Etsy is a wonderful place on the internet where you can buy lovely gifts for your mum, support independent artists, and generally buy yourself all kinds of great things, like purses shaped like vaginas or feminist badges.

It’s also a place where people are free to sell nonsensical, and often dangerous, products – specifically targeted at our insecurities around vaginas.

Woman whose angry eczema itching was so bad she needed sleeping pills swears by £8 cream

Etsy is still allowing people to sell detox balls and vagina tightening sticks, despite professionals advising Etsy of how dangerous these products can be when used as the sellers advise.

Browsing through Etsy recently, I noticed that the latest trend in unnecessary and potentially dangerous vagina products is something called yoni oil.




As with similar vagina-related products on Etsy, Yoni oil is defined differently by different sellers, but the majority boil down to a simple concept: yoni oil is oil designed for your vulva and vagina.

Yoni, if you didn’t know, is a word for vulva and vagina derived through hinduism, but it’s been co-opted by all kinds of sellers tacking on terms to products to give them a more ‘spiritual’ feel.

The majority of yoni oils have been made with herbs, oils, and petals. Some have also been made with ‘love’ and ‘good vibes’.

They promise everything from keeping ‘your flower fresh and balanced’ and ‘help your yoni feel fresh, balanced, and moisturised throughout the day’ to clearing ‘negative vibrations’ and ‘supporting the reproductive system’.

If that all sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is.

While the ‘good vibes’ and ‘negative vibrations’ bits are contentious in themselves, that’s not the bit we’re worried about (although it’s always a little worrying when people are spending money online to get spiritual healing from someone who may not be even a tiny bit reputable).

Our concern is the products themselves, and what these oils can do when applied to the vulva or, as many of the listings suggest, the vagina.

There is no need for you to put any cleaning products, moisturisers, creams, or oils inside the vagina to clean it.

The vagina is self-cleaning, keeping itself working properly with natural secretions (discharge) and a balance of good bacteria.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

You do not need to wash yourself internally, with water, soap, or any other product. Your vagina will take care of itself.

But it’s not just that you don’t need these products – it’s that their use could actually end up causing you harm.

‘The vagina contains good bacteria, which are there to protect it,’ Dr Vanessa Mackay, spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told metro.co.uk.

‘If these bacteria are disturbed it can lead to infection, such as bacterial vaginosis or thrush, and inflammation.’

Shower gels, creams, and oils such as yoni oils can disrupt bacteria and the vagina’s pH balance, leaving you with a nasty infection.

Many of these oils also have worrying ingredients, such as tea tree oil (which can burn the mucosal lining of the vagina) and sugars (which can cause yeast infections).



The airy, seductive language in the product’s descriptions, telling customers to place the oil on their ‘feminine area’ rather than specifying the vulva – which would be safer than applying the oil internally – and advising people that these oils can fix fertility issues and low sex drive, is incredibly dangerous.

Add to that the harmless sounding names promoting self-love and ‘feminine power’, and the fact that these oils are so freely listed on Etsy is scary.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

Many are deemed ‘essential’, or sold as a way to protect women from ‘unpleasant odours’ – suggesting that the vagina left in its natural state is ‘unpleasant’. Which it isn’t.

Yoni oils are not essential. They are not helpful. They could end up causing you harm.

Do not get lured in by their fancy bottles, natural ingredients (just because something is natural, doesn’t mean it belongs in your vagina), and promises of a new and improved vagina.

Your vagina is perfectly fine the way it is. If you’re experiencing dryness, talk to a doctor or gynaecologist and trust their wisdom – not the wisdom of a random person on the internet who’s trying to sell you a bottle of petal-filled oil for £12.

MORE: Woman issues glorious warning about using Original Source’s mint shower gel around your vagina

MORE: Is it safe to put Bonjela in your vagina or on your vulva?

MORE: Let’s talk about the sweaty vagina triangle

Advertisement Advertisement