MEET JULIE HERSKIN, FOUNDER OF SITRE
Introducing Julie Herskin, the visionary behind Sitre and the inspiration for her creation of a sex wellness brand.
"I was working in London at an advertising agency when I first had the idea for Sitre. It happened when I found myself in a situation where I suddenly wasn’t producing any natural lubricant. I had never heard of any of my friends experiencing that. Or anyone really. I thought my body wasn’t working - or maybe I just wasn’t a sexual creature. My partner on the other hand felt like he was to blame.
This made the conversation awkward as the situation made us both feel less confident. It created a barrier that essentially had an impact on our intimate connection.
When I finally ended up buying a lubricant, the design made me feel even worse. It felt vulgar and I needed to hide it away because there was just no way that it would ever be showcased on the bedside table. It became the elephant in the room (and we actually often tried to avoid using it, which led to uncomfort…).
One day I looked at the ingredient list and realised we needed to stop using it straight away. I ended up finding a more natural and clean alternative, but it came in a white tube and felt like medicine. Not exactly what I needed when I already felt like my body wasn’t working.
Today I know that vaginal dryness is completely normal and often the result of hormonal changes, stress or medicine. But at the time I didn’t know anyone talking about this and it felt so shameful.
This is when I had a thought: why is it that sex still belong in the dodgy corners? There’s nothing more natural than intimacy and it can bring so much joy, and have an incredible effect on our physical and mental health.
When I moved home to Denmark in 2020, I reached out to my friend Cecilie and asked: do you want to create a new chapter for intimacy with me? She had to think twice because she didn’t know how she felt about quitting her job to make lubricant… but here we are, three years after launch and working hard to make a new chapter for intimacy so we can all feel good. Because that’s what intimacy is about really; feeling connected to one self and potentially a partner.
Today we’re launching our partnership with Amelia Nour and we couldn’t be happier to see intimacy move into their beautiful world of self-care, skincare and wellness.
Stay tuned as this is the beginning of more honest, kind and inclusive conversations about intimacy as this is the first of many intimacy columns. If you have any questions about intimacy then email them to us at info@amelianour.co.uk and we’ll do our best to answer them in one of our next columns."
Shop Sitre's full range here.
- Julie Herskin
