What we used: woohoo! water-based intimate lubricant
From: Boots
Price: £5.99 – £6.99 for a 50ml tube
Ingredient(s): Aqua (water), Cyamopsis tetragonolbus (Guar gum)*, Ceratonia siliqua (Locust bean gum)*, Aloe barbadensis leaf juice powder (Aloevera)*, Camellia sinensis (Green tea extract)*, Equisetem arvense (Horsetail extract)*, Carrageenan (Red seaweed extract), Phenoxyethanol, Potassium sorbate, Citric acid
*Organically grown ingredients.
Is organic better? Lizzie shares her thoughts on Soil Association-certified woohoo! lubricant.
First thoughts …
Lizzie
It’s very easy to get stuck in a lube rut. You find one, it makes things sufficiently slippery, job done. Thomas and I often use the same brand for months at a time and then, usually because the one we’re courting is out-of-stock at our supermarket (we tend to buy lube as part of our grocery shop), we switch and the cycle starts again. Occasionally, a new lube will catch my eye when I’m in the local pharmacy, generally because it has some sort of twist to it (‘cooling!’, ‘heating!’, etc.) and I’ll pick it up, but I’m fundamentally a simple girl and have discovered over time that I like my lube plain and simple – non-irritating, water-based and with a decent texture to it. If I want hot and cold, there are other things around the house the work just as well – but that’s another post entirely.
woohoo! is a bit of a departure from the status quo for me as I consider organic products a ‘nice to have’ rather than an essential – I don’t make a habit of buying them – but I do have to say that I’m not immune to the appeal of slathering a chemical-free substance on and inside myself.
The packaging …
Lizzie
I like the woohoo! branding: the colour-ways, white and aquatic green, are very pleasing to the eye and the overall design is simple and grown-up. woohoo!’s ‘organic’ and ‘dermatological’ credentials are clearly marked on the outer box, too.
The lubricant itself comes in a 50ml container and I have to say I’m pleased that the manufacturers of woohoo!, Essential Health Products, chose to use a squeezable tube as opposed to a pump or cylinder to contain their product. I tend not to buy the former any more because the moment a pump lies horizontally it is the Devil’s work to get the lube to come out of the dispenser. Particularly frustrating when you need it in a hurry. Cylindrical containers, on the other hand, are sometimes difficult to squeeze effectively as they’re generally made of firmer plastic; I’ve often been able to see the last little bit of lube lurking at the bottom of a bottle and unable to get it out. Both of these designs tend to make unattractive squelchy squeaks when they’re reaching the end of their lives, too. (Tubes do this as well but not nearly as loudly, I’ve found.)
Using it …
Lizzie
From a texture perspective, woohoo! is lovely. It’s wonderfully light and silky and doesn’t make you feel like you’ve coated your hands in PVA glue. It tends to maintain its slipperiness for a reasonable amount of time, too, so you don’t have to constantly reapply it (although, clearly, you’ll want to use more during lengthy sessions with yourself or your partner). Another plus is that taste-wise it’s very inoffensive, which means that if your mouth or tongue come into contact with a body part that’s wearing woohoo!, you’re unlikely to recoil in horror. The thing that Thomas and I most liked, though? woohoo! doesn’t leave you with a sticky feeling on your hands when it dries. This tends to be the case with a lot of lubes and you end up contemplating a trip to the bathroom to wash your hands when all you want to do is lie around in post-coital bliss.
woohoo!, with its simple tube, was easy for both Thomas and I to get out, even when there was only a little bit of lube left. That said, why-oh-why did Essential Health Products choose to supply it in a 50ml serving? The small size meant that our tube only lasted about two weeks, even though we ended up applying it to Thomas only (for reasons I’ll explain below). I mean, we do use lubricant every time we have sex and we’re reasonably generous with each other from an application perspective but we’re not at it every day and we don’t paint it on from head-to-toe. From a cost/use perspective this was definitely a minus – especially in these times of economic austerity. (I suspect that the bank is unlikely to give us a personal loan for lube!)
So, the ‘in use’ feeling. This is where Thomas and I parted company on our opinions of woohoo! On his penis? Very nice; slippery, moist, slick. Ticked all the boxes. On my vagina and vulva? A distinct burning sensation. I was very surprised by this as woohoo! is dermatologically tested and I’ve never had a reaction to a lubricant before. We tried woohoo! a few more times to make sure the feeling I experienced wasn’t a one-off but, unfortunately, the burning was consistent. As noted above, we ended up using the remainder of the tube on my hands and Thomas’s penis (which was, granted, a nice plus for him).
The verdict?
Lizzie
Even though Thomas and I loved the texture of woohoo!, we won’t be buying it again. The burning feeling it induced wasn’t pleasurable for me and even though Thomas liked it, we need a lube that we can both use freely. The cost and packaging size is somewhat prohibitive, too.
In summary
Things I liked:
- The texture. woohoo! is wonderfully silky and creates a lovely skin-on-skin glide once applied.
- The packaging. Crisp, clean and appealing.
- The taste. It’s very easy on the tongue and lips.
Things I wasn’t so keen on:
- The burning sensation woohoo! induced when applied to the vagina and vulva. Distinct and uncomfortable.
- The price. At approximately 13.98 pence per ml, this is, relatively speaking, a costly lubricant.
- The size of the tube. woohoo! won’t last very long if you’re having regular sex.
Tickle your fancy? Click here to buy woohoo! from Boots.
