Lube's bedroom uses are nearly boundless. Lubrication increases sensation while decreasing friction, allowing users to reap the benefits.
Newer lubes do not taste bitter, so they are not offensive during oral sex. Also, lubricant can make sex with condoms better than imaginable. By reducing chafing, lubricants also protect your parts. In fact, according to the K-Y brand, women can use some lubes as part of their daily hygiene routine.
Third-year College student Ann Sidebottom said she uses lubricants regularly.
"I enjoy the K-Y liquid -- not the jelly," she said. "It gets a little messy sometimes but it's good."
Products such as lotions, soaps and oils tend to irritate delicate female tissues. A stroll to the condom section of the grocery or drugstore reveals the more sterile, PH-balanced and barrier-friendly slipperiness offered by modern science.
Local erotic store Ultimate Bliss has an even wider variety, and those without cars can find personal moisturizers and prophylactics at Student Health or at online stores such as lubery.com.
Alison Beaver, assistant director of health promotion at Student Health, recommends buying products at Student Health because the prices are reasonable and the brown-bag packaging insures discretion.
There are generally four different types of condom-safe lubes: jelly, liquid, creamy and novelty.
Old-school jelly lubes, such as Astrogel and K-Y, have a thick consistency, so they tend not to drip as much as the liquid kind and also work better for anal play.
Liquids, the high-tech little sib of jellies, are comprised of silicone-based moisturizers that more closely resemble natural vaginal fluids. These include Astroglide and K-Y Silk-E.
Lotions, such as Maximus and Hydra-smooth, offer a thicker consistency and tend not to get sticky.
Novelty moisturizers can be entertaining, though some are better than others. Most of these, such as O'My Fruit Lube, are flavored; and some, such as Wet Heating Fun, also have cooling or heating effects, activated by breath or rubbing.
Since most lubricants offer no protection against sexually transmitted infections or pregnancy, lubricants should be used in conjunction with other means of protection.
Water- and silicone-based lubes can be used inside of male or female condoms or behind a strip of plastic wrap for cunnilingus. The American Social Health Association recommends allowing space at the end of the male condom.
Lubricants need to be water- or silicon-based because oil-based lubes, for example baby oil or petroleum jelly, breakdown latex barriers, such as condoms or diaphragms, Beaver said.
"We tell students that lubricants need to be water-based because oil-based lubes, like baby oil and petroleum jelly, break down latex," Beaver said.
However, lubrications are not for everyone. Third-year College student John Benton said he has not used lubricants very often.
"To be honest, I have very limited experience with lubricants," Benton said. "The only type I've ever used is KY, and I don't like the smell"
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