Between Us
Antara Kita means “between us” in Malay. It’s what friends say when they share something in confidence.
We are a Singapore-born intimate-wellness company with two aims: to make the most comfortable lubricant we can, and to bring back into our communities the sexual education most of us never received.
Our Story
Antara Kita was founded by Sid Azmi. Born in Boon Lay, Singapore, where she helped sell her mother’s satay as a child, she went on to work as a radiation therapist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering, and later as Chief Radiation Therapist in New York. Again and again, patients and survivors confided in her about what treatment had done to their intimate lives, things they often didn’t feel able to raise with their doctors.
What she came to understand was that these questions didn’t begin with a diagnosis. They came from a gap in sexual education that almost everyone carries. Illness simply changes the body in ways that make those questions impossible to ignore, yet no easier to say out loud.
Please – An Educational Pleasure Shop began with an earnest search for a good lubricant in her own community. At the time, Sid was teaching clinical radiation therapy at Nassau Community College, and she saw that she could bring her different skills together to bridge the gap between clinical knowledge and the sexual wellness industry. Please, in Brooklyn, was the result: a place where anyone could walk in and ask, later featured in New York Magazine and Cosmopolitan.
Women came in at every stage of life, and many shared the same quiet concern: discomfort getting in the way of the intimacy they wanted. They weren’t looking to be fixed. They wanted to understand their own bodies, and somewhere to talk without embarrassment.
That search for a good lubricant never really ended. Today Sid lives in France with her family. Stepping back from her work as a sex educator gave her the space to create Antara Kita, alongside the painting and writing she does at home. She made it for every woman carrying questions she never felt comfortable asking.
Read her writing at Sid on Sex.
Why comfort comes first
Desire and the body don’t always move at the same pace. Touch or penetration can begin before the body has had the time or stimulation it needs to lubricate naturally. Without enough lubrication, friction can cause discomfort that lasts for days, from burning when passing urine to soreness with ordinary movement.
The harm isn’t only physical. Once sex has hurt, the fear of it hurting again can quietly dim desire, even for women who want intimacy.
The answer is simple and available to everyone: a good lubricant.
How we made it
Antara Kita grew out of years of study into what reduces friction without disturbing the body’s natural environment.
No glycerin. Glycerin has been associated with yeast overgrowth, which can leave some women with uncomfortable itching.
No fragrance, no parabens. Nothing the body doesn’t need.
Balanced osmolality. Lubricants that are too concentrated can feel slick at first, then draw water out of delicate tissue and leave you drier than before. Antara Kita is formulated within the World Health Organization’s guidance on osmolality.
Hyaluronic hydration. Sodium hyaluronate, a moisture-binding ingredient, helps keep tissue comfortable.
Halal-certified.
Sid believes that sexual products, like our sexual lives, shouldn’t stay hidden at the bottom of a drawer. They deserve recognition, validation and a place in our everyday living. So she gave Antara Kita an aesthetic that dignifies it: a frosted-green glass bottle made to sit on your nightstand, as at home there as anything else you reach for each day.
In person, in your community
Intimate care begins with a conversation, and conversations like these still happen best in person. That’s why Antara Kita works closely with clinicians and pharmacists, sharing what we know about sexual health with them so they can pass it on to the people they care for.
It’s also why Antara Kita isn’t sold online. Sid believes in local commerce: the clinics, pharmacies and independent shops that hold communities together and keep neighbourhoods vibrant. We each have a part to play in strengthening them, and in relying less on online, screen-based experiences that can distance us from one another. You’ll find Antara Kita in the places where people still talk face to face.
Serving our community
Comfort is a beginning, not the whole story. We want to bring sex education back into the community, through talks, gatherings and writing that offer women honest, practical answers to the questions they’ve carried. Understanding your own body shouldn’t be something you only learn when something goes wrong.
Read Sid’s writing at Sid on Sex.
Feminine sexual health deserves an approach with integrity and dignity. That’s the space we want to widen, between us.