BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

TikTokers Using Sex Lube On Faces As Makeup Primer, Here Are The Risks

Following
This article is more than 2 years old.

Your face is not the same as your genitals. Yet, people on TikTok have been showing others how to use sexual lubricants that normally go on genitals to instead prime the skin on their face for makeup. In fact, as of today, the hashtag #lubeprimer has already gotten over 8.1 million views on TikTok. The question though is whether what normally happens on your genitals should stay on your genitals.

By the way, if you can’t tell the difference between your face and your genitals, you should stop whatever you happen to be doing immediately and call your doctor. What you do with your genitals doesn’t necessarily always work for your face and vice versa. That’s why wearing your glasses on your genitals probably won’t help you see better and stretching a condom over your entire face ain’t going to do much to prevent pregnancy unless you pass out and don’t have sex as a result. When a product is designed for your genitals, don’t automatically assume that you can readily use it on your face.

Sexual lubricants or sex lube for short are supposed to be for sex. Otherwise, they’d be called something else, like laundry lubricant or text lube. They are slippery substances that you can apply to your private areas like your penis, vagina, or anus. This can then decrease friction between such body parts during sex acts such as masturbation or intercourse. This can make the sex act more pleasurable because while friction may be great for generating fires or removing stains from a tea kettle it may not be the most comfortable thing during sex.

Sexual lubricants are usually not mistaken for makeup primer. It’s probably not too common to hear someone say, “I either applied sex lube or makeup primer, I can’t quite remember. And I also can’t recall where it went because I frequently mistaken my face for my genitals.” People apply makeup primer to their faces prior to the application of makeup. Makeup can essentially serve as a “canvas” on which you can apply the foundation, the bronzer, the concealer, or whatever makeup you subsequently place on your face. This can help the makeup look smoother and stay on longer. There are products designed specifically to serve as makeup primers.

Nevertheless, TikTokers like @whodunit3 and @seananthonyv have demonstrated how to put Durex sex lube as primers on their faces. On their videos, they’ve expressed positive reactions as to how the “lube primer” looks and feels. However, not all reactions have been good. Another TikToker @emajanee revealed the reaction that the skin on her face had to the #lubeprimer. She warned, “don’t do it,” showed how her face had turned a reddish hue, and added, “lube is not for your face.” In fact, a Durex TikTok accounr replied to a @seanathonyv video with “We appreciate the creativity here (and your makeup looks great) but we don't recommend using our lubricants on the face as makeup primers.”

The problem is sex lube is designed for your privates, your hands, and possibly other parts of your body like your breasts and back but not your face. The skin on your face is very different in many ways from the skin lining your other body parts. That’s why words like “scrotum” and “vulva” don’t typically come up when your are complimenting a person’s face. Your face can be significantly more sensitive than your other body parts in different ways. Sex lube can contain ingredients such as propylene glycol and castor oil that can irritate your skin, cause allergic reactions, and lead to the clogging up of the pores on your face. This can lead to skin issues such as acne and dermatitis. Plus, anything that goes on your face can be perilously close to your eyes, nose, and mouth. Durex lube products do include the warning, “Avoid contact with eyes.”

Of course, depending on what you may be doing during sex, sex lube could accidentally get on your face. If this does happen, don’t freak out and scream. Not only might this spoil the mood, but also a little sex lube here and there momentarily on your face may not be much of a problem. There’s a difference between accidentally getting some lube on your face versus regularly smearing it all over your face. Just make sure you wash your face after sex.

Again there are already products designed to serve as makeup primer. So why not use them instead of trying to repurpose sex lube? After all, what would you do if your bike shop told you that they had put sex lube on your chain instead of oil? There are reasons why certain products are designed for certain uses. Just because sex lube can make your face feel like a bobsled on ice and glow like snow globe doesn’t mean that you should use it on your face. After all, your face is not your genitals.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedInCheck out my website