I love reviewing sex toys, but sometimes I forget how bad I am at it until I sit in front of my laptop and I’m expected to fill the screen with my thoughts. Sometimes it’s easy and I can talk about cissexist marketing or how I tested them by squatting over my bed and peeing on my feet, and sometimes I’m left with nothing to say but FUCK THIS IS AWESOME AND YOU SHOULD PUT IT ON YOUR JUNK. In case you can’t tell, this is how I feel about the organic, oil-based Aloe x Shea lube that The Butters Hygienics sent me to review.
Thank you so much to The Butters Hygienics for sending me a pot of their Aloe x Shea lube for free in exchange for my honest review. This in no way influences my opinions, which are very much my own. This review discusses my vaginismus, and contains affiliate links.
Initial thoughts
The Butters Hygienics is a 100% Black queer owned company, and I’ve heard amazing things about them from all of my sex positive friends. I was so excited to get my hands on some of their lube to try out myself. Their products are vegan and they sell face stuff, body stuff, hair stuff, bath stuff and sex stuff – all of which are handmade by Founder/CEO/CFO/COO Jerome Nichols. I tell you this to explain why for once I actually believe a company who say that they’re 100% bullshit free.
The Butters Hygienics Aloe x Shea lube that I was sent to review is an all-natural, oil-based lube. Its label tells me what it is compatible with (silicone, metal, glass, PVC, etc.) and what condoms they recommend you use with it. Oil-based lubes like this one are NOT compatible with latex condoms, so I’m glad that’s something they mention on the packaging. The label also describes how the lube will look when it goes off, and assures you that it’s “great for all orifices and love styles, including solo play”. Solo play.
How often do you get sex toys that emphasis the importance of solo sex as well as how toys can be used during partnered fucking adventures? (If you do know of more, send me your recommendations – seriously.)
Looking closer
Even better, the the Butter Hygienics marketing is very gender-neutral as well! As a gender-queerdo who loves rumbly vibrations on hir clit but does not get off on the excessive gendering of sex toys, a lube that neither unnecessarily genders my body nor assumes who I might be having sex with is fantastic.
If I have to be honest, I don’t love how the Aloe x Shea lube looks. From a purely visual perspective, the first thing I thought when I opened the jar was that it looked like margarine, not a fancy lube that I want to put on my junk. I understand why an all-natural lube would look this way, but after three hours in the kitchen baking I didn’t immediately want to stick my hands into it.
However, I quickly got over that thought because of how fucking amazing it smells.
The lube itself smells great, of course. A little like green tea – a beautiful, natural scent that had me inhaling deeply with my eyes closed, suddenly feeling so much calmer. I love a nice smelling beauty product as much as the next person, but I’m also a perv who loves the smell of hir own crotch. This is where The Butters Hygienics delivers where many other lubes do not: it smells brilliant when I put it on my junk. And not just in a calming-and-indulgent way, but a ‘fuck this is really hot’ way.
In use
It also feels brilliant on my junk. It’s so soft and creamy and it feels utterly luxurious. There was no moment of coldness when I first touched my lube-smeared fingers against my vulva, like there usually is when I grab a water-based lube. Using the Aloe x Shea lube felt natural and seamless, and I felt completely in tune with my whole body. I gently stroked my junk, nearly moaning from how good it felt even before I’d touched my clit.
I used the lube while I was lying on my front to have three spectacular orgasms using my favourite bullet vibrator in the space of half an hour, my junk never quite feeling ‘done’. Something about the lube’s softness made me relax in a way I usually can’t, turning what was supposed to be a quick test wank into a drawn-out masturbation session. A luxurious masturbation session, that ended with me on my back with knees up and my feet against the bed, toes curling into the duvet as I jerked off.
Using the Aloe x Shea lube made my vag feel like it’s been to a spa.
This is the bit where I have to admit how much of a scaredy-cat I am. The Butters Hygienics sent me their Aloe x Shea lube to review because of my vaginismus, but I wasn’t brave enough to try using my vaginal dilators with it. My cunt felt relaxed and the lube felt so good, and my fingers danced around my vagina. For once I wasn’t scared to touch it, feeling warmth and wetness and none of the usual clenching pain. If I had grabbed one of my dilators in that moment, I expect I could have taken at least the first centimetre of the smallest one.
I didn’t try.
I am still embarrassingly scared of my own vagina. I am scared of the pain and the fear that I will never work through the sexual shame that I’m still carrying even though I call myself an ethical slut. It feels silly that even with a lube that made me feel so good – that helped me have brilliant solo sex and multiple orgasms, that left my pubes soft and my junk feeling less tense – I couldn’t bring myself to use the dilators. I didn’t want to mar the blissful pleasure with the dull ache of attempting to put something in my vagina. It’s a brilliant lube and I think it will be great for using with my vaginal dilators – it just might take a while to work up to.
Overall impression
It wasn’t a surprise to me that a company with the tagline ‘Black and Gay AF 365’ makes awesome lube, but I’m happy to confirm that they really do. If I still haven’t convinced you – or if you want a different style of and potentially more coherent review of some of The Butters Hygienics lube – check out The Wench Work’s review of their Palm Grease Lube.
Usually when I review sex toys I always wonder if I have the authority to recommend something – after all, what feels good on my junk might feel very different on someone else’s! In this case, however, I have no hesitation in saying that if you’re a person with a vagina who frequently wanks you’ll love this lube. In fact, I’m fairly sure that no matter what’s in your pants the Aloe x Shea lube will work for you, especially for solo sex and hand jobs!
Oh, and if sex isn’t your thing, this lube would make a truly fabulous moisturiser – I don’t think my inner thighs have ever felt so soft.
The Butters Hygienics Aloe x Shea lube is brilliant, and if you’ve made it to the end of this review without clicking away to order some yourself, I’m going to make it super easy to do that now. You can grab some Aloe x Shea lube from Peepshow Toys, or head straight to their website to check out all the lubes, moisturisers, bath bombs, and all sorts of other brilliant products that The Butters Hygienics offer.
Quinn Rhodes (he/him) is a queer, trans, disabled sex writer with vaginismus. He’s a slut and a sex nerd who writes about his adventures in trying to fuck without fucking up. Quinn can usually be found wearing stomp-on-the-patriarchy boots while falling in love every time he fucks.
