Pleasure entrepreneur Rosie Rees talks all things sexual wellness
We think Rosie Rees is the ultimate FIG Femme. Rees is a Pleasure Entrepreneur and founder of Yoni Pleasure Palace. She’s also a Relationship and Sex Coach. Oh, and somehow she finds the time to instruct nude yoga classes too. People call her Yoni Queen and she’s on a one-woman mission to #shaketheshame around sexual pleasure and intimate wellness. Below, we asked Rees to break down her career, her mission and thoughts around one of the biggest taboos in our world right now: sex and sexual pleasure.
FIG Femme: How did you discover your unique multifaceted career and what lead you to the pleasure industry?
Rosie Rees: “It was 2012, and I was climbing the corporate ladder in a finance recruitment job in Sydney. I was in a relationship with a pretty toxic man and the process of getting out of that relationship then led me to becoming a relationship coach myself. I quit my job, went over to India and became a yoga teacher, and then went on a spiritual journey. In 2014, I went to Bali, became a Kundalini Yoga teacher and then discovered the jade egg there. It’s a bit Eat Pray Love, isn’t it?”
FF: When did you start Yoni Pleasure Palace and what is your mission?
RR: “I launched Yoni Pleasure Palace and my nude yoga business in 2014 and it all took off instantly. I was passionate about starting a business with education at its core because not everyone knows how to use the products. As a community we have not been educated around how to touch, feel and understand what’s going on down there. Most women don’t know that we have three pelvic openings and that our wee doesn’t come out of our vagina, it comes out of our urethra. Just being able to educate people about that is really rewarding. Getting a woman to connect to a stone, with the jade egg for example, this gently asks her to touch herself and look at what’s down there, to feel and sensorially understand what’s going on. Eggs are for pelvic floor training and strengthening but they are also for reconnecting with that sacred space in our body.”
FF: In the six years since you launched do you feel that we, as a society, have come a long way in lifting the taboo around sexual wellness?
RR: “Oh my gosh, yes. At the very beginning, my account went viral when I posted a photo of me in front of 20 women naked in a yoga studio. That’s how my business got out there, through teaching the nude yoga events. Back then, the nude yoga, Yoni eggs and crystal wands were so taboo. Now, there’s less tension, it’s more encouraged. Yet at the same time, social media is going backwards as censorship is getting worse and worse. I can’t even spell out the word sex without getting banned.”
FF: Tell us more about the ban and what’s holding the business back?
RR: “I think that there’s a rise in women’s empowerment around sexuality and then Instagram and Facebook are saying no, that’s not happening. On both my own Rosie Rees account and also the business account we’ve had to domesticate ourselves and tame everything so that we don’t get reported. It’s awful. It’s the one major thing really holding us back at the moment. I can’t write what I want to write, I cannot speak about what I really want to speak about without getting shadow banned. I’m on my third ban this month on Facebook. So, on those platforms we have to avoid typing out words such as vulva, sex, and even cervix.”
FF: What does intimate wellness mean to you?
RR: “It’s about reconnecting with that space. Which is what I’m most passionate about. For centuries we haven’t been allowed to be sexually empowered and connect to this space. I feel that intimate wellness is a really important part of a woman’s journey of her learning to love and embrace all parts of her body. The more women out there who know their anatomy, touch themselves, feel their own pleasure – think about the ripple effect of that – they will be educating their own daughters about the same thing. They will have healthier boundaries in the future. They will able to express what they want in the bedroom sexually. It’s not just about putting on a vulva mask or a Yoni egg in, it’s about your relationship with your vulva and vagina.”
FF: Can you talk us through a recent intimate wellness routine?
RR: “I recently had a free child-free night, so I popped the FIG Femme Restore mask in the fridge. I did some dry body brushing, poured myself a hot bath and glass of wine. I used the Refresh Daily Wash and it felt luxuriously refreshing and I loved that it doesn't carry a scent or change my natural scent. Then, I asked my partner to pop the mask on me properly while I was laying on the bed. And I put my Yoni egg in at the same time. It was beautiful. I love that the FIG range is all natural. The mask was incredibly cooling and felt smooth and silky on my intimate skin, especially after my Brazilian wax. I loved the generous size and how it covered my lower belly and my inner thighs."