A deep dive into sex toy materials

The big wide world of sex toys can be overwhelming and and often times a bit mystifying. To add to that pressure, often the marketing of toys can be really unclear and can leave us even more confused than we were before we started looking for a toy to use. What is this toy made out of? Why does it feel sticky? Is silicone the best type of sex toy to get? Why are some sex toys so cheap and others so expensive? Why does this one have a smell?

Fun fact - in Australia, the sex toy market does not have safety standards that it has to meet like the food or health industry does. Instead, all sex toys fall under the category of 'novelty items', which means in theory, they can be made of really anything.

The main thing that's going to be helpful to know (or at least was helpful for me) is determining whether the material the sex toy is made out of is porous or non-porous. Porous materials are able to retain bacteria (eg. bacteria gets trapped in the material's pores) and non-porous materials do not retain bacteria (there are no pores for the bacteria to get trapped in).

This means that looking at the price point on toys is an important factor in figuring out whether the material of the toy is going to be genuinely body safe. Generally toys that are priced lower ($10-50) are going to be made of a jelly-like or flesh-like, sometimes sticky, heavily scented material to be able to be manufactured and sold at a low cost. Toys from $50+ seem to be made with materials that are more likely to be genuinely body-safe, and are often non-porous, like silicone, ABS, glass or metal. Common porous sex toy materials:

• Jelly-like rubber

• Anything marketed to feel like human skin (eg. "realistic feel")

• Latex - this is used to make inflatable sex toys

• PVC

• TPE plastic

Common non-porous sex toy materials:

• Silicone

• ABS (hard plastic)

• Metal

• Glass

As a general rule, if a toy is jelly-like or flesh-like, has a distinct smell or feels sticky to the touch, I recommend using a condom over them when inserting them into your body. These toys may be marketed as 'body safe', but there is a fair chance they may not actually be safe for insertion. It's possible to experience skin irritation and even chemical burns from using toys that are made from a cheaper, porous material - so I always recommend overcaution when it comes to condom use.

A little side note here - it is totally okay to buy and use toys that are more cost effective, as the cost of toys that are made from non-porous materials can be quite prohibitive and inaccessible. It doesn't mean that you're doing anything wrong by having, using or purchasing these toys - just understanding the risks and practising some harm reduction techniques (eg. condom use) can help get the most out of them and have a safer and more fun experience with them. In terms of cleaning your sex toys, anything that is made from a porous material cannot be fully cleaned of all bacteria. It is still best practice to wash your sex toys after use with mild soap and water, but this will not be able to thoroughly clean toys made from a porous material.

When it comes to cleaning non-porous toys, you can wash them with mild soap and water and leave them out to dry, or you can also boil some sex toys made from non-porous materials for between 5-10 minutes - this can be especially helpful if the toy is being shared or used by more than one person.

If you are sharing a sex toy during a play session, regardless of what material it is made of, or if the toy is going between different orifices (eg. mouth to vagina, vagina to anus, anus to mouth) - I would strongly recommend using a condom over the toy, and changing to a fresh condom when the toy is being transferred between different people or different orifices. This helps to prevent the transmission of bacteria that could cause an STI, UTI or yeast infection.