Period Care Specialist Cora Reveals Colorful Rebrand And New Wellness Products

In the mid-2010s, Cora was in a crop of brands—The Honey Pot Company and This is L. are two others—that made it their mission to modernize the menstrual care business. The upstart brands diverged from incumbents by challenging the traditional concept of “feminine hygiene” that excluded people not identifying as feminine, femme or women, the ingredients long put in formulas and the sustainability of legacy merchandise. 

Now, Cora is aiming to further elevate the category with a vibrant beauty-inspired refresh and a selection of wellness offerings designed to support people who menstruate throughout their cycles. Co-founder Molly Hayward describes the refresh as reflective of the brand’s and the period care category’s evolution. “Menstruators no longer want to have this lofty ethereal experience put in front of them,” she says. “They want a real, relatable, empathetic experience and to know that we as a brand really get what they’re going through.”

Each of Cora’s products has been renamed with the purpose of enabling its period care items to stand out on the shelves of retailers like Target, CVS, Kroger, Albertsons, Safeway, Wegmans and Meijer. Its Ultra Thin Liners, for example, have become The Got-You-Covered Liner. The refurbished brand incorporates inclusive language and a bold color matrix to help consumers navigate its products. Cora sells pads, liners, tampons, cups, discs, underwear, body oil, wash, wipes, product cases and more retailing from $6 to $48.

Along with the rebrand, Cora has introduced three vaginal and cycle care products that are available on its website and at select retailers nationwide: $23 intimate moisturizer Restorative Vulva Balm; chasteberry extract- and black cohosh-infused transdermal Stay Well Period Patch, which is priced at $13 for a six-pack; and Balancing Boric Acid Suppository, which is priced at $17 for 10 suppositories, and formulated to promote pH balance and protect against irregular odors.

Cora’s extensive product array is a far cry from the two stockkeeping units it started with, regular and super applicator-free tampons, in 2016. “At that time, offering an organic cotton tampon in a mainstream retailer like Target and coming out with a beautiful minimalist, neutral palette in a more sophisticated way was really a revelation,” says Hayward. “Everyone was still living in this sea of pink and color. Literally, I won’t name names, but there was glitter. We wanted to show up as this palette cleanser when you walk down that aisle, and we got a ton of credit for that.” 

Cora’s revamp was guided by an unnamed outside agency along with its in-house creative team. The brand declined to disclose the cost of the revamp. In contrast to its original white-and-black look, the update has given Cora a color range centered on saturated blues and pinks. “We were not changing who we are fundamentally. We’re actually a really bright and bold and positive brand,” says Cora CMO Dana Cohen, who recently joined the brand after positions as VP of marketing at Bare Snacks and associate director at The Clorox Co. “We feel color expresses that in such a unique way. We chose the colors we did to be reflective of a modern palette that is feminine without being girly.” 

Cohen calls the rebranded merchandise “counter-worthy” enough to be left out rather than shoved to the back of bathroom vanity drawers. “We were thinking about both how it lives in retail and the shopping experience, but also how it might live in your home and feeling like there is this movement towards being a little bit more open and upfront when talking about period care,” she says. “Why shouldn’t you leave it out proudly on your counter because it’s something that you would talk about with your friends and share about your experience?”

Cora closed a Harbinger Ventures-led $7.5 million funding round in 2019. Asked whether it’s raised additional funding, the brand responds it hasn’t “made any fundraising announcements since 2019.” Over the last three years, Cora divulges its sales have increased nearly 300%. In particular, sales of its menstrual cups and discs have been advancing at a yearly pace of 75% at retail and driving 24% of the brand’s overall growth, according to figures from the data company SPINS supplied by Cora. When the brand launched a reusable menstrual disc last year, it sold out three times and quickly became the fastest-growing reusable disc in the category.  

Intimate care and sexual wellness have become less taboo in recent years. One upside of the pandemic has been the continued shattering of the taboos that historically plagued the categories. Many retailers that a decade ago wouldn’t have dared to carry period care or sex toys have picked them up, and retailers such as Target are upgrading their assortments to feature emerging brands like Cora. 

Institutional investment has rolled in, too, and the period care category has seen a number of deals. In 2019, Procter & Gamble acquired then 4-year-old Y Combinator-backed organic menstrual care startup This is L. In February, Kimberly Clark acquired a majority stake in period underwear maker Thinx. “It finally feels like period care has reached this status of being part of a regimen of self-esteem for people, just like skincare, just like beauty,” says Hayward. “It’s not about covering something up, It’s something that you want to do in a way and with brands that make you feel more like your best self.”