Lubricant ingredients to know, and which to skip.

Lubricant is the simplest intimate product to choose well — and it’s surprising how many lubricants on the market are formulated poorly. Here’s the short version.

Water-based

Most common, easiest to clean, compatible with everything (latex, polyisoprene, silicone toys). The downside: water-based lubricants dry out and need reapplying. The upside: they’re the safest default for everyone.

Silicone-based

Longer-lasting, slick, water-resistant. The trade-off: incompatible with silicone toys (they’ll degrade the toy’s surface over time) and harder to wash out of fabric.

Oil-based

Coconut oil, almond oil, etc. We don’t recommend them for intimacy because they degrade latex condoms — the condom will tear without warning. If you’re not using condoms, oil-based lubricants are fine; just use a single-ingredient cold-pressed oil, not a perfumed massage oil.

Ingredients to skip

Glycerin: a sugar alcohol. For some people it triggers yeast infections.

Propylene glycol: can irritate sensitive skin.

Parabens: preservatives with mixed research; we err on the side of avoiding them.

Fragrance: usually means a long list of undisclosed compounds. If a lubricant is scented, it’s almost always worse than the unscented version.

The ingredients we look for

Short ingredient lists. Water as the first ingredient (if it’s water-based). Hyaluronic acid for very long-lasting glide. Aloe for sensitive skin. That’s about it. If a lubricant has 18 ingredients, most of them are doing nothing.

We’ve curated three lubricants in our shop. Each one passed all the filters above. We’d genuinely use them ourselves — that’s the only standard we apply.