7 Sex Toy Mistakes You're Making

Did you know that using sex toys wrong could lead to infection, a broken sex toy or worse? Sex toys are a fantastic addition to your sex life, but you should take a few moments to get to know your toys and go over some safety basics before using them.

Fortunately, we've got the lowdown on using sex toys, so you can avoid these 7 sex toy mistakes.

1. You're Still Using Jelly Toys

Many of us purchased jelly toys when we first started experimenting because they were plentiful and cheap, but that's not all jelly toys are. They can be unhealthy because they're porous, which means bacteria can remain embedded in the material no matter how thoroughly you scrub them. This porosity can be seen as jelly toys melt together over time.

Silicone offers a nonporous alternative that's safe to swap between orifices or partners, store side-by-side, comes in a variety of colors and can be just as hard as your favorite jelly toy or as hard as glass (nearly). Prices are also surprisingly affordable.

With care, a silicone toy can last for a lifetime.

2. You're Going Ass to Vagina (or Mouth)

While this dubious activity seems common in porn, it's not safe in real life. The anus contains bacteria that can lead to infections if you swap toys without fully disinfecting them. That's why we recommend nonporous materials such as silicone. Glass, stainless steel, ceramic, treated wood and ceramic are also nonporous and can be safely used vaginally as long you disinfect them first.

There are a few ways to disinfect nonporous toys:

• Boil toys without a motor for at least 3 minutes.
• Spray toys with motors with a 10% bleach solution, allow it to sit, then rinse dry.
• Place toys without a motor on the top rack of your dishwasher and run a cycle without soap.

If you don't plan to orifice swap, a soap-and-water wash or using sex toy cleaner should do the trick.

How to Gift Sex Toys Like a Pro

Based on the holly jolly spreading through retailers across the country, the various winter holidays and their inevitable gift-giving quandaries are nigh. Since the whole point of gift giving is to put a smile on the receiver’s face, it makes sense that sex toys might be high up on the list of wants. It also makes sense that the uncertainty in buying a sex toy as a gift might lead some to err on the side of shopping at a big box store instead. This year, though, we've got your back with this fail proof guide to giving sex toys as a gift.

Make Good Decisions

The absolute best way to make sure your sex toy gift goes over well is to make good decisions about who to give them to. While you may jump for joy over a surprise new rabbit vibe, not everyone is going to feel the same. In fact, you may find that  even your hippest friends may be uncomfortable receiving a sex toy as a gift if they aren't having sex with you. Also, if your relationship is closer to acquaintance than friend, it might feel a lot like harassment to receive such a gift.

Make sure you know that the recipient will be ok with receiving a sex toy from you specifically. Now is not the time to antagonize your conservative friend for laughs. Be kind and get consent before you waste your time and money.

Know Their Preferences

Everybody's body is a little different. So, picking the perfect toy often starts with a research project, which is part of the fun. Even if you know what they like in general, you may not know what they want specifically or ideally. Try to find out if a certain toy or category is on their shortlist. Perhaps ask about some components of their dream toy.

Often a passive night of online shopping can be enough to point you in the right direction, but you could also ask outright. If you prefer to keep the mystery, maybe talk about what you like instead.