Toy cleaner

Thanks

I had a look at the ingredient list and I don’t think any of them are specifically anti-bacterial?

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Hi @Helenishot Methulisothiazolinone is a sanitising agent it’s one of the ingredients that amounts to an antibac.

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Thanks

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Thanks a lot

That’s right at the end of the ingredient list (so is the thing there is the least of). It’s used as a preservative, and I think that’s just in there to stop the cleaner itself from going mouldy.

I think the Lovehoney Toy Cleaner is just spray soap.

Soap and hot water does the job then a squirt off toy cleaner

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Lovehoney used to sell a Sliquid toy cleaner which contained tea tree oil as an anti-bac agent - I wish they would bring it back as it made a great deodorant too.

However, there is also Pjur Med, which is a personal cleanser and I imagine could be used as a toy cleaner. It has anti-bac properties (again, not in huge quantities) but do note that the lastest forumla is not perfume free as advertised. My review of it is on the product page.

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I’ve used the toy cleaner for ages and everything seems to be fine. There’s only dirt left on if I’ve missed a spot.

Hmm… now this thread has got me thinking. Would normal face and hand soap be ok to clean toys with? I think most of the hand pump ones are antibacterial.

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I’d check with the toy manufacturer, because some soaps react with the toy material if I remeber correctly

I use the sliquid cleaner and might need some again soon, but Love honey seems to have a very low selection on tot cleaner products the now

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@Bigiain let’s lobby them to bring it back! Expensive to import and I haven’t found another uk seller…

I use plain old soap here.

If it works for my body, should be good enough for our toys. After all, I’ve never washed my penis with anything else, and my wife has survived it this far… :joy:

Plain, mild soaps are pretty good at cleaning toys, and I know certain soaps like SLS kill viruses and bacteria very effectively, even without anti-bac additives. Some toy makers even suggest mild soap in the instructions.

That said, there can be lots of other ingredients in soaps, like perfumes, oils, petrol based products, etc. This I think is where the trouble happens!

Most of our toys are silicone, which doesn’t like oils (including essential oils and perfumes) and other silicones. We’ve got some jelly toys in TPR, which is a fun but slightly sensitive rubbery plastic.
I used to use a solid hand soap with essential oils for a quick clean up (I thought: it’s natural so it must be okay, right?), before I realised they were starting to take on a slight smell & threw them out.

I’m now thinking that the Fresh Toy Cleaner is the best bet for looking after the different materials in the growing collection. After a rinse, it only takes a spritz or two to clean up with. It’s got a reassuringly short list of ingredients. And I’m willing to bet some boffins have been all over the chemistry side of things so I don’t have to worry about melty or smelly toys!

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I use the Lovehoney Fresh Toy Cleaner

I’ll just pop this here to tie up a loose end:

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I’ve recently got a vibrating butt plug and was just wondering what would be best to clean it with after
Any suggestions will be appreciated thank you :blush:

Warm soapy water.

Thank you :blush:

@Ian_Chimp 's answer is to the point and answers the OP’s question perfectly.

Going a bit further, I’ve found this thread interesting to help me consider what hygienic toy cleaning is really about. I’d say the Lovehoney Fresh toy cleaner is not ‘anti-bacterial’ in the sense of having bactericidal or bacteriostatic agents, but it does undoubtedly remove just about all the bacteria present. Hopefully I’ve understood this right.

The biggest ingredients in this product after water, are surfactants, which clean by breaking the surface tension of water, attaching to dirt, and rinsing it away (like soap). I don’t know if they destroy viruses at the same time like SLS does, but I imagine they could well do.

There’s other ingredients in there too, but crucially this cleaner creates a more hygienic toy by removing substances that bacteria and other pathogens thrive on, as well as the bacteria itself, in the process.

Keeping the toy’s material intact on a microscopic level strikes me as vital to help it to repel dirt this way long into the future.
Bactericidal/ bacteriostatic agents and other nasties aren’t necessary if a toy cleaner is doing this job efficiently, surely?

The fact it rinses away easily without leaving residues is crucial too, I’d say.
I personally don’t want surfactants, let alone bactericidal compounds upsetting the body’s defences: mucosal membranes and natural bacterial flora.

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I think it’s down to what your expectation of ‘anti-bacterial’ is. We use baby wipes to clean almost all of our toys, and we’ve had no issues so far (though we mainly use silicone and glass, and don’t indulge in bum fun, or share toys with anyone, so are probably at the lower risk end, hygienically speaking). I’m not sure you necessarily need specific antibacterial/biostatic ingredients to clean your toys well, but some people will have more sensitivities, so maybe they would? (or it might just be peace of mind).

There’s a lot of chemistry lurking just beneath the surface of the ingredient list, and I’m not anywhere close to being an expert, but I think you have to have specific things in a product to be able to claim it’s ‘anti-bacterial’.

Perhaps a better answer would have been, “no more than gentle soap”.

Ever since I discovered £8 Renewer Powder was just 20p’s worth of cornflour I’ve been a bit sus about a lot of these things. Is the Sex Toy Cleaner just baby shampoo in a spritzer? :slightly_smiling_face:

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