High-Tech R&D Solves Vexing Problem of Slippery Lube Containers

On the list of the world’s problems, it may not rank very high. But in certain, specific situations the issue of lube containers becoming excessively slippery and sliding through your fingers at the most inopportune moments can assume the utmost importance. But thanks to the marvels of high technology, the Brooklyn, New York, sex-tech firm Dame Products—founded by MIT-trained engineer Janet Lieberman-Lu—claims to have a solution. According to a report by Cosmopolitan online, after an extensive testing product, the company has released a “textured silicone sleeve” to accompany bottles of Alu, a newly released water based lube formula with organic aloe. According to the Cosmo report, the new personal lubricant is “pH-matched so it doesn’t irritate your vagina. It’s also free of glycerides, parabens, hormones, sugars, and other things you normally don’t want on or inside your vulva/vagina.” But that doesn’t mean that its lubricating qualities don’t affect the surface of the Alu bottle itself, making it, like most lube containers, difficult to handle. And there’s where the high-tech sleeve comes in. The sleeve, appropriately given the brand name “Grip,” ensures that “your feats of finger strength won’t launch your bottle across the room—as cool as that might sound,” according to Dame’s own site. According to what Lieberman-Lu told Cosmo, the original six colors of the Grip were narrowed to three after researchers, “stress-tested them all at a factory by coating them in lube, dropping them in dirt, stepping on them, rolling them around in the carpet, and drying them off without washing.” The ergonomics of the Grip device were also considered carefully, she said.  “We started out with a longer version of Grip, but we found out that if it was longer than your fingers, it was much harder to stretch to put on a bottle,” the Dame founder told Cosmopolitan. While the plant-derived Alu lube is considered safe for sex toys and a majority of condoms, it is not designed to be used with polyurethane condoms, Cosmo reported, ruling out such products as the FC—currently the only female condom available in the United States—and the Trojan Bareskin Non-Latex condom. Photo by Dame Products