Silicone: Is It Body-Safe? Care & Silicone vs TPE

Silicone is the gold standard for toys — body-safe, non-porous, and easy to keep clean.

✓ Body-safe, non-porous

The essentials

A smooth, flexible polymer (a polysiloxane) that warms to body temperature.
Feels soft and skin-warm, with a light drag that a little lube fixes.
Cleans with mild soap and water or a toy cleaner.
A confident choice for almost anything, especially anything internal or shared.

Body-safe at a glance

Porosity	Non-porous
Phthalates	None
Cleaning	Soap & water; 100% silicone can be boiled
Sterilizable	Yes (100% silicone)
Lube	Water-based (silicone lube can affect it)

Good to know — porosity, safety & the honest detail

Is silicone body-safe?

Yes. Body-safe silicone is non-porous and hypoallergenic-tending — it doesn’t absorb fluids or harbour bacteria the way porous materials can, and it wipes clean easily. It’s the material most recommended for anything used internally.

Is silicone porous?

No — silicone is non-porous, meaning it has no microscopic holes for fluid or bacteria to sit in. That’s why it can be cleaned thoroughly and, if it’s 100% silicone, even boiled.

What about “medical-grade” silicone?

“Medical-grade” has no single enforced legal definition, so treat it as a hint, not a guarantee. What actually matters is that the silicone is non-porous, phthalate-free, and platinum- or peroxide-cured — those are the real markers, and we describe them plainly rather than leaning on the label.

Silicone vs TPE & TPR

	Silicone	TPE & TPR
Porosity	Non-porous	Porous
Sterilizable	Yes (100% silicone)	No
Feel	Firm-soft, warms up	Very soft, lifelike
Sharing	Clean or condom	Condom recommended
Price	Higher	Lower

Read about TPE & TPR →

How to care for Silicone

Rinse and wash before first use.
Clean with warm soapy water or a toy cleaner after every use.
100% silicone (no motor) can be boiled 5–10 minutes or run on a dishwasher top rack to sanitise.
Dry fully and store separately — silicone can attract lint.

For the material nerds ↓

Silicone is a polymer of siloxane (–Si–O–Si–) with organic side groups; the same chemistry gives it thermal stability and inertness. Toy-grade silicone is typically platinum-cure (addition-cure), which leaves no reactive by-products, versus older peroxide-cure. Its non-porosity comes from the crosslinked, hydrophobic network — fluids sit on the surface rather than absorbing. Note that silicone lubricants can, over long exposure, bond to and mar a silicone surface, which is why water-based lube is the safe default.

Shop all body-safe toys →

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Sources & further reading: Silicone — Wikipedia · Polydimethylsiloxane — Wikipedia
General educational information, not medical advice — always read the product label and, if you have a specific allergy, check the product details. Written in-house from open references (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA; PubChem, public domain). How we research →

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