Why it smells
Three different things produce a smell and they mean completely different things. One is harmless and fades, one is absorbed and usually lifts, and one means the material has to go. Telling them apart takes about a week and no equipment.
The three, and how to tell them apart
New and chemical. It smells of plastic, rubber, or something faintly industrial. It was there when you opened the box and it fades over days or a couple of weeks.
That is off-gassing: volatile compounds from manufacture leaving the material. It is normal, it is not a sign of anything, and it stops.
Survives a wash. It appears after weeks or months of use, it does not go away when you clean it, and it may be strongest when the surface is warm. This is the serious one.
TPE and other soft thermoplastics are porous at a microscopic level. Moisture and organic residue get into that structure, and soap cleans the surface rather than the inside. Once something is living in there, washing reduces the smell and does not remove the cause. The material is the problem, and the material cannot be fixed.
Matches where it was kept. It smells of the drawer, the bag, the perfume it was stored next to, or the wood it was lying on. Silicone picks up odours from prolonged contact even though it does not absorb anything into its structure — the smell is on the surface, not in it.
This one usually lifts once you move it, wash it, and give it a week somewhere neutral.
Why silicone does not do the middle one
Silicone is a cross-linked thermoset with no open structure for anything to colonise. Nothing soaks in, which is why the same material can be boiled.
That is the practical argument for paying for it, and it is more concrete than the feel. A silicone toy that smells is either not silicone, or it is the absorbed kind and will recover.
What actually works
For silicone, no motor: wash it, then boil it for three to five minutes if the manufacturer allows it. Boiling is the only thing that reliably reaches the whole surface, because it is the only thing that gets everywhere at a temperature that kills what is there. If boiling is not an option, a wash with mild unscented soap and thorough drying is the next best.
For silicone with a motor: you cannot boil it. Wash the surface, clean the seams, and accept that a motorised device has a cavity you cannot reach. This is one of the reasons motorised devices have a shorter honest lifespan than the material suggests.
For TPE or anything porous: nothing works reliably. You can reduce the smell for a few days. It comes back, because the source is inside the material and the material cannot be cleaned to that depth.
The mistake that causes most of it
Storing it damp.
The sequence is: use, wash, dry the outside with a towel, put it away — and the outside is dry while the inside of a seam or the base of a motor cavity is not. Then it sits in a drawer for two weeks.
The fix is unglamorous: after washing, dry it with a towel and then leave it out in the air, not in a container, until it is genuinely dry. An hour for a solid silicone object, a day for anything with a seam or a motor.
The other common cause is storing it in the bathroom, which is the dampest room in the house. That is also where most people keep it.
A note on what a smell does not mean
It does not mean you have an infection. It does not mean the toy gave you one. It does not mean you cleaned it badly.
The object is not sterile and does not need to be. What matters is whether the material can be cleaned properly, because that is what decides whether the residue from last time is still there next time.
If you have symptoms — itching, discharge, soreness — that is a separate question and one for a pharmacist rather than a page about storage.
When to stop using it
- The smell returns within a few days of washing, twice in a row.
- The material is porous and more than a year old.
- The surface has gone tacky as well. Smell and tack together mean the material is failing in two ways at once.
- You cannot get it dry. If it stays damp inside, it will keep doing this.
Questions that come up
Does it mean an infection?
No. The smell is in the material, not in you. Symptoms are a separate question.
Can I use vinegar?
It is a weak acid that reduces surface bacteria and leaves its own smell. It does not reach inside a porous material, which is where the problem is.
Will a toy cleaner fix it?
It cleans the surface, which is all it claims. On a porous material the surface is not where the smell is.
Should I throw it away?
If it is porous and the smell survives two washes, yes. Keeping it is choosing to use something you cannot clean.
Does it mean the material was cheap?
Not necessarily, but it means the material is porous, and porous materials have this property regardless of price.
Can it transfer to me?
The residue is what you would be in contact with, which is the argument for replacing it rather than living with it.
More guides
Why it went tacky
A sticky surface gets blamed on bad cleaning almost every time. It is usually the material, and there are three different reasons for it. Only one of them is fixable, and telling them apart takes two days.
Where to store it
The drawer next to your other things is the single most common way a good toy gets ruined, and the damage is invisible until you take it out six months later. Four things do it, and only one of them is about the toy itself.
How to actually clean one
Most cleaning advice for these products is either too vague to act on or quietly wrong about the materials. The part that matters is knowing which of two categories yours falls into, because the two need different things and one of them cannot be sterilised at all.