At 19 I thought I'd never need lube. I also thought I'd never have anal sex. Boy was I wrong on both counts!

Luckily, by the time I was ready to have anal sex (and had realized that my body wasn't the same as it had been at 19), I was on a first name basis with the lovely ladies down at my local sexuality resource center. I came in with some questions and left with my first (but not last) anal toy and big bottle of Maximus (that I paid more for than I would have if I'd known about EF).

I went home and though I wasn't quite ready to make the big anal sex leap just yet, I was a little hot and bothered from hanging out in a toy store and talking about anal sex for almost an hour. I decided to break in the Maximus with a little self-love. I was amazed that day and, even 18 months later and way more knowledgeable about lube, I remain amazed today.

I have always heard that you should use more lube than you think you need and I'm just not sure that is true with Maximus. Maximus comes with pump action (which makes it super travel friendly) and a half pump usually does it for masturbation (his or mine), a full pump is usually enough for penile/vaginal intercourse, two pumps works well for anal, and three pumps was the magic number for fisting.

This lube is water based so if you feel like it might be drying out a bit, spray some water on it and it will be as good as new. Additionally, that it is water based means you never have to try to remember which toy you can use with which lube. Water based lube is safe for even latex toys. Hooray for fumbling in the middle of the night for lube and a toy with no worries! We all do that, right guys? No...

Moving on! Maximus is sold on EF in an 8.25 oz bottle. Mine (again, bought off site) is only slightly more but after 18 months I still have about 1/4 of the bottle left. I don't use it every day, but at least a few times a month I'm reaching for it. Like I mentioned, this stuff stretches and goes forever!

The last thing that I'll say before I get to all the dry research stuff is that this lube doesn't dry tacky. To test this, I slathered a silicone dildo (the Raquel) in Maximus and then left it standing up for a day. When it was completely dry (about 14 hours later), there was some dry white residue. Not sticky, not tacky, and it was completely gone.

The packaging is informative, mine has the company's contact info, a best-by date (more than 5 years from when I bought it), and all the ingredients listed. I found it to be easy for my sensitive skin to deal with, there were no ingredients that my skin reacted to. Maximus is also safe, here is the list of ingredients and information about the safety of some of the ingredients that I could find on Wikipedia:

Propylene glycol:
Acute oral toxicity of propylene glycol is very low.
Prolonged contact with propylene glycol is essentially non-irritating to the skin.
Shows no evidence of being a carcinogen or of being genotoxic.

Disodium EDTA:
Oral exposures have been noted to cause reproductive and developmental effects in laboratory animals but dermal exposure to EDTA ... would produce exposure levels below those seen to be toxic in oral dosing studies.

Methylparaben:
Is produced naturally. There is no evidence that methylparaben or propylparabens are harmful at concentrations typically used in body care or cosmetics.

Butyl Paraben:
A study on humans has found that reduced sperm counts and functional abnormalities in sperm are associated with elevated levels of butylparaben.
Butylparaben has been found in small concentrations in human breast fat and breast tumors. A study...has suggested that the underarm application of paraben-containing deodorants may attribute to breast cancer.

I think as long as you aren't drinking the stuff or applying it liberally to your underarms, you should be pretty safe but I did want to give full disclosure.