Sex shop toys in Athens: a buyer’s guide to categories, motors and lubricant

Most first purchases go wrong for boring reasons. The motor is loud enough to be heard through a wall, the battery compartment corrodes after a summer in a drawer, the lubricant supplied in the box strips the surface off the item it came with. None of that is about taste. It is about specification, and specification is knowable before you pay.

This is a guide to the actual categories on sale in Athens shops and on Greek delivery sites, written from the point of view of what fails and what lasts. It does not rank brands, because distribution here changes constantly and a brand that is well stocked this year is often unobtainable the next. What does not change is the physics.

Category one: vibrating items and what the motor tells you

Everything in this category is a motor in a housing, and the motor is where the money goes. Cheap devices use an eccentric rotating mass, the same component that buzzes a phone. It produces a high-frequency, thin vibration that dissipates quickly through soft material and is audible across a room. Better devices use a linear resonant actuator, which produces a lower-frequency, deeper thump that transmits through the body of the item rather than skittering across the surface.

You can distinguish them by ear. Hold the item against the palm at maximum setting. A rotating-mass motor rises in pitch as it speeds up and sounds like an insect. A linear actuator stays at roughly one pitch and sounds like a low knock. In a shop that lets you run the demonstration models, this test takes ten seconds and is the single most useful thing you can do before buying.

Noise, and why it matters more in Athens than elsewhere

Athenian flats are close together and, for four months of the year, everyone has the balcony doors open. A device rated in the marketing copy as whisper quiet will still be perfectly audible through a party wall at two in the morning. If that is a consideration, choose a linear-actuator device in a solid silicone body, since the housing damps the sound, and avoid hollow plastic shells entirely.

Category two: non-vibrating items, glass and steel

Solid items in borosilicate glass or surgical stainless steel are the most durable things in any shop and, oddly, often the cheapest for the quality. There is no motor to fail, no battery to leak and no surface to degrade. They can be sterilised in boiling water, they take any lubricant, and a good one will outlast everything else you own.

Their disadvantages are weight and temperature. Steel is heavier than people expect, and both materials hold whatever temperature they were last at, which is either a feature or an unpleasant surprise depending on whether you warmed them first. Glass should be inspected for chips before every use; a chipped edge is the one genuine hazard in this category and the reason cheap unbranded glass is a false economy.

Category three: couples items and remote control

Wearable devices with a remote or a phone connection are the fastest-growing part of the Athens stock and the one where the specification sheet matters most. Two things determine whether it is usable: the retention of the item during movement, which depends entirely on the stiffness of the arm, and the range of the remote, which is usually far shorter than the box claims once a wall is involved.

Bluetooth-controlled devices pair with an application, which raises a question worth thinking about before purchase: the application is made by the manufacturer, may require an account, and may be capable of connecting over the internet rather than only locally. If that is not something you want, buy a device with a physical radio remote instead. They are cheaper, more reliable at range and involve no account at all.

Category four: restraint and impact items

Athens shops stock a lot of novelty restraint sets: thin metal handcuffs, furry wrist straps with a chain, blindfolds made of the wrong material. The novelty sets are the ones people get hurt with, because metal cuffs with a single-lock mechanism tighten under pressure and a thin nylon strap concentrates load on a narrow band of skin. Padded cuffs at least three centimetres wide, with a quick-release clip rather than a small key, are the correct purchase and cost only marginally more.

Anything in this category should come with a way of stopping it immediately, without dexterity and without a key. That is the specification to hold out for. It applies equally to the cheap end of the impact category, where a well-made item spreads force across a broad surface and a badly made one, typically a thin cane or a hard plastic paddle, does not.

Category five: lubricant, and the compatibility rule

Lubricant is where most purchases fail invisibly. There are three families in Athens shops. Water-based lubricants are compatible with everything, wash off with water and dry out fastest, which is why they need reapplying. Silicone-based lubricants last far longer and are excellent in water, but they chemically attack silicone items and will ruin the surface of a good one permanently. Oil-based products degrade latex and should not be combined with condoms.

The rule is short enough to memorise: silicone item, water-based lubricant. Glass or steel item, anything you like. Latex condom, never oil. If you buy nothing else on your first visit, buy a two-hundred-millilitre bottle of a plain water-based lubricant with a short ingredient list; expect to pay somewhere between eight and twenty euro for a decent one.

Ingredients worth avoiding

Glycerine-heavy formulations are sticky and become tacky as they dry. High concentrations of propylene glycol cause irritation in some people. Warming and tingling products almost always work by irritating tissue with capsaicin or menthol derivatives, which is why they are the most returned category in the trade. Plain is better.

Power: batteries, charging and the drawer problem

Rechargeable devices with a magnetic contact charger are the current standard and the right default. Sealed, no battery door, no corrosion, and the seal means the item can be washed under a tap. The weakness is proprietary charging cables, which get lost and are not always replaceable in Greece; buy from a range that uses a common cable if you can.

Battery devices are cheaper and, for something used rarely, more practical, since they have no charge cycle to degrade. The failure mode is corrosion. Alkaline cells left in a device for a year in an unventilated Athens flat will leak, and the leak destroys the contacts. Take the batteries out between uses. This is unglamorous advice and it is the single reason most cheap devices die.

Cleaning and storage in a Greek summer

Non-porous items are cleaned with warm water and unscented soap, or with a dedicated cleaner, and then dried completely before storage. That last step is the one people skip. A device stored damp in a closed drawer in an unairconditioned flat in July will develop mould around the seams, and on a porous item it will develop inside the material where it cannot be removed.

Store items separately rather than in a heap. Different materials react with each other: soft PVC left in contact with silicone will bond to it and leave a permanent tacky patch on both. Cotton drawstring bags, which most good shops include or sell for a couple of euro, solve this entirely. Keep everything out of direct sun, since ultraviolet light degrades both silicone and elastomer over a couple of summers on a shelf near a balcony door.

Travelling with what you have bought

Items travel perfectly well in checked or cabin baggage from Athens airport. Two practical points. Lithium batteries must be in cabin baggage, not the hold, which applies to any rechargeable device. And anything with a motor should have a travel lock engaged or the batteries removed, because a device that switches itself on inside a case at security is a scene nobody needs.

For domestic trips within Greece, including the ferry and the short flight to Mykonos, the same rules apply and nobody looks twice. Glass items should be wrapped, since a chip acquired in transit renders them unusable rather than merely scratched.

Category six: the products that make claims

Every shop in Athens has a shelf of small boxes promising an effect: delay sprays, arousal gels, capsules sold as supplements, drops with a herbal ingredient list printed in four languages. This is the highest-margin stock in the trade and the least regulated, and shop staff generally know less about it than about anything else they sell because there is nothing technical to know.

Two observations rather than advice. Topical delay products work, where they work, by numbing, which reduces sensation for both people and transfers on contact; the ones that do something contain a local anaesthetic and the ones that do nothing contain plant extracts. Capsules sold as supplements are not medicines, are not assessed as medicines, and their contents are whatever the manufacturer put in them. If a specific difficulty is bothering you, a doctor is the correct person to ask, and no shop assistant is qualified to substitute for that conversation.

The practical point for a buyer is simply that this shelf is where money gets wasted. A thirty-euro box with a claim on it is a worse purchase than a thirty-euro bottle of lubricant, and the return rate in the trade reflects exactly that.

Three budgets and what each of them actually buys

At twenty to thirty euro you are buying a battery device in a moulded shell, most likely in a porous material, from a distributor with no brand presence. It will function, it cannot be cleaned properly, and it will fail within a year. This tier is worth it only if the purchase is essentially disposable, and it is the tier that produces most of the complaints about the whole category.

At sixty to ninety euro the picture changes completely. That is where the seamless silicone rechargeables begin: sealed body, magnetic charger, washable under a tap, a motor that will still be running in three years, and a manufacturer with a warranty position. One purchase at this level does the work of several cheaper ones, and it is the correct place to start for anybody buying a first serious item.

Above about a hundred and fifty euro you are paying for refinement rather than a different class of object: quieter motors, better ergonomics, materials finished to a higher standard, occasionally a genuinely novel mechanism. Some of that is worth the money and some of it is a design award attached to a price tag. Nothing at the top does anything the middle does not, so buy in the middle first and find out what you actually want before spending more.

Where the shops will not help you

Sizing on anything worn is the weakest part of the Athens offer. Harnesses, garments and anything strapped are stocked in a narrow band of European sizes, cannot be tried on for hygiene reasons, and cannot be returned once opened for the same reason. Measure first, in centimetres, and match the number on the packet rather than the label word. A medium in one manufacturer’s range is a large in another’s and neither corresponds to the size of anything else you own.

The second gap is repair. Nothing in this category is repaired in Greece. A failed device is replaced under warranty or discarded, and the warranty claim runs through the shop to a distributor abroad, which takes weeks. That is a further argument for buying at the tier where a warranty exists at all, since below it there is no manufacturer to claim against and the shop’s position will be that the item was cheap.

Common questions

What should a first purchase actually be?

One rechargeable silicone device with variable speed, a bottle of plain water-based lubricant and a storage bag. That combination covers most situations, survives mistakes, and costs somewhere between sixty and a hundred euro in an Athens shop.

How do I know if something is real silicone?

The box states the material by name, the surface is matt and dry rather than tacky, and there is no solvent smell. Anything described as an elastomer, a blend or a jelly is a different material with a different cleaning profile.

Can I use the same lubricant with everything?

A water-based one, yes. A silicone-based one, no, because it damages silicone items. If you own a mix of materials and want a single bottle, buy water-based and accept that you will reapply it more often.

Are the phone-controlled devices worth it?

Only if you specifically want the remote function. They cost more, they depend on an application that may need an account, and the range through Athenian reinforced walls is far below the advertised figure. A physical radio remote does the same job more reliably.

How long should a device last?

A good silicone rechargeable used regularly should last three to five years, at which point the battery rather than the motor usually gives out. Cheap battery devices in porous material last months. Glass and steel last indefinitely.

Is it safe to buy second-hand or unbranded stock?

Second-hand, no, for hygiene reasons that cannot be resolved by cleaning porous material. Unbranded is a gamble on materials, since there is no declaration to check and no recourse if it degrades.

Can I take these through Athens airport?

Yes. Rechargeable devices go in cabin baggage because of the lithium cell, batteries come out of anything that has a switch, and glass gets wrapped. Security staff see these constantly and are not interested.

Does bringing an item to a booking need to be arranged?

Yes, at the enquiry stage rather than on arrival. It should be new, sealed and made of a non-porous material, and a model is free to decline. Raising it in advance takes one sentence and avoids the alternative.