Cleaning!

Cleaning

In the same spirit as the section on materials I’ll go through each material and describe the best way for its cleaning and maintenance.

Plastic

The easiest way to clean any plastic surfaces, whether it’s the toy itself, the wire or the battery pack is with a makeup pad or cotton ball with some rubbing alcohol on it. All you need to do is wipe it off and let it dry! Trying to soap up hard plastic is not only frustrating, but it can lead to water getting into it, and ruining your toy. There’s lot of toy cleaners on the market as well, so if you really feel like purchasing one, and it’s one of the kinds that you don’t need to rinse off, go for it – but rubbing alcohol works just as well.

Jelly Rubber or Latex

If you have a basic jelly dildo with no electronics in it, feel free to dunk it into some warm soapy water and scrub away, rinse with clean water and let air dry. If your toy does have a vibe embedded into it, please don’t do this – you won’t get shocked, it’ll just ruin your toy most likely. What I suggest with this kind of toy is using a damp soapy cloth to wipe the toy down, then rinsing the cloth to wipe it down again to remove any soap residue.

Don’t try using bleach or any harsh chemical to sterilize these toys – they cannot be sterilized, and the toy will absorb the chemical. At best, they’ll compromise your toy, and at worst the chemicals will get into whatever body cavity your putting this toy in. Bleach and vaginas do not mix, people.

A good way to keep jelly rubber/latex toys cleaner (and what I do personally) is to use them with a condom. They still need to be cleaned after every use, but you don’t have to worry about bacteria building up in the toy and it becoming a hotbed of infection. What this means is that latex/rubber toys you’ve used anally CANNOT be used vaginally unless condoms are used – bacteria that can be found in the rectum can cause serious infections when introduced into the vagina.

Silicone

Silicone toys are my favorite for a number of reasons – and its sterilizability is probably my number one. It can be plopped into a pot of boiling water for ~2,4 minutes and come out hospital-fresh. You don’t want to leave it in for more than four minutes because the silicone can start disintegrating. Of course, you never want to do this if the toy has electronics embedded into it. Electricity and water still haven’t learned to play nice. In that case, you can hold your toy by its elecronic end and “dip” the toy into the boiling water for a few minutes, or you can run a kettle of boiling water over it. The toy won’t be as sterile as if you got to fully immerse it, but ain’t life a compromise. It’s not necessary to sterilize silicone after every use (I do mine about once a month) but if you want to, it won’t hurt the toys.

You can also use soap and water to clean your toy, following the exact same way you clean JELLY RUBBER OR LATEX. I usually soap/water clean my toys before sterilizing them, just to get any dried-on lube fully off of it.

A lot of toys come with the suggestion that you can put your toy into a 10% bleach solution, which is how many medical facilities used to sterilize, but it’s come out of favor for the more basic boiling. I personally hate the idea of some errant bleach coming into contact with my crotch, and if boiling works just as well, that’s good enough for me. If your toy says it’s dish-washer safe (i.e – there’s no electronics in it) then by all means go ahead and stick it in there – Thanksgiving dinner’s load of dishes may not be the best time though, what with the over crowding and all.

CyberSkin/UltraSkin/Furturotic, etc.

If your toy is made of some semi-realistic material, it will (hopefully) come with specific instructions on how to clean it. Most need to be washed with soap and water very delicately, pat-dried and then powdered with cornstarch (not talc) and kept in a plastic bag far away from other toys. CyberSkin-like materials, when in contact with other toys does funky things and by “funky things” I mean become a big melty mess. It’s possible to get specific cleaning kits for these kinds of materials, and if you’re hell-bent on using these kinds of toys, I’d suggest getting one – just make sure that the dusting powder it comes with isn’t talc – I cannot say this enough, people.

Pyrex/Glass

Pyrex is a trademarked material that can be boiled to be sterilized. Most generic glass toys cannot be – please make sure you know exactly what your toy is made out of before putting it into the pot! Both can be cleaned with soap and water, or with a makeup pad/cotton ball and some rubbing alcohol. The nice thing about this material is its cleaning-versatility because of its smooth, non-porous surface.

Metal

Metal toys can be cleaned much like pyrex or glass, unless of course there’s a vibrator in it – in that case, rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball is best. If your toy is boilable, please take care in taking it out of the water – I would think boiled metal would be extremely hot.

The "What" of Sex Toys

I've begun writing content for "the big website" I'm making, rather than just having a sex toy blog. Here's the section on "materials" wooooo!




Materials

Sex toys are made out of almost everything out of the sun, and a lot of companies use a lot of fancy-ass, scientific-sounding words for new materials, claiming they will revolutionize your sex life. The design of the toy will have a greater impact on how much you enjoy it, but the material is important when considering cleaning, safety, and allergies. So, here we go!

Hard Plastic

We all know what a hard plastic looks like, so I’ll spare the description. Toys that may be shiny and metallic-looking are most likely hard plastic. The basic egg, bullet, or what I like to call "spaceship" vibrators are all made of plastic. Plastic is easy to clean – the best way is using a makeup pad or cotton ball with some rubbing alcohol and wiping it down. Trying to soap up plastic is an exericise in frustration, and there’s a greater chance you’ll get water in it, and there goes your toy!

Hard plastic is not an insertable material, though some toys made of it look like they are made to – because they’re usually straight and very hard, it’s not going to be a good time. I’ve seen porn movies with hard plastic toy insertion, and my sex toy expert [change that word] came out and I couldn’t enjoy the movie, knowing how uncomfortable it would feel.

Plastic can be loud, and it can eventually crack, but it is wondrously cheap, and if you’re just starting out in exploring the wonderful world of sex toys, it can be a great way to start without dropping too much money. There’s no real risk of allergic reactions, you can use any type of lube you want on it without harming it, and it’s so inexpensive that you can get multiples of a toy and keep them wherever you think you’re going to need one – bedside table, car, purse, work station, whatever.

Jelly Rubber/Latex

Soft and pliable, but inexpensive, jelly rubber (PVC) is an extremely common material for sex toys to be made out of. It’s not possible to sterilize jelly rubber because of its porousness, so putting a condom on a jelly toy is always recommended. It still needs to be cleaned though, and simple soap and water works best.

Jelly rubber has been getting a hell of a lot of bad press. A chemical called “phthalates” is used in many sex toys, including jelly rubber, to soften the material so it’s nice and squishy. Phthalates have been found to mimic estrogen and caused organ damage in mice. I suggest doing some reading on phthalates if you’re concerned – it’s been very big news and there has been lots written about it. If you own a toy that most likely has phthalates in it, you can use a condom on it and be perfectly safe.

Because jelly rubber can also contains latex there is also a possibility of allergies. If you’re allergic to latex condoms, I can almost guarantee you you will be allergic to latex rubber toys. And because of its porousness, I don’t really recommend jelly rubber for anal toys, though many of them are made out of it. Latex is a natural material too, so it will also break down over time – such is the way of our transient world. Make sure to steer clear of oil-based lubes – just like they will break down condoms, they’ll also destroy jelly rubber toys.

Unlike hard plastic, jelly rubber toys are made for insertion, so if you’re looking for a dildo-vibrator that is relatively inexpensive, jelly rubber is definitely an option.

Silicone

If I were a more poetic gal, I would write odes to silicone – odes that would describe silicone’s beauty, cleanliness and durability. But I’m not, so I’ll just have to rave about it here.

Because it is non-porous, silicone can be sterilized. Pop it into a pot of boiling water for 2 to 4 minutes, and it’s sterile. Because of this, silicone is the ideal material for anal toys. Silicone can be made into all kinds of fun shapes and pretty colours and designs. It can used after boiling (and letting it cool for a few minutes) for a nice, warm, relaxing fun-time.

Silicone is more expensive than jelly rubbers and latex toys, but it will last for much, much longer. I always suggest getting silicone toys once you know what you’re looking for and you’re reading for making a larger investment into a toy.

The only caveat with silicone toys is that you do NOT want to use silicone lube with a silicone toy. The liquid silicone will bind with the solid, and you will be left with a mushy, lumpy, expensive, bizarre-looking paperweight. And the lube that comes with most lubricated condoms is silicone-based, so consider yourself warned.

Cyberskin/Ultraskin/Jel-Lee/Futurotic

All of the above-mentioned names are trademarked and have a specific chemical makeup all their own. Most are a mixture of poly-vinyl chloride (PVC) and silicone. This does not make it sterilizable like pure medical-grade silicone toys, though. In fact, cyberskin-like toys are the most delicate out there.

Only water-based lube should be used with this material, and after being washed with soap and water, and dried, these toys need to be powdered with corn starch – never talc. Talc has been linked to cervical cancer. Unless this is a toy just for men, you want to definitely stay away from talc. You also want to make sure that toys of this type are never touching or in contact with other toys – they’ll melt. So, it has to be stored on its own in a plastic bag. They’ve also been found to contain phthalates, so the same warnings for jelly rubber apply here too.

I really, personally feel, that cyber/ultraskin/futurotic materials are not worth the trouble. Yes, they’re incredibly soft and feel some-what realistic, but they’re so high-maintenance, and I try to keep my high-maintenance relationships to a minimum.

Elastomer

This is one of those fancy names for “rubber-like material”. It’s incredibly strechy and phthalate-free. It’s still porous though, so it can’t be sterilized or shared. Think of it as a step between jelly rubber and silicone. Only water-based lube should be used with it, since there is a possibility of some silicone present.

Glass/Pyrex/Acrylic

I would always be asked about pyrex and glass toys at the sex store, and I always internally winced at the question. Why? Why do people want to use this? It’s hard, unmalleable and has the possibility to shatter into a million little pieces.

Pyrex toys can be boiled and frozen, for different sensations, acrylic and glass can NOT, and all of them must be checked over often for any cracks, and should not be used if any are found. Any kind of lube can be used with these toys. Many of them are very pretty and colourful, and are easily cleaned. I just don’t see the appeal though. Ow.

Metal

Not a common sex toy material, but common enough that it needs to be here. Often seen for cock rings, metal has now become popular for butt plugs and dildos. Easy to clean like glass, pyrex and acrylic, it still has the same hardness and unbendability that I wince at. At least it can’t shatter though.

Note: I do not recommend glass, pyrex, acrylic or metal to anyone who is unfamiliar with sex toys and exactly what they like toy-wise. I have nightmarish visions of someone furiously masturbating with a hard glass dildo and giving themselves cervical erosion, or using a poorly made metal butt plug and seriously hurting themselves.

Apologies

I'm sorry for anyone who actually reads this, that I haven't been updating. My personal life has been ridiculously crazy, and would make for an amusing "what I did over my summer vacation" movie, involving moving across the country, then moving back, but first going to Europe, breaking up with a boyfriend, getting a new one, having to find a place to live and work. And it was all done in four months!

I'm working on some new stuff to post here, and will start regularly updating again.