How are sex toys made at Délices Défendus?

Hello everyone! 😊

We know you've been waiting for this blog, so here it is! Sit back and relax, and we'll explain how our sex toys are made, with seriousness, passion... and a little good humor, of course.

Let's be completely transparent: at first, we were a little hesitant to show you what goes on behind the scenes. Not because we're ashamed, but because our molds aren't the prettiest in the world. 😅 They're not "instagrammable," as they say, and we wanted to keep a little magic around our fantastic creatures.

But honestly, the quality is there , and that's what matters. We've already shown them to several of our most curious customers, and the feedback has always been positive. 💜

At first, it was mainly a question of brand image : we thought it would be nicer for you to keep in mind our magical and mysterious designs, rather than revealing the more technical and raw aspect of manufacturing.

But since many of you asked us , we decided to explain everything to you, step by step. 🎬

Starting at the beginning , hygiene rules!

We are all equipped to make toys!

We have:

- Nitrile gloves, to avoid silicone contamination (latex interacts with silicone)

- A white cotton coat, which never leaves the place where we make the toys and is stored in a cupboard when we are not wearing it (to make people believe that we are surgeons)

- FFP2 masks (we've had tons of them since the C-word, we have to find a use for them)

- Hairnets, so our hair doesn't fall into the molds

We scrupulously respect all the following rules:

- We do not eat/drink in the room where we make toys, we do not smoke either

- The room is closed at all times if you are not there, except for 15 minutes, 3 times a day, under supervision to ventilate. No pouring is carried out/in progress during this time, to avoid external contamination.

- We're working on a stainless steel surface, which is easy to clean with isopropyl alcohol and is non-porous (unlike wood, which retains moisture and bacteria). You'll see that we don't like porous things around here.

- We spend our time washing our hands, for at least a minute, in a room other than the one where we wash our toys.

AND ALSO...

You'll see what our molds look like! (for those who aren't on discord)


And you'll notice right away that they're neither silicone nor 3D printed .
Ours are made of copper . But be careful: not raw copper , which would not be safe for the body .

All our molds are treated with a professional technique called chemical nickel plating .


It sounds very technical when you say it like that, but in reality, it simply means that a thin layer of nickel is applied to the surface of the mold.

This treatment prevents any chemical reaction between the copper and silicone, ensuring that every sex toy that comes out of our molds is perfectly safe for your body ❤️


Silicone does not degrade, it remains stable, pure, and faithful to its original composition.

Why are our mussels like this?


We just buy them like that, haha, that's all.

But it has plenty of advantages! First of all, it's more durable (fortunately), so it allows you to use sex toys multiple times (after thoroughly cleaning the molds, of course).

They are ultra smooth, non-porous and hard, this surface naturally reduces the adhesion of the silicone, which means we don't have to use a release agent (unlike 3D printed molds for example, which are porous) plus nickel is naturally non-stick, it's really the best for demolding!

They also withstand higher temperatures (up to 300°C), which is far higher than the post-cure temperature of platinum silicone!

They're easier to clean. In fact, their only real drawback is that they're a bit ugly. Their price is higher too, but it's offset by their durability.

Okay, enough talking, let's show you how we do things! 😄

What's happening in this video?

You can see that in this video, we are weighing two liquids... but what are these viscous liquids?

Well, that's just the basis of our toys :D


Platinum silicone is composed of two components:

The transparent white liquid : it's simply silicone! It's translucent, that's its base color, which is great, because its lack of color allows us to have beautiful shades when mixed with the pigment contained in the second liquid. It doesn't harden by itself, which is why we have to add a second liquid to our famous mixture.

The pink liquid : it's the platinum catalyst! (platinum cured)
Here, it's already tinted the right color: a candy pink that we love so much!
Putting the pigment in the catalyst has several advantages: it avoids accidental contamination of the silicone by the pigments, and it also allows us to store "pure" silicone in large quantities rather than having several small reserves of colored silicone.

For your information , the beakers we use are made of polypropylene (PP) .
PP has several advantages:

- It is heat resistant up to 120°C

- It does not react with silicone, catalyst, isopropyl alcohol or pigments used to color the catalyst

- Silicone does not stick to polypropylene

- It is very strong and light (and believe me, when you put 10 of them on a tray to put them in the oven, and when they fall on you, you are very happy that they are light 😅)

- And above all… it’s cheap ! 😄

Next comes the mixing

Mixing is a crucial step in creating a toy, it's when the magic happens! ✨

It is IMPERATIVE to obtain a perfectly homogeneous mixture at this stage. The catalyst must be distributed evenly throughout the silicone, in order to guarantee good polymerization (chemical reaction that transforms small molecules into long and solid chains, called polymers, in the sex toy world, this polymerization is called crosslinking. This is unfortunately not to summon the Ultimate Blue-Eyes Dragon).
Otherwise, the texture of the final toy will not be uniform, and you may end up with harder parts, softer parts, and places where the silicone has not set at all.

Additionally, the mixture helps reduce the amount of air trapped in the mixture, and therefore reduces bubbles! Note that the presence of bubbles in the toy makes it almost unusable: the presence of bubbles creates areas of weakness, making the toy more fragile and more likely to tear. It's also, obviously, an aesthetic defect... a toy full of lumps, it's not very appealing, right? 😬

But the main problem is hygiene. If a bubble is on or near the surface, it can create an irregularity in the surface, making the toy porous and more likely to retain fluids or dirt, encouraging mold growth 🦠

Basically, you paid for a silicone toy, and you end up with a toy that holds as much dirt as TPE… which would be a shame 😅

As you can see, mixing is incredibly important. Some people do it with a wooden spatula, but we're a bit more Rock & Roll 🤘

The whisk is made of stainless steel, an inert metal (one that has zero chemical reactivity) that does not inhibit polymerization and does not rust. It is only used for mixing silicone, and is washed with isopropyl alcohol after each use!

This is Thomas's favorite step, aha 😄 But hey, you get it, here, the goal is to mix well in order to have a homogeneous mixture and to let as many bubbles as possible escape!

But to be sure that there are no more bubbles in the mixture, we then move on to another crucial step: degassing ! 💨

Degassing

I'm going to stress this again, but it's super important that there are no more bubbles in the mixture. So even if you're mixing with all your might 💪, it's essential to use a vacuum chamber to degas!

Well, unfortunately, ours doesn't allow us to film the degassing process, which is quite impressive (it's not transparent), so it might be better to show you what it looks like! 👀

Source: YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbSvzD8g_S0

What does a vacuum chamber do?

Basically, the atmospheric pressure in an enclosed space is dropped very quickly . The bubbles expand very quickly, inflating rapidly, which causes them to suddenly rise to the surface , where they burst one after the other. This is what makes the mixture look like an effervescent tablet in Coca-Cola : the silicone is purging itself of all its bubbles.

Once the atmospheric pressure returns to normal, the mixture becomes dense, homogeneous and perfectly smooth ✨

And ONLY at this stage do we know that there is not a single bubble left in the mixture!

👉 At the risk of repeating myself , I would like to remind you of the importance of eliminating bubbles in the mixture:

- Avoid toy defects : a bubble that bursts when unmolding, and your toy is good for the trash

- Ensure solidity : A hidden bubble is like a crack in a house. It may not be a problem at first, but overnight, everything can collapse.

- Ensure hygiene and safety : the bubbles close to the surface create porous areas that can retain fluids, bacteria, dirt, etc. Result: a toy that becomes a nest of microbes and mold (those who have already had TPE toys know how quickly they get moldy 🤢)

- Preserve the details and textures of the mold : if a bubble gets stuck in a corner of the mold, the silicone will not spread properly, and you will end up with a toy with poorly formed details, or with less stimulating internal cavities 😕

The casting

This is the step where we bring the magic to life ✨

There are a few things to know, but it's not very complicated !

There are just a few little tips I'm going to give you, the goal is to AVOID BUBBLES (yes, again 😅)

To begin, we place ourselves 10 to 20 cm from the mold , so that any potential micro-bubbles break as they fall. And then we pour in a thin stream, SLOWLY, and ALWAYS in the same place . Why?

FOR THE BUBBLES!!!! Yes, it's super important, really. You can't imagine the number of toys we've had to throw away because of this... And it still happens to us occasionally (very rarely, but it's super important to be very vigilant at this stage , because a failed toy is just a waste of time and material and therefore money, and we like money anyway :3).

The goal here is to let the silicone fill the mold by itself , so that it expels the air by bringing it to the surface. For larger toys or very detailed molds, you can, just after this step, put the mold back to degas. But this makes the vacuum chamber dirty (as you saw in the previous video, the silicone rises and the bubbles throw it a little in all directions), and in addition to that, it is better to avoid moving the mold too much once the silicone is poured , so as not to create vibrations...

WHAT COULD RE-CREATE AIR BUBBLES 😤


And as you may have guessed... here, we hate air bubbles.

The end?

Not quite, but we've done the hardest part! 💪

If you have followed all the steps, then you are almost done.

Now comes the final step in creating the toy: crosslinking , the transformation of liquid silicone into a solid sex toy.

In reality, it has already started the moment we mix the silicone and the catalyst. But for professional toys, we use a silicone that takes several hours to set , unlike the silicone you can buy online, like in kits to make your own sex toy, which take on average 15-20 minutes !

A long crosslinking process allows us to take our time degassing and pouring! The more time we take, the fewer... bubbles there are!

We accelerate it in the oven, by heating the mold to 80°C for two to three hours : this is what we call post-curing .

The advantages of using an oven:

- Silicone hardens faster , and since we only have one mold per toy, it saves us from having to wait 12 to 24 hours without being able to work on a new toy.

- Heat pushes the chemical reaction to go all the way : the silicone is better crosslinked and more chemically stable, the texture is more homogeneous and more durable

- Some polymerization by-products are removed more efficiently and quickly

There are no real disadvantages, except financial or ecological (energy consumption), but it is the cost to have a perfectly finished toy. We have the advantage of having solid molds, so no risk of deformation at this stage!

⚠️ Be careful though: it is ESSENTIAL to use a stable and precise oven , in order to control the temperature. If it is too hot, the silicone can degrade .
In addition, to avoid any contamination , it is necessary to have an oven that is only used for the production of silicone toys . So quickly forget the kitchen oven !

Demolding

Once the mold has cooled (I once touched one straight out of the oven, I had a huge blister for 2 weeks 😵), we unmold.

Here, our copper molds pose a small problem: to unmold our toys, there must be two of us, one holding the mold from below, and one pulling from above. And filming this for you would involve showing our faces... and for now, we're very happy with anonymity 😄

So here's a replication of what it would look like if we had superhuman strength!

If you've been following along, you've noticed that it's a PINKIE PIE , while the toy we were working on was an AMY ROSE . Good call if you noticed! 😄

But for now, AMY is “cooking”: this video is just to show you what a toy looks like straight out of the mold! As you can see, the toy may need to be reworked a little. In this case, nothing could be simpler: cut off what’s sticking out! And there you have it, you’ve now finished making your silicone toy!

All we have to do now is wash it, wash all the utensils and also the toy itself!

For mussels, it's a four-step process:

- Once the mold is cold, use a lint-free cloth (microfibers) to roughly clean any remaining silicone visible on the mold.

- Next comes 99% isopropyl alcohol : soak a microfiber cloth and carefully clean the inside and outside walls of the mold, insisting well. For small details, use a cotton swab also soaked in isopropyl alcohol. We use this product because it leaves no chemical residue, dissolves silicone residue, dust or grease from fingers very well, and evaporates completely. Therefore, it leaves no trace, in addition to being safe for the mold and being a powerful antibacterial and disinfectant.

- Dry air is used to remove even the smallest invisible particle.

- Then let it dry for 10 minutes in the open air and store it in a clean place.

For utensils:

- Let the silicone harden in the beakers before removing it. Try to clean it while it's still soft, it's just the best way to spread silicone all over the beaker 😅

- Once dry, after crosslinking, it peels off in a block , because it does not adhere to PP, the material from which the beaker is made. To speed up crosslinking, they can be put in the oven

- And the mold is already reusable ! But to be sure to remove all the remaining residue, we use our best friend: isopropyl alcohol 🧪! We rub gently with a microfiber cloth, and once it's good, we let it air dry!

For toys:

- Let the toy “breathe” for 15 minutes after unmolding . Take the opportunity to remove your gloves and wash your hands!

- Then rinse it with lukewarm water to remove dust, any lint and larger residues.

- Then, use a mild soap with a neutral pH , without additives. Rub well everywhere, inside, outside, in all corners, for at least 10 minutes . Once you are sure that the toy is clean, rinse again thoroughly with lukewarm water and then dry well everywhere with a new microfiber cloth.

For those who were disappointed not to see an AMY being unmolded, we put a little video for you! If you have an eye, you will have seen that the part of the mold that makes the internal channels of the toys is not present in the unmolding videos, this is normal, we can remove them to clean them more easily! and as said previously, this is a "fake" unmolding video, we removed this part so as not to damage the toy by simulating the unmolding!

It's the next day... and look at that 😍! AMY is finally ready , all beautiful, all soft, all shiny!


Honestly, I love this toy, this deep, almost sweet pink , combined with this ultra smooth texture... it's a real pleasure to handle. We are always super proud when a toy comes out of the mold so well, it's our little reward after all this meticulous work.

Well, let's be honest... we're not perfect . We do our best, we learn every day, we improve our processes, our equipment, our hygiene, our precision... but we still make mistakes, have a little waste, or discover that we could have done better. We do this with passion, with seriousness, but also with a lot of humility.

So if any silicone pros or experienced people happen to be here: honestly, don't hesitate to write to us, advise us or give us constructive feedback . We're curious, open, and always ready to learn! 🙏

And now, after creation, comes the last step: packaging and delivery 📦


If you want to see how we carefully pack each toy , how we prepare your orders, and what exactly the package you will receive looks like...

👉 Click here to find out more!

See how we manage delivery

See all our products