The famous Fleshlight "Superskin" material is designed to feel very similar to real human skin.
The downside to all of this sexy realism? Cleaning your fleshlight can be a real pain in the ass. In fact, doing it wrong can melt it or lead to a moldy Fleshlight.
But how do you do Fleshlight cleaning correctly?
You see, the sleeve’s Superskin material is made largely from mineral oil, which doesn’t get along well with ordinary household soap. In fact, cleaning your fleshlight’s sleeve with soap will deteriorate and destroy the toy over time, so it’s not recommended at all.
Fleshlights are also only supposed to be used with water-based lube, which means that they’re a moist breeding ground for mold and bacteria if not cleaned properly.
When you’ve paid top dollar for one of the top fleshlights, you want to make sure that you don’t end up with fleshlight mold, which is a very real possibility if you don’t know how to properly clean a fleshlight! Once your fleshlight has gone moldy, it’s basically fucked and needs throwing out.
There are some websites which claim that moldy fleshlights can be revived and cleaned, but I wouldn’t risk it personally. Putting your dick in a moldy substance could easily cause a Yeast Infection or UTI – is it worth the risk?
Here we give you some tips and guidance on the best ways to clean and dry out your precious fleshlight safely, as well as some general tips for good fleshlight care.
How to clean a Fleshlight
This is my personal method for cleaning my fleshlight – it’s an amalgamation of my own personal technique and the official technique recommended by LoveHoney, one of the world’s biggest and most reputable sex toy websites. I find that this combined method is the best way to clean a fleshlight for 99% of the toys.
You can clean your toy in your kitchen sink, bathroom sink, or even your bath, depending on your preference. The kitchen sink is probably the easiest to work with, as they tend to be deep and are designed for standing up and washing things, but I understand that some people don’t like the idea of rinsing jizz into the same place that they wash their plates. Still, as long as you bleach and rinse the sink after, it should be fine.
1. Remove the sleeve from the case and separate the two. Clean the case by rinsing it with warm water both internally and externally. Feel free to use soap to clean the case; just make sure that you rinse it all off.
2. Now take the sleeve and hold it upright under the tap, allowing warm water to run through the orifice (i.e. the part you fuck) and exit through the bottom end of the sleeve. Use a fairly strong flow of water to help dislodge any cum and lube stuck inside the sleeve.
3. After rinsing for a while, plug the bottom end of the toy with your finger and fill it up about ¼ of the way with warm/hot water. Now place your hand over the top of the orifice so that none of the water can escape. With both ends covered, shake the sleeve up and down or side to side with your hands, encouraging the water to slosh about inside and get into all those nooks and crannies.
4. Empty out that water, give the toy another quick rinse, and then liberally spray Fleshlight’s official toy cleaner inside and outside the sleeve. You can potentially use an isopropyl alcohol spray for this too. DO NOT use generic sex toy cleaning spray for this and DO NOT use soap either. Superskin is very different from your typical sex toy material, so regular soaps and cleaners can destroy it.
5. Rinse the sleeve once again and then put it to one side. Dry the case with a clean towel or paper towels. Please see the next section for sleeve drying methods!
How to dry a Fleshlight sleeve
You’d think that washing a fleshlight would be the hard part, but lots of people don’t actually know how to dry a fleshlight properly. Drying a fleshlight sleeve is kind of the trickiest part really, as you’ve got to be careful that you don’t leave in any moisture inside the sleeve which could lead to mold growth.
There are many different techniques for drying out your fleshlight sleeve, but here are some of my favorites.
Mold grows easily in warm, damp places so a fleshlight full of water and particles of water-based lube is absolutely ideal. Make sure your sleeve is completely dry before putting it back in its case and storing it away.
Air-drying method
If you live in a dry, cool climate and you are able to leave your Fleshlight lying around (i.e. you’re not trying to hide it from family members) then leaving your Fleshlight out to air-dry could be a good simple way to dry it safely. Simply leave your sleeve lying out on a clean kitchen towel in a well-ventilated area for 24 hours or more. Some people find that pointing a fan at the sleeve helps, while others like to place it nearby an A/C unit or an open window to encourage proper airflow.
Wire hanger method
Joan Crawford would HATE this method, but it does work really well. Basically, you bend the bottom of a wire hanger around the orifice of your sleeve so that it can be hung in the air from the hanger. This means that excess water can drip out the bottom of the sleeve more easily. You should ideally hang it up in a well-ventilated room, but you could potentially hang it up in a wardrobe if you want to be more discreet.
Hairdryer method
This is not my go-to recommended method, as it’s the riskiest, but it could help you to dry out your sleeve more quickly if time is of the essence. Essentially, you use your hairdryer’s “cool” or “cold” setting to blow cool air through the sleeve and force any droplets out of it more quickly. It can work, but bear in mind that hot air will damage your Superskin sleeve, and different hairdryers have different ideas of what “cool” means.
Grated surface method
Stand your sleeve upright on a grated surface and leave it to air-dry for 24 hours or more. This allows your sleeve the air-dry while ensuring that any liquid drips out of the bottom more easily. For example, you could place it on a grated dish rack or a radiator.
Flour sack towel method
Use a clean flour sack towel (sometimes called a “tea towel”) to pat the exterior of the sleeve dry. Then, place the flour sack towel over a chopstick and gently push the chopstick through the inside of the sleeve, helping the towel to absorb the moisture from inside the sleeve. Repeat a couple of times and change direction each time to maximize your chances of drying out the inside. This method is not as good as air-drying, but it could be used in a pinch.
Some people recommend turning your fleshlight inside out to thoroughly clean/dry the inner textures. Bear in mind that this can cause unwanted stretches and microtears in the Superskin, so you should not leave the sleeve inside out for more than 3-4 minutes.
Fleshlight care – Fleshlight powder vs. cornstarch
In addition to regular cleaning and drying featuring the recommended methods above, you also need to know how to care for fleshlight toys if you want them to last. For example, you should store your fleshlight in a cool, dry place which isn’t prone to damp, mold, or humidity. If the room you want to keep your fleshlight in is prone to humidity, consider buying a dehumidifier or storing the sex toy elsewhere.
Hiding your toy away in a moldy basement is not going to cut it, sadly.
Renewing powder vs. cornstarch
After a while, you might notice that your fleshlight is sticky or tacky feeling. This is totally normal – a sticky fleshlight is basically just the Superskin material losing its luster after a few uses. You can use renewing powder or cornstarch to revitalize the material and bring it back to its original condition. But what’s the difference between the two?
Nothing. There’s no difference. Fleshlight’s official “renewing powder” is 100% organic cornstarch, the same as any ol’ cornstarch that you could buy in a Walmart. The difference is that Fleshlight’s cornstarch is in a more convenient little container which is built for purpose, whereas generic cornstarch often comes in a huge tub or sack which is overkill unless you plan on using it for cooking too.
Fleshlight’s official renewing powder is obviously more expensive than just buying regular cornstarch, but it does come in a more convenient container to make the application process easier.
Whichever you decide to use, apply the powder liberally all over the outside and inside of the sleeve, patting it into the exterior and carefully pouring it into the interior to make sure that it is evenly coated throughout. Always make sure that the sleeve is 100% dry (inside and out) before applying your powder.
My Fleshlight smells? Fleshlight Mold
If your fleshlight smells, it’s a telltale sign that it’s breeding bacteria, mold, or the corpses of a gazillion sperm cells inside. If you followed the cleaning/drying steps above and your Fleshlight still smells bad, it’s probably best to cut your losses, throw it away, and purchase another sleeve which you’ll look after more carefully next time. A bad smell suggests lingering microbes and mold, neither of which you should be putting near your junk.
Beautiful woman with grimace beacuse of bad smell. Isolated on white.
We covered a lot in this article – who knew that keeping your fleshlight clean was such a full-time job? Cumming in a fleshlight on a regular basis is obviously going to take its toll after a while, so it’s a good idea to follow the above tips in order to keep your fleshlight clean and keep the brilliant Superskin material as healthy and lifelike for as long as is humanly (or pretend humanly) possible. Happy fleshlight fucking!
