NOTE in OCTOBER 2023: This LELO Toy Cleaner review is from 2011. It looks like LELO has changed the formulation since then, so any bottle you pick up today may not behave the same as this old formula.
The LELO Toy Cleaner is a bottle of antibacterial cleaning spray. The bottle is a 2-fluid-ounce size, and it includes a spray spout at the top of the bottle. My bottle doesn’t expire until April of 2014, so it looks like the lifespan of one of these bottles is about two years. The bottle is a plastic bottle, and it is white on the outside with a basic, discreet design.
READ: Do I Need a Sex Toy Cleaner?
The packaging looks simple and classy which is just what you’d expect from LELO. The box that the bottle comes in is completely white and only displays a picture of the bottle along with words. The cardboard box is extremely easy to open, and once you take the bottle out, there’s really no reason to continue to keep the packaging. The box doesn’t say “sex toy cleaner!” on it anywhere, and the most it says is “fits your toy cleaning needs”, so it doesn’t seem to be obviously made for sex purposes.
The bottle is discreet enough to be left out on a bedside table. The only thing that it really says, in large letters, is LELO, so you don’t have to worry about people knowing that you have sex toy cleaner on your bedside.
As the bottle is also plastic (I know, it looks like glass, but it’s actually plastic!), you don’t have to worry about something shattering if it accidentally gets knocked off of the bed. We’ve shaken this bottle and moved it around a bit without spills or leaks; it seems to be closed pretty tightly.
So how does this cleaner work? Basically, the instructions say that you are supposed to spray the surface of the toy lightly, let it sit for five seconds, and then wipe it down with a washcloth or other lint-free towel. It says that it doesn’t need to be rinsed off afterwards. It’s safe for use on all types of material including rubber, glass, metal, and silicone. You’re supposed to avoid getting it near your eyes, and you also are not supposed to swallow the chemical either.
When we cleaned our toys, it didn’t leave any scent at all on them. I love that. If you get too much cleaner on it, it will be a bit sticky, but as long as you do a gentle mist, you’ll have no problem with the residue. It doesn’t leave any visible residue on the toy, and it doesn’t smell chemical-ly or medical-ly after adding it to your toy. The scent-free part is my favorite as a bad, medicinal-like scent can really turn me off of a cleaner!
Since I don’t have a lab to grow cultures, I really can’t “judge” how clean this cleaner actually makes my toys, but I can say that it leaves them feeling really nice. The toy’s surface will get slightly sticky if you put too much of the cleaner on (a light mist is all that’s needed!), but rinsing it with water will get rid of the sticky sensation. As long as you only apply a light mist, though, the toy will not feel any different than usual.
Again, as I can’t really “test” to make sure the item is really cleaning properly, I usually only use the LELO Toy Cleaner to clean toys that haven’t been used too thoroughly or to lightly mist a toy before using it to remove the fuzz and hair. I’d love to see someone with more of a science background actually run a test on the LELO Toy Cleaner and see how much of the bacteria it actually removes.
The neat thing about this cleaner is how easy it is, though. When you want to clean up a toy before use or just want to give it a quick clean-up, you can just spray the toy with the cleaner and let it dry then wipe it off. For us, if we have toys that have sat by the bedside and are cleaned (but need to be cleaned again before use), this is my perfect way to go about it as it doesn’t even require getting out of bed which is a definite plus.
The ingredients for this cleaner are: Aqua, Propylene Glycol, Phenoxygethanol, Decyl Glucoside, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate, PEG-12 Dimethicone, Sucralose, Sorbitol, Zinc Gluconate, Zinc Acetate, Zinc Lactate, ChlorhexidineGluconate, Citric Acid, Disodium EDTA, Benzalkonium Chloride. I personally don’t know what is in these chemicals, but if you recognize something that may be irritating to your skin, please don’t use the product. The box does state that it is alcohol-free and pH balanced.
Overall, I like the LELO Toy Cleaner, but I honestly always doubt products that are spray-on only cleaners. For that reason, I usually just use it as a before-use cleaner or for sex toys that only touched the skin but didn’t get too dirty. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for cleaning when the toy is covered with fluids just because it’d require using a washcloth or other item to clean it anyway. For smaller cleaning jobs, though, or just a touch-up, it’s exactly what I can use (to use it without even having to get out of bed!) Thanks to Paris Intimates for sending me this sex toy cleaner for my LELO Toy Cleaner review.
See a video overview of the LELO Sex Toy Cleaner as well as watch it clean the LELO Soraya and the LELO Siri:
