You'll see "body-safe" on a lot of sex toy listings, ours included. Here's the thing most shops won't tell you: no law defines it. Anyone can print it on a box. So here's exactly what we mean when we use it, and how we decide.

What we mean by body-safe

When we label a toy body-safe, it's made only of non-porous materials. Non-porous surfaces have no tiny gaps for bacteria or lube residue to settle into, so a good wash gets them truly clean. These materials also don't rely on the softening chemicals that some squishy plastics use.

The materials we count as body-safe:

• Silicone (100% or platinum-cured): soft, warm and the most common body-safe choice
• Glass (borosilicate): smooth, firm and great for temperature play
• Stainless steel and other metals: weighty and easy to clean
• ABS and other hard plastics (polycarbonate, acrylic): firm and non-porous, common for handles and vibrator bodies
• Ceramic

What about TPE, TPR, PVC and "jelly"?

These are porous materials. They feel soft and realistic, they're often less expensive, and lots of people love them. They just can't be fully sanitized, because cleaning never quite reaches inside the material. Rubber and latex fall in the same group.

"Jelly" toys are usually soft PVC. A 2006 survey for the Danish Environmental Protection Agency found that jelly toys used phthalates (plasticizers that make PVC soft) at up to 70% of the material. Some phthalates are suspected hormone disruptors, though how much reaches you from occasional toy use hasn't been settled. Many TPE and TPR toys are phthalate-free, but they are still porous.

Porous doesn't mean bad. It means a little extra care: use a condom with it, especially when sharing, and clean it after every use. Our guide, How to Care for Porous Toys, covers the details.

How we label products

• We check the materials a toy is made of. If they're all non-porous, it gets our Body-safe material label, even if the manufacturer didn't say so.
• If any part a toy is made of is porous, we don't call it body-safe, even when the box does. Those products link to our porous-care guide instead.
• Lubes, cleaners and accessories aren't labeled this way, because the label is about what a toy is made of.

Shop body-safe

Every toy with a body-safe material is in one place: shop all body-safe toys.

Questions about a specific product? Ask us, and we're happy to dig into the materials with you.