Have you every wondered if there is a difference between one brand of personal lubricant and another? Not a question that was on my mind. In fact didn’t give personal lubricants much thought until recently. Over the past several years I have found the occasional need to use a personal lubricant , but I never read any reviews and frankly never thought much about how one lubricant might be better than another. My personal opinion was that they were all pretty much the same. That initial reviews couldn’t have been further from the truth. What I didn’t realize, but now do, is the difference in quality and the actual experience of using one personal lubricant vs. another can vary widely. I have purchased a few personal lubricants at stores, but never online. People that can plan ahead and either know they have a need that is a few days off or already have a supply but notice it’s getting low in time can get their personal lubricant products from a number of online stores. Plus the reviews online come in handy. Of course, I never paid attention to the reviews. When you aren’t in a hurry, the online purchase option will save the time of going to the store and usually costs less.But this is supposed to be about my reviews of the Astroglide water based personal lubricant and V Products water based personal lubricant. I should probably return to that story.

If you do read the reviews, the conclusion you will likely notice is that silicon lubricant is more enjoyable when the couple is only engaging in activities that do not include toys. But, as I mentioned, I didn’t really pay attention to the reviews. I didn’t even consider looking at the ingredients when I went to the store at first because I was just looking at the price. Because I was more focused on the price, I completely discounted the silicon-based lubricants since they typically cost a lot more. So, I purchased the Astroglide water based lubricant.

I thought it was fine. It seemed to do the job of added to the pleasure when the natural lubrication was less than adequate. From time to time we would have to add a little more to keep things going, but we assumed that was the way it worked.

It was only after a friend told me about V, a newer company with a premium product line, that I gave the subject any thought. V Personal Lubricants is a company out of California with what they say is the best ingredients and the best formulation. Again, I didn’t read the reviews, but on a recommendation of a friend, I decided to give it a try. As it turned out, there can be a vast difference in the performance of one personal lubricant over another and I figured that out on the very first use. The biggest thing I noticed was the V water based lubricant didn’t dry out. We didn’t need to apply more and more to complete the task at hand. That made a big difference because I wasn’t distracted by the need to keep handling something that wasn’t my partner.

With the different experience, there had to be a reason so I decided to do some investigating. I found out about parabens, glycerin and a lot of other ingredient differences. The reviews explained that V Products uses pure vegetable-based pharmaceutical grade glycerin and no parabens. Artroglide also uses glycerin but parabens are used. The issue there is that parabens are known to cause skin issues for some people and there are still questions about it’s possible link to breast cancer. The way I read the reviews, the V Products lineup is the way to go. But, for me, it really comes back to the practical side. I like the fact that the V water based lubricant lasts longer, doesn’t get sticky and feels great. The good news is that you can get V from a lot of local stores and online at their web site.