I'm a girl with very few standards when it comes to lube. However, these standards, few though they might be, are rather stringent. Any potential lubricant had better yield a "yes" answer to the majority of the following if it wants me to clear a spot in my toy box for it. Can I use it with my toys, including silicone toys? Can I use it safely with condoms? Does it strike that difficult-to-reach balance between useless watery-ness and gummy, pomade-esque goop? Can I use it on a regular basis (read also: I fuck A LOT) without taking out loans to pay for it? Just four hard standards, but I haven't yet found a lubricant that perfectly satisfies them all. However, Fun Factory's Toyfluid comes pretty damn close and I tip my hat to the folks at the ol' factory for that.

I originally tried a sample packet included with a toy purchased from the same company, and was very pleased with the results I had using it alone vaginally. Toyfluid is a water-based lubricant which means that it is compatible with silicone toys (along with glass, steel, jelly, urethane...) and latex condoms. It's water base also means that it will not stain, which is great news if you're a slob like me :P It is a thin lube, and a particularly thin one at that, so if you prefer thicker gel-consistencies then this is not the one for you. While it is paraben-free, Toyfluid does have glycerin in it, which some individuals may have a sensitivity to.

During my initial adventures with this stuff I was more than pleased. With vaginal penetration, I had (and still have) virtually no complaints with this lubricant. The small packet included with my toy lasted me through three sessions of formidable length and intensity and stayed smooth and slick all throughout. The economy of usage possible with this lubricant --which is pretty reasonably priced to begin with-- impressed me deeply. Toyfluid seemed like an excellent bargain and I decided to invest in a larger bottle.

Giddy at the arrival of my brand new big bottle, I quickly moved from vaginal play on to anal with my partner, but was not as pleased. I was able to penetrate my boyfriend with a dildo of medium girth fairly easily using the Toyfluid, but after less than five minutes he began to experience discomfort. It was certainly not for a lack of warming up, and I had made sure to use a toy he was already comfortable with in the event that the lube didn't measure up. I withdrew and applied more lubricant, but had the same problem a few minutes later. As he explained it, the lubricant was too thin to adequately reduce the friction created during thrusting. We finished up with an old standby instead. We tried again a few days later, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, but indeed we ran into the same problem. The very thin liquid does not provide a very sturdy buffer between a toy and one's bum.

We both still enjoy using Toyfluid tremendously for handjobs, and I still love using it for massages and masturbating myself with it. With no real taste or smell, and being easy enough to just wipe off with a towel or a nearby sock (oh come on, you've never done it?) it's a wonderfully unobtrusive substance that really does the job. However neither of us have since tried it for anal because it just doesn't pass the consistency test on that one. Unfortunate, because this one is very nearly perfect!

This is definitely not a bad lube by any stretch of the imagination, but I just think that for the money there are much better lubes. For a company that is typically so on point when it comes to body safety I am still a little disappointed by the glycerin in this. It's also just a little too thin and sticky for my tastes. I tend to use lubes mostly for anal, or for very heavy vaginal penetration, and I didn't find this lube was able to significantly decrease friction with these kinds of play. This is still a lovely way to grease the gears for masturbation, and it doesn't have much of a taste so it's great to use for fellatio in combination with a little manual stimulation. But at the end of the day, for $4 an ounce I want all my bases covered and this just doesn't do that.