Say Goodbye to Cold Lube with the Touchless Pulse Lube Warmer
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Lately, lube has become such a popular topic of conversation in my circles, friends get confused when I bring up getting my car serviced.
Personal lubricants for sexual wellness are also appearing on more department store shelves in the health and beauty sections. The greater visibility of products for women’s sexual health has accompanied more accepted public discussions about women’s sexual health needs.
“Every woman should have a lubricant,” said Dr. Lori Brotto, a clinical psychologist known for her research on female sexual arousal disorder. In June 2022, she appeared on the podcast We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle in an episode called “Restart Your Sex Life.”
“Yes, lubricant for 20-year-olds, and 30-year-olds, not just for postmenopausal vaginas.”
While there are three main types of personal lubricant for sex—oil, water, and silicone-based—they often feel cold when applied to your body.
That is unless you take advantage of the assistive technology of the Pulse lube warmer. The touchless system delivers warmed massage oils as well as water and silicone-based personal lubricants.
The Pulse lube dispenser
On the surface, the Pulse lube warmer and dispenser comes off as a luxury item. It does cost nearly $200. On the other hand, for someone with arthritis or poor dexterity in their hands, it looks like it could make using personal lubricants and intimate massage oils easier.
The touchless dispenser warms and delivers the fluid from Pulses’s various “pods.” The personal lubricant pods H2Oh and Aloe-aah, are water-based lubricants and silicone-based lubricants with aloe respectively. The Pulse massage oil pods “Spoil Me” can also be inserted into the warming system. CBD lovers and cannabis connoisseurs may like the CBD-infused massage oil pods Spoil Me CBD.
I can’t review the Pulse warming system, since the company does not ship outside of the United States. However. I did interview Pulse founder and CEO Amy Buckalter to learn more about the touchless Pulse lube dispenser and the larger personal lubricants market.
Warmed vs. warming lubes
It’s critical to clarify the difference between “warmed lubricants” and “warming lubricants,” says Buckalter.
Warmed lubricants are what Pulse warming system safety achieves, she explains:
“Warmed lubricants increase blood flow upon application and therefore create soothing relaxation of the vaginal or anal tissues—which contribute to comfort and joy during intimate activities.
In contrast, warming lubricants “work by creating inflammation and a burning sensation (not safe warming) from unhealthy chemical ingredients or spices like cayenne pepper.”
Related Read: CBD Lube Benefits and Buying Tips with EngErotics CEO Raven Faber
FDA approved lube
Buckalter also educated me on how personal lubricants are regulated.
“In the US, personal lubricants are already classified as Class II medical devices and require FDA approval with a 510K clearance before going on the market. Pulse achieved FDA clearances on both of its personal lubricants, H2Oh! and Aloe-ahh.
In comparison, the European Union is playing catchup. New legislation is forcing companies that sell and market products as “personal lubricants” to become certified as medical device manufacturers by May 2024.
Marketing women’s sexual health products
Advertising sexual lubricants, in the first place, brings its own set of restrictions, which are compounded by the taboos against cannabis.
“Regarding the marketing of our sexual lubricants, there are heavy restrictions for social marketing that impact word choice, messaging, and images,” said Buckalter.
She also pointed out that brands promoting men’s sexual wellness and intimacy products have made significant headwinds, while women’s sexual health brands haven’t enjoyed the same exposure.
“This is a gender bias battle that has been unresolved for decades and continues to hinder the growth of women’s wellness solutions.”
CBD massage oil
While Pulse can ship its Spoil Me CBD massage oil pods to all 50 states, advertising CBD comes with restrictions.
“There are different rules for different commerce and social marketing platforms. For example, we can feature our Spoil Me with CBD on our Shopify eCommerce platform, but most of the payment platforms will not support CBD sales. So we need to link those sales to another site, pulse-spa.com where we have a different payment provider.”
Facebook does allow Pulse to promote its CBD products, but with an important caveat: there is no use of the abbreviation CBD in the advertisements, links, media, or landing pages with the abbreviation CBD.
Also, both Facebook and Amazon allow the description ‘hemp-based’ for products that are topicals, but not edibles.
What stores carry Pulse?
If you are interested in the Pulse lube warmer and intimate massage oil dispenser, you can buy directly from the Pulse website. It is also available at department stores Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Nordstrom.
Jenna Owsianik is a Canadian journalist and sex tech industry expert. She is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sex For Every Body®.
Her expertise covers state-of-the-art sex technologies and the major fields driving innovations in intimacy: robotics, virtual reality, remote sex (teledildonics), haptics, immersive adult entertainment, human augmentation, virtual sex, and sexual health.
A trained journalist with a Masters of Journalism from The University of British Columbia, Jenna’s reporting has appeared on Futurism.com, Al Jazeera English, CTV British Columbia online, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS 60 Minutes, Global News, and CKNW Radio in Canada and the United States.
