A good lube will get the job done, but the best lubricants for women will make you feel like you just stepped out of a steamy, luxurious bath. And whether you want to add a little slip ‘n slide to your sex life or need lube for medical reasons, there’s no better time to buy one than right before Valentine’s Day.
Not all lubes are created equal. You’ve got your silicone- and water-based versions, ones with coconut oil, and even organic and vegan options. And like seemingly every other wellness product on the market, if you’re a fan of CBD, there’s a lubricant for that too. Seriously, the options are endless—especially now that new brands are making the packaging look just as good as the formulas feel. To save you time, we’ve narrowed it down to the 13 best lubricants for women based on their biggest fans.
Some reviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
On sleep: Since the second official day of the [impeachment] trial began, I’ve been getting up in the mornings at 5 a.m., get into the office at 9 a.m., and then leave the office at 7 p.m. and then continuing to work until it’s over at 1:30 a.m. from home. The schedule is that [the senators] would go from 1 p.m. until about 9 p.m., if they took no breaks…and that’s not going to happen. We’re going as long as they’re going.
On running a literal marathon: I think this is the biggest impact that is happening—I still have to do my long runs. [Beesch will run the DC Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon on March 28.] This morning I had an eight-mile run; Friday, I have to do five; and Saturday, I’ll have to do 18. The trial will just change how much I’m able to rest for the next week or so.
On breaks: I usually just go get a coffee or take a walk around the block. I go into Union Station, if anything is still open.
On unwinding: Cooking and watching The Bachelor.
On making history: Working for C-Span is a truly unique experience at this point in our history, when so much of the public is divided on who to turn to for their news and information. The long hours can be jarring, but I feel grateful at this point in my career to be given the opportunity and responsibility to help cover an event of this magnitude.
Rachel Stassen-Berger, politics editor, the Des Moines Register
Stassen-Berger has been politics editor at the Des Moines Register since 2018. Before that she was capitol bureau chief at the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota.
Olivia Sun/Des Moines Register
On a normal work day: I generally wake up just before dawn, check my phones, and the work begins. My day at the office begins with a 9 a.m. news meeting with other editors, and then I go until I can go no more. [During the lead up to the] Iowa caucuses, I work seven days a week. Most of those days are long—between 12 and 14 hours.
On snacks: I am a snack provider, not a snack eater. I have six candy dishes (chocolate, wild card, hard candy, Starbursts, Altoids, and lollipops) and, currently, two mini gumball machines on my desk. I do nearly constantly chew nicotine gum (though I quit smoking more than a decade ago) and almost always have a big glass of water from which I guzzle.
On breaks: I don’t take actual breaks, but I occasionally break my concentration. And when I do, it’s to sing badly, groan at puns, and sometimes dance (also badly).
On unwinding: I’m currently streaming Bob’s Burgers. That and my lab-mix dog, the very smart and demanding Joplin, help me unwind.
On motivation: I truly believe in the work we do at the Des Moines Register. Covering the Iowa caucuses, being exposed to the people who want to be president and delivering needed news to Iowa, the nation, and the world is a thrill and an honor. The reporters and colleagues with whom I have the opportunity to work help make the work fun and inspiring.
To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Glamour’s Women of the Year awards, we are delving back into our archives to highlight some of the incredible women we have honored over the last three decades.
In January, we’ve cast the spotlight on activism – and the incredible Oral Lee Brown. Today, when you think about activism, you might conjure up Greta Thunberg, for example – and a WOTY recipient in 2019 – or the #womensmarch or the powerful Black Lives Matter movement. But sometimes, the actions of one person alone, even in the smallest of communities, can leave an also indelible mark.
In our December 2002 issue, Oral Lee Brown was photographed with five of the kids she was putting through college.
1987 was the year that Oral Lee Brown met an eight-year-old girl on the street in Oakland, California. The girl asked for a quarter – Oral Lee Brown responded with the question: why aren’t you in school? The little girl shrugged.
Unable to shake her encounter, the real estate agent made up her mind to help Oakland’s at-risk children. That year, she adopted an entire first-grade class at Brookfield Elementary School, promising to pay for their college education if they graduated high school.
Oral Lee Brown accepting a Minerva Award at Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference 2010.Dr. Billy Ingram/Wire Image
She saved $10,000 a year from a $45,000 a year salary – and through careful investments and local fundraising events managed to grow her pot for the kids to over $1million dollars. 19 of the 23 children graduated. Oral Lee came through on her promise and sent them to college.
That was in 2002. Since then, she established the Oral Lee Brown Foundation, which has, to date, supported 136 students from low-income families. She offers mentoring, tutoring and financial bursaries and in 2005 established a Saturday school, where they could take children from all grades, rather than just first.
Oral Lee Brown at the 2002 Glamour Women of the Year Awards. Matthew Peyton/Getty Images
There have now been eight phases of her official first-graders’ program. Phase 5 kids graduated high school in 2017 and are now attending colleges, while the children in Phase 6, 7 and 8 are in high school, middle school and elementary school respectively.
The actions of one woman sparked a movement that has continued to have an enormous impact on the long-term futures of some of the most at-risk children in Oakland, California.
Brittani, a 30-year-old nurse, says she would “absolutely not” go out with Joe. (“He murders people at the drop of a hat. No thank you.”) But she says she enjoys hearing his inner monologue and “brutally honest” opinions. “I also admire how smart and organized he can be,” she says. Other women describe Joe as “sexy” and “ready to do anything for loved ones,” even knowing what they know about the character.
And many women say that Joe reminds them of men they’ve already dated, who they describe as stalkers and abusers. One woman I spoke to said of Joe, “Knowing what I know, I wouldn’t even look [Joe’s] way. I wouldn’t even want to associate with him for fear of not only my life but anyone I know as well.”
“I’ve had many men become obsessed with me in my lifetime and it’s not fun,” she says. “In fact, it can turn scary real quick!” These men, she says, “go to extreme lengths” to keep other people from being close to you. “Maybe [they haven’t] killed anyone in a literal sense, but they slowly kill who you are and your other relationships,” she says.
Another You fan I interviewed spoke about how she’s currently reconsidering her relationship with her husband, who she says exhibited “similar behavioral traits” to Joe at the beginning of their relationship.
“The writer was brilliant in making the character Joe,” she says. “They made him exhibit loyal behaviors most women—or men, for that matter—long for in a self-absorbed world. People justify Joe’s wrongdoing because it’s morally intertwined with a justified feeling from their perspective.”
Penn Badgley as Joe in YouBeth Dubber/Netflix
Shymaa agrees. “The writer gave people what they wanna see in themselves,” she says. “It’s a criminal reflection of most people’s true selves…especially women. I mean, don’t we just love ‘light stalking’ our partners sometimes?” To many people, identifying with the characters on the show, and particularly lusting after Joe, is crazy. But a lot of female fans made it clear that they are able to see even the bloodiest storylines as allegorical, even while acknowledging that those same storylines (stalking, killing, sex crimes), however dramatized on You, are very real threats in their lives.
Watching their own worst nightmares come true onscreen—the same way huge numbers of women devour true-crime podcasts and binge SVU episodes—is how women have always experienced entertainment. At least, many seem to be saying, let the made up perpetrator be really, really hot.
Badgley has claimed that interest in Joe, interest even in You, is a sign of our own moral corruption. “In a more just society, we would all see Joe as problematic and not be interested in the show, but that’s not the society we live in,” he said.
But the women who professed love and desire for Joe seem perfectly aware that he’s problematic. They’re used to problematic men. They’re used to risking violence when they go on dates.
They’re chasing desire in an unjust world. An anavrin, as the show puts it—a twisted, backward, nirvana.
Jenny Singer is a staff writer for Glamour. Follow her on Twitter @JeanValjenny.
Odds are you’ve been using the same body wash for years. No shame in that, but have you ever stopped to think about what the best body wash for women actually is? Or wonder if there could possibly be a better one out there for you? Body wash may be the most underrated beauty item in your routine, but it shouldn’t be. It’s the first product that touches your skin, one of the few things you use every day, and practically functions as your signature scent.
Too sweet or too floral and you can end up smelling like bad teen memories, while anything in the woodsy family can err on the side of overly-perfumed. Sometimes it’s all about the extra-bubbly lather or cooling gel; other times, our only incentive to even take a shower is to soothe dry, itchy skin. Either way, your body wash needs to be worthy of the Arctic journey from bed to shower.
At Glamour, our editors are just as particular about the products they use on their bodies as they are about the ones they put on their faces, so we decided to put 23 of the best body washes for women to the test. Here are the ones with our seal of approval.
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
What defines January better than making a solid resolution? On New Year’s Day 2015, I did just that. While sharing photos of my annual ritual—a “polar bear plunge” into the icy Atlantic—a Facebook post caught my eye. Two teens in my community were seeking donations of tampons and pads for a local food pantry after learning about the hidden plight of our own New Jersey neighbors. Girls and women were missing days of school and work—and dealing with shame—because they were unable to afford period products.
My reaction was visceral. A public interest lawyer by day, I was consumed with questions about the ways public policy—or lack thereof—could impact the millions who menstruate. How many women in America were living paycheck to paycheck (or without a paycheck at all, or in prison), unable to manage the costs or burden of having a period? And why would something that’s a basic biological fact for half the population be excluded from policy making—in this case, food-pantry budgets?
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf at the Women’s March
I’ve been grappling with addressing these questions for the last five years—and what I’ve learned isn’t pretty.
One of the many mind-boggling problems here is that tampons and pads are ineligible for purchases made with public benefits like food stamps. They’re not classified as “necessities” to qualify for an exemption from sales tax in the vast majority of states, and they’re not covered by health insurance or Medicaid, or included in Flexible Spending Account allowances.
Worldwide, the cost of having a period is also high. In Sierra Leone and Rwanda, around 20% of girls are reported to miss school because of their period. In Iran, nearly half of girls are so lacking in accurate education about menstruation that they believe it to be a disease. In parts of Nepal, menstruating girls are temporarily exiled, sent to makeshift huts with no protection from the elements—a practice that results in deaths every year.
Change. Period.
Thankfully, periods have gotten a lot of attention over the past five years. Women are throwing period parties, and influential women like Meghan Markle are speaking up, joining a global cohort of activists. We’re fighting for better education around women’s bodies; for more affordable access to tampons, pads, and menstrual cups; and against laws that make life more difficult for anyone with a period. And we’re making real change.
Since reading that Facebook post, one of the ways I’ve been putting my lawyerly skills to use is to end the “tampon tax.” For years, menstrual products have not been exempt from sales tax (while a dizzying array of items, ranging from fruit snacks to gun ammo to erectile dysfunction pills go tax-free). Kenya blazed the trail on this issue, scrapping the national tax on menstrual products in 2004, and more recently, activists have won victories in Australia, Canada, India, and Germany. A massive petition and campaign in England even forced the issue into negotiations over Brexit. In the U.S., 32 states have introduced legislation, and eight have succeeded in permanently ending the tampon tax. (As of January 1, California has joined the list, but only temporarily, until July 2023.)
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