What is the Best Type of Lubrication for Sex?

Adding some lubrication to your sexy times, whether that’s with a special someone or on your lonesome ownsome, can make the experience much more pleasurable. Lubrication reduces friction and irritation as well as reducing the risk of pain and tears to give a boost to mother nature’s own natural lubrication. 

When we get aroused the vagina gets wetter to provide that much needed lubrication naturally. Using additional lube however, is recommended by sex educators who believe that in general ‘wetter is better’.

There are a number of reasons why some women do not get wet enough during sex, ranging from psychological to physical, and these underlying issues should be addressed also. If you are not turned on ‘enough’ the body will not secrete those protective vaginal fluids that combat dryness during sex. This could be due to anything from a lack of foreplay to psychological issues such as stress, anxiety or depression. Some medical conditions and medications themselves can also cause vaginal dryness. The most common cause is due to low estrogen levels, regularly affecting women going through menopause. Another major influencing or causative factor is certain medical treatments such as anti-estrogen medication, chemotherapy, and certain antidepressants. Douching can also cause issues as can the use of common antihistamines used for allergies. Luckily there are several treatment options for vaginal dryness, in the form of lubricants.

Not all lubricants are created equal and finding the right one for you is sometimes down to trial and error. To speed up this process you are best to educate yourself on the different types of lubricants.

Lubricants can be classified broadly as either natural or human-made or classified more specifically in terms of their raw materials, as water based lubricants, oil based lubricants and silicone based lubricants. While oil and silicone based lubricants do have their benefits over water based lube in the way they adhere much better and so need less application, they also have stark disadvantages in their incompatibility with condoms and of course the clean up.

Types of Lubricant

Oil Based Lubricants

• Potentially the most popular, due to their wide availability and ambiguous usage, oil based lubricants provide a natural boost to the body’s vaginal secretion. For women that suffer from recurrent yeast infections it is believed that these oils can sometimes have mild antibacterial effects, which can upset the natural ecosystem of bacteria and fungi, resulting in an excess growth of Candida Albicans resulting in vaginal thrush. Although this is fairly unlikely it is worth considering if you have been getting more thrush whilst using these oil based lubricants. Another important factor to consider is the compatibility of certain oil based lubricants with latex condoms. Oil based lubricants such as coconut oil can not be used with latex condoms as they can break down the latex resulting in a loss of protection

Examples of Oil based lubricants include coconut oil, grapeseed oil, sunflower oil, almond oil or sunflower oil.

Water-based lubricants

• Water based lube is the most versatile, commonly known and therefore the most accessible lubricant on the market. They are safe and reliable options that have one main flaw, the need to continually apply them. They are safe with condoms or with toys and so are very popular options for couples and single women alike. Another major advantage of water based lubrication is that these lubricants leave the body very quickly without the need for extensive, soapy based wash ups.

Examples of water-based lubricants include KY Jelly, Lola Lubricant, Lulu Lube and Shibari lubricant.

Silicone based lubricants

• Silicone based lubricants have the advantage over oil based in that they are compatible with latex condoms and the advantage over water based lubricants in the fact that they stay on much better, and so there is much less need for re-application in the heat of the moment.

Examples of silicone based lubricants include Valm, Sliquid Naturals Silver and Uberlube.