Learn About Personal Lubricant

What Are Personal Lubes

How To Use Personal Lubes:

Many people underestimate the power of personal lubes so here is a short Lubricant 101.   Indeed, many people simply forget to use lubricant. If intercourse is painful or uncomfortable, or if you’ve attempted masturbating only to realize that you were rubbing yourself raw, or that it wasn’t enjoyable in the end, then you might need lubricant. Lubricant is a fantastic tool for masturbation, it keeps the shaft slick and eases friction against body parts, it can be essential for penetrative sex, and it is often necessary for exploratory fingers, or masturbation which involves, you guessed it, friction. Young, old, middle aged, heterosexual, male or female biology and you can guarantee that at some stage you’ll need lubricant.

Lubricant 101

Lube is the shortened version of lubricant. We often refer to it as sex lubricant, personal lubricant or even in some cases as a personal moisturizer. It’s for the most part divided into three categories as Water-based, oil-based, and silicone-based and it is by no means meant for fixing cars or bikes or to be used in a mechanical workshop. What it is used for is easing the friction between bodies by making sexual contact slipperier, comfortable and in most cases even safer.

Lubricant, by its definition, has a purpose to reduce friction. Friction can result in irritable effects during sexual contact such as chafing, pain, discomfort and the aim of lubricant is to simply make all that better. For the most part anyway. Lubricant is not going to make a dud sexual partner turn into a raging porn star – lubricant is not the be all and end all to an amazing and successful sexual encounter – but it is certainly to be considered an aspect of the overall enjoyment and an aspect that should always be considered. Many people get it stuck into their head that if they need lubricant, then their partner is not enjoying the sexual experience, or that there is something wrong with themselves, or that everything is working perfectly right now why would they need to add something to it. These thoughts are incorrect. We add things to make them better, we add sauce to our meal not because without the sauce the meal is atrocious, but we add sauce in order to make the overall enjoyment of the meal, better. This is an attitude that we should apply to sex, our body, and it is an attitude that we often don’t apply. Lubricant is something for everyone that is engaging in sexual activity, it’s not limited to a specific form of sex, or an individual with a specific set of genitals – it’s for everyone. Studies repeatedly show that people enjoy sexual activity more when there’s lubricant involved, even when they didn’t have to use it for medical or life cycle reasons.

How Old Is Lubricant?

The short answer is that no-one really knows. What we do know is that the Greeks would use olive oil for sexual lubrication as far back as around 400BC. Since that time there has been many inventions, products, concoctions which have been touted as providing assistance to sexual lubrication – the likes of many of these ancient formulations have been lost due to an inability to keep records. Petroleum jelly was created in the 1800’s and Vaseline was released in the 1870’s. Despite being created for different things, many people quickly realized the variety of uses that these products could have, and indeed some people today still use these products as masturbation lubricant or sexual lubricant. It wasn’t until the early 1900’s when Johnson and Johnson released the now well-known K-Y jelly that lubricant was tentatively touted as assisting with medical procedures and from there it took another 80 or so years before a product was officially released as a sexual lubricant. If you have ever used K-Y jelly, you can still see and feel why it was used as a medical lubricant – it’s designed to provide a lot of slickness but only for a short period of time before it would dry up.

Why Do People Use Lube?

1. Vaginal Sex:-

To provide more lubrication for penetrative vaginal sex such as manual sex or intercourse.

Inserting anything into the vagina requires lubrication. Whether that be a penis, or some other object lubrication in the vaginal region is essential. The vagina does lubricate itself, but for a variety of reasons the vagina may or may not produce enough lubricant or lubricate enough every time. There’s a variety of reasons for this and the simplest solution is to utilize lubricant.

2. Anal sex:-

The anus and rectum does not produce any natural lubrication unlike the vagina, and especially because the skin in the anal cavity and surrounding the entrance to the anus is exceptionally thin and delicate and it is essential to use lubricant. The use of lubricant for anal sex will ensure safe and healthy anal play that will not cause any injuries. By not using lubricant one can cause small little tears in the skin (anal fissures) and anal fissures sting and cause severe discomfort and dramatically increase the likelihood and risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted infection. Even without acquiring an STI, the little tears can make the area more susceptible to a general bacterial infection which is certainly going to ruin your day. Lubricant is essential for any penetrative anal play, where penetrative can refer to fingers, vibrators and dildos as well as a penis.

3. Flavors:-

Not everyone likes giving oral sex. When thinking of flavored lubricant i am often reminded of the sweet innocent story of a 7 year old asking if the vagina had taste buds because he couldn’t see any other reason as to why flavored lubricant would exist. It exists for fun, to make oral sex fun and exciting, and to make it taste good. It can be used pretty much anywhere on and in the body and it comes in a myriad of different flavors ranging from strawberry, banana, chocolate, vanilla and cherry to flavors such as salted caramel, tropical passions and everything in between. It’s especially useful to use on condoms and dental dams as a flavored lubricant can mask the taste and scent of the latex which not everyone will enjoy. Superslyde does not have an aftertaste like other water based lubricants and as such can still be used as an oral sex lubricant.

4. Masturbation:-

Lubricant can be used for solo stimulation as well. It’s useful to use for masturbation because it eases the friction and thus makes the experience more fun. For men, especially uncut men, lubricant can make stimulating the head to be far more pleasurable and allows women to stimulate the clitoris without the fear of chafing or irritating the skin. The sensation can be altered by using warming and cooling lubricants and it provides a very different sensation than simply going in dry.

Doesn’t The Body Make Its Own Lube?

The body does make its own lubricant in a fashion – however it depends on which body part as to how much natural lubricant is produced and the feasibility and usefulness of the production of that lubricant.

The Vagina:-

The vagina does make its own personal lubricant. These are the responsibility of the Barth Olin’s glands which are located below the vaginal opening and to the side of.  There are further glands, located near the urethra called the Skeen’s glands which also produce lubricant for the vagina. How much lubricant is produced is variable and whilst some people produce a lot of lubricant others will not. This varies from person to person, day to day and will also change over time through a females reproductive and life cycles. Menopause does affect this, and it’s important to use lubricant post-menopausal. Superslyde lubricant is a fantastic post-menopausal lubricant as it does not affect the balance of bacteria within the vaginal region, and thus will not affect hormonal imbalances.

The penis – Many people are surprised to learn that the penis makes its own lubrication as well. Many people are aware of pre-ejaculatory fluid which the penis produces at the beginning of arousal or during an erection and many people also attribute this to the level of a male’s arousal. This is incorrect, fluid is in some ways affected by arousal and enjoyment, but it is not a definitive and deciding factor to the level of arousal of a male. For males that are uncut, the body will release natural fluids and oils to keep the head glans lubricated and this will occur with or without arousal or stimulation. Lastly, there is lubricating fluid within the ejaculate which contains semen. For the most part, the production of these fluids does not necessarily mean that there is enough fluid to engage in non-lubricated sexual activity and it is still recommended that additional lubrication be provided to enjoy that the activity whether that be partnered stimulation, or solo, is enjoyable and comfortable.

The Anus:-

The anus does not make its own lubrication. Since the skin inside and around the anus is so delicate it is extremely important that lubricant be provided to ensure that the delicate skin remains intact and is not subjected to anal fissure, or tearing. Indeed, without lubricant it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to enjoy anal sex and anal play.

The Mouth:-

The mouth produces saliva which can be used as a lubricant for oral sex. However, there are times when the mouth will simply not produce enough lubricant to make the experience enjoyable for both, nor will it ever be as slippery as it is with lubricant. Using barriers such as condoms or dams can drastically alter the amount of lubricant received and thus it is also important to ensure that there is lubrication between the genital and the barrier to ensure a smooth comfort for all.

Why Do Some Vaginas Produce Less Lubricant Than Others?

Vaginal lubrication, or wetness as it is commonly called, varies greatly between individual people. This can be as a result of their age, or even as a result of the time of month, vaginal lubrication will vary dependent on where a woman is in her menstrual cycle. Other factors which affect vaginal lubrication include:

– Stress levels

– Sexual desire – whether that be increased arousal or lack of

– Pregnancy and birth control methods.

– Not consuming enough fluids

– Diets and medications.

As can be seen, arousal is just one aspect of vaginal wetness and just because one isn’t producing enough vaginal lubrication is not necessarily indicative of the fact of their enjoyment or willingness to partake in a sexual activity. Indeed, there could be a different factor primarily contributing to the situation which is worsened when a comment is made, or when she feels that she isn’t ‘wet’ enough.

Pros And Cons Of Different Lubricants:-

Many people do not like to use a silicone lubricant because they’ve been told that it will stain the sheets, or that it’s difficult to clean up afterwards. Yes, silicone lubricant does take a little more care to remove from the body post-sexual activity but the rewards and gains that it provides are far more beneficial to the body. As for the sheets, if you mistakenly get some on the sheets (which can be avoided through a deliverance system such as the no drip system of Superslyde, or through not over using it) then you can simply put a small amount of dish washing detergent from your kitchen onto the stain before putting it in the wash which will lift it from the sheets.

At the end of the day, silicone lubricants will feel slicker and slippery than water based lubricants because the lubricant is not absorbed by the skin like water based and oil based lubricants. As such people can enjoy silicone lubricant for a far longer time than they can with their water and oil based counterparts. Another thing we hear often is that silicone lubricant is expensive. To begin with, yes in part it is, but even a small bottle will outlast a water based lubricant several times its size, so that in the long run silicone lubricant can be far more cost effective than other forms of lubricants.