By Alison Frey
In the United States, sex toys are sold as novelties. That single classification is why there is no body requiring a maker to tell you what a toy is made of, and why "body safe" on a box means exactly as much as the company printing it wants it to mean.
Here is how to read a product yourself, since the label will not do it for you.
The short version
There are two categories that matter, and it is not soft against firm or cheap against expensive. It is non-porous against porous. Non-porous materials are silicone, borosilicate glass, stainless steel and ABS plastic, and they can be properly cleaned. Porous materials include jelly, PVC, TPE, TPR and anything sold simply as rubber, and they cannot be, because the surface holds onto what goes into it. Buy non-porous and most of the rest of this stops mattering.
The materials, ranked by how much you can trust them
| Material | Porous | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Borosilicate glass | No | The most inert thing you can buy. Holds temperature, lasts indefinitely, works with any lubricant |
| Stainless steel | No | Same story, plus weight, which is the whole point of it. Effectively permanent |
| Platinum cure silicone | No | The realistic default for most toys. Soft, durable, fully cleanable. Never pair with silicone lubricant |
| ABS plastic | No | Hard plastic, used for bullets and handles. Cleanable and cheap to produce |
| TPE and TPR | Yes | Soft and stretchy, used in most strokers. Cannot be sterilised. Treat as one owner and replace on a schedule |
| PVC and jelly | Yes | Often soft, often strong smelling, frequently contains plasticisers. The category to avoid |
| Unspecified rubber | Yes | If the material is not named at all, that is the answer |
What porous actually means
Under magnification, a porous surface is not smooth. It has openings, and body fluids, bacteria and lubricant residue get into them. Washing cleans the surface and does not empty the pores.
That is the whole issue. Not that a porous toy is dangerous the first week, but that it cannot be returned to clean, so it accumulates. It is also why a porous toy should never be shared between people and never move between anal and vaginal use without a condom over it.
Non-porous is different in kind, not degree. Silicone, glass and steel can be washed properly, and glass and steel can be boiled.
The four things a label will not tell you
- "Body safe" is not a defined term. No standard sits behind it and nobody checks it. It is marketing copy, printed by the seller.
- "Silicone" can mean a blend. Some products described as silicone are silicone mixed with a cheaper filler, which brings the porosity back. A named grade, or a maker with a reputation to lose, is the practical protection.
- "Phthalate free" is self declared. The claim is usually honest from established brands and unverifiable from anonymous ones. Phthalates are plasticisers that make hard plastics soft, and they are the reason the very soft, very cheap, faintly greasy toys of twenty years ago had the reputation they did.
- "Hypoallergenic" and "medical grade" mean nothing here. Neither has a definition in this category.
Three tests you can do yourself
The smell test. Open the box and smell it. Real silicone, glass and steel smell of almost nothing. A strong chemical or plastic smell means plasticisers are off-gassing, and that is your answer regardless of what the box says.
The feel test. A slightly greasy or oily film on a brand new toy is a bad sign. Quality silicone feels dry and slightly grippy, not slick.
The stack test. Never store toys touching each other. Porous materials react with one another and with silicone, and two toys left in contact in a drawer can fuse or leave permanent marks on each other. If two of your toys have already melted together, both were porous and now you know.
Cleaning, by material
| Material | Everyday | Deeper |
|---|---|---|
| Silicone, motorised | Warm water and unscented soap, dry fully | Wipe with isopropyl alcohol. Never submerge unless it is rated waterproof |
| Silicone, no motor | Warm water and unscented soap | Can be boiled for a few minutes |
| Glass and steel | Warm water and unscented soap | Can be boiled, and steel can go in a dishwasher |
| TPE, TPR, jelly | Warm water and unscented soap, dry completely | Cannot be sterilised. Use a condom over it and replace it periodically |
Skip anything scented or antibacterial. Fragrance is a common irritant and antibacterial soap is unnecessary on non-porous surfaces. Drying fully matters more than most people think, because trapped moisture is what causes the sticky film people find months later.
The part a retailer usually leaves out
A great deal of what is sold in this industry is porous, including plenty of it at prices that suggest otherwise. Strokers in particular are almost all TPE, because nothing else gives that texture, and they are effectively consumables rather than permanent objects. That is not a scandal. It only becomes one when nobody tells you, and you keep a stroker for three years assuming it is the same class of thing as a silicone toy.
The honest position is this: buy non-porous for anything internal and anything shared, accept porous where the material is genuinely the point, use a condom over it, and replace it on a schedule rather than when it looks bad. By the time a porous toy looks bad it has been past its point for a long time.
And if a listing does not name the material at all, that is not an oversight to ask about. That is the specification.
Where to start
Everything in the Dildos and Anal and Prostate ranges is chosen on this basis, which is why the glass and steel pieces sit alongside the silicone ones rather than in a novelty corner. The Vibrators and Stimulators range is silicone and ABS throughout.
Since almost all of it is silicone, the lubricant question is settled for you, and which lubricant to use explains why that matters. When to replace a toy picks up where this leaves off, and what separates a good male masturbator from a gimmick goes further into the TPE question specifically.
If you want it narrowed down instead, Help Me Choose asks two questions and hands you a short list.
