Honey lube - lubricant discontinued by Honey Lube LLC - review by Alicia

Honey Lube is a water based lubricant made from natural ingredients and packaged in a cute bear bottle, just like some brands of honey come in. You can use this lubricant for toy play or partner play. It is manufactured by a small company, the only name I can find for them is actually "Honey Lube" though their website does give you the contact information for the owner of the company and says that they are a small business which prides themselves on being very personal both with store owners and customers. Their website, www.usehoneylube.com is very basic, which I think their company is as well. They use awesome ingredients and it's clear that they enjoy doing what they do and take pride in making an awesome product which is healthy for you to use.

Honey Lube is thicker than some of the other water based lubricants that I have, but this one doesn't stay in place as well. It drips pretty readily after it's applied to the skin. This isn't a problem if you like to spread out the lube as soon as it's applied though, which is what I typically do. It's very easy to pour out of the bottle, though the spout on this is larger than my other lubricants' spouts. It has an interesting feel to it. It's not really sticky but it's thick enough that it feels kind of "plump" almost. Which, I know is not very helpful, but it's what comes to mind. It kind of has some give to it and you can feel the thickness of the lubricant against your fingers. This lingers after it's been applied, I don't like the feel of this on my hands after applying as much as I do some others where it kind of dries right away. (Although bothersome on the hands this means it's working well in other places!) You can definitely feel it still on your hands and for me I feel the need to wipe them off. I have avoided wiping them off, since I felt I needed to see for review purposes what would happen. Well, I can say that after a few minutes I forgot all about the lube on my hand. I was able to continue on and didn't feel that the lube was hindering me at all, or that it was getting sticky or bothersome. So, after the initial minute or two you should be fine if you have no access to wiping it off. It doesn't stain though so you can also always use a sheet. It did not feel greasy after use also, and actually after we used it I wiped it off but did not actually shower or anything and it was fine overnight until I showered the next morning.

This has a light botanical scent to it. It's similar to WET Naturals Beautifully Bare, but not quite the same. This lubricant is made with all natural ingredients and that comes through in the smell. This just smells clean and fresh and edible!

I have tasted it, both as a drop straight from the bottle and after it's been applied to the skin and had time to absorb. There is a very light taste, a little sweet but nothing in particular comes to mind. The worst thing about using this orally is that it's a bit too thick and that itself leaves a weird texture/taste in the mouth. It's completely doable though, and considering how bad some other lubricants taste, this is one that I feel comfortable using if I'll be giving/receiving oral sex after using it.

How long this lasts depends on what you're using it for. For using with toys it lasted a good long while; I never had to reapply. Using it for sex was also adequate. When using it for hand jobs on either a man or a woman it doesn't last too long though, and we needed to reapply a few times. There's a lot of friction with hand jobs and when you have fingers that absorb moisture readily coupled with that friction this lubricant just couldn't keep up. That being said, we didn't need to go through a whole lot since a few drops will get things moving nice and smoothly, it was just the need to reapply.

The lube felt nice while using it. It was slightly thicker than natural lubrication would be, so it didn't feel 100% natural. My husband liked me using it on him with my hands, but I think he would have loved it even more if I didn't have to keep stopping to reapply. I don't know how well this would work for anal sex since that is not something that we currently partake in, it worked out well for anal toy play though with smaller toys and it's thicker than some water based lubes, so if you normally find that water based is sufficient for you during anal sex I think that this would work out just fine.

The two of us were split on the need to wash it off factor. I personally did not feel the need, while my husband did. It should be said though, that he feels the need to wash off most everything. He can't stand the feel of most lotions even and feels they're too heavy or greasy. So, it was not a surprise that he felt he needed to wash this off, he just used a baby wipe though, no shower needed even for him. I personally just wiped it off with toilet tissue and did not feel I needed to do any more than that. It didn't leave a sticky residue or dry up and flake or anything. I just felt moisturized.

The packaging is adorable. It's a little honey bear, what could get cuter than that?? The labeling is pretty basic, it honestly looks like something you'd pick up at the local farmer's market. There isn't too much info on it. Just some basic directions which tell you that this is a personal intimacy and sexual pleasure lubricant, the ingredients, company information, and some safety info. The label lets you know that you should not use if the safety seal is broken and that you should contact a doctor if irritation occurs. It also lets you know that you should avoid contact with eyes and that this is not a spermicide or a contraceptive.

What I liked about this lubricant was its ingredients. I did have to google some of them because I was unsure and I don't like to use a lubricant unless I understand what it contains.

Here are the ingredients: Water, Propanediol (natural humectants), Carrageenan, Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate (natural enzyme preservative), Citric Acid, Organic Aloe Concentrate, Organic Agave Inulin, Vitamin E Acetate, Sodium Benzoate.

As you can see it does have a sugar in it. This was a concern to me, so I did some research on how Organic Agave Inulin reacts with yeast. Turns out that while it is very sweet, it does not feed yeast and other unfriendly anaerobic bacteria. The yeast recognizes it as a sugar, yet they cannot draw enough energy from it to reproduce.

On Honey Lube's website they have Carrageenan in bold letters and talk about how it's famous. I personally hadn't ever heard of it so I did some research on this as well. Turns out that studies show that Carrageenan might serve as a topical microbicide. There has been research done to see if it can protect against HSV, HPV and HIV. It's interesting stuff, and I wouldn't count on this protection, but it is pretty cool if you ask me.

I didn't find any negative information about any of the ingredients in here, but I would recommend that everyone do a little research yourself if any of the ingredients seem questionable for you. They should all be generally safe, but it's your own body so you should feel comfortable putting anything on it or in it.