Materials
What a toy is made of decides how you clean it, how you store it and roughly how long it lasts. This is the short reference the material notes on toy pages link to.
Porous or not
A non-porous material has a closed surface, so there is nowhere for anything to stay behind. Soap and warm water gets it fully clean. Silicone, borosilicate glass and steel with no motor inside can also be boiled for a few minutes to sterilise them; other glass can crack from the heat. Anything with a motor or a battery can't: wash it, and go by what the maker says about putting it under water. Looked after, a non-porous toy lasts for years.
A porous material has tiny pores that hold on to lube and bacteria however well you wash it, so it can't be fully cleaned or sterilised, and heat would deform it before it did any good. It also breaks down with time: it goes tacky, cloudy or oily, and that is the point to retire it. A condom over a porous toy keeps it clean, and keeping it to one person avoids the question.
Porous is a description, not a verdict. Plenty of drawers have porous toys in them, and the catalogue lists them like everything else.
On a toy's page, the material note counts the parts that touch you: the body, a coating, and any material listed without a part. A core or a handle doesn't count. If one counted material is porous, the note says porous; if one is unknown, it says that.
Toy melt
Some soft materials react with each other where they touch. The softeners in PVC and in some TPE move into whatever they rest against, and both toys go sticky, warped or melted at that spot. That is toy melt, and it doesn't come back out.
- Keep porous toys away from silicone, and away from each other.
- Store soft toys separately: a bag or pouch each, or at least not touching. A warm drawer makes it happen faster.
- Glass, steel, aluminium, ceramic and hard plastic don't melt, and silicone against silicone is generally fine.
Silicone and lube
Water-based lube works with every material on this page. Silicone lube can soften or roughen the surface of some silicone toys, so the usual advice is water-based lube on silicone. To try silicone lube anyway, put a little on the base or somewhere else out of the way first, leave it for a while and see if the surface changes.
Silicone lube is fine on glass, steel, aluminium, ceramic and hard plastic. Oil, including massage oil and coconut oil, breaks down latex, latex condoms included, and soaks into porous toys.
Unknown, and vague labels
Most of what the catalogue knows about materials starts as shop copy, and shop copy calls nearly everything body-safe. So a material is only listed as porous or non-porous when that is known, and the rest are listed as unknown. That includes a few labels that sound specific and aren't:
- Sealed wood: only as good as its seal, and a seal wears.
- Body-safe, on its own: a word shops use, not a material.
Silicone blend, jelly, rubber and realistic skin don't name one material either, but what they cover is porous, so they are listed as porous.
Unknown isn't a warning. It means nobody has shown yet what the thing is made of, and it changes when somebody knows better: a maker who names the material in writing, or a member who has the toy and can say.
Correcting an entry
Entries are added by members, and a material list copied from a shop page is often wrong or too vague. If you know better, suggest an edit to the entry: say what it is made of and how you know. A suggestion is checked by hand before it changes the entry, and who suggested it is never shown.
The materials
19Every material the catalogue knows, grouped the way toy pages describe them.
Non-porous
7- ABS plasticHard plastic, usual for handles, caps and motor housings. Wipe it rather than boil it.
- AcrylicHard plastic. Wipe it rather than boil it.
- AluminiumLight, holds cold, and can be washed with soap and water.
- Borosilicate glassAnnealed glass, the same family as lab glassware. Can be boiled.
- CeramicNon-porous for as long as the glaze is unbroken.
- SiliconeCan be boiled or washed with soap and water, and lasts for years.
- Stainless steelHeavy, holds heat and cold, and can be boiled.
Porous
11- ElastomerSoft and stretchy, in the same family as TPE. Cannot be fully cleaned.
- FabricNylon, cotton or other webbing, used for harnesses and briefs. Porous, so it can't be sterilised. Follow the maker's wash instructions.
- JellyA name for soft, often see-through toys rather than a material: usually PVC, sometimes TPE. Often softened with phthalates, can feel oily, and can melt other toys.
- LatexPorous, and an allergen for a lot of people.
- LeatherUsed for harnesses. Porous, so it can't be sterilised. Clean it with a leather cleaner, not soap and water.
- PVCAlso sold as vinyl, and often as jelly. Often softened with phthalates, which can leach out and melt other toys. Porous, and it degrades.
- Realistic skinSoft blends made to feel like skin, sold as CyberSkin, UR3, Fanta Flesh, Neoskin, FauxFlesh or Sil-A-Gel. Mostly TPE, TPR or PVC. Can feel oily or go tacky, and can melt other toys.
- RubberUsually a loose label for PVC, TPR or latex rather than one material. Porous, and may be softened with phthalates.
- Silicone blendOften not silicone all the way through: silicone mixed with TPE, TPR or SEBS, in proportions the label doesn't give. It behaves like the porous part.
- TPEThermoplastic elastomer. Soft and stretchy, cannot be fully cleaned, and breaks down over time.
- TPRThermoplastic rubber. The same family as TPE, and the two names are used interchangeably.
Unknown
1- Sealed woodOnly as safe as its seal, and a seal wears. Ask the maker what it is.