This product has very little smell and taste. When you first use it, the scent of leather is faint, and fades over a little time. The ball has a slight silicone tasting, but not much, and doesn't really have much other than a slight silicone smell at first. This ball gag is easy to care for and comes with a little card detailing how to maintain the quality of the leather. The ball is made out of 100% silicone so it can be completely sterilized, which is especially important if being shared. You can sterilize it by letting the ball sit in boiling water for a few minutes, or by using a 10% bleach solution. If you just want to do a quick cleaning, use hot water and some antibacterial soap or a toy wipe. If using a wipe, make sure it is safe to use on silicone products.
Do NOT submerge the leather in water! To clean the leather, take a damp cloth and wipe the leather. Oddly, they do not recommend hand drying (which I am guilty of doing as I am not in a situation where I can leave it out to dry. Aslan Leather also suggests using leather conditioner when needed to keep the leather from drying out and in top shape.
With the metal hardware, the instructions suggests putting a thin coat of clear nail polish to avoid the metal rusting. I did this when I got it to make sure it doesn't rust in the future.
As for storage, be sure to not store this with another silicone toy! 1 silicone + 1 silicone = 2 ruined silicone. I'm not sure about the science of it all, but silicone stored together is bad. I store mine in the original plastic zip lock baggie it came in, however a little pouch works too. Just make sure if you do get a pouch, that it isn't lined with fuzz. While this is nice for some toys, for this, the silicone picks up small bits of the fuzz, like a light fuzzy film. It doesn't attract lint or hair except for small specks/dusting.
@ginainohio and @Pebble thank you both!
@comatose-kitty no problem! I hope they helped!