Tips for a Safe Hookup

Now more than ever, hookups are on trend. There's no need to spend countless dates getting to know a good-looking stranger if all you want is something physical. Hookups allow both men and women to get theirs, and there's certainly nothing wrong with them.

However, a hookup isn't without risk, especially with apps and sites that match you up with strangers about whom you might not have a lot of information. Follow our advice for a hookup that's both safe and sexy.

Don't Forget About Safer Sex During Your Hookups

To start, you want to have safer sex. This means protecting against pregnancy and STI transmission. Even if you're on a type of birth control (the pill, patch or shot, for example), using condoms is important to protect against sexually transmitted infections. We don't mean to imply that your hookup partner is hiding anything from you, but some STIs can fly under the radar. Even if you're a woman, bring your own condoms just to be covered.

With that in mind, condoms don't protect against every type of infection. HPV, for example, is one STI that can be passed on via skin-to-skin contact, so condoms won't be effective. It's always smart to disclose your STI status before hooking up with someone, but this may not be possible or practical with a one-night stand, so safety is a must!

Some people like to go the extra mile by bringing along dental dams, which you can use when performing oral sex on a partner to reduce the risk of STI transmission. Non-latex gloves are great during manual stimulation, especially of the anus.

The last thing you should add to your safer sex kit is lubrication. It makes things slippery and smooth. It can also prevent micro-abrasions from the friction of sex, which sounds pretty safe to us! If you show up prepared for sex, your partner will definitely be impressed.

Cirilla's Awarded Best Adult Toy Store

A big thank you to our customers in Louisville and Indianapolis for voting us the "Best Adult Store". We are honored to have won the Leo Readers' Choice award for "Best Adult/Erotic Store" 13 years in a row.  Our Indianapolis customers also named us Nuvo's "Best Adult Toy Store" for the 3rd year in a row. Thank you to everyone who voted!

Best Adult/Erotic Store

Cirilla’s

For LEO’s last Valentine’s Day issue, I drove to every adult/erotic store in the city to ask: “How kinky is Louisville?” I didn’t know what to expect, but the people working at Cirilla’s couldn’t have been nicer. They know their trade, they don’t judge and they just want to help you find your kink. But seriously, don’t ask them to come home and try out your new toy with them … not cool. — Ethan Smith

See the full article here

Best Adult Toy Store 

Cirilla’s

Dildos! Get yer dildos here! Dongs! Dildos, vibrators and butt plugs! Lace panties and fireman outfits! Come one, er, come all! This longtime favorite supplies everything you need to get freaky. Need a recommendation? They’ve got a friendly, knowledgeable staff! Don’t quite know what you want? Get a surprise grab bag for a man, a woman or a couple, filled with an assortment of toys to rev your engine solo or together. They also have a wide selection of costumes, lingerie, fetish toys, DVDs and other goodies. The point is, get down there and get off creatively!

See the full article here

Silicone Lube vs. Silicone Toys

The wide world of personal lubricants is confusing at best. Thankfully, most of the questions and confusions can be solved with a simple Google search. Still, not all are.

For example, the question of if one can use silicone lubes with silicone sex toys takes more than a leisurely stroll, mainly because the answers are many, incomplete, and very conflicting. From the research I’ve done – you’re welcome – the answer is far simpler than it appears.

In short, you can absolutely use silicone lubes with silicone sex toys, but you have to be cautious about the ingredients. If you are unsure, it is always best to stick with a water-based lubricant.

The problem with silicone on silicone love 

Those familiar with the experience of opening a drawer to find two toys hopelessly and spontaneously melted together know just how frustrating chemical reactions can be. Luckily, in the case of silicone vs. silicone, the problem isn’t so much that the silicone itself is the falling apart. Instead, the problem is actually the extra ingredients some manufacturers add to their toys for price savings. Well, that or the way they turn the liquid silicone into the firm elastic stuff you’re familiar with, otherwise known as curing.

Silicone – officially known as silicone rubber despite it being rubber-free – is a sticky liquid mixture of silicon, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. In its pure state, it’s highly stable and is one of the safest materials we can use with our bodies. It’s also very expensive and capitalism makes some manufactures add a little more to that simple mixture to make it stretch a little further – a dildo puttanesca, if you will.

While every poor community since the dawn of currency can appreciate a little cost savings, sometimes the additives can make the mixture less stable chemically and/or simply more reactive to chemicals and solvents… like oils, other sex toys and, sadly, silicone lubes. The lubes themselves can have a similar problem. Usually, though, it simply changes the firmness or elasticity.
If you’re using a pure toy with a diluted lube or vice versa, everything should be fine. If they’re both diluted, then you can have a problem. That problem being a molecular breakdown, which could cause your lube to fuse to the toy or un-cure the silicone of the toy mixture back to its natural state. Either of those is something you’re best served by avoiding. Here’s how…