New e-commerce destination Rythm is out to become Credo for sexual wellness, according to its founder Alysha Malik, who previously guided product development at sexual wellness brand Dame.
Rythm takes an ingredient-first approach to merchandise curation to, as it asserts on its website, “read the label so that you don’t have to.” Malik says it examines “everything very holistically from the lens of the vagina” and prohibits a whole host of preservatives, irritants and synthetic compounds, including mineral oil, petroleum, talcum powder and phthalates, that it deems to be not vagina-friendly.
Rythm has assembled a clinical board of advisors that assists it with vetting the products it sells to ensure they’re safe for the vagina. Heather Quaile, a women’s health nurse practitioner, and Maggie Luther, a naturopathic doctor, are among the advisors. Quaile says, “Rythm uses evidence-based criteria to meet the needs of its customers. They ban harmful ingredients in the products to maintain optimal vaginal health.”
At the outset, Rythm is carrying about 40 products. It has sex toys and lubricants from brands including Njoy, Dame, Bloomi, Tabu and Foria, and supplements from brands like Wile, Awkward Essentials, Mate and Juna. Malik says an additional 30 products will enter the website’s selection in the next few weeks. Rythm operates on a dropship model.
“What are all of the symptoms that get in the way of female pleasure?” says Malik. “That can be everything from stress and anxiety, low mood, vaginal dryness, UTI, BV, low libido as well as male ED. Because if your partner can’t get it up as a woman, that also gets in the way of pleasure.”
Along with sexual wellness products, Rythm offers eponymous merch such as sweatshirts and socks as well as In Tune, a card game it created to facilitate an open dialogue between partners. The game features three levels of questions crowdsourced from relationship therapists and coaches such as “What role did you play in your childhood: the golden child, the black sheep, the rebel?” and “Who has impacted you most in your development?”
A connection-cultivating card game is in line with what Malik says is Rythm’s mission: to help humans connect better with their parts and partners.
Rythm is turning to partnerships and events to get the word out about its launch. For example, Malik highlights that it’s struck a partnership with Maze sexual health clinic in which Rythm acts as its online store. The e-commerce destination is also building an affiliate network of therapists, sex educators, sex therapists, sex coaches, relationship coaches, somatic coaches and intimacy coaches.
For events, Rythm has teamed up with House of Yes, Brooklinen, Parachute, Soho House and Soho House competitor Maxwell to conduct workshops “around how you connect better with your partner,” says Malik. “We are going more towards spirituality. A lot of our events have been around chakras, meditation, mental health. We want to be this really modern brand around connection.”
Malik, formerly content editor and co-founder at Radiche, a community of consumer-facing startup founders, declines to share how much she spent to launch Rythm. She discloses it has secured angel investment, but doesn’t plan to raise institutional funding in the near future. The e-tailer arrives on the sexual wellness scene as players like Sephora, Ulta Beauty and Neiman Marcus have heightened their presence in the sexual wellness category, and concepts such as Contact Sports, Pepper and The Lake are opening with elevated approaches to adult novelty retail.
At Dame, Malik was involved in bringing the brand’s Massage Oil and Desire Gummies to market. In the thick of product research, Malik says she tested many of the leading sexual wellness products available, “everything from fast female arousal supplements like the pink pussycat that you get at gas stations to various types of arousal serums.” While the experimentation was fun, it wasn’t without hazards. Malik kept finding herself in the doctor’s office with vaginal irritation.
“It almost got to the point of like, does she just have a sensitive vagina? But, in actuality, women of color tend to have higher endocrine disruptors in their body,” says Malik, who grew up in Pakistan and moved to the United States for college. “So, they do have somewhat more of a sensitive, if you want to use that word, vagina when it comes to the ingredients that are touching the vaginal microbiome.”
Malik’s experience as a woman of color who spent her formative years in what she describes as a “developing country where women don’t have a lot of rights” heavily informs Rythm. The e-tailer pays particular attention to women of color, who can have a different vaginal pH than white women and therefore different sexual wellness product needs. If customers aren’t sure where to start as they explore Rythm’s sexual wellness merchandise, they can book a consultation to get them acquainted with its selection.
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