Questions from the Twittersphere: Oil as Lube?
By Dr. Carol Queen • Apr 15th, 2009 • Category: Blog, Carol QueenQuestion:
Oil as a lube, is it safe? with a move to more natural/organic lifestyles, are natural oils an alternative lube?
Certain oils can be used safely as lubes. First let’s look at the disadvantages or issues:
One, they’re not compatible with latex. If you’re having safer sex, you MUST use a poly (not latex) condom or gloves with your oil-based lube.
Second, mineral oils aren’t good for the body, especially internal mucosa – they’re very drying. So if you’re thinking of oil as lube, think vegetable or nut oils, not mineral oils like Vaseline, baby oil, Albolene or other makeup removers.
Third, if you’re allergic or sensitive to the food product associated with the oil (olives, corn, almond, coconut, whatever), don’t use the oil as a lube – you might have a skin/mucosal reaction to it just as you have a reaction upon ingesting it. Ditto consider your partner’s food sensitivities, unless your partner is a dildo. (I mean *literally*! And if your partner IS a dildo, it better not be a latex one.)
Once you’ve considered those caveats, choose an oil you and your partner like the taste and smell of; consider the texture you’d like to go for; realize you won’t be able to get your sheets as clean as with a water-based lube; and check out the experience. I know one post-menopausal woman who swears by the “cush” factor of oil, and feels water-based and silicone lubes are too thin, not giving her the right friction and sense that her vaginal walls are being cushioned. Everybody’s different, though. And I think for some women, in particular, oils will be a bad pick because they don’t leave the vagina as quickly as water-based lubes; women prone to yeast and bacterial infections should proceed with caution in trying out oils in this way.
Tweet! –CQ
Dr. Carol Queen >> Carol Queen is a writer, speaker, educator and activist with a doctorate in sexology. First as an organizer in the lesbian/gay community, where she helped found one of the first gay youth groups in the United States, and later in the emerging international bisexual community, as a sex worker and a practitioner of alternative sexualities, she typically teaches and writes from her own experience and that of her communities even as she references academic thought on these subjects. See her website: www.carolqueen.com.
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thanks for the answer! i personally LOVE the sliquid organics line, and am constantly recommended glycerine free lubes to my lady friends.