Jen Philips over at Mother Jones received a sample of an exciting new candy from a PR rep. Called Linger, it bills itself as “the intimate mint.” Or “feminine flavoring system.” Because you’re supposed to put it in your vagina.

The problem with this product, of course, is that it’s an unholy alliance of three things: preying on women’s insecurities about their bodies, remarketing a mundane product for media attention, and advocating that people do something that is extremely unhealthy.

My tin of Linger looked a lot like one of those tins of mints that are given away at trade shows. And guess what? That’s what it is. A little digging revealed that Linger is made/distributed by a company called Admints, which just happens to make trade show mints. And the Linger samples just happen to have have the exact same shape, taste, and ingredients as Admint’s sample mints. So how does Linger manage to pass off breath mints as vaginal Tic Tacs in $7.99 packs? Despite the salacious creation story and testimonials on its site (“It gets a little warm as it starts to dissolve which took just under an hour. Then, it is SO good!!”), the mint is labeled “for novelty use only.”

Of course, the problem with these mints is that it is an exceptionally bad and unhealthy idea to use them in the first place. Unlike many mints made with artificial sweeteners, Admints contains sugar. Sugar in one’s lady parts can lead to catastrophic yeast infections, which is why flavored products that are actually designed for lady-parts use find other sweeteners to use.

Femimint Hygiene: Vagina Mints [Mother Jones]
Linger [Official Site]

(Photo: liangjinjian)

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