Intimate care products aren’t exactly ubiquitous in 2021, but it’s definitely much easier for consumers to find a vulva serum or arousal booster today than it was five years ago, when Slovenia-based brand Luxury Intimate debuted its Li Quandisa intimate oil.
“At that time, we could not find anything similar on the market,” says Sara Djordjic, who founded Luxury Intimate with her sister Tamara. “We wanted to try it first in Slovenia to see the feedback from our clients. It was amazing, even more than we expected. We don’t want to say we were first in the world, but, when we made it, there was nothing. Now, we want to expand.”
Luxury Intimate was born out of necessity. Sara battled chronic vaginal infections and looked for a natural alternative to the over-the-counter options usually sold at drugstores. Li Quandisa intimate oil’s formula is rooted in a traditional Russian recipe containing peach kernel, sea buckthorn, tea tree, clove and other botanical oils designed to balance vaginal pH, and combat vaginal dryness. “It’s a mixture of oils so natural you can drink it,” says Sara.
The sisters mixed the traditional with the modern by teaming up with gynecologists and dermatologists to develop Li Quandisa and subsequent Luxury Intimate products. “For five years, we got so much positive feedback on the healing effects of the product from customers, I went to register it as a medical device, but the government said, ‘No, it’s natural. We cannot do it,’” says Sara. “So, now, it’s a cosmetic product, but we have proof from customers who say it has helped with inflammation, with irritation, itching, even hemorrhoids.”
In addition to providing effective products, shedding the stigma of intimate area issues is Luxury Intimate’s raison d’être. The Djordjic sisters hope to empower women to feel connected to their sexuality by caring for their vaginas and vulvas. “We are disconnected as women, sadly, especially in our country,” laments Tamara. “It’s so stigmatized, everything around this part of the body. Even young girls, when they explore, they’re told don’t touch it, that it’s dirty. This is somewhere unconsciously in our head.”
From gynecologists, Sara shares she’s learned that 75% of women occasionally or regularly face difficulties in the intimate area, but few women discuss them. “Because we are a family business, we really wanted our love story for women to be behind the product,” she says. “We want to support them.”
A sensuous, luxury experience was important to the sisters in creating their brand. Tamara is the artist behind the paintings on Luxury Intimate’s website, Instagram profile and packaging. Li Quandisa is offered in a 5-ml. size for about 18 euros or $21 at the current exchange rate and a 30-ml. size for about 40 euros or almost $48 as well as a 30-ml. size housed in an elegant box for gifting at nearly 100 euros or $119.
Luxury Intimate is in discussions with an upscale hotel spa in the Middle East to carry Li Quandisa in its decorative packaging. Sexual taboos, however, has made breaking into the Middle East challenging. “You can’t talk about women’s intimate care,” says Sara. “They have strict rules about the product and packaging. Before you enter, you have to have all of this covered.” The brand also makes an oil-driven intimate cleanser for $32, a unisex musk aphrodisiac fragrance that can be applied to men’s intimate areas for about $48 and a trio of yoni eggs for $107.
Luxury Intimate is currently partnered with distributors in Italy, Australia, Ukraine, Moldova and Taiwan. The United States is a focus for the brand. The sister co-founders view the brand DeoDoc as inspiration for Luxury Intimate’s trajectory. It’s another European brand in the intimate care space founded by two sisters. DeoDoc has been able to forge retail relationships with Cult Beauty, Violet Grey and Sephora Germany, all target retail partners for Luxury Intimate. “They’re really rocking, and we want to know how we can rock too,” says Sara.
The sisters poured about a quarter of a million euros to get Luxury Intimate off the ground. “We did it slowly, first one product, then the second one,” says Tamara. She notes a good portion of the money was spent on dermatological and gynecological testing on the products and protecting the brand’s intellectual property in the U.S., Europe and China.
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