Ambiance Luxury Massage Candle

April 5th, 2012

Ambiance Luxury Massage Candle

Ambiance Luxury Massage Candle
N/A from

This is an archived review of a discontinued item.

The smell of the pear vanilla Ambiance candle from Good Vibes is amazing. Right out of the jar, which has its own metal lid, you smell fresh vanilla and crisp pear. It’s natural and fruity and I love it. Even after burning, the pear smells just so amazing. It makes my mouth water. Unfortunately, the vanilla becomes a little syrupy and artificial. It reminds me a bit too much of that failed Lelo massage candle I tried not too long ago. Still, the pear works well and I’ve actually spent more time using this as a regular candle because of that.

The 11-ounce jars are definitely larger than those of some similar candles. The price of $24 is more than I’d like to pay without a coupon. For a regular scented candle, I could find one that’s cheaper. Still, it’s one of the most affordable options that Good Vibes carries, and it’s so much more affordable than Jimmyjane’s massage candles, which have always been hit-or-miss, in my experience.

The design is pretty simple. Each sent has a different label, and the product name and scent is printed in a very crispy, minimalist design on the front. The label doesn’t want to peel off of mine, without struggling, but it’s discreet. There’s also a snug lid, which can help to preserve the scent and prevent dust and dirt from settling in your wax.

I’m less than halfway done with my candle, and I’ve let it burn for several hours on a few different occasions, so it’s served me well. The product page advertises a 40-hour burn time. That’s probably on the high end, but this is supposed to last 30 to 35 hours. It’s burned fairly evenly, which is always nice. I do have to trim the wick, which I often forget. Otherwise, the wax becomes cloudy and dirty. It seems like this wax burns at a slightly higher point than some massage candles, which isn’t a great thing. I’m always a little apprehensive to stick my hand in. It’s not scalding, but I bet some people will find it too hot.

This candle performs better than most of the candles I’ve tried recently. Still, it’s not as good as an oil. The melted wax puddles well, and the first few rubs work very well. Unfortunately, as the wax cools to skin temperature, it becomes thicker and stickier. This takes only a few seconds, and the wax causes enough friction to ruin my massage mood. Then, the Ambiance candle just feels greasy and heavy.

While I applaud the effort to provide consumers with an affordable alternative to massage candles already on the market, I feel like this isn’t truly a luxury candle. I just want to return to my beloved oils.

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Categories: Massage, Reviews

Devour Me Lickable Body Oil

March 10th, 2012

Devour Me Lickable Body Oil

Devour Me Lickable Body Oil
from

This product has been discontinued.

I’ve enjoyed me some creme brulee in the past, but I don’t entirely enjoy the creme brulee flavored body oil. There are some things that I like about it, however. The glass bottle is adorable. It’s thick enough that it doesn’t feel like it will break — and it didn’t when my cats knocked it off the dresser. In addition to this, the label is modern and clean. That’s part of the reason that the product attracted me to begin with.

However, the bottle isn’t all that practical for a massage oil. The mouth is quite small, and you can’t actually pour from it. Instead, you have to tap tap tap until you get some product out and that’s going to be something that frustrates anyone. So, I haven’t been able to get a nice pool of product out to test. It’s not sticky, as the product description implies, but you’re going to head to an easier-to-use bottle if you want to give a long and sensuous massage. You may wind up transferring this to a different container, which kind of defeats the purpose of such a nice bottle.

The little that I did use was slick but could have been slicker. It wasn’t sticky and left my skin feeling soft. I didn’t feel the need to wash it off. The scent also stayed with me for quite some time.

The creme brulee scent is really interesting. In the bottle, it smells exactly like sausage and pancakes. It makes me hungry. I realize I chose a food scent but there’s a definite salty meat and maple syrup smell which I just don’t quite love. Once I began massaging the oil into my skin, the scent changed to something lighter and more appropriate for use on the body. I’m not sure if it’s exactly creme brulee, however. There’s a sort of spicy cinnamon or nutmeg mixed with hints of vanilla.

The taste test left a lot to be desired, really. It tasted like a spicy nutmeg. It was a little too much for my preferences and I got nothing sweet out of it at all, like I would expect. I’m sure that my problems are related to the specific flavor I picked. The reviews indicate that the pina colada is quite enjoyable. I just wanted to try something different.. and it was a miss. The Devour Me Lickable Body Oil is really cheap enough that you could purchase a few flavors to see which you liked the best and pass the ones that you don’t love off to someone else.

However, application in large amounts is still a problem. I’d forgo the pretty bottle for one that worked better.

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Categories: Massage, Reviews

Lust: Erotic Fantasies For Women

February 12th, 2012

Lust: Erotic Fantasies For Women

Lust: Erotic Fantasies For Women
$14.85 from Amazon

I’ve had this book for a while, and I had a hard time finishing it, not only because it didn’t make stars but because having a broken heart makes me less horny. It’s odd, I know. So I started reading this book and it was difficult for me to get a feel for it. I mean, I liked the title and the cover image, but what exactly is erotica for women anyway? I think it’s kind of an arbitrary description of soft-core erotica, right?

It took me a while but I eventually realized that the theme here is fantasies had by women so most of the stories are essentially characters getting really worked up because their fantasies are finally coming true and I can appreciate that because I think far too much. Others, however, simply appear to be fantasies of the actual authors because there isn’t a solid mention of how the fantasy element plays into it.

Because the stories are all about fantasy, there is a lot of sex with strangers and in places where the character would not normally have sex. However, the novelty soon wears off — at least, it did for me. There were a couple of stories that did stand out, including one about sex with the IT guy and another that culminated in sex as a cemetery. Still, more stories were forgettable than not, for me. One in particular was oddly bad. It was written in an abrupt and halting way, which I suspect was done on purpose, but read in a very unsophisticated manner that didn’t do much for me.

Although this is billed as for women, there is a lot of sex. The focus here is definitely heterosexual; although, there are a couple group scenarios. A few of the stories involve light bondage but PIV and oral sex seem to be the most common sexual acts. All in all, Lust: Erotic Fantasies For Women just wasn’t different enough from the typical erotica anthology and, apparently, I like different.

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Categories: Books, Reviews

Get Your Sales On

November 23rd, 2011

Good Vibes is offer free shipping on orders over $100 this weekend. This is on top of their Friends and Family sale which offers 20% off of items! Now’s a great time to splurge for yourself or your loved one or dust off those gift cards.

Check out their Cyber Monday sales to receive free shipping on orders over $75 and special one-day prices.

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Categories: internet

Playing With Fire

August 26th, 2011

Playing With Fire

Playing With Fire
$14.95 from Amazon

I don’t like to gush. For some reason, I feel like it takes away from my credibility as a reviewer but it’s hard not to, and I literally did gush, when reading Playing With Fire. This anthology is, without any doubt, my favorite erotica collection thus far. Usually, I open a book and like one story or two; I find myself paging through numerous others or becoming distracted as I wonder “When does this story end?” or “What’s the point again?”

Playing With Fire is not actually full of books about fire play; although, there is fire. Alison Tyler has picked stories that deal with fire and heat, whether literally or metaphorically, to include in this collection. Sometimes the connection is strenuous, sometimes it’s simply one line in the story and other times the title is fire/heat-related, but that’s the general theme. There’s a lot of “what we’re doing is so hot” and “this is so hot that I cannot wait.” In fact, the not being able to wait is almost as much as a theme as heat.

The result is stories that vary in length and style–although, none are longer than a few pages–as well as content and delivery but most of them are to the point. The reader doesn’t have to wait long for the sexuality to happen and the authors are explicit in their depictions. I read this in only three or four sittings. I found it extremely difficult to put down Playing With Fire and I was disheartened the last time I picked it up because I had so few stories left.

My favorites include “Carrying a Torch,” in which the female protagonist is turned on by her boyfriend’s other lover after accidentally seeing them have sex. Sophia Valenti writes her character’s fantasies to life fantastically. Secondly, Teresa Noelle Roberts absolutely hit it out of the park with her scorcher “One Hundred Degrees in the Shade.” A New Yorker couple escape to a cabin in the summer’s heat and everything comes to a boil with a hot sex scene as a storm rages in the background. I loved it especially because I feel the electricity myself when it’s storming around me.

However, this is not the perfect book. For some reason, there are quite a few stories to which cheating is a theme. This makes me a little uncomfortable. I understand why it can be hot for some but I’ve been too close to that setting in real life to appreciate it in literature. While I enjoyed most of the stories, there are a few that I just particularly didn’t. The most disappointing is “Burned” by Michael Hemmingson. In this story, a young woman is writing a novel and the story moves back and forth between what’s happening in the novel and for the author. There’s some strange fourth-wall-breaking narration and the sex isn’t particularly sexy. It’s an interesting story but makes for bad erotica.

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Categories: Books, Reviews

First Mate Silicone Dildo

July 9th, 2011

First Mate Silicone Dildo

First Mate Silicone Dildo
$99.99 from Good Vibes

Even though the First Mate silicone dildo is smaller than the captain, it’s still quite a large dildo. Were it made of a firmer material/composition than it is, I probably wouldn’t enjoy it very much. However, I was thrilled to note that the silicone is softer than I was expecting. While this isn’t VixSkin, it certainly feels more realistic than any of the Tantus dildos I’ve tried. It squishes a bit when I squeeze it in my hand and I can bend the shaft a few degrees either way. This is definitely aided by the length of the toy. I haven’t even gotten around to fully inserting it and won’t even try because my cervix isn’t a big fan of that.

The First Mate measures in at 7 3/4″ and all but 1/2″ is insertable. This dildo has a width that varies between 1 3/4″ and 1 1/2″. It falls firmly in the realm of medium/large toys and is larger than most toys I’ve tried so that gives you quite the idea about the captain dildo. I had to use quite a bit of lube and then some more and, finally, more lube. The design is realistic and features veining and a drastically contoured head. Even though the shaft is quite straight, the bulbous head should provide enough G-spot stimulation from most, if the bulk doesn’t do it by itself.

It may have been the type of lube I used, but I found the First Mate a little difficult to use, and I had to keep reapplying. It was just a bit too big to glide easily so I found it better to use stationary with the use of a clitoral vibe. However, the contoured head was pretty great for clitoral stimulation, too. It felt fairly realistic to me.

The silicone of this dildo is a softer, more velvety finish as opposed to shinier silicones. It’s available in multiple flesh tones ranging from pale to pure black–which I received [Editor’s note: The First Mate is now available in a dark brown and dark purple only]. The plastic blister pack is the only packaging/storage material that it comes with, and it’s too bulky to be functional. Like any silicone, it tends to collect lint. It washes with soap and water but the base of the toy is slick — not slick enough to function as a suction cup, though — and hair and lint is more difficult to rinse off from this part of the toy.

Although the First Mate dildo isn’t perfect for me, I enjoyed the softer texture of the sex toy and think my readers will as well.

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Categories: Dildos, Giveaways, Reviews

GUSH: The Official Guide to the G-Spot & Female Ejaculation

May 17th, 2011

GUSH

GUSH
N/A from

This is an archived review of a discontinued item but you may still be able to buy it secondhand.

My first experience with an instructional DVD was interesting–well, sort of. I didn’t really know what to expect with Gush: The Official Guide to the G-spot and Female Ejaculation. I guess I expected some video with someone narrating it. It’s not that.

What Gush is is a look into a radio show called Interview with Dr. Carol Queen, whom you may have heard of (I’ve read some erotica by her!). The good doctor answers a question or two from callers about G-spot techniques and toys and ejaculating and other related issues, live on Swirl Radio with Michelle Meow. The calls are broken up by scenes between one or two performers each. The women and/or their partners (both male and female) are providing stimulation to the G-spot to work toward orgasm and ejaculation. After this goal is achieved, the scene tends to end; however, a few of them go for multiple orgasms/ejaculations.

The calls were helpful, and I liked the way Carol Queen answered questions informatively while remaining friendly. Her answers gave helpful suggestions but she steered clear from saying that any technique or toy worked for all women–which I like. A lot of G-spot advice has a tendency to come off as one-size-fits-all in a way that can make you feel failure-iffic if you’re a little different from the norm. I know this because I fall into that category, so Ms Queen’s suggestions were quite helpful, especially if you’re new to G-spot exploration.

I can’t really say the same about the scenes in between. They would probably be more helpful to someone with less G-spot experience but there wasn’t anything new to me. Nor did I necessarily find them to be useful as masturbation fodder. All of the actors–save one–were incredibly unattractive to me, and that really distracted me from the experience. I found myself waiting for the scenes to pass in the beginning and simply skipping them toward the end. One thing I noticed was that the scenes became really repetitious. Most of them focused one oral sex with manual G-spot stimulation and perhaps this is for a reason. Carol Queen does say that this is one of the easiest ways for a woman to achieve ejaculation. Still, I was done with it before the first scene ended.

Production-wise, I have to say that the calls seemed much quieter than the instructional scenes. I was constantly reaching for the remote as I watched this film, and that was pretty aggravating. It comes off as a bit.. unprofessional. I get the same feel from the cover. The scheme is pink and black against white, and I can dig that–but it’s extremely homegrown in feel. Good Vibes should consider spending a bit more time polishing up their productions’ look and feel.

Gush: The Official Guide to the G-spot & Female Ejaculation is probably best geared toward those who are just adventuring into G-spot land. I can’t say that any of the answers necessarily taught me anything that I could put into play. It was all old news to me. It’s all pretty easily summed up in a couple of paragraphs on a website or in a pamphlet, too. If you’re not necessarily looking for some sexy G-spot scenes, I’d probably steer you in the direction of a book, like this one or even the Good vibes Guide to the G-spot book, rather than this film.

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Categories: Media, Reviews

Image © MisterUnlucky; used with permission.