Rub-a-dub-dub, sex toy fans! It’s time to learn how to get your sex toys sparkling clean after each play session. Keeping your toys clean is essential for safe sexy playtime, and also helps to ensure that your favorite orgasm-helper lasts as long as possible. Win/win! Here, you’ll learn how to properly clean your sex toys, and we’ll make sure you have the best cleaning and care products for the job.
It’s no secret that good hygiene is important. We all know it. Take a quick gander at the cleaning aisle of your local grocery store. There are zillions (possibly an exaggeration!) of products designed to help keep our bodies, cars and homes clean. When it comes to the care and cleaning of your sex toys, hygiene is at least doubly important. Your favorite toy, whether it's a dildo, butt plug, stroker or vibrator, is going to be coming into very close contact with your body. You two are going to be getting cozy. Intimate. Very familiar.
In case you couldn't tell, the proper cleaning and sanitizing of sex toys is a topic dear to our hearts, and it should be dear to yours, too. For one, taking top-notch care of your toys will help the materials they're made from last longer. This, in turn, helps your toys themselves last longer. Always a good thing! More importantly though, a great sex toy cleaning and care routine is critical for your (and your partner's) safety. Rigorous toy hygiene can help prevent the potential spread of bacterial and some possible infections from a toy to you, or a toy to your playmate. Luckily, keeping your cock rings, prostate massagers, bullet vibes and other sex toys clean and ready for action is simple when you're armed with the right sex toy cleaner and a little knowledge.
To properly care for your sex toys, you'll need to know what material(s) they're made from. Why? Because some toy materials require special care to keep them from being damaged in the cleaning process. In our product descriptions, we always list the materials a particular toy is made from, so there's no guesswork needed on your part. Let’s take a look at some of the different materials that are common in many sex toys, and how to properly clean them, shall we?
Know Your Sex Toy Materials
Silicone
Silicone is probably the sex toy material that you’re most familiar with, and it’s one of the most common materials used to make a wide variety of sex toys. Silicone has lots of advantages as a toy material: a plushy, silky feel, impressive durability and body safe, hypoallergenic properties, just to name a few. Silicone toys are also nonporous, which means that they're super easy to keep clean, and can be safely washed using warm soapy water or a good anti-bacterial toy cleanser. Most non-vibrating silicone sex toys can also be placed in boiling water for about 10 minutes for even more powerful sanitizing.
Hard Plastics
Hard plastics like ABS and acrylic are usually used to make toys like bullets and traditional tapered vibrators. They're also commonly used in combination with other toy materials as trim (bases, control dials etc.). Plastic toys are also easy to clean thanks to a nonporous surface, and clean quick and easy using warm soapy water or a good toy care fluid/foam. To avoid any possible warping/melting, keep plastic toys or toys containing plastic components away from very hot water (no boiling for these, please!).
Glass
When it comes to glass, make sure that your toy comes from a top-quality manufacturer (any manufacturer we do business with, for instance!) to ensure that it’s made from safe and strong glass materials, such as Pyrex. This type of glass is made to be extremely durable, and can be cleaned with anti-bacterial toy cleaner, gentle soaps, or by submerging in boiling water for about 10 minutes for total sanitizing, similar to silicone products. Please be sure to closely inspect your glass sex toys regularly, to make sure that there’s no chips or damage, because ouch!
Metal
Like glass, metal sex toys are incredibly durable and can be safely cleaned using a variety of methods, including sex toy cleaning products, soap and water, or by boiling in water. Just be careful with metal sex toys if they’re exposed to high temperatures, as they can retain lots of heat and may take a while to cool down. With metal toys, you’ll also want to be sure to avoid scratching them with any kind of rough or abrasive cloth or scrubber.
Cyberskin
Cyberskin is a relatively new material in the world of sex toys, and it’s enabling manufacturers to make some incredibly lifelike toys of all kinds. However, it’s also a bit more sensitive than some of the other sex toy materials. You can’t be as rough with it as you can with silicone, and you’ll need to stick only to water-based lubes. Taking proper care of Cyberskin sex toys will make sure they stay in perfect shape. Cleaning Cyberskin should be done only with a very gentle soap along with warm water. Cyberskin is a very porous material, so you’ll need to be thorough, but gentle.
Combinations of Materials
As a general rule of thumb, if your sex toy is made from a combination of materials, you should always treat it according to the most sensitive of those materials. For example, a silicone dildo with a hard plastic handle should definitely not go in to boiling water, or else the plastic part will likely get damaged. If you’re unsure about the exact combo of materials used in your sex toy, check with the manufacturer for more information.
Cleaning Electric or Motorized Toys
When cleaning a toy like a vibrator that has batteries, is motorized, or otherwise has some kind of electric component to it, you’ll need to take extra precautions. Even those toys that state they are waterproof should be cleaned cautiously to make sure they stay in perfect working order. Stick to gentle antibacterial sex toy cleaners and wiping with soft cloths or sponges to get any vibrators or electric toys properly cleaned.
Be Gentle
Cleaning any sex toy shouldn’t be an exercise in brute force! Scrubbing too hard, boiling for too long, or using a really harsh cleanser can do a lot of damage to your sexy toy collection. Treat your toys nicely when you clean them. Be gentle to your toys, and they’ll be good to you over the long haul.
Dry & Store Properly
After your toys have been cleaned, it’s important to make sure they dry out completely before being put away. Wipe them dry with a soft towel, and let air dry for a while before storing them. On that note, we don’t recommend just tossing them in a drawer where they might get dusty or dirty. To keep your toys clean, we suggest that you consider investing in one of the many different types of sex toy storage bags and cases. These will store your toys discreetly, and are great for traveling as well.
Okay, now that you’ve got the know-how to keep your sex toys sparkly clean, let's have a look at some of our most popular PinkCherry.ca. sex toy cleaning products.
The Best Sex Toy Cleaning Products
Mild or Gentle Soap
You might assume that a standard hand soap or body wash would be sufficient to clean a dildo or other type of sex toy. The reality, though, is that some of those everyday body care products might not be safe for use with your sex toy materials. Also, they're meant to clean bodies, not sex toys! To be absolutely sure that the product you’re using is safe for your sex toys, we recommend a product specifically formulated for use with sex toys and sex toy materials.
PinkCherry Anti-Bacterial Toy Cleaner – Mist or Foaming
No matter what material your sex toy is made from, PinkCherry Anti-Bacterial cleaner will do the job and do it right. Silicone, plastic, glass, metal, and many other types of material are perfectly safe to clean and disinfect with PinkCherry cleaner. Available in Mist-style or Foaming-style sex toy cleaner, be sure to pick up a couple bottles, along with some fun new sex lubes, to go with your next sex toy purchase.
Foam 'N Fresh Anti-Bacterial Toy Cleaner
For those who want a cleaner made entirely from natural ingredients, Intimate Earth's Natural Toy Cleaner is a great choice. Using tea tree oils and other body-safe ingredients, this cleanser gives a gentle but thorough clean and disinfection for all your favourite toys.
PinkCherry Anti-Bacterial Toy Cleaner
PinkCherry's Anti-Bacterial Toy Cleaner is safe and gentle on most popular types of sex toys and materials. Perfect for those of us who want their sex toy cleaner to be ultra effective while remaining safe for your body. Spray this cleaner on a toy and wait a few moments before wiping it dry with a clean cloth.
Shine Naturally Unscented Toy Cleaner
This fantastic cleaner from Sliquid contains no harsh chemicals, and is made from such natural ingredients as tea tree oil, aloe, and jojoba. Shine is hypoallergenic and 100% vegan friendly, leaving behind no residue or scent for a perfectly clean surface on all your favourite toys.
Keep Your Sex Toys Clean & Always Up for Action!
Clean sex toys are safe sex toys, safe sex toys are fun sex toys. That’s the lesson for today, folks! Scrub, spray, rinse and properly store your dildos, vibrators, strokers, cock rings, beads, and other types of sex toys each and every time you use them. Why? Picture this: you reach for your favourite vibe in the heat of the moment, only to realize it’s anything but squeaky clean. Mood killer! Avoid that nightmarish scenario by staying true to your sex toy hygiene routine and keep your fave toys ready for orgasmic action! Check out our full selection of sex toy cleaners for even more sexy cleaning supplies.
