I recently wrote about how important lube is. So now that you know you want lube, what kind should you try? There are benefits for certain types of lubes for specific body parts.
Oral sex: flavored lube.
One important thing to look out for especially with flavored lubes is glycerin. Glycerin is sugar, even if a lube says sugar free read the ingredients and check for glycerin. Not only does glycerin make things sticky, if you have a vagina you need to be careful it can give you a yeast infection because sugar feeds yeast. You don’t really need a lube for oral sex, unless you have a dry mouth or just finds lube makes things more slippery and interesting.
It can also help if the person receiving oral feels insecure about their taste or smell. But complimenting your partner will help with that insecurity. If you really love the flavored lubes with sugar in it (they tend to taste better) just keep it on the outside of the body and you shouldn’t have any issues.
Some of my favorite glycerin free brands is Sliquid and Nature Lovin. Sliquid has my favorite flavor, blackberry fig which makes me feel like I got the lube at a fancy farmers market, and Nature Lovin has such a wide variety of flavors they have something for everyone. They even have really fun seasonal flavors like candy cane!
My favorites: Nature Lovin flavored lubes, and sliquid flavored lubes.
Hand-jobs or fingering: silicone-based lube or oil based.
These lubes stay slippery the longest. Water based lube tends to get absorbed into your skin because we’re made out of water, especially when you put it on a body part that doesn’t have it’s own wetness source like a mouth or vagina. Just be careful with oil, you want to get an oil based lube not a plain old massage oil because most oils tend to trap bacteria in the body.
Lubes that are oil based are usually coconut oil that is safe to go in the body. And silicone lube doesn’t get absorbed into the skin so stays slippery forever. However, something to consider, if you plan on getting your mouth involved, you’ll want to use a water-based lube instead; silicone and oil based lube doesn’t feel great in your mouth.
My favorites: Gun oil silicone lube, Southern Butter Oil based lubes
Anal sex: a thick water-based lube, a gel formula is best.
Thick lubes last for longer without needing to be reapplied, and they also tend to stay put instead of dripping. Water-based lube is the best choice if you’re planning on using any silicone toys as part of your play or warm-up. Or even a hybrid lube, which is mostly water based with a tiny bit of silicone in it. The silicone keeps it slippery longer but it’s not enough silicone in most formulas to ruin a silicone toy. I always recommend a spot test to make sure you’re not going to ruin your nice silicone toy just in case. If you’re not using silicone toys, you could go with a silicone-based lube instead; people like silicone-based for anal because it lasts longer and has an oily, silky texture.
My favorites: Sliquid sassy (water-based gel), Pjur backdoor (silicone with jojoba relaxing), and Jo Coconut Oil Hybrid
Vaginal sex: a water-based lube, especially ones with carrageenan and/or aloe.
Carrageenan is a seaweed extract that close resembles the natural lubrication of vaginas. And when you start to get wet naturally, your own lubrication will blend with the lube nicely and make it last longer. Silicone lube is also fine in the vagina, I would reccomend a thinner one so it’s easier to clean it out of the body. Because remember silicone lube doesn’t get absorbed into your skin, it must get pushed out and thicker formulas just take longer. Uberlube, and Pjur woman are both thinner formulas great for vaginas. Also if you’re not using condoms, you can use an oil-based lube, just make sure it’s made of vagina-safe oils (i.e. not petroleum!).
My favorites: Sliquid Sea, Uberlube, and Southern Butter Oil based lube
Using silicone toys: a water-based or hybrid lube.
Silicone lubes bind together and make silicone toys basically melt. So water-based is the best way to go. If you don’t like how quickly water-based lubes dry up, you can add use a hybrid which is mostly water based, with a little silicone in it. Just make sure to do a spot test so you don’t ruin your toy. Oil based are also fine and won’t ruin the material.
My favorites: Sliquid silk, sliquid sea
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