When using and enjoying a new sex toy, safety is one of the most important things to take care of.
But what do you think is the most important safety aspekt to look out for? Size? Material? Usage?
Well, one very important aspekt is the material which the toy is made out of or covered with.
And today we want to take a look at the material silicone. and different tests which you can easily do at home to determine if the new sex toy is body safe and usable.
The Material
Silicone is one of the most common body safe materials used in the sex toy industry because of its many possible uses.
It can be used as a cover material for vibrators, as flexible and stretchy material for cock rings, or as a full silicone dildo for private fun time.
The material, if poured and treated correctly, is not porous, making it less likely that bacteria will hide and manifests on it. It can also easily be cleaned and disinfected.
On top of all that, there are many different firmness options for silicone. Making it customisable for every users personalized liking. No matter if extra firm or very soft and squishy.
But it also has some drawbacks. Not necessarily in the material themself, but in the companies which sell the products. So its sadly not uncommon, that chemical addatives or plastic are used, to produce cheap silicone. It should go without saying, that those are not good or safe for your body.
Body safe and high quality silicone is usually created by mixing and two components and letting them harden. One of the best options for sex toys is platium cured silicone. If youre interested in how its made, take a look here:
https://www.eyce.com/blogs/news/how-is-silicone-made-a-look-into-platinum-cured-silicone-vs-peroxide-cured-silicone
Now, if you know about all that, it should be easy to simply avoid those cheap and dangerous toys, right?
Well, companies are very good at hiding the truth by as an example giving very elaborate and hard to understand or pinpoint descriptions of the material.
Not to mention that some companies straight up lie.
The Tests
So, how do you detect toys with bad or harmful silicone?
There are many different tests which you can easily do at home to figure out if your toy is safe, or if addatives have been used.
Were going to look at the most popular ones, which are the smell and lick, the twist and the burn test.
Each test will be explained how to perform them and how to interpret the results.
Disclaimer: Those tests are not a 100% guarantee for the toy to be safe, they are simply do at home tests to help you understand what silicone you are dealing with and aid you i deciding if you should use the toy.
Smell and Lick Test
How to do the test
The easiest test to perform is the smell and lick test. Its very straight forward and exactly what it sounds like. You smell and if needed lick the toy to determin any conspicuous characteristics.
So, do you just smell and lick it?
Its recommended that you first unpack the toy and let it air out for a few minutes to hours because the packaging can leave an unwanted and unpleasant smell even with a perfectly body safe and platinum cured silicone.
Once you did so, take the toy and smell on different parts of it, especially those which will be used. Smelling in this case doesnt mean trying to fan some air into your nose like youre out for wine tasting. But actually bring your nose as close as possible to the toy and take long deep breaths.
Following this first part of the test, you can continue with the licking part if need be.
Its important to keep in mind, that you are potentially expose yourself to chemicals. Usually those will not immediately do any harm to your body, but especially with allergies you should be careful.
Besides that its as straightforward as the smell test. Take a lick at one of the parts which would be used.
How to interpret the results
There should not be any smell whatsoever coming from a clean, freshly unpacked silicone toy. It should be completely odorless. In some cases, even with high quality and body safe silicone, there can be a faint smell, which should of course not be there, but can occur without it being a problem. A strong chemical smell however, should set off your alarm bells.
The toy should be completely tasteless as well. If it makes your tongue tingle, you taste something chemical or it even makes you gag from the taste, then its a clear nope and an indicator that something is not right with the silicone/toy.
The Twist Test
How to do the test
The twist test (also referred to as the pull or pinch test) is especially good in detecting plastic in your silicone. So is the burn test, but that requires potentially harming your toy in the process. So this option is preferred.
In many cases, you are unable to smell or taste the plastic in the silicone and could easily be fooled into thinking that the silicone is body safe.
If possible, take the toy (or the cover of the toy) and twist it. This can however take some significant effort and strength. Other options are pulling the material or pinching it. Its important to put stress on a small focused part of the toy instead of the overall material.
How to interpret the results
One characteristic of silicone which has plastic in it is, that when you pull or twist it, the default color of the material turns white. And this property is exactly what will be used in this test.
In all of the test cases, the color of the silicone should remain the same. If the color lightens and especially if it turns into white on the stressed parts of the material, its a clear indicator that plastic was used in the silicone.
The Burn Test
How to do the test
The lasts and hardest test is the burn test.
Its not hard because of the test procedure, but rather its hard because the results can be very difficult to interpret.
For the burn test you need some kind of open flame, be it a lighter or a match stick. Lighters are the preferred choice, as you can consitently create high temperatures without the flame burning down the match and burning your fingers.
Once you have the lighter, its time to play with fire!
You can either take an unused part of the toy (like at the handle) or cut off a small portion of the silicone.
Then, its as simple as holding this part of the toy in the flame. Make sure to not burn yourself or set anything unwanted on fire.
Make sure that the silicone is in the flame for long enough. This means until its starting to deform, melt, or bubble. Or if nothing of that sort happens, for at least a good 20-30 seconds.
After that, but out the fire and let the toy cool down.
How to interpret the results
The results can vary drastically, which is why i will link ressources containing pictures, as well as a full (potentially overwhelming) checklist.
If its platinum cured and body safe silicone, two of the following things will happen. Either there will be a thin layer of white easily whipable ash, or in the best case scenario, nothing. This white ash should easily be able to be whiped away without it being sticky or soft underneath. The smell should also not be very strong and especially not acidic or like burnt hair. If there is no white ash and the part of the toy you tried to light on fire didnt even flinch, congrats! You very likely have a safe and high quality toy in your hands.
If however the test ends differently, its potentially problematic. A few examples of bad reactions to the burn test:
– The material lights on fire. (Very bad, body safe silicone cant light on fire and burn with an own flame)
– The material melts and droops down (If the part of the silicone is very thin, it can deform even when its body safe)
– The material gets sticky.
– The material melts only slightly, but it smells like burnt hair.
There are many more possibilities, all of which arent usually good signs.
In the following ressources, you will find more explanations, pictures and a checklist to determine which kind of silicone you just tried to burn is.
https://dangerouslilly.com/2014/03/deciphering-results-of-flame-test/
https://dangerouslilly.com/2012/04/sex-toy-journalism-seeking-truths-silicone-flame-testing-confronting-manufacturers/
https://www.boedeker.com/Technical-Resources/Technical-Library/Plastic-Identification
Jelly Silicone
There is a type of silicone which we want to take a very quick look at. This is often called jelly silicone.
This material is very very soft silicones and is commonly used in “ultra realistic” dildos for the skin.
While it indeed is very squishy and jelly like, its almost always full of chemicals. Thats actually how they create this very very soft firmness.
Such toys are often advertised as body safe and completely harmless. Tests show otherwise.
Its recommended to stay away from those toys.
Resellers
While on the topic of body safe silicone, its important to also talk about where to buy toys.
There are a LOT of good shops which sell high quality silicone products.
The ones i want to make aware of are shops like Aliexpress, wish, as well as Amazon.
Many people think that amazon has amazing quality, but thats not always the case. In the end, Amazon is a reseller, often from the same shops which sell on Aliexpress. So while its definitely not always the case, dont blindly trust amazon with the quality of their toys. They are cheap for a reason. (even Though often they are the exact safe toys from dropshipping stores Aliexpress, just made a bit more expensive.
Its obvious that if you buy cheap you get cheap. So take care and stay safe. You can really find some suprisingly good gems on Amazon or dropshipping stores, but dont expect those.
Ending Debate
Some people might now say, oh, i bet plastic is not as harmful as other chemicals, or, if you disinfect them it will never be a problem.
Others might say, if you simply put a condom or something protective over it you can easily use it.
And while maybe sometimes its true, maybe sometimes it goes well, maybe it wont affect your health. Its always a maybe and playing with risk. And not the good kind.
In the end, its your own decision. But only as long as you use it on yourself.
The moment another person or play partner comes into the equation its a no go.
Risk it for yourself? If you truly want to, its your body. But risking someone elses health? Thats a no go.
End of debate
Thanks for reading.
I hope you learned something new in todays lessons and that you are now able to better understand the different kinds of tests.
Stay safe, take care.
See you in the next class