thinking. I'm a matriarch. I have worked my ass off to raise my four kids, two step-kids from two and eight, as well as caring for countless other children that came through my life. To be a grandmother is this incredible joy and the idea that I would have to hide that-- to sort of preserve myself forever as a 37-year-old is just not true about the world.”
- Christine on what motivates her: “I think it's really vital to really think about all of the different components of how we support this little bundle of nerves and blood that is our body? And to regulate our nervous system to come from a sweet and loving place. And to understand that the systems out there are really arrayed to not have you live from joy, but to live from obligation. And I feel that is the broader mission: to help people love their lives and enjoy their lives more.”
Word of Mouth. Christine’s Product Pick:Rosebud Woman Honor BalmThis intimate moisturizer feels great, improves skin density, and provides daily nourishment.Rosebud Woman Anoint Body OilAnoint an all-over body oil is filled with naturally derived, organic ingredients that nourish all the skin on the body.
More Resources:The Rose Woman PodcastVogue: Does your Y-Zone need its own skincare regime?Christine’s booksThe Invitation: Daily Love for Your Intimate SelfBody Love: A Companion Journal to The InvitationThe Nine Gifts. A First Aid Kit for Mind, Body, and Spirit.Follow Christine:Rosebud Woman websiteRosebud Woman InstagramRosebud Woman Facebook