Charlotte’s Book Founder Robin Shobin Teams Up With Carole Radziwill To Launch Sexual Health Brand Sex And Good

When Robin Shobin reentered the dating world at 40 years old following her divorce, the serial entrepreneur, who had married at 24, tried dating apps for the first time and once again navigated the condom aisle. Both experiences left the Charlotte’s Book and Halo Hydration founder feeling bewildered. “As a woman, coming in and buying lube or condoms, none of it really appealed to me,” she says. 

Shobin’s good friend, journalist, writer and former “The Real Housewives of New York City” alumna Carole Radziwill stepped in to help her get back in the dating saddle, including advising Shobin on her Bumble profile. The two began brainstorming products they could join forces on that would appeal to women in their forties and above. Sexual health quickly entered their minds. Radziwill, 55, is passionate about sexual wellness and women’s pleasure, especially sex toys. She designed a necklace vibrator with Crave, a brand that’s enlisted her as an ambassador.

Radziwill, who most recently was in a relationship with a man 22 years her junior, says there’s no reason for women in their forties and fifties to lose interest in sex. As she got older, she says she has had better sex than she did in her twenties and thirties. “As women age and gain more confidence, both in life and in bed, sex can get so much better, orgasms happen more easily,” she explains. “We seem resigned to thinking that sex is something for twenty and thirty year olds but it doesn’t have to be.”

The result of their brainstorming is Sex and Good, a new brand with six supplements for women priced from $27 to $40. Among the products are The ‘Down There Care’ Formula to promote urinary tract health, The ‘OMG’ Formula with horny goat weed and maca root to support libido, and The ‘Happy Flora’ Formula to maintain a healthy vaginal flora. Sex and Good also offers vegan condoms priced at $9 for a pack of three and the $20 Sex Journal, a notebook full of prompts designed to improve communication between sexual partners. The items are available exclusively on Sex and Good’s website. 

The value of communication about intimacy has been evident to Shobin. After writing articles on digital publication Charlotte’s Book about her divorce, the outpouring it inspired was overwhelming. “The amount of emails that I got, I almost wanted to cry, so many women writing me about how they don’t have sex with their husband anymore after kids,” she says. “It was so interesting to see so many women in that age group open up and be talkative about their personal relationships, whether they’re married or not married.”

While the discussion of women’s—especially “older” women’s—sexuality is a thorny and multifaceted one, some of the resignation we experience comes from the fact that sex hormones naturally decrease in women and men as we age, often tanking our energy levels and our libido. Sex and good’s supplements like The ‘OMG’ Formula are designed to boost those hormone levels back up. “Women need to be aware of the changes in their bodies and know that there are things they can take to increase vitality, sexual desire, and general overall health,” says Radziwill, drawing a parallel to the many options men of a certain have to deal with sex-related issues. “As men age, their levels of testosterone decreases, they have more trouble getting and maintaining an erection. So there’s a pill for that, right? Well, the same thing happens in females. As we age, our sex hormones decrease, so you have to be diligent in monitoring your levels, talking to your doctor, and taking daily supplements before they drop too low.” 

Radziwill isn’t the only Real Housewife to find success in sex-related entrepreneurship. RHONY alumna Cindy Barshop opened V Spot Medispa, which has locations in New York City and Philadelphia, as well as its own line of intimate care products. Before joining the cast of Real Housewives of Atlanta, singer and songwriter Kandi Burress launched Bedroom Kandi, a collection of lubricants, sex toys, and personal care products, in 2011.

More launches are planned for the near future for Sex and Good, possibly involving skin health and overall immunity, two top concerns of women as they age. Shobin estimates she and Radziwill spent roughly $20,000 to get the brand off the ground. The venture is completely bootstrapped, and Shobin expects to keep it that way. She’s in no rush to forge retail partnerships for Sex and Good. Her experience at Halo, her 3-year-old healthy sports drink company, where she’s still chief product officer, has informed her approach to fundraising and retail for her latest creation. In contrast to Halo, which has raised $25 million, and counts Pitbull and Andy Murray in a group of high-profile investors, Shobin says, “Sex and Good is really scrappy, grassroots. Carole and I just opened our pocketbooks and were like, ‘Here’s a few thousand dollars, let’s see what we can do as a home grown brand.’ What’s been so great is I’m already getting emails and feedback on the products. We just want to be super community-driven as we go forward.”

As a seasoned entrepreneur—prior to Halo, Shobin left her executive director position at J.P. Morgan in 2013 and launched Charlotte’s Book in September 2014—her advice to fellow entrepreneurs is to try to go as far as possible early on without taking outside investment. “Unless that outside investor is really close friends and family that are going to let you do your thing because there’s so much discovery that happens in the first year of business,” she instructs. “No matter how experienced you are, you can never call what’s going to happen. As you grow, at any startup backed by larger investors or large money, everybody has an opinion, and you have to please a lot of people. I think, early on, it’s better to just have the ability to go with your gut on stuff.” 

Sex and Good joins a sexual wellness category that’s been getting busy. Pleasure specialists in the segment like Maude and Cake have closed funding deals recently, and the intersection of the sexual wellness and ingestibles has been heating up, too. In addition to Hims & Hers going public via SPAC last year and competitor Roman rumored to be doing the same, Encore Consumer Capital revealed in March that it invested in vaginal health specialist Love Wellness.