5 Ways Sex Toy Companies Make More Budget-Friendly Toys

Affordable sex toys are the future of the industry.

Nowadays, you can eas­i­ly find a rumbly, body-​safe vibra­tor with a vel­vety fin­ish for under $50.

If you're cutting costs, it has to come from somewhere.

That could mean mate­ri­als, labor, pack­ag­ing, adver­tis­ing, and so on. By being strate­gic, though, a com­pa­ny can man­u­fac­ture a decent prod­uct and treat peo­ple decent­ly for the price.

Here are a few ways mak­ers like Blush Novelties have reduced expens­es. Not every­thing on this list applies to all of their prod­ucts. However, I'm delight­ed when a com­pa­ny can pass their sav­ings on to you while pri­or­i­tiz­ing pleasure.

Heads up!

This post was spon­sored by Blush Novelties, but my past reviews for them weren't. I've been hon­est about times I did or didn't like their toys.

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1. Food-grade, body-safe silicone

Let's start with material safety!

Part of how Blush reduces costs is using food-​grade sil­i­cone instead of medical-grade.

Think of silicone kitchen utensils:

• Boilable
• Chemically sta­ble enough for food prep or storage
• Practically non-​porous
• Easy to disinfect
• You can put them in your mouth with no problems!

According to Kenton from Funkit Toys, food-​grade sil­i­cone is test­ed is by immer­sion in ace­tone, eth­yl alco­hol, oil, and water. "If any­thing harm­ful leach­es out in dan­ger­ous amounts, they don't pass food safe­ty test­ing," he told me.

There are many ways to test silicone's safe­ty for more spe­cif­ic pur­pos­es, but food-​grade sil­i­cone, by def­i­n­i­tion, is body-​safe. And it's safe for gen­i­tal con­tact while cheap­er than medical-​grade sil­i­cone. Non-​luxury toy­mak­ers use food-​grade sil­i­cone for this reason.

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2. Small and sleek designs

Smaller toys take less silicone to make, so they're less costly.

Plenty of users are sat­is­fied with G‑spot/​prostate stim­u­la­tion — which doesn't nec­es­sar­i­ly take much length to accom­plish. Even a bul­let with a girthy, front-​loaded sleeve could do the trick for some.

Blush does have some big toys, like the Ruse Jammy, Avant D3, and Avant D4. They're steals for $35, $46, and $53, respec­tive­ly. However, if you're look­ing at sub-$35 dil­dos, the key to afford­abil­i­ty is simplicity.

Clean lines and minimal detailing mean quicker and easier unmolding.

Think of Blush's Neo Elite, Temptasia, and Luxe lines. The Temptasia Elvira: is girthy, has a defined head, is fun to clench around, and works for my G‑spot. Its (lack of) length isn't the eas­i­est to aim, but it's hard to beat the price for a girthy sil­i­cone dildo.

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3. Minimal packaging

Sturdy boxes and satin pouches don't affect how I feel about the product in the long run. It's what's inside that counts.

Blush keeps its pack­ag­ing costs down with min­i­mal box­es or clear clamshells with paper inserts. It's not fan­cy, but it works. If you're on the go, put the toy in a Ziploc bag.

Ducky Doolittle, Blush's Marketing Director, made anoth­er inter­est­ing point: Americans don't trust low-​priced prod­ucts with fan­cy pack­ag­ing. It makes us won­der what the com­pa­ny is try­ing to hide.

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4. Simpler construction

Blush's cheap­est body-​safe vibra­tors might not have the best crafts­man­ship, but they're fair. Their Gaia Eco slim­line vibra­tor is rumbly and qui­et for the price; its price and no-​frills design make it acces­si­ble to any­one new to pen­e­tra­tion or vibration.

Blush didn't sacrifice the quality of the motor much here.

But again, the low cost came from somewhere.

Remember when I took apart and com­pared bul­let vibra­tors? The higher-​end ones had screws and stur­dier ABS plas­tic on the inside. Taking them apart and putting them back togeth­er was a rel­a­tive­ly clean process.

The Blush Gaia Eco, in con­trast, had an ABS shell but a soft­er plas­tic under that. It's body-​safe on the out­side, just a lit­tle more frag­ile. The vibra­tions were still decent­ly pow­er­ful, almost par with the VeDO BAM and Femmefunn bullets.

Blush's Exposed Nocturnal, an even stronger bul­let, has hard glue keep­ing some parts togeth­er. Again, it's not seam­less or ele­gant, but it takes lit­tle time to assem­ble, and it works.

In the short term, you get incred­i­ble pow­er in such a small pack­age — at a frac­tion of the com­peti­tors' costs.

In the long run, you get what you pay for, and you might have to replace your toy more often.

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5. Fewer settings and buttons

Another way Blush Novelties keeps it simple is by limiting their controls.

The more fea­tures a toy has, the high­er the price. That also applies to oth­er brands, like when com­par­ing air pulse toys from Womanizer vs. the ROMP Free and Shine. Sometimes, cheap sex toys mean you get a weak­er motor, and some­times you get sim­i­lar rum­ble with few­er frills.

Blush's Wellness G Ball vibra­tor def­i­nite­ly has great set­tings and con­trols, but it's one of their mid-​priced vibes. And that's total­ly fair. They don't jack up their prices like LELO does, despite their Hop Cottontail out­per­form­ing the LELO Gigi 2 in strength.

Blush makes body-​safe sex toys acces­si­ble to a wider range of users — get orgasms are boun­ti­ful with­out break­ing the bank.

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What are your favorite affordable sex toys from Blush Novelties?

Further read­ing:

• Find my lat­est sales announce­ments and reviews of afford­able sex toys!