The “horny goat weed” didn’t exactly make my bedroom any busier, but it did make me insanely productive.
It’s not every day someone asks if you want to try some “sex dust.” If that person is your editor and not some sketchy dude with dilated pupils and a glow stick at an EDM festival, you consider it. Like so many women in 2019, I am thoroughly down with all things wellness, weirdness, and woo-woo, so I was game to give it a try.
My first, very chill question: What in the name of all things holy is“sex dust”? The libido-stirring dust in question is a concoction brewed by Moon Juice, the wellness and beauty brand with a dedicated cult of fans who overlap on the Venn diagram of “affluent, GOOP-subscribing vaginal steamers” and “edgy urban brujas.” Moon Juice (which also makes an adaptogenic oil for your yoni) describes Sex Dust as a “blend of lusty superherbs that help combat the effects of stress to ignite your creative energy, in and out of the bedroom.” Basically, these “lusty superherbs” are supposed to make you a sex goddess with supercharged creativity. Alrighty then.
Now, here’s the thing about that first part. Your girl is currently single AF, following the breakup of a relationship that could best be described as an unconscious uncoupling (that’s two Gwyneth references so far, if you’re counting). That is to say, there was nothing gentle and mutual about it—it was one of those sudden, messy, leave you blasting Monica’s “So Gone” for days breakups. And while I’ve dated here and there since then, my overall vibe’s been, Men? Don’t wanna know ’em.
Like an unwatered plant, my usually strong libido has taken the hint that sustenance is not coming and gone into a chill dormancy the last couple months—a détente, if you will. It’s certainly not the worst thing in the world, but I definitely don’t feel like my usual self: swagger and sex drive firing on all cylinders to turn heads when I walk into a room. In short, I’ve been off my sex-goddess game.
Instead, all the energy I could (and should, according to my mom) be putting into a relationship, I have instead been putting into a women’s writing club I cofounded, which has quickly grown from adorable infant side hustle to demanding toddler that consumes almost all my waking hours. Sex Dust’s promise of a creative-energy boost out of the bedroom was calling my name.
So could Sex Dust really help a single girl get her groove back andconquer her side hustle? I admit I was sus! Here’s how it went.
Sex Dust costs $38 and comes in a glass jar that was, TBH, smaller than I expected—roughly the size of your fave fancy night cream. Inside is a finely milled powder that looks, smells, and tastes like cocoa, which makes sense because the first ingredient listed is organic cacao powder. I don’t know how “lusty” it is, but cacao is a superfood that’s thought to be behind many of the benefits of chocolate. It contains more antioxidants than teas and red wine and benefits both your brain and mood. It’s good stuff.
Other ingredients include organic Shatavari root powder, which, Moon Juice founder Amanda Chantal Bacon explains, is “an ancient superherb that supports fertility and libido, and is one of the most powerful adaptogens for reproductive health.” Awesome. It also “boosts internal juiciness,” she says. I don’t actually have any issues with juiciness, so I can only assume this boost will cause me to drip like a ripe mango. Not that I’m against that, honestly.
Sex Dust also contains organic epimedium, a.k.a. horny goat weed, the hilariously named herb available in pill form that Bacon says “has been used for thousands of years to help balance hormones and bring warmth to the pelvic region.” Lusty!
So what exactly do you do with this stuff? Bacon is a former chef, so Moon Juice’s site helpfully contains tons of recipes for making Sex Dust snacks (which I can only assume would make you the office hero). Being a low-maintenance (read “lazy”) gal, I mixed a teaspoon into my morning coffee. It mixed pretty well and gave my coffee a toasty, slightly sweet chocolate flavor, with a mushroom-y musk to it. It was surprisingly pleasant.
A few sips in and I was no glowing Aphrodite. What gives?! But a couple hours later, I realized a proposal for a big copywriting project I was working on was suddenly flowing weirdly well. I sped on from that to phone interviews with potential assistants for my start-up, a task I’d usually find draining as an introvert, but which left me oddly energized.
Now normally, after crossing two entire things off my to-do list, I’d treat myself to a “deserved” hour of aimless reading on the Internet, or going down an Instagram hole, or honestly, I might just say “eff it” and log off for the day. (Gotta love that freelance life.) Instead I felt inspired to work on the creative direction for an upcoming photo shoot I’m producing. “I’M SCARED OF YOU,” my business partner texted me when I emailed her a meticulously organized mood board, shot list, call sheet, and schedule at 2:00 A.M.
I went to bed that night after a 14-hour work day, feeling like I could have gone longer. Whomst am I, I wondered? Was it the Sex Dust igniting my creative energy?
For the next couple days, I downed Sex Dust coffee each morning, and worked more bizarrely productive 12- to 16-hour days, crossing a ton of crap off my permanently anxiety-inducing to-do list. As someone who is super-easily overwhelmed and would rather be napping at all times, I cannot stress how unusual it is for me to achieve this level of productivity at all, much less multiple days in a row.
By day four, I was thoroughly spooked by the unusual burst of focus and productivity I’d experienced, but below-the-brain benefits were harder to sense. I’d definitely noticed my mood felt lighter—perhaps the result of the cacao, which Bacon says “releases endorphins.” But I felt no libidinous effects, nor the “pelvic warming” or “juiciness” I’d been promised. So I decided to take the Sex Dust on the road, meeting up with a friend to go to on what she calls a “cutie run,” dinner and a trip to the bar to chill, look cute, dance, and maybe meet boys.
About an hour into our cutie run, she turned to me in frustration: “I feel invisible—like all the guys are smiling at you!” she yelled over the music. Not gonna lie, I’d noticed it too. The horny goat weed must be working! Of course it wasn’t every dude. But it definitely felt like people were, to put it scientifically, digging my vibe. Our waitress was unusually friendly. One guy waved from across the room. Another made a lame excuse to talk to me in the bathroom line. On the street, another literally said: “You’re nice, I like you.”
Of course, I can’t say for sure whether my renewed mojo was the Sex Dust or some other factor. Was I just in a good mood? Excited to see my friend? Had all the men on the Lower East Side been slipped $20 and told to flirt with me? We may never know.
Placebo effect or not, it was fun feeling like I had my swagger back. I wouldn’t say Sex Dust morphed me into a horndog with a “warm pelvis”—yet. But Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and with my to-do list astonishingly tamed, I’ll definitely be going on a cutie run.
By Leeann Duggan ( a Brooklyn-based writer who covers fashion, beauty, and all things weird and wellness. She is also cofounder of Novella, a writing club for women. Follow her on Instagram @borninflames.)