FAQ: Sex Toy Cleaning, Care, and Material Safety

The good, the bad, and the ugly must-​knows of car­ing for your car­nal contraptions.

How do I clean and care for my sex toys?

I'll sep­a­rate this sec­tion into every­day clean­ing and deep clean­ing. If you're using toys solo (or your part­ner is using a toy only on you), the guide­lines in the first sec­tion are enough. If you're switch­ing with part­ners, read the sec­tion on san­i­ta­tion as well.

Everyday sex toy care

Everyday care of your sex toys ide­al­ly includes:

• Wiping them down or rins­ing them after use, while they're still wet
• Washing with unscent­ed soap (or toy clean­er) and water before and after every use (the most impor­tant part!)
• Scrubbing intense tex­tures with a soft-​bristle toothbrush
• Storing them in lint-​free pouch­es — a plas­tic zip bag­gie will do

Again, clean­ing with soap and water is the main crit­i­cal step. That last bit about stor­age is more for:

• Keeping dust and debris off sticky surfaces
• Separating the anal toys from the vul­va and vagi­na toys
• Helping suu­u­u­per squishy toys main­tain their shape

Yes, you can store sol­id sil­i­cone sex toys touch­ing each other.

Sanitizing sex toys

You may want a deep­er clean — the time to san­i­tize them is:

• Every time you switch a toy from anal to vagi­nal use
• When shar­ing toys with a part­ner you're not fluid-​bonded to
• Once in a while (up to you) if it's just you using them in one hole

Disinfect your non­porous sex toys via the fol­low­ing methods:

• Hot water — boil for 10+ min­utes or use the san­i­tize cycle on a dish­wash­er. This method applies to dil­dos and plugs with­out elec­tron­ic components.
• Illumination with a UV lamp made for killing germs. Just bear in mind that this method might not reach all the nooks and cran­nies if you're cast­ing the light from one direc­tion; rotate the toy or sur­round it with UV rays.
• 10% bleach solu­tion or antimi­cro­bial toy clean­er — Spritzing or dip­ping the insertable por­tion in the solu­tion. Let dry, then wash with soap and water and rinse thoroughly.

Anything else?

• Water-​based lubri­cants are safe for a wide range of mate­ri­als; do not use pure sil­i­cone lubri­cant on sil­i­cone toys or oils on TPE and TPR.
• It's a good idea to charge your sex toys' bat­ter­ies ful­ly every six months or so.

Why are some lubes not safe for certain sex toy materials?

Let's talk about what hap­pens when you use pure sil­i­cone lube on sil­i­cone toys.

The liq­uid sil­i­cone lube is absorbed into the sol­id sil­i­cone, leav­ing a sticky sur­face where they con­tact­ed. This dis­so­lu­tion doesn't occur with all sil­i­cone lubes and all sil­i­cone toys, but I'd say it's not worth the risk.

Save the pure sil­i­cone for glass toys, met­al toys, and play with­out toys. (Using sil­i­cone lube with latex con­doms is total­ly okay! In fact, most latex con­doms come pre-​lubricated with liq­uid silicone.)

When in doubt, stick to water-​based lube.

If you still want to use silicone's long-​lasting slip on toys, con­sid­er a silicone-​water hybrid lube. These for­mu­las con­tain only a small amount of sil­i­cone— not enough to dam­age toys — espe­cial­ly if you wipe them down and wash them imme­di­ate­ly after use.

(Further read­ing: find all my favorite lubes and body care prod­ucts!)

Oil-​based lubes, in con­trast, tend to degrade latex con­doms, TPE, and TPR. I gen­er­al­ly wouldn't rec­om­mend TPE and TPR any­way, but pay atten­tion to when you use oil-​based lube and when you plan on using latex con­doms. For those who want a latex-​free alter­na­tive, nitrile con­doms are an option, though they are more expensive.

Now, let's get into why sil­i­cone sex toys are such a big deal.

Which toy materials are body-safe, and which ones aren't?

The truth is that sex toy mate­ri­als aren’t reg­u­lat­ed, so your main line of defense is to buy brand-​name toys from sex shops that you trust to label prod­ucts accurately.

The good

Silicone is your best bet when shop­ping for soft sex toys, espe­cial­ly inserta­bles. Soft sil­i­cone toys feel good (maybe even life­like!) while being chem­i­cal­ly inert and easy to maintain. 

If you pre­fer firm toys, you have more options, such as stain­less steel, glass, porce­lain, and wood that's prop­er­ly fin­ished and sealed. Independent glass­blow­ers like Luscious Playthings focus on anneal­ing (slow­ly cool­ing) the glass even­ly for greater dura­bil­i­ty. njoy also gives a damn about the qual­i­ty of their met­al dil­dos, using 316-​grade stain­less steel pol­ished to perfection.

These mate­ri­als stand out because they're non­porous for our pur­pos­es — you can clean, dis­in­fect, and san­i­tize them to pro­tect your health, as dis­cussed above. With prop­er care, they can last for a lifetime.

The gray zone

Some mate­ri­als are in a gray area of body safe­ty — some are porous but not tox­ic, and oth­ers need a lit­tle extra care:

• Some glass is more durable than oth­ers. Cheap glass sex toys are, for the most part, still struc­tural­ly sta­ble — except for those with thin sec­tions like fin­ger loops, as they can break easily. 
• ABS plas­tic and acrylic sex toys are slight­ly porous. If you insert them, I rec­om­mend keep­ing them to your­self; don't share or swap holes.
• TPE and TPR are soft mate­ri­als gen­er­al­ly okay for exter­nal use — think of super squishy penis stro­kers — but I wouldn't rec­om­mend insert­ing them or keep­ing them long-​term. Before each use, check for signs of micro­bial growth, such as changes in odor, col­or, or the accu­mu­la­tion of an oily residue on the sur­face. Toss these toys when they've "expired".

If you do use a porous toy inter­nal­ly, make sure to use a con­dom. That pro­tects you from microbes that can grow in TPE and TPR.

Steer clear of jel­ly toys, though. Their oils can still seep through or dis­solve a condom.

The ugly

Some mate­ri­als are def­i­nite­ly not body-​safe, like jel­ly, PVC soft­ened with phtha­lates, and sim­i­lar com­pounds. The plas­ti­ciz­ers can leech out and cause chem­i­cal irri­ta­tion, hor­mone dis­rup­tion, and be carcinogenic.

Some tell­tale signs of porous soft toys include:

• A show­er curtain-​like chem­i­cal smell that con­tin­ues to linger even after wash­ing and air­ing out
• The mate­r­i­al melt­ing and dissolving
• Oily residue seep­ing out of the material
• Any of the above red flags in a soft sex toy, com­bined with a trans­par­ent appear­ance — we're talk­ing like, clear glass-​level see-​through in a squishy dildo. 
  • Body-​safe sil­i­cone toys are cloudy ("Near Clear"), not trans­par­ent. Transparent, pure sil­i­cone is used in con­tact lens­es, but such appli­ca­tions are more expen­sive than those for dildos.

Lastly, be care­ful with cheap sex toys made of hard materials:

• You don't know what you're get­ting with white-​label, no-​name met­al sex toys — they might leech tox­ic heavy met­als, rust, or oth­er­wise not be prop­er­ly finished.
• Painted parts (think metal­lic accents) on plas­tic toys can flake off; you don't want that on an insertable portion.

You can do flame tests to rule out the absolute worst soft mate­ri­als, but it won't 100% guar­an­tee safety:

• Porous mate­ri­als like TPE, TPR, and jel­ly quick­ly melt, warp, and spread the flame.
• Silicone can melt or burn, but the flame remains con­fined to a small area and leaves pale gray ash.

The truth is that sex toy mate­ri­als aren't reg­u­lat­ed, so your main line of defense is to buy brand-​name toys from sex shops that you trust to label prod­ucts accurately.

So who do I trust?

Brands and shops I personally LOVE

Adult nov­el­ty mak­ers I love include Uberrime, Velvet Thruster, L'Acier, Luscious Playthings, Tantus, njoy, Vixen Creations, Je Joue, Crystal Delights, BMS Factory (includ­ing Swan vibes), and We-​Vibe.

This list is by no means com­pre­hen­sive; it's a start­ing point, and I rec­om­mend only toys I would per­son­al­ly use or feel com­fort­able with a friend using.

It's also worth not­ing that retail­ers — espe­cial­ly big chains — label their prod­ucts accu­rate­ly but sell a wide range of toy mate­ri­als. Check the descrip­tions close­ly, and refer back to this page as need­ed. Some toys are safe when prop­er­ly cared for and used as direct­ed, while oth­ers need more fre­quent checks for integrity.

If you want to take out the guess­work and browse a more tight­ly curat­ed bou­tique selec­tion with No Yucky Stuff™, shop Peepshow Toys. Use code SUPERSMASHCACHE for 10% off.