Liquid people run themselves with in gear

Hey. I’ve seen some vids of guys putting what looks like lube on themselves in gear and rubbing around. I’m hesitant to put lube all over me? (I’m assuming it’s water based) I don’t want to harm the gear and lube is expensive but it looks fucking hot. Wondering if it’s something else.

That's a good question and I'm also curious about the answer, as you wrote, it looks amazing but I don't want to ruin my gear