Introduce yourselves.

We're Fiona and Áine, two friends who met and realised we had the same question: why are period products (something half the world uses every single month) made with hidden chemicals, plastic, and bleach? We started Riley to answer that question with action. We're an Irish, female-founded brand on a mission to make period care cleaner, safer, and more honest for every woman.

What inspired you to join the natural health sector?

It started over a glass of wine with friends. We got talking about how frustrated we were with the period products we'd been using our entire lives, and then started looking into what's actually in them. We discovered that many mainstream products contain up to 24 hormone-disrupting chemicals and are covered in plastic. We just thought: surely there's a better way. So we built one. Natural health isn't a trend for us. It's about demanding that the products women use every day actually deserve their trust.

Where did you get the idea for your brand?

Honestly, it came from a very normal evening catching up with friends. We started talking about our periods and what we were actually putting in our bodies. Once we looked into what's in conventional period products, we couldn't un-know it. Riley was born from that moment.

What makes your brand unique?

Riley doesn't ask you to compromise. Our products are 100% certified organic cotton, with no pesticides, no chlorine bleach, no glues, no nasties, and they genuinely perform. We're award-winning, B Corp certified, with the reviews to back it up.

We're also built around a bigger idea: that period care is a health issue, a workplace issue, and an equality issue. Riley shows up in bathrooms at work, in schools, in hotels, because access to clean period care should be a basic right, not a luxury.

What are your company's core values?

Health, empowerment, equality, and progress. They shape every decision we make, from the cotton we source to the conversations we start. We want every woman who uses Riley to feel better in her body and bolder in her life.

How do you support your community?

We donate 1% of every sale to fight period poverty, because no one should miss school, work, or a single day of their life because they can't afford period products.

We also run education programmes and work with workplaces and schools to normalise conversations about menstrual health. Our co-founder Fiona took this mission to the TEDx stage, speaking about what your cycle is actually telling you, and why it might be the most important thing you do for yourself. Watch the talk here.

What has been the most rewarding part of your brand's journey?

The messages. When a woman tells us she switched to Riley and can't believe how different she feels. That's everything. Or when a company says their female employees feel genuinely seen at work for the first time. Period care is so personal, but its impact is enormous.

We've been humbled by the recognition: 12 awards and counting, coverage in Vogue, Sheerluxe, the Irish Times, but none of it means as much as hearing from the women who actually use Riley every day.

What in your opinion makes Irish brands unique?

There's genuine authenticity to Irish brands that's hard to manufacture. We're proud to be part of that community, and being stocked at Evergreen alongside so many brilliant Irish brands feels like exactly the right home for us.

What is your favourite product from your brand?

Our organic cotton tampons with applicator. Genuinely high-performing, 100% certified organic cotton, and completely free from the nasties you'd find in mainstream alternatives. Once you try them, you won't go back.

Tell us about something that has shaped your brand.

A 2025 UK study found cancer-linked glyphosate in mainstream tampon brands at levels 40x higher than what's permitted in drinking water. It's not fearmongering. It's fact. Women deserve to know what's in their period products, and they deserve better options. That study reminded us why we show up every single day.

What do you hope to accomplish in the future?

We want Riley to be the period care brand that defines this generation, the one that made menstrual wellbeing impossible to ignore. More women reached, more health-forward retailers like Evergreen, more menstrual equity in workplaces and schools.

But the bigger dream? A world where every bathroom has clean, safe period care. Where every woman understands her cycle and her body. Where periods are not a source of shame, stress, or health risk. That's what we're building, one tampon at a time.