Save Big at Lovehoney

March 20th, 2014

Lovehoney’s spring sale is currently going on. Not only can you save $15 on $70 — no code needed — but there are some awesome toys available.

Ceramix No. 6

Ceramix No. 6

1. Ceramix No. 6

It’s like the Ceramix dildo that I reviewed, but stripey-er. The ridges are interesting, and you’d likely enjoy it if you don’t need a lot of curve for G-spot stimulation. It could also be use anally and with a harness. Yay!

2. The Mute Swan

Rechargeable. Silicone. Curved. I haven’t tried the Mute Swan, but the toy looks elegant and luxurious. It’s also 26% off right now.

3.  Embrace Bunny Wand 

I’ve been wanting to get my hands on an Embrace toy for a while. This new, USB rechargeable line comes to you form California Exotics, and it looks pretty nice. The bunny has a filling shaft and long ears.

Ceramix No.1

Ceramix No.1

4. Ceramix No.1

Sexy purple mushroom straight out of Wonderland? I think so! It’s been a long time since I’ve done anal play. Maybe I should change it up with this plug. At $20 on sale, this is the cheapest you’ll find the plug, too!

5. Lovelife Dream

I like Cuddle, the g-spot vibe in this line,  but that’s not on sale right now. However, Dream is a cute little vibrator with a price of just $54. The shafter is straighter so it’s good for general internal and external stimulation.

Out of everything on Lovehoney’s sale page,  what would you get?

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Categories: Shopping

Sweet like..

March 8th, 2014

When it comes to sexuality, a lot of terms are common, even though I’m more of a fan of just calling a vagina a vagina or a penis a penis. I don’t like to sugar coat things, and I think that we can actually do a disservice by using come euphemisms and pussyfooting around the idea of sex. However, sometimes we have to admit that it is sweet, perhaps, like candy. It’s not an analogy that I would use all the time, but it’s one that other people certainly like.

Consider the brand Bedroom Kandi, which I’ve yet to try. While I like the designs, I wasn’t convinced that the high price tags were unjustified and mostly due to the fact that  Kandi Burruss, who worked with OhMiBod to create the line, is something of a celebrity. In fact, before looking this up, I wasn’t even sure whose idea this was or that he name is Kandi. I had to Google her to figure out who she was. I always thought that the woman from Real Housewives of [Location] — Atlanta, apparently — was a member of Xscape  previously. Nor did I know that the brand has a male stroker, which actually looks pretty cool with how it uses the quilted texture.

This brand isn’t to be confused with Bedroom Kandy, an online retailer that sells products from dozens of vendors by hundreds of manufacturers. BedroomKandy.net includes toys like those from the Fifty Shades  of Grey brand in addition to DVDs and books. It’s very similar to my own affiliate shop, and you can use coupons or check out the blog  for tips about using toys, including profiles on the Fun Factory Stronic Eins and the original Hitachi Magic Wand. It’s nice to see more retailers consider blogging and other social media worthy of their attention because I always know that what I do is worthwhile. 😉

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Categories: Shopping

Black Friday Shopping? Try Bedroom Kandy

November 29th, 2013

You don’t have to have a boring sex life whether you are married or still searching for the right partner. Adult toys can bring passion back into your romantic life if you have an open mind. Products are designed to be safe and comfortable to use and you can even order discreetly online if you are too nervous to visit a local adult store. Taking a few moments to browse websites like BedroomKandy.net can give you plenty of ideas for turning your fantasies into reality. Browsing with your partner is a smart idea if you want to find ideas that will work for two, or you can shop alone and surprise your partner with a romantic evening they won’t forget.

Today, you will find a wide range of adult products for both men and women. Lingerie can be the perfect gift for someone special, or you can opt for a more private gift to boost the passion in your bedroom. DVDs are a simple way to find the romance if your sex life has been lagging. If you are worried about surprising your partner because you aren’t sure how receptive they will be, you can begin with a DVD then move on to more exotic, and exciting, adult products to boost the romance and bring back the excitement

Thanks for the guest post, Bedroom Kandy.

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Categories: Shopping

Holiday Shopping with Babeland

November 25th, 2013

Babeland has officially released multiple gift guides for shopping for your loved ones this year. I figure I didn’t need to write my own. Epiphora already has one, and plenty of retailers do, too. Anyway, a guide would appear something like my “Best of” lists, and I’ll be writing one of those in a few short weeks. But I do have thoughts on some of the gift guides are that are out, so here’s my informal critique.

Tenga Flip by Babeland

Tenga Flip by Babeland

Top Ten Sexy Gifts for Him

This list includes masturbators, cock rings, anal toys  and a few kits. I’d  recommend the Tenga Flip for individual users and the Mio cock ring for couples. I’m not really a huge fan of kits because they all usually contain something that I really won’t use. Of course, a nice bottle of lube is ideal for anyone on your list. Babeland carries Ride Rub Stroke Oil intended specifically for jerking off.

Top Ten Gifts for Her

This list is almost entirely made up of vibrators with the exceptions of  the Under the Bed Restraints, which I do love! To be honest, I don’t really like anything else on the list. The Minna Ola was frustrating, the Form 2 sucked and the Pikobong toys are a joke. I do have high hopes for the We-Vibe 4 but haven’t had a chance to try it yet. So here’s my recommendations instead:

We Vibe Touch

We Vibe Touch

  1. Stronic Eins for unique pulsating sensation
  2. Siri for clitoral stimulation
  3. JimmyJane Form 6 G3 for strong vibes and versatility
  4. We Vibe Tango  or Touch for strong external vibes in a portable package
  5. Babeland’s Orchid  G for something that won’t break the bank or someone who isn’t sure what they want yet

Also, the list is sorely lacking in dildos. I love the look of the Babeland Mustang and the Candy dildos. You can also pick up the Leo with include bullet vibe.

Stocking Stuffers

If you’re running low on funds or just want to top of someone’s stocking this holiday season, Babeland also has a list of stocking stuffers under $30. This list includes Tenga eggs, which are perfect for masturbating on the run, and all sorts of Babelube.  I’m a particular fan of Babeland’s massage products, so check out the bars on the list. There’s even a mini riding crop for just a little (tehe) bondage fun.

I would personally add the Sliquid lube cube to the list. Why not toss in a condom sampler?

Kits

Although I said I don’t like kits, some of the pricier ones are an all right deal. There’s an entire page of kits. My recommendations are for the Start Kit that includes the Orchard G and a bullet vibe, Bootie + Sliquid kit, Mystic Wand + G-spot attachment, Jaguar Harness + Leo dildo, Power to the Pink (which has lube and a Siri) and maybe the Sweetheart Kink.

Right now Babeland is doing 30% off best sellers, so take a look. They’re also holding a contest for newsletter subscribers. You can win a $600 shopping spree when you sign up.

 

What’s on your Christmas list this year?

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Categories: Shopping

Pure Romance Is (Even More Of) A Scam!

October 31st, 2013

Nothing about Pure Romance is "pure"

Nothing about Pure Romance is “pure”

I’ve gone to my fair share of Pure Romance parties. The company seems to be the one that’s most prevalent in many places; although Passion Parties is another name that I know.

This isn’t the first time that I’ve written about sex toy parties. They can be a great deal of fun; although, that depends on who’s there and your consultant. The event might be right up your alley. I’ve had plenty of fun and made new friends at some of them, but others have been a little more lackluster.

However, my issue is with Pure Romance as a company, which doesn’t just sell you sex toys and bath and body items but sells you rebranded items that are marked up. I already knew this about the vibrators and such. As the rep went through the catalog, I recognized several pieces that I had tried by California Exotics. Marilyn was on the list, as well as a number of cheaper vibrators that were marked up 50 to 100 percent. Jaguar is a toy I wouldn’t recommend at $30 let alone $59.

The rep skipped right through the Diamond collection because “we didn’t have that much money,” but it was mostly Jopen products.   The Wingman, for example, costs $189 from Pure Romance but the original in the Jopen Ego line is $110. Various items from the Key line are marked up $20 or more.

But, like I said, this is old news. I mostly go for the bath and body products, and I was curious about the pink cupcake scent that’s new. I love my pink cupcake products from Classic Erotica. As it turns out, they smell exactly the same because..

Holiday Products makes both Classic Eroticag and Pure Romance.

Now, this could be convenient for some people, but the markup is ridiculous. Pure Romance brands both a shaving cream and a body mist, got $19 and $20, respectively. However, even sex toy vendors charge less than $9 for the body mist. Crazy Girl’s shave cream costs less than half the Coochy-branded cream and, yes, Coochy from either Classic Erotica or Pure Romance is essentially the same thing. The big different? The scents available and what products are there.

Both lines include Body Dew, but Pink Cupcake isn’t available from Classic Erotica. Similarly, not all of the Pure Romance products are available in the other brand. However, even if you can only get it from Pure Romance, you don’t have to buy it from a book party. You can usually hop onto Ebay and get it for much cheaper if you don’t mind waiting a few days for shipping.

However, that’s not the only issue I have with Pure Romance.

Consultants Are Not Given Enough Sexual Health Information and Some of That Information Is Plain Wrong

I don’t expect a sex toy party to be an eye-opening experience, but the last of information was pretty sad. For example, Pure Romance sells anal numbing and vaginal tightening creams, both of which are unhealthy. There’s no warning about them, of course. Plus, numbing creams actually negate you body’s natural response to pain (read more about this here). If it hurts, you’re doing something wrong. The consultant said as much.. right before she hawked the numbing products from the company.

And a warning about silicone lube and silicone toys? Nothing. Sure, she mentioned not to store your toys next to one another but not why. Pro tip: if you leave a jelly toy for long enough, it will leech mineral oil. No mention of using condoms and never using a porous toy that’s been used anally vaginally — ever again. She did mention that no silicone is ever clear, but I’ve seen some of the awesome stuff that Jollies made.

And when someone asked the difference between metal and silicone, she responded that silicone warms to body temperate and metal doesn’t. Actually, both can warm; although, metal feels quite cool if you haven’t prewarmed it, which you can do with warm water. Silicone is also available in a variety of firmness, which is what I wanted to say, but I knew it didn’t pay

Finally, I was absolutely appalled when the rep said that there was only one type of orgasm, and you’re stimulating the same party altogether. No, you are not. Mary Roach wrote a revealing article “The Immaculate Orgasm: Who Needs Genitals?” that’s in her own book and Best Sex Writing 2009. In it, she talks about research on women with spinal injuries who retain the ability to achieve one sort of orgasm but not the other because clitoral and G-spot orgasms trigger different nerves. Not only that, but saying that there’s only one type of orgasm negates all the experiences that women have had, the very women who are at a Pure Romance party to explore their sexuality. Negative comments can be permanently damaging to these women, and that’s just not cool.

Let’s not forget, once and for all, that..

Pure Romance is a pyramid scheme.

And it works only when you can guilt your friends into paying for products.

So let’s just be done with them. You can buy directly from manufacturers like LELO. Shop around online. PinkCherry always has amazing sales, and bloggers like myself are more than happy to write a review to set you on the right path.

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Categories: Advice, Shopping

Taking the Stigma Out of Adult Fun and Games

July 2nd, 2013

There is a clear and rather sizeable difference between your bog-standard sex shop and your complete and comprehensive resource for adult fun and games. The difference lies not only in the way in which such establishments carry themselves, but the way in which at least one of them is making every effort to dispel taboos once and for all and get the nation as a whole more adventurous and courageous behind closed doors.

 Dark, Dirty and Dismal?

The problem facing the sex shop industry today is the way in which for so many decades it has for all intents and purposes been swept under the rug as something of a dirty little secret. Such stores were for the large part considered seedy and unsavoury, those using them carried the same kind of stigma and the situation was generally one from which nobody was profiting.

However, more liberal attitudes over recent years have seen the sex retail industry emerge from the rock it was forced under by society and has become one of the most ‘loud and proud’ industries out there. Those working for the cause have been making every effort to revamp the industry with a new, entirely less serious and more fun façade than ever before, in an attempt to remove the stigma from both the shops themselves and those using them.

That being said, for most it isn’t quite as simple as flipping a switch and suddenly becoming the most adventurous sexual pioneer on the face of the Earth, which is precisely why online sex shops have taken the revolution and have made it their own.

A New Dynamic

What makes the online sex shop such an important presence in the way forward for the industry as a whole doesn’t in fact have anything to do with the product on offer. Instead, it is a case of delivering a different method by which to browse and purchase large ranges of sex toys, while feeling 100% confident and free from the gaze of prying eyes while doing so.

As opposed to what were at one point glorified vending machines where a person would scuttle in, pick up the gadget they were looking for, pay up and summarily scuttle out of the door again, things really couldn’t be more different. Online sex stores have been set up to offer comprehensive services that go far beyond the products themselves, offering detailed advice, descriptions, guidance for newcomers and the answers to plenty of common questions.

Or in other words, a package that has the potential to remove all of the stigma from both the buying and the selling process, which by rights could open the eyes of millions across the country to what they have been missing out on and were previously afraid to get into.

Of course, it might be a while before this new liberal approach to sex retail hits the mainstream and people are just as happy to use physical sex chops with the same confidence as online stores, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

By Kath Roberts

Kath Roberts considers herself to be something of an adult sex shop expert having worked for dozens and is now taking her mission to transform attitudes across Australia to the web.

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Categories: Shopping

This Ain’t A Man’s World

October 23rd, 2012

Writer Rose Crompton explores how sex shops are no longer a male only domain.

There was a time when you said the phrase “sex shop” and floods of negative connotations would come to mind: tucked away down a dark alley, illuminated by a flickering red light or garish XXX neon sign. Once entering the shop you’d be accosted by shelves upon shelves of hardcore porn DVD’s – many with cover images that could lead to the question of the legality of it – each row filled with seedy looking gents in long coats, fingering the cases carefully as he decides which bit of grot to take home tonight.

This is, of course, total stereotyping and although there are still many scenes like this that ring true in red light districts around the world, it’s also hard not to notice that there is a big shift happening and the face of sex shopping, how we do it and the characters we come across, are radically changing.

Dare we say it, but it appears that sex shops are becoming more female friendly, even specifically targeting women. With the opening of sex stores or raunchy lingerie shops on the high-street, it means that adult stores are being taken out of the dingy back streets and thrust into the bright lights of acceptable consumerism and us women are definitely not turning a blind eye to it. In fact, we relish it, especially with the online explosion where sites like Vibrations Direct, which are tailored to appeal to women and couples specifically, it appears that sex shopping is no longer a male domain.

Men may still have porn, only just thanks to a number of female directors and production companies breaking through, but women definitely have the real pleasure chest at their fingertips. The number of vibrators, dildos, bondage gear and sex clothing that is targeted at women far outweighs what men have at their sexual disposal, if they choose. As the shops move into the light, so do the Sex toys companies as they create ever more desirable and lust-worthy toys. Some of these are even elevated to the status of designer brands and are distinctly aimed at women.

For savvy, sex positive ladies (or those of use that have watched countless episodes of Sex And The City), most of us know the difference between our bullet vibes and rampant rabbits. Where once men used to find shopping for the right lingerie for their partner intimidating a recent survey revealed that 90 percent of British blokes now have that down. The new frontier is now sex shops and knowing how to buy the right vibrator when she asks him to “surprise her” that is presenting a real challenge.

There have been too many times men have contacted Vibrations Direct to ask, “Where do I start? I don’t have a clue what half this stuff does!” and it’s clear that a domain in which men used to feel so comfortable is fast become deep, uncharted waters for them.

So, the tables have clearly turned: once it was that women would find it intimidating to enter a sex shop, let alone buy a vibrator, even with their partner and despite the fact they were otherwise a sexually confident lady. “I was dating a fetish model and even she found it unnerving to go in,” explains frequent sex shopper, Whiskey.

It’s now men that come in holding their girlfriend or wife’s hand and allowing her to take the lead when it comes to provocatively fingering the toy boxes and making the decision on which sex aide to take home that night.

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Categories: Shopping

Image © MisterUnlucky; used with permission.