We consider the product safety as our utmost priority; after all, it will be used in yours and ours precious bodies. Consequently, we don’t use any unnecessary substance in the toys neither any toxic substances all along the manufacturing process.
An example of this is the choice of employing solid plastic moulds instead of flexible silicone ones. Will be easier to work with silicone moulds but, casting a silicone toy over a silicone mould requires the use of a releasing agent (generally toxic, irritant and flammable). The best way to make sure that this product doesn’t remain in the toys is not to use it.
However, there is no regulation (not in France, not in Europe, not Internationally) about sex toys production. And this legislative void leaves us the responsibility of ensuring the quality of our products.
Pigments (0.1 to 2 % of the toy)
We avoid the use of already-prepared colourants for silicone and, instead, we use pigments in powder. The reason for this is to avoid additional substances in the toys as, basically, we cannot know what it is inside the liquid colourants.
We use two types of pigments: those which are edible (commonly used in all kind of food) and those which are not (even though none is considered as toxic). Most of the colours in the toys (flat, metallic, iridescent) are made of edible pigments; only phosphorescent colours are non-edible.
Before adding the pigments to the silicone, the powder is sieved below 0.24 mm to avoid big chunks in the finished toys. And once the silicone is cured the powder became encapsulated. Post-processing the toy removes the remaining pigments in the surface and our tests show that no pigment is loss in further exposition to water or alcohol.
However, phosphorescent toys should not be licked.
Platinum-cure Silicone (98 to 99.9 % of the toy)
Our toys are made of platinum-cure silicone, a material known for its stability and safety. It isn’t toxic or irritant. By repealing water it doesn’t support microbial growth. It resists temperatures above 100 ºC which means that toys can be easily sterilized in boiling water.
The silicone that we use to produce our toys is traded as medical grade, non-toxic, food safe and adhere to FDA CFR 177.2600 requirements (rubber articles intended for repeated use). Meaning that can be used in contact with food. What is the relation between this and the sexual use?
Silicone is traded untagged or tagged as skin-safe or food-safe. Skin-safe means non-irritant to skin contact while food-safe means that can be used to contain food and liquids at high and low temperature. We understand that the last category is generally safer, even when does not necessarily include the former. As our toys are intended for sexual use, we considered more important the usability of the material under a broad range of conditions: contact with water-based and oil-based lubricants, disinfection under boiling water, etc.
But, as other characteristics are also important, we considered performing several tests normally applied to medical devices or toys for children. However, those tests are performed over live animals and their application is (in Europe) restricted to strictly required cases. Sex toys (which intended use is intermittent, over adults and with a contact time with the body below 48 h) doesn’t fall into this category.
There could be a workaround to evaluate the result of some of these tests, but the moral implications of these choices made us reject the idea. As it could be as easy as contact enterprises in countries with lower regulations to perform the tests over animals, or even, over people. Does it worth to perform these tests on live animals or people to proof beyond the necessity the safety of products? We don’t think so.