Lube is super important for all kinds of sexual and masturbatory situations, but not all types of lubricant are safe to use on all body parts or materials. Here’s a cheat sheet for lube compatibility! (For more information, see my videos going over the different types of lube + their uses and breaking down pH, osmolality, and the science side of lubricant safety.) 💧
Some additional notes:
- Many (most?) condoms are lubricated with silicone lube. Be sure to go for nonlubricated condoms or ones that you know use water-based if you’re using them with silicone sex toys.
- Certain silicone toy manufacturers will recommend certain high quality silicone lubes for use with their toys (such as Tantus + Pjur brand lube), but incompatibility is common enough that silicone on silicone is discouraged as a general rule. If you do want to use them together, just make sure to do a patch test on the base or another unused section of the toy first.
- Hybrid lubes are water-based with a small amount of silicone mixed in. They might be safer to use with silicone toys than the average silicone lube is, but this hasn’t been tested enough for it to be recommended. Again, patch test.
- While oil-based lubes are completely incompatible with latex (and thus the majority of safer sex barriers), they are compatible with polyurethane and nitrile barriers. This includes the FC2 Internal (”Female”) condoms, Trojan Supra condoms, Hot Dam dental dams, and many brands of nitrile gloves.
