Cleaning & Maintenance
Here we will go into cleaning, drying, powdering, and oiling your doll.
1. Cleaning your doll
We recommend giving your doll a gentle washing in the shower after she arrives and certainly before use. It’s good to wash away any excess oils or debris she may have on her left over from the factory. You also may want to avoid making contact with your mouth on her body and head until she is cleaned at least a couple of times. After TPE dolls are produced, the porous skin will slowly seep a small amount of oil over extended periods of time and some may be residual on the surface. You want to avoid getting any into your mouth. The TPE may have a distinct smell for a short time, but this will fade. You also want to make sure she is fully sanitized before making intimate contact with her.
DO NOT FULLY SUBMERGE YOUR DOLL OR HER HEAD IN WATER!
When showering your doll, make sure to use warm, not steaming hot water. Choose a gentle anti-bacterial hand soap. Fragrance-free or with fragrance is your choice! Just make sure you find one that you like as she may pick up that scent for a short time if it’s a strong one! You may want to avoid really aggressive dish soaps unless you’re trying to remove a lot of excess oil from her skin. Aggressive dish soaps can make her skin feel a bit gummy for a short time. They will not damage her, though, so no need for concern there! You want to avoid scrubbing your doll with rough or abrasive cleaning supplies and towels. Instead you may use your hands or a soft sponge. Plus, you get more contact with her this way! After finished gently lathering her up with soap, wash away any excess until all suds are gone. You’re now finished washing her externally! To wash her internally (vagina, anus, and mouth), please see this guide here.
After her shower, pat dry with a soft towel. Micro fiber towels work well, too. Try to avoid scrubbing her skin with anything. The key is to pat dry. TPE is slightly porous and may retain a very small amount of residual moisture. No worries, simply stand her up in your desired location and allow her to air dry. You may direct a fan her way to speed up this process. Either way, it will not take very long. An hour or two is generally sufficient.
* You do not have to wash your entire doll after every single use. We definitely recommend cleaning the used orifices or any area that has come into contact with bodily fluids, especially saliva. Mold can and will develop if the doll is not cleaned of saliva which naturally has bacteria. You will notice a black mold on or inside your doll if not cleaned properly. Unfortunately, this mold is extremely difficult to remove unless you cut out chunks of her infected TPE.
TPE is porous and prone to bacteria as is almost any other material that comes into contact with bodily fluids. As a doll owner, it’s important to understand what to do in order to keep your doll as sanitary as possible. It may sound intimidating at first, but it is rather simple and straight forward regardless of your doll having a removable or built-in vagina. Both are fairly easy to clean and maintain.
Dolls with a removable vagina are commonly viewed as the easiest to care for since you can simply remove the vaginal insert after use to wash in the sink or buy a new one whenever you want. Different inserts can have different textures inside. I recommend washing with warm (not hot) water and a soft anti-bacterial hand soap. Fragrance-free is ideal but you may use a scented soap if you wish. Wash the outside of the insert and flush the inside of the insert with water. Use a small to moderate amount of soap and hand wash. After you wash away all of the residual soap, you may flip the insert inside-out and pat dry with a micro fiber towel or any other clean towel you may have. Try to avoid vigorously scrubbing TPE and avoid creating too much friction as you want to avoid damaging the TPE. After pat drying, leave insert out for several hours to air dry. It’s best to simply keep the insert in a cool, dry place while not in use. However, if you can be sure the insert is thoroughly dried, you may insert it back into the doll so she’s ready to go for the next session!
If you chose a doll with a fixed vagina, there is no need to make the cleaning process all that much harder than dolls with inserts! I’ve come across many methods that owners use online. Many shove their hands up the dolls vagina but this will certainly cause stress to the area and eventually make her tear faster. Totally unnecessary! Many users go through tons of tampons as well in order to dry their dolls orifice. Also not necessary! If you use your doll often, you will find yourself going through a ton of tampons. Having to restock and worry if you have any on hand can be a hassle.
In a pinch, you can use a female condom, also referred to as a femidom. However, I don’t know anyone who likes to use condoms as they greatly diminish physical sensations. Femidoms also tend to be harder to find and fairly expensive. They can absolutely be used, though! We are not saying they aren’t sufficient. They can be great in a pinch when you want to minimize cleanup or be extra sanitary. But with the following cleaning method for fixed vaginas, femidoms aren’t all that necessary if you want to maximize sensation. Once you get a routine going with cleanup, it’s not too bad!
Here’s what you can do to make the cleaning and drying process thorough, yet easy, efficient, and NOT time consuming! Please note that you will need a couple secondary supplies. Don’t worry as these supplies are very affordable and you don’t need to get the best of the best to get the job done! WM also sells an automated cleaning kit that will work on any doll model you own. You can see that product here.
You will need:
1. Aquarium Air Pump with tubing
2. Vaginal Douche (douches with strong pumps and tubing to insert into an orifice work best)
That’s it! Outside of some warm water, a soft anti-bacterial hand soap, and a towel or two, this is all you really need and it does a stellar job with minimal effort on your part. You can find a decent air pump with tubing along with a vaginal douche for less than $50 online. Check out Amazon!
First, you want to stand your doll upright when you’re finished having fun with her. You may also keep her lying down for this method if you wish but it may be a bit messier. If she’s standing, place a couple thick towels on the floor underneath her body and covering her feet to catch the liquids. Fill your vaginal douche up with a small amount of anti-bacterial soap and some warm water. Insert the tubing into her vagina and/or anus and pump her full of soapy water. Gravity will of course allow the water to flow from her body but this is why we set towels down! Now take your douche back to the sink, flush the soapy water out, and refill with plain water. Repeat this process and flush her orifices with plain water this time making sure to remove any residual soap. The water will quickly start to run clear after some pumps. We’re now done with disinfection! With the air pump tubing attached to your Aquarium Air Pump, carefully insert the tubing into your dolls freshly cleaned orifice/orifices and turn on the air pump. Adjust the air flow intensity as you wish. You can now walk away and forget about her as you’re all set to go relax while the pump does all the drying work for you! Depending on the pump that you have and the intensity of the air flow, the doll may take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours to thoroughly dry fully. My recommendation would be to wait at least 1 hour the first time you dry her with your new pump. Remove the tubing and carefully insert your dry finger inside of her to feel for any dampness. You will easily be able to tell if she’s dry or needs more time. If she’s dry, great! You know that 1 hour at your preferred intensity is sufficient. If not, insert the tubing again, turn on the pump, and check once every 30 minutes until you establish how long it takes for her to dry. If it’s late at night and you just want to go to sleep and don’t want to wait for her to dry, no problem. Keep the air flow low if you want to keep the noise of the pump down and rest easy until morning! Pumping her full of air will certainly do no harm so no worries there. Even if the air flow is on the lower side, she should still be dry after an average nights sleep. Make sure to check if you wish. However, after you establish how long it takes for her to dry with your pump, I don’t feel it’s worth sticking your fingers deep inside her and stressing her groin area to check every time to make sure.
2. Powdering
Now that she has been cleaned and allowed to dry, you may want to consider powdering her skin to regain that smooth, soft feel she had when she was fresh out of the box. The factory will pretty much always ship a doll that was powdered prior to shipping out.
Some doll owners use baby powder with or without fragrance. We recommend alternatively using plain corn starch. You can experiment to see which you prefer but we find corn starch to be less toxic overall as it’s a food product after all! Avoid if you have an allergy.
To powder your doll, it makes the process much easier if you have a large, soft makeup brush. Kabuki brushes work very well for this. Tap your makeup brush into your powder of choice, in this case corn starch, and gently shake the powder from the brush onto the desired area. Gently spread the powder evenly across her skin by gently tapping around the area. Repeat this process until you cover the entire body. Avoid powdering inside of the doll! However, if your doll has a vaginal insert, you can powder the outside of the insert to help it to slide back inside of her body.
Powder the doll as often as desired to keep her nice and soft! Repeat this process after every full bodily washing or whenever you feel her skin start to get a little less smooth.
3. Oiling
TPE requires a small amount of oil to help with durability and longevity. Consider using mineral oil on her body at least once per year and occasionally using petroleum jelly on high stress areas such as her groin. We do not recommend oiling your doll more than 4 times per year. Once every 6-7 months is sufficient.
You can use your bare hands, gloved hands, or a very soft sponge to gently distribute mineral oil over her body. Some people use baby oil with fragrance. We recommend using a high quality mineral oil meant to be used on food cutting boards for example. Gently distribute the mineral oil evenly across her skin until her entire body is covered. Allow her to absorb all of the oil over the course of 12-24 hours before putting any clothing back onto her.
4. Staining
Due to TPE’s porous nature, it may also be more susceptible to staining from clothing dyes as well. It’s certainly okay to dress up your doll in clothing of your choice, but it is typically not recommended to leave heavily dyed clothing on your doll when in storage, especially if it is tight fitting. We recommend white or very light colored clothing free of heavy dyes. If the clothing has a dye, rigorously wash it multiple times prior to use and even then limit the amount of time it is worn on the doll.
If your doll does stain, we recommend food-grade fragrance-free mineral oil to remove the stains.