The Best Lube for Women, According to Experts and Reviewers
You've explored a bajillion guides to sex toys and shopped the best online boutiques (so much more discreet than heading into your neighborhood adult boutique). You've even boned up on all the definitions of the latest pleasure gizmos. But while you may have an opinion on the best rabbit vibrator or c-ring, have you taken the time to explore the side salad in this veritable sexual feast? Consider, if you will, the humble bottle of lube. Recent years have seen new formulations flood the market, full of active ingredients, unique textures and other surprises. We spoke with Maria Sophocles, OB/GYN and Medical Director of Women’s Healthcare of Princeton, New Jersey, about the ins and outs of lube, and how to choose the best lube for women.
What Are the Different Types of Lube?
“Lube is used to increase comfort of vaginal or anal sex,” explains Dr. Sophocles. “Blood vessels in the vagina make moisture when you get aroused, but lube can help make things even more ‘wet’!” There are water-based and silicone-based lubes, as well as products with special ingredients to encourage warming, stimulation and for those with CBD, relaxation.
“Find the lube that gives you the best sex,” Dr. Sophocles says. “Also, don’t forget that lubricant can also be used to treat dryness—they are great for everyday use as well as for sexual activity." She cautions that, along with more bells and whistles, scents and ingredients, there's more opportunity for an unpleasant irritation or allergic reaction. Here's our look at the top 20 lubricants to look for.
The Best Lubes for Women at a Glance
Best Overall Lube: Dame Alu Aloe Lube
Best Value Lube: K-Y Ultragel Personal Lube
Best CBD Lube: Foria Awaken Arousal Oil with CBD
Best Organic Lube: Maude Shine Organic
Best Flavored Lube: CG Blow Me Electric Mint
Best Botanical Lube: Cake Natural Sex Lube
Best Non-Sticky Lube: Lelo Personal Moisturizer
Best Single-Use Lube: Dame Alu Aloe Lubricant
Creamiest Lube: Woo More Play Coconut Love Oil
Best Warming Lube: Rosebud Woman Arouse Stimulating Serum
Best Lube Sampler: Doc Johnson Mood Lube Pleasure for Her Multi Pack
Best Lube Kit: Frenchie L’Essential Doublé
Best Oral Lube: Flora + Bast Aphrodisia
Best Fertility Lube: Good Clean Love BioGenesis Fertility Lube
Best Anal Lube: Cake Tush Cush
Best Jelly Lube: Unbound Jelly Water-Based Lube
Best Travel Lube: Pulse Personal Lubricant & Massage Oil Set Travel Kit
Best Preservative-Free Lube: Deodoc Intimate Lubricant Drops
Best G-Spot Lube: Intimate Organics Discover G Spot Stimulating Gel
Best Lube and Dispenser Set: Pulse Personal Lube and Massage Oil Warming Dispenser
RELATED: The 30 Best Couples' Sex Toys (Because We All Need "Something" to Look Forward to)
1. Dame Alu Aloe Lube
Best Overall Lube
We’d be happy to have this cute blue bottle on our bedside, and even more pleased to use it, since it is toy- and condom-safe. Plant-derived (with aloe vera juice, quinoa seed and oat kernel extracts), this non-irritating formula leaves your intimate area conditioned. “My boyfriend says it feels like my own moisture,” one user reports. “It doesn’t feel sticky, it leaves me moisturized.”
2. K-Y Ultragel Personal Lube
Best Value Lube
“Unlike other lubricants, this is very smooth and it is not sticky,” says one user. Great for quick application, this pleasantly thin formula gets high marks for what it doesn’t have: Hormones, parabens, silicone, artificial colorants and fragrances.
3. Foria Awaken Arousal Oil with CBD
Best CBD Lube
Used topically, CBD promotes blood flow, and health and wellness brand Foria is a category leader in spicing up products with it. Case in point: The brand's innovative arousal oil just requires a quick application to your clitoris, inner labia and inside your vagina to encourage more sensation, faster. “It provides a continuous feeling of relaxation leading to numerous orgasms. I don’t want to have sex ever again without it!" says one reviewer.
4. Maude Shine Organic
Best Organic Lube
Made with moisturizing aloe, the Maude 100 percent natural lubricant is organic and ultra-hydrating. The gentle pH-balanced formula is free from glycerin and parabens and manufactured to the ideal osmolality for the body.
5. CG Blow Me Electric Mint
Best Flavored Lube
Mint-flavored cooling gel is meant for external application to set off shivers. And of course, mint is tasty and breath-freshening, too. “I loved the flavor of this! A little goes a long way so I know it will last a while,” says one user.
6. Cake Natural Sex Lube
Best Botanical Lube
This water- and aloe-based lubricant also has mushroom extract, quinoa, hemp and flax green tea and oat. This is great if you want a lube that sounds like it could do double duty as a healthy smoothie booster.
7. Lelo Personal Moisturizer
Best Non-Sticky Lube
This pH-balanced moisturizer gets high marks for gliding on smoothly and not drying sticky like so many lubes. Glycerine-free, paraben-free and unscented, this is a water-based fan favorite: “This is a great lube,” one user enthuses. “I'm very sensitive too which is why I keep coming back to this one, literally it is sooooo neutral.”
8. Dame Alu Packet
Best Single-Use Lube
This little packet of water-based, plant-derived, organic lube from Dame gives you pH-balanced lubrication. (It's just so easy to toss a couple of these into your grooming case.) Free of everything you don't want (such as glycerin, hormones or other potential irritants), the formula is compatible with toys and most condoms.
9. Woo More Play Coconut Love Oil
Creamiest Lube
An organic coconut base with a slight vanilla flavor, this creamy lube does double duty as a good massage oil, too.
10. Rosebud Woman Arouse Stimulating Serum
Best Warming Lube
This ambitious product aims to reteach the body to relearn self-lubrication, deploying traditional aphrodisiacs, maca, damiana and ashwagandha, to make a tingling topical that wakes up the external folds and creases of the vulva.
11. Doc Johnson Mood Lube Pleasure for Her Multi Pack
Best Lube Sampler
For the lube curious, this is a collection of five 1-ounce tubes, with flavored, stimulating and sensitizing formulas with colorful, clear labels.
12. Frenchie L’Essential Doublé
Best Safe Sex Kit
A box of 12 condoms and a bottle of water-based, aloe lube make a great gift (and a handy bedside necessity).
13. Flora + Bast Aphrodisia
Best Oral Lube
The makers recommend using this warming, blood flow-enhancing oil not just on the genitals, but also ingesting one to three pumps orally. That means when you’re oral sexing, the combination of coconut oil, CBD, cardamom and cinnamon essentials oils will allow you to share the tingle. “I was scared about the ‘take one pump in the mouth’ instructions, but the product is cinnamon-y and me and my partner really enjoyed,” says one reviewer.
14. Good Clean Love BioGenesis Fertility Lube
Best Fertility Lube
Paraben-, petrochemical- and glycerin-free, this specially formulated lube is engineered to encourage sperm motility and contains calcium and magnesium to potentially support fertility. “This product really works,” says one user. “I read so many reviews thinking that it wouldn’t assist me when TTC [trying to conceive]. I used this during my ovulation and here I am four weeks pregnant, and this is my first time using it.”
15. Cake Tush Cush
Best Anal Lube
"Plush is an understatement,” says one user. “It’s really thick which I don’t normally love, but it really makes the whole experience nice and soothing.” The cushy formula is a hybrid water-silicone, safe for sex toys and easy to clean up.
16. Unbound Jelly Water-Based Lube
Best Jelly Lube
A thick vanilla-and-lemon-flavor lubricant, this has 95 percent organic ingredients, and it’s safe for use with latex condoms.
17. Pulse Personal Lubricant & Massage Oil Set Travel Kit
Best Travel Lube
There’s something for everyone you might hook up with on your travels in this two-lube, one massage oil set—all of which come in TSA-approved small sizes. Of the lube choice, one is water-based while the other is formulated with aloe-and-silicone, and both are condom- and toy-friendly.
18. Deodoc Intimate Lubricant Drops
Best Preservative-Free Lube
A team of women doctors formulated this silicone-based lubricant to counteract friction and enhance pleasure. Unlike water-based lubes, a silicone-based personal lubricant doesn't need artificial preservatives, so there are fewer ingredients to irritate delicate tissues. It's fragrance-free, too.
19. Intimate Organics Discover G Spot Stimulating Gel
Best G-Spot Lube
"This goes beyond a simple warming sensation and does seem to work on the specific area it claims to," one user reports. "I definitely recommend, even if you've never been wowed by similar products in the past." Sunflower seed and peppermint oils, fruit extracts and arginine (an amino acid that's popular as an oral treatment for erectile dysfunction) are found in this oil. For best results, this 1-ounce bottle comes with a detailed set of instructions on internal application and use.
20. Pulse Lube Dispenser
Best Lube and Dispenser Set
This rechargeable gizmo dispenses a dollop of warm lube with just a wave of your hand, thereby letting you keep your hands doing...whatever else they were doing, instead of fiddling with a slippery plastic bottle. The Pulse warming dispenser comes with four personal lubricant pods, and you can also swap in massage oil pods.
RELATED: A Complete Ranking of Every Single Sex Toy I—a Sex Writer—Tried in the Last Year
PureWow may receive a portion of sales from products purchased from this article, which was created independently from PureWow's editorial and sales departments.
