This product has been discontinued.

This month’s assignment from CEN’s Sexpert program was a surprise. I don’t know if I would have chosen anything from their light bondage line, titled Playful in Pearls, myself. However, I can more than give you a thorough review regardless.

The satin mask is a slight upgrade to the free masks. It doesn’t just look like a pad on a string. There’s a more defined contour for your nose. Rather than a thin elastic strap, the band is bordered with lace on the top and bottom. In the center, back of the blindfold is a big ribbon bow. To top it all off, there’s a row of faux pearls along the top front of the mask. All in all, it’s very feminine, and I think this definitely affects who is going to buy this. It’s a little too much going on for me. The ribbon, mask, and lace have too many textures for my personal preference.

So, while the mask isn’t quite a pad-on-a-string, it’s not perfect. The satin is stiffer than I like, but it’s not so stiff that it doesn’t pull across the bridge of the nose. I experience this with softer materials. My KinkLab blindfold, for example, is stiff enough to prevent this. The elastic stretches and the mask stays stationary. Plus, while the lace and elastic band is stretchy, it’s not going to fit every head. The band itself is just under 14″ long, with another 7.5″ for the mask itself. It stretches much larger, obviously. I find this to be a little loose on my head, and it’s not adjustable. On the other hand, if your head is larger than mine, this won’t be a problem.

Although contoured, the mask isn’t quite enough to block out all light. The layers of fabric are pretty thin, too. It’s not a very good blackout blindfold, and the blindfold will slip during use, especially if it’s loose. For these reasons, I feel like this piece is really better for show than function. Take some pictures, but that’s about it.

The problem is that it doesn’t look as good up close as you think. The line of “pearls” is sewn on with a clear thread, like fishing line. It looked up over the top of the mask and only goes through the actual material ones. This means that the pearl beads can slide out of place. One in particular, on my blindfold, likes to flip behind the mark, so I’m constantly adjusting it. This really wreaks havoc on the aesthetic appeal, at least for me. Because the beads are just spheres with a hole on either side, a regular stitch would work for this. I’m not sure if it would require more effort, but the result would be nicer.

On to the cuffs, which, unfortunately, suffer from many of the same flaws. The cuffs are two elastic and lace bands with velcro enclosures, and they’re permanently attached to each other with a string of pearls. I think the cuffs themselves are cuter than the blindfold. I’d almost wear them as regular accessories with the loose lace and the pretty ribbon bow on top. If you look at the point where the velcro attaches, it looks a little odd, but this isn’t so noticeable if you’re not staring directly at it.

The wrist cuffs do seem pretty tiny, especially compared to some of the nylon and leather ones I’ve tried. They’re about 7.5″ long, unstretched. You can stretch them another two inches, and the lace does have some elasticity but, again, these seem intended for ladies and not men. This also limits their versatility as ankles cuffs.

The real drawback is the line of pearls in between. They’re strung on the invisible thread; although, they’re tight enough that you can’t see it at all. The long row of faux pearls looks pretty cheap and, IMO, tacky. It’s very plastic-y. The bound person has 9.5″ of space between her hands, which lets her move some, but not much. I would worry that, during actual play, the bound person might accidentally jerk, tear the thread and the pearls would go flying.

CEN has tried to avoid this, because you can see that the ends of the strings are tied in one giant glob of a knot. It’s noticeable only if you’re looking, I suppose, but you’d think they could do it much better. It’s really sloppy. I didn’t give this one a full-strength pull test but, again, I’d be careful with it.

While I like the idea of the playful in pearls pieces, the execution just needs some work.

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Categories: BDSM, Reviews