Silicone Part One: Is It Right For You?

Lelo Gigi Vibrator (Pink/White), Fun Factory Booty Butt Plug (Black), Tantus Little Flirt Butt Plug (Copper), Laid P.3 Cockring (Blue) | all silicone, all fantastic.

I may be new in the review world (this blog is only about 3 months old as of this writing!) but I have been working in this industry for almost a year now (my adult store anniversary is the same as my birthday- May 1st) and have been researching almost as long. The whole purpose of this blog was to disseminate all of the information clogging up my brain and coming out randomly at strangers and friends. Though I may not be 100% right all of the time (and I welcome critique and offerings of related research) and I am definitely still learning- I have put a lot of energy and time into trying to get the right information for my customers and my readers. 

I hope over the next few months to have some educational posts mixed in with my reviews- I'll go over materials, how to care for those materials and know whether or not a product is quality, and list some reputable manufacturers using those materials. I also hope to go over the less desirable materials- in effect, creating a sort of guide to the adult product world I've been a part of for awhile now, giving my readers the insider information that I try to give to as many customers as possible so they can make an informed decision. I take my job and sex toys very seriously; yes, they should be for fun, and yes, they are a lot of fun, but there's a lot of misinformation out there: some manufacturers will downright lie to you, and you might end up with a product that isn't so great. You could end up having a reaction to chemicals leaching from a toy and have no idea what's going on or that the sex toy even caused it. Though there are more companies- manufacturers and retailers, mainly- starting to inform the customers what's going on, many aren't taking any responsibility claiming that it's not their problem if someone has used something wrong and gotten hurt in some way; they mark their products as "novelty only" to escape any sort of liability. This is not ok. It's not alright. I do not approve, and I want to help change this. 

Of the materials you'll find sex toys made out of, Silicone is the softest of the non-porous* materials currently on the market- depending on the company or the specific product, it may be stiff or very pliant. For example, Lelo's vibrators are hard plastic coated with silicone and therefore are not particularly soft. Tantus, however, has toys that are silicone through and through, and you can bend them around. Bad Dragon has toys that are very squishy to firm but still pretty squishy. Unfortunately, since silicone has become so popular, it's common to find products that claim to be silicone but are in fact just a mix, meaning that they are not pure silicone and therefore still porous. Keep in mind that the sex toy industry isn't regulated by anyone, and they can claim "hypoallergenic" "phthalate free" and "platinum silicone" all they want without it having anything to do with reality. In the following post, I'll explain how to care for silicone, how to tell if something is pure silicone or not, and list some reputable companies currently in existence. I would highly recommend researching different manufacturers, if at all possible visiting an adult store where you can see and touch products so you know what their texture is like and what their functions are, and investing in a silicone product; it will last you a lifetime if properly cared for.

*Non-porous materials are ideal; porous materials harbor dirt and bacteria that cannot be removed under any circumstances and therefore cannot be completely sterilized. I personally recommend non-porous materials over porous materials; though there are ways to protect porous toys so they last a little longer, I view it as an unnecessary hassle- and though non-porous products tend to be more expensive, they last a lot longer and therefore end up saving you money in the long run if that's what you're concerned about. Porous toys also tend to have chemicals in them which may leach out and cause an allergic reaction of some sort. I'll go over this more in my post about porous toys.

Coming up are a few things about silicone: look out for my post about caring for silicone as well as lube considerations, flame testing, and a list of reputable companies. I'm still hoping to make some illustrations for those posts, and have a little tweaking to do, but you should see them over the next week or two.