Last Updated on 21 May, 2026 by Cara Sutra
Are you wondering if silicone lubes can damage your silicone toys? If so, that doesn’t surprise me. This rumour/myth remains prevalent in online sex toy shop product descriptions and various sexual health guides. What happens when silicone lube is used with silicone sex toys? Does silicone lube erode the silicone material? I wanted to prove once and for all what exactly does happen when silicone lubricant is used with a silicone sex toy, and not only used with, but left to soak for quite some time. So here it is! My experiment, where I left a silicone sex toy in silicone lube for 3 months…
Read on to find out exactly what happened, plus the important caveats I’ve learned about since I first published this experiment.
Related: Guide to Sex Toy Materials | Silicone Lubricants Guide | Silicone Sex Toy Reviews
Quick Links
Wait, What Myth?
There’s a myth which is prevalent in the adult product industry, that silicone lubricant should not be used with silicone sex toys. This is still mentioned in various sex toy descriptions on some adult retail web stores, and on some silicone toy packaging/in the accompanying instructions.
When I began my blogging journey, 17 years ago at the time of writing, I used to parrot this ‘advice’ in my own sexual advice guides and sex toy reviews for quite some time. After all, the sex toy shops said it on their product descriptions, so who was I to argue?
Where Did This Myth Originate?
The ‘you can’t use silicone lube with silicone sex toys‘ myth originated many years ago. I don’t know exactly when, and I’m not sure anyone could accurately pinpoint the source. It has to be at least 17 years ago, because as I mentioned above that’s when I started sex blogging and the rumour/myth was going strong at that point.
Why did people start preaching/believing it? Well, sex toys described as silicone weren’t always necessarily made with silicone. Some, perhaps a lot, were made with cheaper materials which were flexible and therefore resembled silicone. The important thing is that they weren’t silicone, therefore they weren’t compatible with various lubricants like 100% guaranteed silicone sex toys are.
Because ‘silicone sex toys’ were being sold in bricks and mortar sex shops and then, in time, online adult retail stores, which weren’t necessarily made with actual silicone, warnings abounded on the toy packaging and in the online product descriptions not to use silicone lubricant with silicone toys.
The sex toy industry was and shockingly remains largely unregulated, so it’s unsurprising that rules were made up as the industry and toy technology moved along. It reminds me of the famous quote:
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
As the adult industry progressed and time ticks along as it has a habit of doing, silicone as a material became cheaper for manufacturers to use in their products and more widely available. As consumers upped their standards for body safety, the demand for genuinely 100% silicone sex toys increased, and businesses needed to supply them in order to remain successful. In time, the majority of sex toys labelled as silicone came to actually be made from 100% silicone material (hurrah!).
But the warning not to use silicone lube with silicone sex toys had been drilled into brands and consumers for so long, that it had evolved into ‘fact’. It prevailed in the adult industry and in people’s minds and remains one of the most quoted pieces of sex product advice out there. No matter what evidence now points to the contrary.
Back to my experiment…
The Products
I planned to leave a silicone sex toy in silicone lubricant for some time, then see if there had been any degradation or change to the material. For this experiment I needed brand new products, so everyone can be sure that the silicone sex toy had no prior damage, and that the silicone lube used is fresh rather than old or even past its expiry date. Yes, sex lube has an expiry date.
Heading to one of my favourite toy stores, bondara.co.uk, I checked out the silicone lube aisle then headed to the silicone toys area. After some browsing I settled on the Bondara silicone lube, and a Bondara silicone butt plug in black with an attractive blue marble effect to the material.
My Bondara shopping arrived in good time as usual, in discreet outer wrap for the post and well packed within the plain brown box.
The Lube
Bondara Silicone Luxury Lubricant: BUY HERE (£9.99)
The Toy
Bondara Mon Amour Black Marble Silicone Butt Plug: BUY HERE (£7.99)
The Experiment
Date of the experiment: 14th March 2023 to 14th June 2023
After checking over the silicone lube and silicone butt plug and ensuring they were both suitable for this experiment, I was ready to begin. I selected a small container, into which firstly I could pour an adequate amount of silicone lube, then stand the butt plug tip-down into it, so the tip would be coated constantly in the silicone lube for the duration.
I set the container aside somewhere safe, inside my bathroom cabinet, where it would be out of direct sunlight, unlikely to be disturbed by anyone else and could just get on and do its thing. Or do nothing at all. Que será, será.
And that’s it. It wasn’t a very complex experiment, but it didn’t have to be. Silicone toy in silicone lube… what would happen?
The Results
I checked on the silicone butt plug in the silicone lube, in the container in my bathroom cabinet, at infrequent intervals during the elapsed experiment time. Nothing seemed to be happening to the surface of the butt plug, and there was no discolouration or change that I could detect in the silicone lube, either.
Of course, I had yet to complete the required time period, wash off the lubricant from the surface of the toy, and properly inspect it.
After three months of the tip of the silicone butt plug soaking in silicone lubricant, I was ready to discover the results of my ‘silicone toy left in silicone lube experiment’.
So, what had happened to my silicone toy after all that time soaking in silicone sex lube?
The worst thing about leaving a silicone sex toy in silicone lube for 3 months is getting the silicone lube washed off the toy afterwards. It took a lot of hot, soapy water and a nail brush! Once thoroughly cleaned, then dried, I could see that the silicone lubricant, as I’d predicted, had no visible effect on the silicone material of the butt plug at all. I can’t speak for invisible effects, obviously, but as far as I could tell there had been no damage or detrimental effects to the surface of the sex toy as a consequence of being left sat in silicone lube for three months. There were no cracks, no peeling of the material, no change in surface texture.
The conclusion I drew at the time of the experiment was that absolutely nothing happens if you leave a 100% silicone sex toy in silicone lube for 3 months. Therefore, you are able to use silicone lube with genuine silicone sex toys during masturbation, foreplay and sex without any worries about negative effects to the material of your toy. Just make sure the sex toy you want to use is actually silicone, not some other material like jelly or PVC.
You can find out more about adult product materials and the recommended, body-safe ones, in my guide to sex toy materials.
Post-Lube Video Results
Below you can view a short video of the retrieval of the silicone sex toy from the silicone lube after the 3 months experiment duration. In this video I take the silicone butt plug out of the lubricant for the first time in 3 months, I wash and dry the silicone butt plug, and show the surface of the sex toy and how it has been undamaged and unaffected by the silicone lubricant.
Important Caveats: What I’ve Learned Since
Since I first published this experiment, this post has been shared widely (including on Reddit), and I’ve had the chance to think more carefully about the conclusions I drew. Some readers have pushed back, some have agreed enthusiastically. I want to be honest about the nuances, because the more I’ve looked into this, the more I realise the answer is “yes, but…” rather than a flat “myth busted.”
So, here are the important caveats anyone reading this experiment should know about.
Not All “100% Silicone” Toys Are Equal
There are different curing methods used to make silicone sex toys. The two main ones you’ll encounter are platinum-cured silicone (sometimes called platinum silicone or addition-cured silicone) and tin-cured silicone (also called peroxide-cured or condensation-cured).
Platinum-cured silicone is the gold standard. It’s more stable, more biocompatible, longer lasting, and the same grade used for medical implants. Reputable, premium sex toy brands like Uberrime, Square Peg Toys, Fun Factory, We-Vibe, Lelo and others use platinum-cured silicone.
Tin-cured silicone is cheaper and lower grade. It’s still technically “silicone,” and a toy made from it can still be labelled as 100% silicone, but it’s less chemically stable and may react differently to silicone lube than platinum-cured silicone does.
I’ll be honest: with the benefit of hindsight, I’d run this experiment with a confirmed platinum-cured silicone toy from a brand that openly advertises the cure type. Bondara confirms the butt plug I used is 100% silicone, but not which cure method. At the time, I didn’t know the distinction mattered. You learn as you go, and then you do better next time.
The takeaway: if your toy is from a premium brand that openly advertises platinum-cured silicone, my experiment’s results are far more likely to apply. If your toy is a cheap “silicone” toy from an unknown manufacturer, the cure type is unknown, and so the risk is unknown.
Cross-Contamination Of Lube Bottles Is A Real Risk
This is the caveat I was least aware of when I first ran the experiment, and it’s the one I think genuinely explains a lot of the “my silicone toy was damaged by silicone lube” anecdotes online.
Silicone lube is very difficult to fully clean off any surface without a solvent like acetone. So if your lube bottle’s nozzle has previously touched (or been used with) a jelly toy, a TPE toy, a vinyl toy, or any other lower-grade material, microscopic traces of those materials’ chemicals can transfer into your lube. Then when you use the same bottle on your platinum silicone toy, those contaminants are deposited on your good toy, where the silicone lube holds them in place.
Over time, those chemicals can break down even a platinum-cured silicone toy. The lube itself may not be the culprit. The contamination inside the bottle is.
This is why some respected platinum silicone brands like Topped Toys still advise against silicone lube. They’ve never seen new, fresh silicone lube damage their toys, but they suspect contamination is the hidden cause of the damage reports they do hear about.
If you want to use silicone lube with your platinum silicone toys, the safest approach is to use a dedicated bottle that has only ever touched platinum silicone toys, never anything else.
My Experiment Tested One Toy And One Lube
The most important caveat of all. My experiment proved that this specific silicone butt plug, soaked in this specific silicone lube, in controlled storage conditions, for 3 months, suffered no visible damage. That is a real, useful data point. But it’s one data point.
It doesn’t prove that all silicone lubes are safe with all silicone toys. It doesn’t account for tin-cured toys, contaminated lube bottles, daily friction during real use, or chemical-level changes too subtle to see by eye. I’d love to do a much wider experiment with multiple brands and cure types, but for now I want to be honest about what one experiment can and can’t tell you.
Where I Stand Now
After more reading and reflection, my position is this: if you have a verified platinum-cured silicone toy from a reputable brand, and you’re using fresh, uncontaminated silicone lube, you can use the two together without realistic concern about damage. The myth of automatic, instant incompatibility is not true.
However, if you can’t verify the cure type of your toy, or if your lube bottle has been near jelly/TPE/vinyl toys in the past, the conservative advice (water-based lube only) is the safer bet. Square Peg Toys’ free-replacement guarantee for silicone-lube damage is a strong vote of confidence in platinum silicone’s resilience, but Topped Toys’ contamination warning is a strong vote of caution.
Personally? I’ll still use silicone lube with my best platinum silicone toys when I want that long-lasting glide. But I’m now much more careful about which bottles touch which toys.
In Conclusion
If you are certain that your sex toy of choice is made from genuine, platinum-cured silicone, and your silicone lube has not been contaminated by use with lower-grade materials, then you can use silicone lubricant with it without realistic fear of damage. As I demonstrated in this experiment, where I left a 100% silicone sex toy dipped in silicone lube for 3 months, there were no visible negative effects from the two being in contact. After all, people stack silicone bakeware together in the kitchen cupboard all the time, so why would silicone sex toys and silicone lubricant be inherently incompatible?
Just make sure you research the material of your toy, including the curing method where you can find that out, and the exact formulation of your lubricant, to ensure they are both genuinely silicone and from sources you trust. Clean yourself and your sex toy thoroughly after your pleasure session, with warm soapy water to remove all the traces of silicone (for cleanliness/neatness rather than material safety), then dry the toy thoroughly before putting away for next time. You can spritz it a couple of times with anti-bacterial sex toy cleaner if you like, for complete hygiene reassurance.
I hope this article and experiment goes some way to reassure that you CAN use silicone lube with silicone sex toys, as long as both items are genuinely silicone and used with awareness of the caveats above, regardless of what you may read on sex toy shopping websites, in sexual advice guides or the product packaging.
Contains affiliate links
