Take one look around Amazon or your local sex shop and you'll very quickly see that there's no shortage of sex toy makers out there. They range from discount dildos made in huge quantities in factories, to top-quality handmade pieces of rideable art. This spectrum of quality, however, is a very important one to understand. What sets different toys apart are the materials and how well the designs work with your body.
What is Platinum Silicone?
Topped Toys high-end insertables are made of 100% body-safe platinum silicone. It's the same thing used in medical devices and for special effects in the movie industry. Our silicone is certified to be used in skin contact applications, is hypoallergenic, can be easily disinfected, is non-porous, doesn't degrade when cared for properly, and can be made in different firmness levels to simulate the feeling of the real thing. It's the safest and most comfortable thing that a toy can be made of.
Body-safe platinum silicone comes from Europe or North America where safety standards require manufacturers to purify their silicone in an expensive process that removes natural contaminants that occur in silicone components. Some suppliers from other parts of the world claim to be using body-safe platinum silicone, but due to much lower purity requirements, it's most likely that these toys contain higher amounts of dangerous contaminants. At Topped we only work with suppliers that test every batch of silicone to ensure it meets high safety standards.
Why Do Platinum Silicone Toys Cost More?
Platinum silicone is an expensive material in part because inert platinum metal is the catalyst that makes the material cure. Body-safe platinum silicone also has to be scrubbed of contaminants prior to being mixed to ensure the material is safe for body contact. And, because platinum silicone is extremely sensitive to outside factors, the manufacturing process requires a great deal of care. That's why discount manufacturers often use less expensive material like industrial-grade silicone or easier to work with materials like rubbers, plastics, or silicone blends that aren't body-safe. These cheaper materials will start to fall apart or become tacky as it degrades, potentially introducing harmful chemicals into your body. They also are usually much firmer which can make it easier to injure yourself if you're stretching big.
Which Toys Should I Watch Out For?
Before buying your next toy you should check to see what it's made of, and beware that some manufacturers may try to trick you by using trademarked terms like silicone gel, silicone jelly, or others. These are not platinum silicone. You should also beware of cheaper industrial grade silicones like tin-cured silicone which is not meant for body contact. You should especially be careful of any toys that have an outer shell covering an inner shell. In addition to the obvious question, "Why did the inner core need to be covered," two-layer toys also raise questions about what epoxies or glues were used to glue the two parts together. As the toy ages, these compounds will likely come into contact with your body and they may not be safe.
If the manufacturer doesn't say it's made of 100% platinum silicone, then it's not. And you should be aware of less pure industrial platinum silicones from unscrupulous manufacturers. A good rule of thumb is, "If the price is too good to be true, then it's probably not truly body safe platinum silicone."
Experience In Sex Toy Design
The second thing to look at when you buy a toy is the overall design. There's a lot more to designing a fun toy that lets you push your limits than putting a cone on top of a cylinder. The anatomy of the human body is complex, and the most fun toys are designed to work with it. Designers who are experienced in play are much better equipped to make fun toys. For example, the length of the neck on a plug will determine where you’ll feel the pressure – a painful place or a pleasurable place. So buy a toy from a company that has a great reputation and one where you know the people calling the shots actually play with toys. Not only will you have something that's safer and longer lasting, you'll get much more pleasure from it because it will hit you in all the RIGHT places.
Knockoffs and Buying Queer
We pride ourselves in being a queer-owned business with deep ties to the LGBTQ+ community and various fetish communities. We are all-inclusive of everybody and want to reflect that in our toys and our conduct in this industry. Supporting honest and community-involved businesses is the best way to keep the queer sex toy industry thriving now and in the future.
We know you can buy knockoff toys on some websites. Copies of the Gape Keeper®, Spike, and others are commonly available from Chinese manufacturers. In addition to the questionable material used in these too-good-to-be-true toys, the people making them are stealing designs from a queer-owned company, and don't really know anything about what makes a toy fun. Our designers are dedicated to the kink of high end toys. We are constantly looking for that next shape that is going to blow your mind (and your hole) wide open. Topped is one of the few queer-owned businesses that makes toys for queer people. Buying a knockoff means that our employees aren't getting paid for their creativity. It also means that straight people who see toys for queers as nothing but a profit line will continue to dominate the market. At Topped work constantly to manufacture the best products available from our factory in Vancouver, BC. We keep our pricing as low as possible while giving good jobs to all of our employees and supporting queer causes, and we respectfully ask that you support us by not buying knockoffs of our products.
