From JuicyLogic Green-Sex Series

The Most Natural Lubricants

What lubricants should you choose for a healthy body and a healthy environment?
Libida looked at all of the lubricants to find the lubes with the most natural ingredients. We recommend the following lubes:

Good Clean Love
Sexy scents come with this natural lube: Cinnamon Vanilla & Lavendar. This 100% vegan lubricant contains 95% organic ingredients.

Sliquid
We like this lube because it is Glycerin and Paraben Free and still very slippery. It contains soothing Aloe, healing Vitamin E and other helpful herbs.

Natural products are good for our health and good for the environment. Nature, after all, is healthy and safe. But the terms we rely on to label cosmetics and lubricants, such as "nautral" and "organic" can be deceiving.

The term "natural" on a lube is essentially meaningless. It should indicate that the ingredients are plant-based and have gone through minimal processing. However, author of Green Guide Magazine states, it is “not an indicator of quality or safety”. The FDA does not regulate Personal Care products leaving manufacturers able to use this term any way they wish without repercussions. Often these products contain petroleum bases, synthetic colors and fagrances and preservatives that have been linked to cancers and infertility.

The term "organic" suffers from the same lack of controls, but in this case the FDA is relying on the manufacturer to hold up safety standards set up by the USDA National Organic Program.

"The National Organic Program (NOP) develops, implements, and administers national production, handling, and labeling standards for organic agricultural products. The NOP also accredits the certifying agents (foreign and domestic) who inspect organic production and handling operations to certify that they meet USDA standards.”

With so much uncertainty, what does the woman shopping for lube need to know?

The first, and most important, step is to --- read labels carefully. Don’t trust a label is healthy or good for the environment just because it uses the words “natural”, "organic" or “herbal”.

Look out for the following substances:

1.Glycols: Especially "propylene glycol", a popular ingredient in many cosmetic products, glycols have been known to interfere with the reproductive system.

2. Formaldehyde: This might seem like a given, but this is bad for the body in so many ways. It interferes with the immune and respiratory systems, among others.

3. Petroleum products: Such as mineral oil are hard on the environment and hard on the body. Mineral oil is a byproduct of highly polluting oil-refining process.

4. Artificial Fragrance: Can mask phthalates (link) and cause irritation.

5. Parabens: Parabens are preservatives, used in many cosmetic products. They come in the form of iso-methyl, ethyl, propyl or butylparabens and are known to interfere with hormone production.

Instead, there are plenty of options. Look for:

1. Fragrances: Choose natural fragrances, or scents with . Choose “Fragrance free” over “Unscented”. Unscented may indicate an artificial scent was added to mask an unpleasant scent. "Fragrance free", on the other hand, means there are no added fragrances at all.

2. Look for gentle products. Most of us don’t need extra-strength anything. All it means is harsher chemicals that are most often unnecessary could be irritating the body and the environment.

3. Glycerin: Choose products with vegetable glycerin over animal glycerin. (If it doesn't say "vegetable" it is probably animal).