Melanie, CEO and Founder of Loral’s joined us to give us an insider look at the safer sex products that are revolutionizing the industry. We talk about cunnilingus, STIs, and the need for usable products for every body.

Washing toys may not be the most glamorous thing a person can do, but cleaning sex toys is vital to keeping vibrators and dildos in tip-top condition! Don't worry -- it takes mere minutes to clean a sex toy, and the techniques are about as simple as washing your hands. Nearly all sex toys can be washed with good old antibacterial soap and warm water.

Slick, wet, and wonderful — lubricant is a sexual accessory that should always be kept close at hand. Lube makes all sex acts frictionless and more fun and is absolutely essential for anal sex (the butt is not self-lubricating!). However, due to the variety of lubes available today, choosing one can sometimes be daunting. Remember, finding the perfect lube for you is a personal thing.

If you’ve been to She Bop, you’ve seen the lovely glass sex toys on our shelves and in our cases. They’re always shining and reflecting the light, naturally drawing the eye to them. But glass dildos and butt plugs are more than just beautifully-shaped hunks of glass — they are incredibly stimulating pleasure objects.

The majority of sex toys we carry are made of pure silicone, so it’s no surprise we have a special place in our hearts for it. It’s an extremely versatile material, and because it can be soft, silicone is ideal for anal beads, double-ended dildos, packers, and any time a more yielding material is desired. Gotta love that!

While most of the toys we carry at She Bop are made from silicone and ABS plastic, there are a number of other body-safe materials we have in the shop that pique the interest of our customers. One of those eye-catching materials is stainless steel — an ultra-shiny, non-porous, and beautiful metal that has many benefits. In fact, stainless steel has a bit of a cult following among sex toy connoisseurs, in large part because of these advantages.

Besides having a perplexing name (pronounced “thal-ates”), phthalates are a family of chemicals used to soften hard plastics. In the realm of sex toys, they are often the reason that cheap sex toys are squishy, smelly, and… potentially toxic. Although we may not know it, phthalates are not foreign to us. They are present in a variety of everyday stuff: paints, deodorants, shower curtains, nail polish, vinyl floors, and even food (most likely because they can leach out of food processing machinery and food packaging). However, troubling research on phthalates has cast doubt on whether phthalates are as innocuous as they once seemed.