If it can be boiled...

Yesterday I went to a locally owned sex product store that I hadn't been to before. I was surprised by the number of glass products they had and by the FOUR "silicone" products. That's the first store I've seen around here that had any silicone or glass...but...

The store has 2 Tantus products (the small & medium silk), and the other two products are these:

CalExotics Ultimate Satisfier link (notice the packaging says "pure silicone") and Grrl Toyz Bubble Gum link

I know that the Tantus products truly are silicone, but I wonder about the other two. The clerk at the store was very friendly and gave me a 25% off any one item coupon, so I got the Grrl Toyz Bubble Gum - thinking it was a steal for being silicone. When I got the package home and started looking at it, I noticed it says "Made of soft, supple, ultra-hygienic silicone".

Seeing that I got a deal on it, I went ahead and threw it in a pot of boiling water. It boiled just fine.

We've had lots of discussions about the fact that manufactures can say something is "silicone" even if it is not 100% silicone. My question is: if I boil it and it doesn't fall apart, is it still sterilized even if it's not 100% silicone? less

I'm honestly not for sure on any of these products. What I usually do if I'm uncertain and want an answer is to email the company about the product. I've had quite a bit of success doing this.

Here is my personal experience though. If you can see through a toy claiming to be "silicone," it's generally TPR silicone. I personally have never seen a 100% silicone toy that you could see through. I'm not saying they don't exist, just that I haven't seen one. Also, TPR silicone will usually have a bit of a smell to it, though not much, as well as being kind of squishy like jelly. Some of my TPR silicone toys also have a few air bubbles in them too.

My experience with 100% silicone is that you can't see through it, it has no smell or taste at all fresh from the packaging and either has an almost shiny surface or a satiny or velvety surface. You can't really go by their flexibility though because my Ella is quite flexible while my ophoria dildo is quite stiff. They don't really squish when you squeeze them though.

As far as if you boil it, is it sterilized.....I'm not sure. If it's not 100% silicone, it's possibly porous meaning that even though you've boiled it, there could still be stuff hiding inside of the material that will later allow bacteria to grow anyway. Just think of an egg, if you boil an egg, the outside usually doesn't look bad but the egg inside will spoil at some point.

I hope this is all making sense because I haven't had my coffee yet! Anyway, I'm not saying this information is correct, just saying this is my personal experience and I'm always willing to be proven wrong! Just remember, when in doubt, email the companies! It's your right to know what your toy is made of. I never hesitate to ask and if a company refuses to tell me or pushes me to the side, I will gladly add that into my review to let others know. Please let us know if you find anything out too! =) less

I'm of the opinion that if you boil ANYTHING, it is sterilized. I think the reason you can't boil Jelly and TPR silicone is because these things will actually degrade/MELT if you boil them. Boiling kills bacteria, no matter what it is that you are boiling. It destroys proteins within the bacteria, so they all die. There could be a little colony of bacteria hiding in the middle of the most porous toy ever, but if you boil it for long enough, they will ALL die. Said most porous toy ever may also melt in the process, but there will be no bacteria on it.

As for the egg example... I think egg shells are porous, and therefore let bacteria into the "eatable" bits AFTER it is taken out of boiling water. It's like anything else that you cook. Let's say you make some meatloaf. In the process of cooking the meatloaf, the heat will kill all of the bacteria in the meat. However, if you then let it cool down and sit on the countertop overnight without covering it or storing it somehow... chances are, it will spoil or get moldy. This is because NEW hungry bacteria and molds have found a food source.

Boiling kills most bacteria. The only bacteria who survive boiling temperatures are those that live in volcanic vents and get their energy from heat. I'm not going to worry about those setting up camp on my dildo.

But umm... getting back on topic-- Just ask the company, like Machina said. That's the fastest way of finding out without performing experiments on the toy. less

Yes, boiling it will initially kill the bacteria. I never said that it wouldn't. That is short term. However, it is not going to remove what's inside of the toy permanently. It's still there even if you boil it as with any porous material though, yes, it's dead. The egg was only an example to visualize what I was talking about. I'm sorry that you took it literally. I was just pointing out that the matter inside of the pores in the material would remain and possible allow bacteria to regrow or mold even since moisture may get stuck inside too. If it is a porous material, it probably shouldn't be boiled anyway because it could break down the material.

On the other hand, if it's non porous, nothing would be inside of the toy and you wouldn't have to worry about that. I also never said I was the authority on what these toys are made of in case you missed that. less

I have this PVC "true to life" dildo. A day after opening the package I noticed black spots appearing and even though I have no symptoms, I'm convinced it may be black mold. I asked several friends and my boyfriend what I could do to get rid of what my toy cleaner couldn't reach because it's all subsurface now. Just a few dots. Is it safe to boil? I don't want it melting on me, that thing was expensive. less