Christine Marie Mason
Meet the creator of
Rosebud Woman, a skincare line for women’s most intimate parts.
Christine Marie Mason believes in
self-care, the divine feminine &
the power of plant-based formulations.
This lady wants to give lady parts, deserving attention, and love.♥
– as told to The Silver Women
Tell us a little about yourself.
I run a self-love and reverence company—Rosebud Woman—that creates intimate self-care potions for women.. I also write books, post way too much on social media, and (along with my partner) have a retreat space on the Big Island of Hawaii where people come for silence and inquiry. I founded a number of companies, mainly in tech. I am a devotional singer, a general adventurer, and a science nerd who likes cryptocurrency and biohacking. My social work is focused on restorative justice, in response to my mother’s death in a violent crime in 1977.
But the most important thing to know about me is that I live with a deep sense of relatedness. I study and teach yoga, and I have four amazing children (who also are beginning to have children) and co-raised my ex’s stunning girls for a decade. I feel nested in a number of communities, with friends and relations on four continents, including a dozen first cousins in Germany. And this sense of relatedness extends to the Earth herself, and out to the stars.
Why Rosebud Woman?
I was doing market research for a technology company in women’s health, and I was struck by how many women had intimate concerns and complaints that were not being addressed. These included dryness, arousal, tissue laxity, scent, cleanliness, and irritation or redness. Most of the products I saw on the market were either medicalized or sexualized. The data was particularly disturbing because only 10% of us ever talked to our doctors about it. We just couldn’t mention this part of our bodies.
Rosebud Woman launched in the Fall. It’s a line of plant-based, luxury skincare for the greater vaginal area, the vulva, labia, and other tender bits. We all have a regime for our face, and a routine for our skin, but there hasn’t really been anything specifically formulated for this skin, which is 10 times more permeable than other skin on our bodies. The few products that are available for the vaginal area tend to be very chem-based. Lots of petroleum products and synthetic molecules. Plants, not so much. When I was looking at the data, about 60% of women have intimate skin concerns at some period of their lives. There are common daily concerns and more life-stage specific needs. In pre- and post-natal woman, for example, the perineum really benefits from massage with specific kinds of oils. So that’s a good time to provide extra care to this part of the body. After menopause, when the body chemistry is changing, is also a wonderful time to provide extra care.
“These are not perfumes, or cosmetics, meant to neutralize something inherently wrong with you.
That is not what we’re saying at all.
Your pheromonal signature, clean and happy, is what we’re going for.
In general, if you have inflammation or irritation—from exercise, from sex, from riding a bike, from wearing underwear and not getting enough air— plant-based treatments can provide relief.
Our Soothe Calming Cream (Arnica, Calendula, Chamomile, Mint) and Refresh Spray (Witch Hazel, Aloe, Tea Tree) were designed for that. Our Honor Balm is specifically for everyday use. It’s a reason to touch yourself every day, and give the tissues of your body a little regenerative love. It’s a self-reverence practice, and any woman interested in becoming more intimate with her own being can benefit from doing this. Our Arouse Serum is a great way to bring a plumping, tingling and salivation experience to life.
“I love women. I think women deserve more love and reverence,
and I think that the unmet needs of the vulva, labia, and greater vaginal area deserve loving treatment that’s not sexualized or medicalized.”
We took a lot of care to make the line aesthetically-beautiful enough to keep out on the bedside table. It’s packaged as an unveiling experience: as an elegant gift for any woman who believes that she deserves more self-care. It’s for any woman who has experienced a little bit of discomfort down there that she never wanted to talk to anybody about—and anyone who thinks that she’s worthy of a little splurge.
Your thoughts on aging?
Downside…Having to relearn a new “happy body” formula. Less dessert. How to sleep right. Weird endocrinology. It’s like waking up with someone you’re only kind of familiar with.
Upside…I have never been happier in my life than I am now. I’m roaming the world, the kids are grown, the sex is great, my body is healthy, I know my mind, and I’m still growing all the time. Last week I was with a bunch of gorgeous new moms and bearing mothers, and they were so in the middle of it, in the middle of that beautiful chaos. It was delightful, but at the same time, I have no desire to go back to that. This freedom is great.
Women, who you think have aged with grace/integrity?
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, the kundalini yogi. That face! And the go-to Helen Mirren. RBG because she’s aging into proclaiming more justice, more clarity, and offering more gifts to the nation.
“Women who inspired me as a young girl?
I always loved the story of Amelia Earhart, because she was so confident and brave and whole.”
Women who inspired you as a young girl?
Amelia Earhart. Did you know she also designed luggage and clothing? It’s true. Also, I remember laying in the living room and being bewitched listening to Joan Baez on the turntable, and Janis Joplin belting out Bobby McGee. I remember thinking that I wanted to care that deeply, to feel as deeply as they were feeling in those songs. And I was inspired by my great grandmother, who drove, smoked cigars, and laughed out loud into her late 90s. That, it seemed to me, was the way to age!
Women who inspire you NOW?
Dr. Vandana Shiva, a global food and ecosystem activist, who is single-handedly reclaiming the term Pro-Life to mean Pro-Food rights, Pro-Water, Pro-Healthcare, Pro-Old People, Pro-all-of -Life. Her clear vision has stopped seeds from being patented and saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of farmers. And poet Jenny Zhang, who says things that stop me in my tracks. My stepmom, Sue, who in her 70s is camping alone up the west coast and making art. And my daughter, Samantha Sleeper, who in addition to designing beautiful dresses in NYC is literally the best human mother I have ever seen.
-Christine Marie Mason xoxo
FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS
Song:
On a perfect day, I’d slink my way out of bed to ‘Feeling Good’ by Nina Simone,
dance to Daft Punk until I was sweaty, and go to sleep chanting the Maha Mantra with the silky cinnamon chai voice of Kirtan artist Adam Bauer.
Book/Novel:
Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, or maybe The Great Animal Orchestra by Bernie Krause: Both highlight things we take for granted, like how we perceive time and the harmonic regulation of nature.
But making me pick is like choosing between children.
And The Size of the World by Jeff Greenwald, which gave me hope
in my suburban grounded carpooling darkness.
Film:
The 17-minute galaxy/birth of time montage in Terence Malick’s Tree of Life, set to the Requiem Lacrimosa. This is another amazing example of an artist presenting us with ‘what is really going on out there?
Flower:
Imagine a low pitcher stuffed with
pinkish apricot peonies, heavy-headed in the afternoon sun. That.
Scent:
Love and Tears, surrender by Kilian.
You just have to stick your nose it in. Also, the smell of newborn babies.
City/place:
A secluded little bay on the Greek Island of Andros where
you can swim naked in the setting sun, then dry off on the rock ledge, and sing to the stars and listen to your words echo out into forever. On a yoga mat anywhere on earth. In my lover’s arms on a rainy Sunday morning with nothing to be done.
Food/Meal/Cuisine:
Wheatgrass shots.No, for real. I mean it. It’s a miracle food
Artist:
Kehinde Wiley, who paints stunning portraits in insanely vibrant allegorical backdrops. He did a portrait of Obama, but I’d known his work prior to that.
Style Icon:
My friend, San Francisco painter, poet, and surfer Tamsin Smith who just throws it on and looks whole and integrated and perfectly at ease.
Christine photographed in Mill Valley, California.
All Images of Christine by The Silver Women
Product imagery courtesy Rosebud Woman
Discover & Follow Rosebud Woman:
Website: www.rosewoman.com
Instagram: @rosebudwoman
Rosebud Woman is available on their website & Shen Beauty