The Best Lubes for Silicone Sex Toys (and for You)

February 12, 2024

There’s no doubt that lube is, to put it plainly, great stuff. Even if you lubricate naturally very well, you’ll only have a more fun and slippery time with lube. This simple fact of life is most applicable when talking about sex toys. While they’re designed to rock your socks off, most sex toys will unfortunately not lubricate themselves, and your impatient horny brain will probably not wait for natural lubrication to take effect.

There are many options when it comes to lube for silicone sex toys, and many of those are horrible. If you don’t do your research, you may very well end up with lube that is 1 - not good for your toy, or 2 - not good for you! And by ‘not good’, I mean unsafe.

Before getting into the details you should know there 4 types of lubes out there, here are some of their properties:

The 4 Types of Lube

Silicone based: although usually incompatible with silicone-based toys, it’s the second most long-lasting; safest for anal and vaginal use; feels oily but less greasy than oil based; difficult to clean off
Oil based: lasts the longest; best pH balance for anal play; best for high friction use; most difficult to clean off; safe for your silicone toy
Water based: most widely used lube; washes off easily; feels most like natural lubricant; often not pH balanced for anal play; safe for your silicone toy
Hybrid (mostly water based with added silicone): lasts longer than silicone based lube; often not pH balanced for anal play; safe for your silicone toy

Which lubes are safe for your silicone toy?

The first thing you should know is that silicone based lube is often incompatible with silicone-based toys, meaning you should avoid it when using your Freely toys. When in contact with silicone toys, silicone based lube often deteriorates the surface over time. That’s a big deal! Your toy won’t feel or look as smooth as before, but more importantly, it’ll be less safe. Your deteriorated toy will become porous, which leaves little homes for bacteria to shelter in and survive your toy cleaning sessions.

This leaves us with oil based, water based, and hybrid lubes, which are all thankfully safe for your silicone toys. For some reason, even hybrid lubes are safe for your silicone toys, unlike their pure silicone based counterpart.

Something to take note of is that, if a lube is safe for a silicone toy, it doesn’t necessarily mean it's safe to use with other toys or condoms. For instance, oil based lube is not latex safe, so it should not be used with latex condoms.

Which lubes are safe for you?

The most important criteria when picking a lube is your own safety. Lube is designed to bring you additional pleasure and comfort during sex, yet many lubes can damage your tissues. You definitely want a lubricant that is well designed for the type of bedroom play you’re planning. These are pH balanced depending on whether you’re using them anally or vaginally. They’re also ideally iso-osmotic. I hear you say: what the heck does iso-osmotic mean?!? It basically means it won’t deteriorate the anal or vaginal cells which protect you against contaminants. If you want to read up more on osmolality and pH balance, I really recommend Phallophile Reviews’ lube guide that measures the properties of 52 commercial lubes and explains them in detail. It’s fascinating stuff! Excuse us for not going in nearly as much detail, but here’s our quick version for vaginal play, and then anal play:

Vaginal Play:

The first thing you should know about lube for vaginal play is that you don’t need as much as for anal play. If your vagina naturally self-lubricates after some time, there is no need for extra lube to make it last. One type of lube you need to choose carefully is water based lubricants because many options don’t have the right pH, or their osmolality is too high. Some safe and reputable water based options that are well balanced for vaginal use include the unscented version of BioNude by Good Clean Love, and Sliquid H20. Another product by Good Clean Love that is recommended is their Hybrid lube. Moving on to oil based lube, while oil based lubes are great for anal play, they may not designed be with your vagina’s cell structure in mind. Many of these oil-based options could irritate your vaginal tissue, which doesn’t sound so fun at all.

Anal Play:

The important different between anal and vaginal play is that micro-tissue-tears is another villain to be avoided; the anal cavity is just tighter and we all have to accept that. You’ll definitely want your silicone to be slick and thick enough to protect your tissue. This is why water based options are probably not the go-to, and because their pH is usually not balanced for your rectum. This is why oil based lube is the clear candidate. It lasts longests, which is important because the anus does not self lubricate, and it’s well balanced. A great unbeatable option is coconut oil. The only drawback is it’s dang hard to clean off your toys or sheets. Just make sure to take extra care to clean off the lube after you’re done with your business.

Conclusion

With all this great info considered, just remember that all of this is for your own pleasure. We recommend reading up on others’ experiences with lube, and testing the safe ones yourself to find what suits you best.