Our Verdict

When comparing water-based lubricant to silicon-based lubricant, we picked the silicon-based.

Why?

First, some real talk about vaginas, because this is something not everyone knows, so let’s briefly cover this before moving onto the differences:

Yes, vaginas are self-lubricating, but a) not always and b) not always sufficiently, especially as we get older. Much like with penile hardness (or lack thereof), there’s a lot of stigma associated with vaginal dryness, and there really needn’t be, because the simple reality is that we don’t live in the fictitious world of porn, and here in the real world, anatomy and physiology can be quite arbitrary at times.

It is this writer’s firm opinion that everyone (or: everyone who is sexual, anyway) should have good quality lube at home—regardless of one’s gender, relationship status, or anything else.

Ok, with that in mind, onwards:

The water-based lube has nine ingredients: water, glycerin, cytopentasioxane, propylene glycol, xantham gum, phenoxyethanol, dimethiconol, triethanolamine, and ethylhexylglycerine.

All of these ingredients are considered body-safe in the doses present, and/but most of them will be absorbed into the skin, especially via the relatively permeable membrane that is the inside of the vagina (or anus—while the microbiome is very different, tissue-wise these are very similar).

While this is not meaningfully toxic, there’s a delicate balance going on in there, and this can upset that balance a little.

Also, because the lube is absorbed into the skin, you’ll then need more, which means either a moment’s inconvenience to add more, or else the risk of chafing, which isn’t fun.

The silicon lube has four ingredients: dimethicone, dimethiconol, cyclomethicone, and tocopheryl acetate.

Note: “tocopheryl acetate” is vitamin E

…which reminds us: just because something is hard to spell, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad for us.

What are the other three ingredients, though? They are all silicon compounds, all inert, and all with molecules too big to be absorbed into our skin. Basically they all slide right off, which is entirely the point of lube, after all.

It not being absorbed into our skin is good for our health; it’s also convenient as it means a tiny bit of lube goes a long way.

Any downsides to silicon-based lube?

There are two, and neither are health-related:

• It can damage silicon toys if not cleaned quickly and thoroughly, the silicon of the lube may bond with the silicon of the toy after a while.
• Because it doesn’t just disappear like water-based lube, you might want to put a towel down if you don’t want your bed to be slippy afterwards! The towel can then be put in the laundry as normal.

Want to try it out? Here it is on Amazon