Toy cleaner

@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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