ID Velvet was my first experience with a silicone-based lubricant and I can honestly say that I was impressed.

The packaging for this product was minimal. The 8.5 oz. bottle that I ordered had no box, but was shrink-wrapped in a thick plastic. The plastic was so thick and tight that I needed scissors to get it off. At least you will know that your bottle is unopened and full.

At first glance, the bottle looks pretty nice. It’s made of thick, black plastic, with “ID Velvet” printed in blue. There aren’t any pictures or references to sex on the bottle that would give it away if you left it out, but it does say “lubricating liquid” on the front, so you might not want to leave it on the counter.

I would have to say that I was not impressed with the function of the bottle. My main issue is with the lid. The lid is a screw top, which means that leaks are unlikely. I like that, but unfortunately, it also means that it is a very difficult to open or close the bottle once you’ve gotten the lube on your hands. I really wish they had used a flip-top for this one. The lube is dispensed through a hole which looks small, but seems huge when you are trying to apply the lube. This product sells itself as “super concentrated,” so I only wanted a few drops. When I tried to squeeze out a little bit, a ton of lube poured out. It’s not too bad if you are careful, but I think the hole should have been a little smaller.

The first thing I did to test this product was test the consistency between my fingers. I applied about two drops and rubbed it between my fingers. I continued this for about 10 minutes and didn’t notice any change. When I put my hand under running water, the lube actually seemed to get even more slippery. I think that this product would be great for tub or shower play. Since the water didn’t really wash away the lube, I tried some soap, which helped a little, but couldn’t get it all off. I tried using a paper towel to wipe it off and found that it came off easily and didn’t leave any sort of residue on my hand

I really like the consistency of ID Velvet. It doesn’t feel oily or sticky at all. In fact, once you apply it, you hardly even notice it is there because you don’t get that wet feeling that comes with water-based lubricants. I wondered at first if I hadn’t used enough, but everything was sliding around no problem. Another good thing about this product was that it was 100% odorless and tasteless. I wouldn’t recommend getting it in your mouth, though, because it felt really strange on my tongue.

I used this product for anal play, masturbation, and PIV sex. It worked wonderfully in all applications. For anal, I often have to reapply my ID Glide multiple times in a single session, but one quarter-sized application of ID Velvet lasted the whole time. ID Velvet was great for masturbation because I didn’t really notice that the lube was there once it had been applied. This allowed me to focus on the task at hand rather than worry about whether I was going to drip lube onto the sheets. My wife and I went from cold to PIV sex and had a great experience. Two drops and I slid right into her, no problem. Again, no re-application was necessary and neither one of us could even tell we had used lube at all.

Cleanup was very easy on our bodies, toys, and blankets. I was always able to wipe away all traces with a paper towel easily. My wife goes straight to the bathroom and uses toilet paper to clean herself after sex. She said that she didn’t notice difference in cleanup between no-lube sex and sex with ID Velvet. This was a great improvement over our usual water-based lube because that tends to get sticky. We also tried the lube on my wife’s jelly rabbit vibrator. Soap got most of the lube off, and a paper towel got the rest. We got some on our blanket but it came out in the wash and did not leave a stain.

This lube is still excellent for most uses, and I'm still using my original bottle. Unfortunately, I've realized that it seems to dry up quickly when using condoms. This is especially true in the shower. I would only recommend this for couples who don't need to worry about using condoms.