Briona87 wrote:
GeekyEleanor wrote:
I'll be honest here, the chemist in me doesn't actually trust UR3 products. Information from the manufacturer is sketchy and hard to find, they claim it to be phtalate free but no tests have been done or showed to prove it is. Up to now, I'm sticking to pure silicone toys for this reason. The day I'll have access to a GCSM and I'll be able to take a sample from an UR3 toy and make a thorough test, I'll may consider them body safe. For the time being, I'm happily in live with my silicone toys. But that's just my own opinion, not going to bash anyone that actually likes UR3 toys, let's be clear.
Due to it's composition, it's very porous and bacteria and germs will thrive in it, so I guess using a condom is the right choice when using them.
That's my thinking as well, I do have great doubts about UR3 and about stuff labelled "skin safe rubber" as well, seeing manufacturers hardly ever provide any info about actual chemicals used to make these toys. Some of these toys come in very appealing shapes and sizes but the materials just put me off.
Vulcanized silicone rubber is way better than UR3, in matter of chemical addictives. Skin Safe Rubber, also known as silicone rubber, is a widely used elastomer of silicone (-R-Si=O-) where R (stands for substitute) is usually molecule composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxigen to make it a little bit more rigid. It's cheaper than medical grade or pure silicone, but human-designed silicone rubber usually vulcanized, rather than catalyzed, it's a physical process that gives the rubber its shape and properties like elasticity and such, rather than a chemical, like with plasticizers such as phtalates. It's still a little porous and needs to be thorougly cleaned before and after each use, but it's waaaaay better than a weird mix of Chthulu knows what.
The thing that bugs me about UR3 is that it is a blend of PVC (CH2-CH-Cl) and silicone (Si=O). Those two polymers don't actually mix well together, so they have to add something to make them blend and stick to one another (that's what usually phtalates do, they lower the temperature of solidification to make the polymer more flexible) but they won't release the actual chemical composition fearing other manufacturers would steal the idea. But there's no patent depositated apparently, no tests have been done or if they have been, they haven't been released for public knowledge, and to me that sounds a little sketchy. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but at this extent, I don't trust it.