Anal Plug Cleaning: How to Remove Butt Plug Odor

So, you decided to buy a butt plug. If new to anal play, maybe you were: Curious. Interested. Nervous? Excited! …As you looked at different shapes & sizes of plug.

But did cleaning the butt plug cross your mind? Usually, anal sex toy cleaning pops up only after you’ve inserted & played with the butt toy… then realized you weren’t sure how to keep it pristine or remove the smell.

This guide summarizes (1st,) anal plug material materials, since some are definitely easier to clean than others, and some, like jelly butt plugs, should be avoided for safety reasons; (2nd,) how to clean a plug, and (3rd,) 6 methods for how to remove odor from a silicone butt plug.

Butt Plug Materials: From Easiest to Hardest to Clean

Sex toy materials, rated by how easy they are to clean and care for:

1. Glass Butt Plugs, the Easiest to Clean. No smell remains. Borosilicate glass is very smooth and sturdy too. Shatter-resistant, it withstands high temperature, hence its use in glass baking pans. Glass doesn’t retain any smears or odor, and is fast to wash off. Unfortunately: Glass plugs with good flared bases are rare. Top pick trainer set: b-Vibe Dilator Plugs, 4 progressively spaced sizes from XS / 0.9″ diameter to Large / 1/7″ diameter.
2. Metal Butt Plugs: Firm Pressure, slick too. No smell remains. Pretty easy; a few caveats: Metal plugs should be selected carefully because cheap metals can leach nickel: so you want to stick with high-grade stainless steel, or properly finished aluminum. Most popular metal plugs: Njoy Pure Plugs for the win, they’re soooo weighty & have this awesome forward pressure: you won’t forget your butt is plugged. The curved shape takes slightly longer to clean than smooth glass, and be careful to not drop it (as it can develop surface scratches from that impact).
3. Silicone Butt Plugs: Safe & SOFT (depending on Shore hardness!). Smell remains. Silicone plugs are for the flexible comfort, feeling more natural inside the body. After reading real-life-toy-buyer comments for years, these are definitely the Top 3 silicone butt plugs: Mood Naughty 1’s firmer silicone for beginner-level training; SquarePegToys Egg Plugs for the very best full anal feeling; or Snug Plugs—a silicone-metal hybrid—for weighted sensation & letting your butt canal lock around the plug (less stretch, good for exercising while wearing).

So, why would you choose a soft-silicone anal toy if glass & metal are easier to clean? Glass vs. silicone plug pros:

• Firmer is simpler *if* your anal canal is tight. For a first butt plug, I definitely recommend firmer silicone or glass/metal. (Remember to always use lubricant, go slow, and stop if you feel pain!)
• Glass & metal are also slicker, super-smooth, so you don’t need to apply so much water-based lubricant—or you can use silicone lubricant for long-term wear, with no interactions. Plus, for all anal experience levels, some people just love firm pressure. In toys like the Pure Wand, a well-shaped stainless bulb is incredibly focused 🎯 for prostate.
• But, super-soft silicone—where SquarePeg Egg Plugs are the best-rated, most-loved plugs—is popular because it’s flexible. Fleshier. It’s forgiving inside your ass, conforming to your shape better. If you lean forward suddenly, for example, a soft silicone plug bends with you, instead of poking you. And super-soft is most comfortable if you’re a size fan, one who enjoys thick, stretching toys that really expand your butt.

Unsafe Anal Toys

Avoid “jelly,” PVC or “vinyl”; and “real feel” (thermoplastic elastomer or rubber) anal plugs or dildos. PVC / jelly will leach unknown plasticizers, while thermoplastic sex toys are softened enough to break down more over time; they cannot be sanitized well like body-safe toys can; and they have larger pore size than silicone.

These cheaper toys allow viruses to live substantially longer, and TPE strokers (like Fleshlights!) are known to grow black mold if left damp.

How to Remove Butt Odor from a Plug (Silicone)

The WHY

Why is silicone safe, yet it holds onto smells??? How is that possible? Well: It’s all about particle size.

Did you know odor particles are much tinier than viruses, and soooo much smaller than bacteria? The stinky molecule hydrogen sulfide is 50 times smaller¹ than the smallest viruses.

And back to sex toys: Silicone is micro-porous. It pores are small enough that bacteria and even viruses can’t enter and hang out. (Platinum silicone’s cross-linked molecular structure is also hydrophobic, repelling the water that bacteria & fungi need to survive.)

So, your silicone butt plug can be stinky due to teeny odor particles, not because it retains bad bacteria after washing.

The HOW

Still, butt smell perhaps isn’t the sexiest thing to you: In that case, How do you get rid of smell from a silicone butt plug? First, wash thoroughly with soap and water (Basic butt plug cleaning instructions below).

You may find that your plug is fine after washing well & air-drying for a day. If your plugs remain odor-ific after normal washing, though: Work on a deeper clean by sanitizing, step #2, right after butt plug wearing:

• If your plug is nonvibrating / has no metallic connectors (Good for 100% silicone, glass, or metal products): Sanitize the plug with 70% isopropyl alcohol, available at most pharmacies & grocery stores. Just squirt the alcohol over the plug, rubbing it down with your hands for full coverage.² Then, wash the plug again with soap and water. Let air-dry for a full day, and recheck the odor. (You could also use pure acetone instead of alcohol for this step.)
• If it’s got a motor inside: Make sure the plug is submersible before letting sit in any of the solutions next, or dousing in lots of isopropyl alcohol.
• Be sure to wash your hands well (soap, and water) after setting your plug aside to dry.

This sanitizing will immediately remove any surface fecal matter, and definitely cuts odor once dried. But in some cases, odor still persists. Rubbing alcohol not helpful? Try any of these butt plug odor removers.

Most Effective Odor Removers:

Baking soda: My step #3, after (1) soap & water and (2) 70% isopropyl alcohol. A cheap method that’s pretty effective. Get a box of baking soda, and empty some into a food-storage container. Lie the plug flat on one of its sides, and make sure baking soda is covering the bottom half of the plug’s surface. Then flip the plug over later (from 2 to 6 hours rest time will work). After letting the second half rest in baking soda for a few more hours, wash off all baking soda from your plug (with soap and water). Last, let air-dry for 1 to 2 days.

Enzymatic odor remover. Step #4, the best final fecal stink-remover. These enzymes + nonharmful bacteria mixes are commonly sold for pet stains, or for removing scent from car interiors. Use sparingly because this enzymatic solution cuts poop smell, but replaces it with the enzyme smell (which is not awful, but smells like cleaner).

I chose this enzymatic cleaner, cross-marketed for auto-interior cleaning & pet smells: to remove “bio based messes” from carpet & upholstery, leather, floor mats, and… MORE, which silicone is!

You’ll need: A plastic bag to close the butt plug + enzymatic cleaner inside (sandwich bag, or gallon freezer bag, depending on your plug’s size). To use: Once your plug is in the bag, apply really just one or two squirts from the cleaner spray bottle. You do not need to cover all the silicone surface 100%; the odor will spread naturally inside the sealed bag. Push out residual air when sealing the bag. Thanks to SquarePegToys for pioneering this solution.

Other Odor Options I Tested (And Found Less Great)

Scented essential oils: I had tea tree oil, which also smells strongly. A bit of research shows that oregano oil is also a broad antimicrobial; and peppermint or lavender oils have fans. These definitely disguise any poop scent, replacing it with the oil’s scent—which lingers for a long time on soft silicone. You do have to work harder to remove the oily-ness of the essential oil after, so I went back to dousing the silicone sample with isopropyl alcohol to cut through the grease.

Vinegar. White vinegar is cheap and removes quite a bit of smell, but after letting the sample soak for hours in vinegar, then air-dry for 3 days, I can still very faintly smell residual odor. I doubt I would’ve noticed the smell if I wasn’t putting my nose right up to the silicone, so it has some efficacy, and you might use this if you keep vinegar in your home already.

Witch hazel toner (with 14% “natural” grain alcohol + witch hazel extract): I actually had high hopes for this one (which I bought as a facial / anti-zit cleaner) because it seemed really promising at odor-removal after I first let the silicone sample sit in it. And I like the smell of witch hazel. But, as with the vinegar, a slight smell lingered after the silicone dried off.

How to Clean Your Butt Plug

The obvious, first: Wash after each use, of course! Rinse that butt plug right off, after you remove it from your ass:

• Step 1. If the plug has visible poop smears on it (nothing to be ashamed of), then wipe it down with a wet paper towel or a moist towelette.
• Step 2. Wash with liquid soap in the sink, under running water.⁴
• Step 3. Scrub the anal plug for about 30 seconds, just like if you’re washing your hands well because you’ve touched something gross: all around, trying to get any nooks and crannies. Scrub for longer, like a minute or two, if you’ve played with a highly textured anal toy; rubbing soap over its different segments.
• Step 4. Set the plug on a clean towel/rag to air-dry.
• Step 5. Wash your hands well with soap and water, at least 20 seconds scrub time, to be thorough and not carry butt germs around on your hands.

Avoiding a Mess

A couple methods are proposed for trying to not get poo-poo on your anal plug: (1) eating more fiber regularly, or (2) douching.

Fiber is gut-healthy, acting as a prebiotic to support probiotic & commensal bacteria (that maintain digestive balance). Fiber is naturally found in vegetables, beans, whole grains, and many fruits. You can also buy prebiotic fiber in forms like inulin powder: fructooligosaccharides derived from plants like Jerusalem artichoke, chicory, or agave. The butt-play point of eating fiber is that you will poop regularly, especially if you give your digestive system a solid 12 hours per day without food (like, by not eating late at night). The advice is to wait several hours after you have a bowel movement to start playing anally. This apparently works for some people, but I gotta wait like 8 hours after I poop to have zero poop traces on my toys; and there is still odor.

And with douching, it’s really best to not overdo it, or just don’t douche altogether and be OK with some poop. Why am I against douching? Well: the rectum has its own microbiome, too. Ideally, it’ll be colonized by “helper” bacteria that will protect your tissues from damage. Whereas, douching can wash out the good germs.⁵

If you feel you must douche, douche minimally, and only the first several inches of the rectum — so you’re definitely not irrigating your colon.

All in all, anal is a little dirty: but the fun is fully worth it, for many people!

NOTES

1. 0.36 nanometers (=0.00036 micrometers), vs. 18 to 24 or 28 nm for some parvoviruses’ capsid / protein shell.
2. If you’re prone to dry, cracked skin, then wear vinyl or better, nitrile gloves over your hands while washing your plugs.
3. Note that these mini-Splendid dildos by Uberrime are not anal toys; I used [several pairs of] nitrile gloves while…reaching around my 🍑⭕ and letting them absorb odor for a minute, before washing and sanitizing the silicone.
4. You might also have a dedicated bar of soap for anal toy cleaning, but I find pushing down on the liquid soap dispenser with the heel of my palm easiest: trying to not get butt germs on the soap.
5. In men who have sex with men, for example, studies [including a large meta-analysis of medical studies conducted from 1970 to 2018, involving 20,398 human participants] show that anal douching correlates with higher risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted infection. But in anyone—any gender, whether or not they’re single and/or only use toys anally—overdouching can cause micro-tears in the rectal mucosa.