It is important to remember to clean your sex toys after each use. When you are careless with cleaning, bacteria form on the sex toy.

This can in turn lead to urinary tract infections. Since sex toys are often made of alcohol-sensitive materials, you should avoid using sterilizing alcohol.

Soap, which you might think is another alternative to cleaning, removes dirt - but not bacteria. Therefore, it is good to use cleaning products specifically designed for cleaning sex toys. The content is bactericidal but also adapted to the material that sex toys are often made of. Using the right cleaning products will keep both your mucous membranes and the sex toy in the best possible condition.

Use Sex Toy Cleaner Both Before and After

To maintain good hygiene and avoid bacteria that can end up on the erotic toy, it is important to wash it thoroughly

For most people, it goes without saying that they should be washed with sex toy cleaner after use. It may have been lubricated with lubricant, or has been visited here and there during the hot moments of play. For this, it can be a good idea to use a sex toy cleaner.

There are many different products for cleaning sex toys on the market. Some of them have antibacterial ingredients and work in a similar way to an antibacterial gel, which we use on our hands when we don't have soap and water at hand. Others are more like a soap that you spray on, let it work and then rinse it off. Always read on the product or packaging how you should use the different products.

But most people probably enjoy being able to wash their newly purchased product before using it. But is it really that bad? Isn't the product new and clean? You may be lucky because nothing happens if you skip washing your new adult toy before use. But there may be residues from production that the sensitive skin and mucous membranes in the genital area don't like very much. So, to be on the safe side, we always recommend using a sex toy cleaner before you start playing.

What Sex Toy Cleaners Should I use?

Soap itself is not the problem – as we all know, it works great for washing your hands. But soap is unfortunately not compatible with sex toys as their material can be damaged. Depending on the material, the damage can manifest itself in different ways, but unfortunately the damage often starts very subtly and gets worse and worse over time. Which means that you may have used a sex toy that has accumulated dirt and bacteria without you noticing. For example, sex toy material can dry out so that small cracks form where bacteria can collect, it can change the structure of the material so that it "swells" or the surface layer can be destroyed.

Intimate soaps then, they can be used on your most fragile areas – so they should work with all types of sex toys? no. Intimate soaps usually contain oil; something that can be very harmful to the sex toy material. Above all, it can dissolve the sex toy material and the most common damage is that the material becomes shiny and "sucks up" the oil. Which means that the material can start to attract bacteria.

Sex toys are produced from many different materials, everything from plastic and silicone to glass and even wood. And before you start washing it, it is important to know how you should treat the material that your new acquaintance is made of.

Some materials can withstand being boiled or even being put in the dishwasher, and also have no special need for cleaning products for sex toys. Other materials are more delicate and require a cleaning product for sex toys that is developed for this purpose. 

In addition, there is a difference in how to treat the products after washing with cleaning products for sex toys. Sex toys made of silicone in particular can become a little fuzzy on the surface if you wipe them with a fluffy towel. Such products are better to air dry. 

For other products, we recommend that you finish the product with a powder that you sprinkle on after cleaning. This way you preserve the surface and the product's lifespan in the best way.

It is a good idea to store the sex toy in a box or bag, just so that the different sex toys do not come into contact with each other. Silicone, for example, is a material that can react with other silicone materials, and thus be damaged if they are too close together in a box. 

A storage bag is often included when you buy a new sex toy. So make it a habit to pack it in the bag when you are finished playing and have cleaned the toy with one or two cleaning products for sex toys.