Twenty-three years ago, our founder Wendy Strgar found that every intimacy product on the shelf left her in discomfort, or worse. Research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would later confirm what she already knew from experience: most legacy lubricants harm women and disrupt the vaginal microbiome. But at the time, she just knew she wanted something better, and that no one was making it.
So she set out to create a product that had no parabens, no petrochemicals, and was formulated to work with her body instead of against it. That mission became her life's work. Over the last two decades Wendy has partnered with leading scientists and vaginal health researchers to build the first line of products designed with women's health in mind.
Discovering Osmolality
A few years into building Good Clean Love, Wendy received a letter from the local chapter of HIV Alliance, an organization the company had donated thousands of lubricant samples to. Along with a thank-you, the letter shared that Almost Naked had roughly the same osmolality as natural vaginal fluid.
This is how Wendy learned about osmolality, a concept that would become the cornerstone of Good Clean Love. In simple terms, osmolality is a measure of how concentrated a solution is, or how much "stuff" (salts, sugars, other compounds) is dissolved in a liquid. Vaginal tissue is delicate and semi-permeable, so when a lubricant touches it, water moves across the cell membrane to try to balance the concentration on either side. It's the water that migrates, not the dissolved solutes. The cells themselves stay put, but they gain or lose water depending on which side is more concentrated.
- Hyperosmolar lubricants are far more concentrated than the body's own fluids. When they touch vaginal tissue, water moves out of the cells and into the lubricant to try to even things out, which can leave tissue dehydrated, irritated, and more vulnerable to micro-tears and infection. Many mainstream lubricants fall into this category, often because ingredients like glycerin or propylene glycol are used at high concentrations.
- Iso-osmotic (or iso-osmolar) lubricants are formulated to closely match the body's natural osmolality. Because there's no concentration gradient pulling water in either direction, the tissue stays hydrated and intact, the way it would on its own.
This is the science behind why some lubricants feel great in the moment but leave you drier, itchier, or more irritated afterward, and why others don't.
Later, an NIH study found that most lubricants disrupt vaginal health, and Almost Naked was the first lubricant proven not to disturb the vaginal microbiome. Because its osmolality was so close to the body's own, it didn't pull water out of the tissue or throw off the delicate balance of the vaginal environment, it simply let the tissue function the way it would on its own. Almost Naked wasn't just "natural." It was formulated, at a cellular level, to work in balance with the body.
Bio-Match® Was Born
Later on, Wendy was reading a NIH study on the osmolality of lubricants, where one of the lead researchers, Dr. Richard Cone, was quoted saying, “All sexual lubricants should be reformulated.” So she picked up the phone and called him. Their conversation grew into a friendship and partnership that inspired Bio-Match®, designed to support your vaginal ecosystem through iso-osmolality, pH balance, and protective lactobacilli.
Twenty-three years after Wendy started Good Clean Love, our mission hasn't changed: to make products that protect your vaginal microbiome, so you never have to choose between intimacy and your health.
