These toy and lube combinations can damage your toys and your health

December 4, 2024

The biggest reason I keep advocating about the right lube choice is that I have seen with my own eyes how fast a dildo can be totally damaged by the contact of the wrong lube. It was scary to witness, and made me more conscious about what lube I am using with my toys.

The lube was a superb quality silicone one. Very slippery, long lasting, made from safe ingredients. I still love this lube today, and would recommend it. It could have been any other silicone lube with the same end result.

The toy was an average quality silicone butt plug. There was nothing wrong with it. Totally safe to use with a water-based lube.

I didn’t even use them together, I just put them in the same plastic bag without realising that the cap of the lube was slightly open. Within an hour, when I opened the bag, I found the toy totally swelled up, the material was kinda “deconstructed” and yucky. It was eye-opening. I wish I would've taken a photo of it. But it is too late for that.

What happens when we use a silicone lube with a silicone toy?

The lube acts like a solvent and or the toy is going to absorb the lube and the material degrades and the toy also becomes more porous, which means you can’t clean and sanitise it properly, so it is more prone to bacteria.

Is this true to all silicone lube and toy combinations?

No, it is not. Lots of the modern, high-quality silicone toys can be used with silicone lubes without problem, like platinum-silicone lubes. Also you can use silicone lubes safely with glass, steel, wooden, ceramic and hard plastic toys.

How do you know which silicone toy can be used with silicone lubes?

Some brands state on the packaging if their silicone toy is safe to be used with silicone lubes, but most unfortunately not doing this. Usually the softer and more flexible the silicone is the more probable that they won’t react well to a silicone lube.

What can you do if you are not sure?

Using water-based lubes is always a safe option for any toy. And you can get longer lasting water-based lubes as well.

If you still want to use your silicone toy, you can also do a “spot-test”. It is exactly the same as when you want to test if you have a reaction to some chemicals. Choose a spot on the toy, and put some of the silicone lube on it, and wait at least 30 minutes, swipe the lube off and see if there are any changes on the surface.

After every use, please examine the toy for any change and clean and sanitise it properly.

Why do we have silicone-lubes if they are not totally safe?

Silicone lubes are long-lasting, extra slippery and lots of people who are sensitive to some ingredients in water-based lubes have no problems with silicone lubes.

It is not the lube itself that is the problem, but how you combine it.

So here are some combinations that I don’t recommend and what to use instead for the hottest and most slippery experience. Of course these are not the only options, but you will get the framework.