Category: Reviews

Sex Toy Reviews

Below you’ll find all of the sex toy reviews I’ve written at Of Sex and Love. Find my opinions on vibrators, dildos, media (sex education books, porn, DVDs and erotica), bondage and BDSM gear, lingerie,  anal toys, lube, massage products, and more!

Considering sex toy storage? Look no further!

I’ve also reviewed sexual health goodies.

Don’t forget all those accessories and non-sex toy reviews.

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Categories
Reviews Sexual Health and Beauty

Smartballs (Black/Magenta)

Smartballs

Smartballs

This is an archived review of a discontinued product. These Pinkcherry Kegel Balls seem quite similar, however.

Smartballs have been reviewed a million times. Probably more. I can’t think of any toy which has been reviewed more. I actually cringe when I read another new review for them so I don’t want to inundate you with what you already know but I still wanted to try them for myself and PinkCherry provided them for me to do so.

In the event that you forgot or haven’t stumbled across one of those reviews, here’s a quick rundown: Elastomed (specially treated, non-porous elastomer), weighted, silicone retrieval cord, 0.3 lb, 4 1/2″ length, 4 1/2″ circumference, “ribbed”, dual-colour (with multiple colours available), vaginal exercisers with flexible connector which can be washed with soap/water or toy wash (but no boiling); made by Fun Factory (with Fun Factory’s standard packaging).

There are a couple things which are remarkable:

  • Smartballs are not round, they are actually oblong.
  • The connector is longer of that in the Luna Beads or K-Balls.
  • The combination of these things means a longer exerciser overall.
  • Different colours seem to offer differing amounts of stimulation via internal ‘vibrations.’
  • Smartballs offer the most stimulation via ‘vibration’ than either the Luna Beads or K-Balls.
  • Smartballs are also the heaviest which I consider no coincidence.
  • The retrieval cord is connected to the end of one ball, which is very points.
  • Silicone lube can be used.

There are also a few things I experienced:

  • Smartballs are more difficult to position than K-Balls. I needed to readjust them to find the right place for them to sit. If they were in a different position, they were uncomfortable, even painful. They also wanted to slip out more. I feel this is all due to the longer connector and oblong shape.
  • The ridges offered no help for insertion. My fingers were nowhere near there; however, insertion wasn’t so hard that I needed the ridges.
  • The ridges made no difference in sensation.
  • The retrieval cord on Smartballs is stiffer and more annoying than the cords on similar vagina balls.
  • Like all vaginal balls, the Smartballs push out tiny air “pockets” (queefs, I guess?) from the vagina. This can be annoying/distracting or may not affect you at all. I always have to get use to it, when I first put them in.
  • Although I could feel the inner vibrations more, they weren’t pleasurable. Furthermore, the shape of the balls didn’t work with my shape as well as the K-Balls. G-spot stimulation was little to none.
  • I was able to experience intense G-spot stimulation with one ball poised at the entrance to my vagina and a strong massager-style vibrator.
  • The pointy end where the cord is, fucking hurt/pinched!
  • Vaginal balls are not good for stationary activities.

My personal preference for kegel balls is not Fun Factory’s Smartballs. They are certainly well made but my specific shape and the oblong balls do not mix very well. I think all of my issues would be solved by making the Smartballs round and while I know every woman is different, I think that one improvement would make them more enjoyable for the majority of women.

It is of significance that Fun Factory has released a sort of Smartballs 2.0 with their Teneo Duo Smartballs. These exercisers do lack the painful, pointy place as the way the retrieval cord is connected has changed. However, they still appear to be oblong.

Categories
Reviews Vibrators

Silicone Intimate Diver

Silicone Intimate Diver

Silicone Intimate Diver
N/A from

This is an archived review of a discontinued product.

My experience with sea creatures as sex toys has proven unpleasant more than once now. For whatever reasons, dolphins and their cousins, the porpoises are perhaps a little too realistic for comfort. Such was the case with the Intimate Diver, a dual-stimulation vibrator.

A little information about this toy. Made of TPR silicone, the Intimate Diver is waterproof, of course. A note that this is not pure silicone, and while it’s generally more hygienic and less porous than jelly or cyberskin, for instance, it’s still porous, so anal use or sharing without a condom isn’t a good idea. You’re also limited to water-based lubes here.

My pink porpoise is posed so its forked tail – the clit stimulator – curls over its back toward its head – the internal/G-spot stimulator. The very tip of this toy is his nose, and he has a “fin” on each side as well as a vertical fin on his back. The body is this sea creature has a little give but is mostly firm. The fins, tail, and nose have more give because they’re thinner, but you won’t experience any rabbit ear floppiness with this tail (like on rabbit vibes with much thinner parts).

His head contains a bullet-style vibe, which is powered by 2AAA batteries that slip into an EZ load pack. As you can imagine, this doesn’t make it the most powerful toy. For me, the lowest and middle settings will do little more than tease; the highest likely won’t get me off but it’s decent. Unfortunately, the thicker TPR silicone isn’t great with vibrations, and it’s definitely more difficult to feel them in the tail. Furthermore, once inserted, vaginal muscles have a tendency to muffle some of the vibrations which even worsens the problem. Stronger vibes and a thinner tail might help with this but I just prefer toys with bullets at the clit, too, because of the pressure it gives. Unfortunately, the TPR silicone was soft enough that it wasn’t a good toy to grind with, either.

What ultimately turned me off from this sex toy is that its fins hurt upon insertion. I could plainly feel the side fins poking at me painfully because they were much denser than the tail or nose. I’m not really sure what purpose they’re supposed to serve; the back fin could possibly provide G-spot stimulation (although it didn’t, for me), but those side fines are pointless. It’s hard to feel aroused when you’re in pain. The moral of the story here: just because you want to model a vibrator after an animal does not mean it has to be completely anatomically correct. Fins serve a purpose in the water, not in my vagina.

It’s good to see California Exotic working with higher quality materials than jelly (even if they’re aren’t as quality as they’d have us believe) but it seems like a lot of corners were cut to make this toy.

Categories
Reviews Vibrators

Bottle Rockets Nova

I almost overlooked the potential of Nova because it wasn’t what I expected. Perhaps that is a lesson I need to take with me in every aspect of life? Needless to say, giving this tiny vibrator a second chance revealed its potential in a way I never saw coming. I definitely had to rethink my approach when writing the review after it made me squirt.

Categories
Reviews Vibrators

Rabbit Rider

Rabbit Rider

Rabbit Rider
N/A from

This is an archived review of a discontinued toy.

The Rabbit Rider is a toy I’ve had my eye on for a while because it tackles an issue many women have with rabbit-style vibes: placement of the clitoral stimulator. It’s not exactly the only toy which does this but most other toys use a sort of springy cord rather than placing the rabbit bullet on a ring around the shaft as if he were riding it. The Rabbit Rider is aptly named. Unfortunately, this great idea has yet to become a wonderful implementation.

The Rabbit Rider is actually a versatile kit but isn’t really a typical rabbit vibe. It includes a vibrating bullet and a standard plastic vibe, both which have pink Cyberskin sleeves. The sleeve for the bullet includes a bunny’s head and ears, as well at the band which goes around the shaft, and the other sleeve is very typical, with a realistic texture and contoured head. Both sleeves are easy to remove and replace on each part and could potentially be used with other bullets or standard vibes, should you so choose. You can also use the rabbit clitoral stimulator alone, or the vibrator alone. Take off the sleeves and it’s almost like you have 2 new toys.

I’ve even seen suggestions of using the bunny as a cock ring and, while this is possible, it’s probably not especially pleasurable. The band is larger than any cock ring I’ve seen and super stretchy; I even wore it around my wrist for a short period of time. I just don’t think this piece makes a functional cock ring.

Like most basic vibes, the one included is made of hard plastic, powered by 2AAs and has a dial base. The vibrations are surprisingly powerful and not whiny at all but this toy is much louder than I find to be acceptable unless we’re talking about my Miracle Massager or something similar. Granted, the sound is muffled once inserted; still, I felt self conscious at the noise of this one. The dial base wasn’t smooth to use – it was kinda of jerky and reluctant. I usually had to use one hand to hold the base and the other to turn the dial. Like any dial toy, twisting too far in the direction of “Off” can pop open the battery case.

The mini bullet which serves at a clit stimulator is like no bullet I’ve tried before. There is a power/mode button on the bottom of the bullet as well as a High – Low dial on the side of the bullet. The bullet has 5 modes; the first three are pulsation (medium, slow and fast respectively) and the last 2 are steady vibration with the very last being the stronger. All of this is powered by 4 small watch batteries and there are 2 sets (8 total) included. Note that 4 batteries are in the bullet initially and it won’t work until you move a small piece of plastic from the bullet. The ability to adjust the strength of the vibration on a bullet impressed me and even if this isn’t the strongest bullet I’ve tried, it’s incredibly varied. Furthermore, the pulsation was more than satisfactory. Unfortunately, you have to cycle through all 5 modes to turn it off and if you have the dial set to Low, you may think it’s off and drain the batteries. Out of everything in this kit, the bullet is the one thing I will likely continue to use.

Cyberskin was also another first for me. I’m not a big fan of realistic sex toys so I’ve never tried a Cyberskin toy. Immediately, I was amazed at just how soft this material is. I totally understand why they would make fake vaginas out of this stuff. However, vaginas and penises are different animals and I wasn’t sold that it would be a good material for a woman’s toy. I was also wary at the quality of this material. It’s extremely porous nature, fussy upkeep, lint attraction and musty smell are enough to deter me from Cyberskin toys in the future. From the washing the Rabbit Rider in the bathroom to the bedroom, it had collected a mass amount of lint and cat fur. I don’t even want to think about storage and since I have nothing to powder it with I’ll probably just see how long until the sleeves deteriorate.

I am happy to say that the Cyberskin did feel much more realistic in my cunt than in my hand. It could probably pass for the real thing and the vibrations were strong enough to stimulate a sweet spot or two, at least sometimes. But together with the clit stimulator, the Rabbit Rider was a flop. Literally. The soft nature of the Cyberskin offered little control over the precise placement of the bullet. It just sort of fell to the side and seemed limp. I think that even folks who like gentle vibrations of rabbit ears would find it difficult to get much out of the stimulator but a person likes me, who needs the bullet to rest snugly against the clit, would be especially disappointed.

I tossed the bullet aside and tried to use the sleeved vibrator against my clit to get off with much effort on my part and little help on its. Of course, if I had wanted to get off that way in the first place, I wouldn’t have been using the Rabbit Rider. I applaud Adam and Eve’s take on an idea that seems to be mostly unexplored but there’s a long way to go before it’s perfect. For starters, I would swap the Cyberskin sleeves for a hygienic silicone vibe. Instead of a standard, straight shaft, I would use an ergonomically curved shaft with rotating beads and perhaps solve the issue of floppiness by using an open, hard plastic ring (think a thicker version of a fake jewelry ring which is not a full circle) or a band which opens on a hinge. I do like the functions of the bullet but I like them to be physically larger.

Categories
Lube Reviews

ID Moments

ID Moments

ID Moments
N/A from

ID no longer sells Moments lube, but you can buy ID Free, which seems similar.

I’m a big fan of ID Glide. It’s my go-to lube, and it’s versatile because it’s water-based, so when I got my last package from PinkCherry, I was surprised to see a little 2.7 oz bottle of lube by the same company. Moments seems to be ID’s take on a hypoallergenic water-based lube for folks with sensitive skin by removing ingredients like paraben and glycerin and, while I’ve never had many issues with sensitivities to lube, it seemed like a nice addition. Somewhat ironically, ID Moments is one of only two lubes that has caused irritation to my skin.

However, let me describe the specs of this product before going into use. ID Moments comes in ID’s typical round, flip-top bottle with the top and labels in a deep shade of pink. Because it’s water-based, it can be used for any activity or with any material and easily washes off with water (so wet activities might not be the best use). While it has no glycerine or parabens, it does have nearly a dozen other ingredients. The bottle was also sealed (beneath the top).

The very first thing I noticed – I mean how could you miss it? – was the atrocious scent of this lube. It does seem like I’m the only one whose nose was offended by this, though; some people even seemed to really like it. The smell originally reminded me of something which had fermented, in a bad way. In fact, I checked the expiration date (it was fine) because I was sure no company would intentionally make a product smell like this. Furthermore, I could find no mention of this product having a fragrance, so I checked ID’s website, and it says it is fragrance-free. Even if my preference for certain smells is unique, I would be very disappointed in this lube if I bought it believing it was fragrance-free. I am happy to note that the smell seems to have eased up, and now I interpret it more as a very, very sour, fruity smell – like the scent equivalent of a Warhead (which I hate, LOL).

I did a quick taste test and ID Moments has a slightly sour/fruity taste as well. I also wanted to check out the thickness. ID Moments is not the thinnest lube around but it’s not as thick as ID Glide which is a con for me; I like my lubes thicker because I don’t like to deal with the mess. On the other hand, ID Moments is rather silky and rubs into the skin without becoming sticky at all.

But I can’t say how it works internally because I was too busy wondering why my genitals were burning to notice. I have double and triple checked and can’t find any mention of this being a warming lube so the logical assumption here is that ID Moments and my girl parts just do not mix. It’s just kind of funny that the girl who has only been allergic to 2 things in her entire life would be irritated by hypoallergenic lube, right?

I wanted to be really thorough so I used the lube 3 times, each time with a different toy just in case it was toy material and not the lube causing the problem. It was the lube. Luckily, I never used a ton of lube (I don’t normally) and the sensation quickly went away as soon as I stopped my activities.

I know that mine might be the only experience that goes badly, but I’d rather err on the side of caution and just not recommend this lube to anyone. With that said, PinkCherry also carries Wet Naturals Beautifully Bare (read my review), a lube that is also paraben and glycerin-free, which I have used to much success.

Categories
Reviews Vibrators

Hard to Please?

I am hard to please. I can admit it. I don’t want to have to adjust to my sex toys; they should adjust to me. This is one of the reasons I’ll probably never own the Sasi even though it seems really cool. I just couldn’t use it in my way. It’s also why I wouldn’t have picked out Evolved’s waterproof Seduction myself. While it’s a nice toy, it’s just not the best toy for me. You can read more at my review on EdenFantasys.

Categories
Reviews Sexual Health and Beauty

Inttimo Kitty Shave Kreme

Inttimo Kitty Shave Kreme

Inttimo Kitty Shave Kreme

This is an archived review of a discontinued product.

There is something so uniquely feminine about smooth, hairless skin. It’s also rather unnatural. Let’s face it, there’s an entire booming industry revolving around hair removal, whether done at home or professionally and, judging from the prices we pay, it must be pretty lucrative. So even though it might not be as efficient or long lasting, I’ll save a buck or two and shave at home which is exactly why I need a product like Inttimo Kitty Shave Kreme, especially when shaving the more sensitive bits.

Inttimo Kitty Shave Kreme comes in a hefty 8.8 Oz bottle with cap. I love the cap because travel and storage are infinitely less messy and, because it’s not aerosol, every drop of shave cream is usable. It’s definitely a bigger bottle than most shave creams but it costs quite a bit more per ounce too, too. The Inttimo Kitty Shave Kreme I have comes in Forbidden Fruit scent. It’s a little fruity but smells a bit like chemicals too. The scent isn’t very strong so if you’re not a fan, it probably won’t phase you unless you’re making a point to smell this shave cream.

I just shaved my legs on my first run through to gel a feel for this product. Although a very light pink in the pump bottle (which was safety sealed when it arrived), it goes on clear. This creamy gel is thicker than some I’ve tried so it doesn’t wash off as quickly. During use, I couldn’t smell the scent at all; it didn’t permeate the scent of my body wash and I don’t think anyone who uses any scented bath products will notice the smell. Wet could afford to make this shave cream smell a little better and stronger.

Maybe I’m the odd one out in this, but my bikini line and thighs, not bikini area, are the most sensitive I shave, hands down. Irritation, razor bumps and infections are issues I know all too well when shaving above the knee, probably because my nicely rounded thighs spend a lot of time rubbing against one another or my pants. Originally, I shaved this area with the same shaving gel I bought for my legs but it really wasn’t doing the trick. Eventually, I bought some Coochy Cream as it was highly recommended and it did a decent job – I was definitely less irritated – but wasn’t perfect. I’ve also had some success with Bikini Zone shave gel, which is what I had on hand for comparison.

To test out Inttimo Kitty Shave Kreme, I decided to shave one thigh with Bikini Zone and the other with Inttimo Kitty Shave Kreme for a side by side – or thigh by thigh – comparison. A couple pumps of shave cream on my skin and I was off. Although less slick than the Bikini Zone, Inttimo Kitty Shave Kreme held its own and held up during shaving and rinsing. I actually preferred the thicker formula because it didn’t wash away right away and I like to apply shave cream only at the beginning and I’m less likely to add more even if it rinses away.

In the end, the closeness of the shave I got was about the same. My skin felt a little softer on the thigh where I’d used Inttimo Kitty Shave Kreme but it wasn’t really noticeable. I didn’t experience any razor bumps or irritation on either thigh which is remarkable because I’m pretty sure that’s the first time ever. It’s almost as though the products were competing to win me over.

Really, they both did equally well. One difference I noticed is that my shower floor felt more slippery when I used Inttimo Kitty Shave Kreme but I don’t have a shower mat, anyway. I did prefer the thickness and staying power of the Kitty Kreme, though. I’m still not sure I’d want to spend so much on one bottle, even if it is a nice product.