Weekend Review: The Lubes We Love

The weekend has started and now you can rest easy with some more information about one of our favorite sexual aides: lube.  The promises are many.  The bells and whistles of what they say they are able to do varies greatly (as do their prices!).   Which is best to help you grease the wheels for your next ride?  I hope this information helps.  Studies show that lube make sex and masturbation more pleasurable for women regardless of whether or not you "need" it.

-Gel vs. Liquid-

Different brands of personal lubricant usually make a "gel."  This is an important distinction between "liquid" lubricants.  Gel or Jelly are no frills type of lube and can be easily spotted because they are usually packaged in a squeeze tube that looks like something you just might find in a doctor's office.  In fact, gels rather than liquids are what are used in medical examinations that require them.

Different brands are all nearly identical in price with a 4oz bottle costing you just around $4.00.  

The main difference between a gel and a liquid?  Texture.  

Don't panic - that's just my forearm!  The left is gel.  The right is liquid.  You can see the liquid is ready to slide off my arm and the gel is staying put in its nice little blob.  

   

This is after giving it a little swoosh with my finger.  Another word about texture, is that when gel has been sitting out a long time it can get a little sticky... Worst case scenario: flaky or clumpy.  Whereas liquid will always eventually rub into the skin or rub off.  Opinion: Liquid lubricant is best for vaginal play and gel is best for anal.  This is because of the endurance quality of a gel. When providing you a safety net that will make the difference between pleasure and pain during anal entrance, you want the net to be as thick as possible!

-Flavors-

The purpose of flavored lube is to "enhance oral contact."  This failed to make sense to me because while some erogenous zones need help getting wet - mouths usually don't.  Then the issue of safe sex hit me like a big DUH in the face!  Because none of us suck on latex for fun, flavored lube is here to help!

Some are yummy.  These are flavors you could put on ice cream - except that is weird and creepy.  The red is strawberry and the brown is chocolate and when mixed together taste even better.

A word of caution is that using flavored lubricants vaginally can put you at risk for a yeast infection because the bacteria that causes infections thrive off of eating sugar - a main ingredient in most flavored lubes.  So flavored lubricant should only be applied to the male body (or stay above the waste on females). 

- Warming and Cooling -

This will be the most scientific section of our talk on lube. Lets discuss warming liquid first.

  The chemicals that allow the above lube to feel warm are Propylene Glycol and Niacin. Propylene Glycol is the same chemical used in antifreeze!  Niacin, or vitamin B-3, is known to make blood flow to the skin even when taken orally. What makes warming sensation lubes feel so good is they increase blood flow to areas of contact. Warming lubes could cause irritation if applied too frequently or in too large of an amount. Luckily, our friends at KY 

have configured these chemicals in a way that is designed to not be 

too hot for human skin and minimally irritating.  

Cooling lubricant is not as scientific.  The active ingredient to give it the cold sensation is one we are all familiar with: Menthol.  

This KY "Yours+Mine" combo features both a warming and a cooling lubricant.    When used as suggested (male applies the cooling and the female applies the warming) it creates a lot of different sensations.  

-Price Point-

Shopping in the pharmacy section of your local retailer you can expect to see lube priced from $3-20.00!  That is quite the difference.  Doing some research, I found that silicone based lubricants cost the most.  They are recommended for anal play and male masturbation because they have more endurance.  Silicone based lubes should not be used with silicone based toys, however, as they will remove the finish off of the toy.

Also, the "Yours and Mine" series from KY, albeit water-based, is also a little spendy.  This I have to blame on packaging and advertising.  You get two colorful vials of fun goo that promise to do different things... its worth the extra dollars right?  KY is likely taking advantage of their target audience being someone trying to impress the person they're courting.  

 I wondered... is cheap lube really bad?  How bad could it be?

If you're needing to watch your spending it isn't the worst thing you could use.

For more information to reference about lubricant:

http://www.healthyhorns.utexas.edu/hs_lube.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-warming-lubricant.htm

http://www.buzzillions.com/personal-lubricant-reviews

- The Sexpert