All Reviews

Review: Rock Candy Suga Daddy 8″

Kate Sloan

When Rock Candy reached out to me offering me a toy to review, I was immediately entranced by their toys’ aesthetic. They’re all pink or blue, look vaguely like candy, and made to satisfy size queens (and other size royalty). These things are very up my alley. And now a Rock Candy dildo was gonna go up my “alley” as well. *rimshot*

They sent me the 8″ Suga Daddy, a big blue dildo with a suction cup base. I thought it would be good for pegging, but when it arrived on my doorstep, I immediately realized it was probably too big for my partner’s ass to take. My vag, however, is a different story.

This dildo, as its name implies, is 8″ long, though the insertable length is only 7.25″. This makes it long enough to hit my A-spot with some room to spare – yay! It doesn’t hit the spot with any particular intensity, being flexible and curveless, but it does nudge it gently, which is sometimes enough for me. The diameter of the toy tops out at 1.875″ – pretty big, but not unmanageable for most vaginas and some butts. I feel nice and filled up when this toy is inside me.

The best thing about this toy, IMO, is the ridges along its shaft. It has a glans and coronal ridge, much like a flesh-and-blood penis, but those ridges/bloops/bumps continue down the length of the toy and feel like one coronal ridge after another, popping pleasantly over my pubic bone one by one with each thrust. This can be intense but sometimes that’s exactly what I want.

The silicone, I should note, is fairly firm and unyielding. This means that the Suga Daddy will stand up well in a strap-on, jutting out merrily from the body. However, for my purposes, it’s firmer than I prefer a silicone toy to be. It doesn’t bend to the will of my vagina, and often leaves me with a slightly bruised-feeling vag and urethra if I’ve been pounding away for a while. A good, thick water-based lube helps with this issue, but doesn’t solve it entirely, especially since the texture of the silicone is a little draggy.

I wish the 8″ Suga Daddy had a slight upward curve for targeting erogenous zones with more precision, and that its base was thicker and heftier so I could thrust quickly with it more easily. But it’s a really good dildo for when you just want to be stuffed full of whimsically-colored silicone. It’s firm and formidable, and if you enjoy the sensation of being gently and slowly stretched open, you’ll love the girthy and gradually-widening shaft of this toy. Its ridges are like a roller coaster for the vagina, and while sometimes I want my A-spot or G-spot targeted more directly, sometimes a resolute massage of my vaginal walls is exactly what I want, and the Suga Daddy can certainly do that.

 

Thanks to Rock Candy for sending me this toy to review!

Review: Lelo Loki

Kate Sloan
Photos by mb – thank you, mb!

Being a service sub, I relish opportunities to shower my dominant in gifts – but being a freelance writer, I don’t always have the financial resources to make this happen (to say the least). So I was happy when Betty’s Toy Box sent me a Lelo Loki for my partner to try. I suspected he would love it, and he did!

Prior to acquiring the Loki, he had a Lelo Billy, which is pretty but has never been updated to have one of Lelo’s much rumblier 2nd-generation motors like some of their other toys have. The Billy’s diameter is also on the slimmer side – 1.37 inches – and he’s been preferring slightly larger penetration lately. Its minimal curve, too, leaves something to be desired.

The Loki, by comparison, boasts a 1.5-inch diameter, a more extreme curve for hitting the prostate, a better flared base, and a stronger and rumblier motor. It’s an upgrade in every way, so long as you can contend with the size.

The Loki is basically a butt-friendly version of the much-revered Lelo Mona 2, its G-spot-focused cousin. Frankly you could use either toy for either purpose, so long as you were careful not to let the Mona slip too far inside you during anal play – but it is nice to have an anal-specific toy when that’s what you’re in the mood for. The Loki’s curve also means it could hit the G-spot through the vaginal wall when used anally, if that’s the anatomy you’re working with.

My partner likes a lot of things about the Loki: the pretty blue color, the excellent motor, the many varying speeds, the prostate-targeting shape, the travel lock, the silky silicone, and the size, which he describes as “really, really perfect: don’t need a lot of warmup but feels full.”

His complaints about the toy are as follows: Some of the pulsing settings are too annoyingly unpredictable to be pleasurable. There are visible seams on both the handle and the insertable part of the toy, which are ugly and potentially hard to clean. The charging cable is too short, and is – for some reason – beige, which really doesn’t jive with the otherwise sleek aesthetic of the toy and its accoutrements. The toy rotates easily during use. It’s difficult to tell what each button does simply by feel, so he has to look at them while adjusting the toy’s speed. And button-pressing is consistently finicky on this toy: the buttons will light up when clicked but the setting won’t always change, which is an issue I’ve also experienced with the Doxy and can confirm is very annoying.

Overall, though, m’dude is very happy with his Lelo Loki. He says it’s become his favorite vibrating anal toy. He’ll frequently plug it in before we start having phone sex so it’ll be ready for him whenever he wants to use it – and I love hearing how hard he comes when it’s in his ass. Lelo certainly has their problems, from poorly-designed toys to weirdly exclusive toys to ethical abominations, but when they try to make vibrators that are simple and simply good, they often succeed. Now if only they would develop their entire product line and marketing strategy as thoughtfully and well as they developed the Loki.

 

Thanks to Betty’s Toy Box for hooking us up with a Lelo Loki to try!

Review: Le Stelle Perks EX-C

Kate Sloan

I’m always on board with new luxury sex toy companies popping up to fill the shoes of Lelo and Jimmyjane, now that those brands have well and truly jumped the shark. So I was excited when Le Stelle reached out to offer me a vibrator to try.

I chose the Perks Series Ex-C – and no, I’m not sure why it’s called that. It’s a rechargeable vibrator in a lovely shade of cornflower blue, and it comes with two interchangeable attachments: one for external/clitoral use, and one for dual stimulation (G-spot + clit at the same time).

Switching the attachments out is easy – you twist one counterclockwise to remove it, and twist the new one clockwise to lock it in place. They’re both made of smooth, matte silicone that feels luxurious to the touch. The attachments feel fancier than the plastic vibrating base, which is lightweight and doesn’t feel as substantial, but they look pretty together.

The clitoral attachment, I will admit, did next-to-nothing for me. The vibrations are buzzier than my clit prefers, making my genitals start to get numb and my hand start to get itchy within a minute or so. They also start too high for me – I like a lot of gradation in my vibrator speeds – and there are only 3 steady speeds before you start cycling through the 7 patterns. Scrolling through modes with only one button is annoying as hell, but Le Stelle is hardly the first company to use this system – my beloved We-Vibe does it too – so I can hardly fault them for that. The clit attachment is also bendy/squishy/flexible, so if you like any pressure whatsoever on your clit, you’ll have a hard time using this. And as icing on the cake, the vibrations this toy produces are loud – think mini-buzzsaw – even though its marketing copy says it’s “discreet and quiet.” Nope.

With all that in mind, I was ready to write this vibe off, but then I tried the dual-stimulation attachment. It’s got a big swollen G-spot head, a slim tapered shaft, and a little ridged nub that’s supposed to sit on your clit. I found, to my surprise, that this attachment works really well for my body: it lines up just right with both my G-spot and clit at the same time, which is a feat in itself, and it strikes a good balance between firmness and squishiness and between broadness and slimness for my particular G-spot. The buzzy vibrations feel less annoying when they’re inside; my G-spot evidently likes buzziness more than my clit does, because I was actually able to squirt with this toy by thrusting it while the vibrations were on. Neat!

The clitoral nubbin stays in place pretty well when I leave the vibe still, but, as I mentioned, these vibrations aren’t my clit’s favorite. It tends to go numb after a little while, and I can’t imagine getting off with this vibe alone. Luckily, though, the attachment is flexible enough that I can bend it backwards a little, to keep the internal portion in contact with my G-spot while freeing up some space in front of my clit for my hand or another vibe. Using the Perks Ex-C this way, orgasm is possible – and often quite intense, with all that G-spot pressure and vibration going on.

While this attachment looks like it might be anal-safe, I wouldn’t recommend using it that way – I’d be too scared the attachment would pop off and get lost inside you. A reader on Instagram also reported to me that they owned the anal-friendly version of this toy and it broke while they were switching the attachment, exposing the wires underneath. If that’s anything to go on (which it might not be – I haven’t confirmed this case and I don’t know if it’s a one-off or not), these vibes might not be the most durable, and they’re only splash-proof, not waterproof, so I wouldn’t trust these for particularly strenuous or wet sessions.

That said, for $69.90 (nice), I think the Le Stelle Perks Ex-C is a pretty decent G-spot vibrator, if nothing else. I have a hard time finding toys that don’t make my G-spot want to curl up and die, and this pleased it better than anything new I’ve tried in quite a while. Plus it’s pretty, and I’m a sucker for a good blue.

 

Thanks so much to Le Stelle for providing this toy for me to review! This post was sponsored, and as always, all writing and opinions are my own.

It’s a Wand Vibe Throwdown!

Kate Sloan

Recently SuporAdultProduct.com reached out asking me to review some toys for them, and I noticed that they had a super robust wand vibrators section. I haven’t seen this many wands in one place since the last Harry Potter movie! Here are some mini-reviews of the 3 rechargeable wands they sent me…

“The Original Rechargeable Magic Wand Vibrator“ (a.k.a. “the pink one”)

Pros:

  • Most importantly: the vibrations are pretty good. Strong, relatively rumbly, everything I want.
  • It has 6 steady speeds – more than most wands of this size. Well, it actually has 3 different steady-speed modes, each of which has both a high and a low setting. (Sound complicated? Yeah, I’ll get to that when I list the cons…)
  • It’s a truly electric, Pepto Bismol shade of pink. Delightful.
  • It has a bendy neck, which I’m told some people care about.
  • At $28.99, it’s much cheaper than I would generally expect for a vibe this big and strong.

Cons:

  • As you can probably infer, it’s an obvious knockoff of the official, Japanese-made Magic Wands we know and love.
  • As such, it feels light and insubstantial – not at all the hefty luxury item that a real Magic Wand Rechargeable feels like to me. The ABS plastic casing feels like it could fall apart at any moment.
  • While the website claims the toy’s head is made of silicone, to me it looks, feels, and smells more like whatever cheap foamy substance made up the heads of original Magic Wands (read: probably porous).
  • The controls aren’t exactly intuitive. There’s a power button, a speed-change button, and a button for cycling through several patterns. Some of the patterns’ speeds can be changed, some can’t.
  • This wand is as loud as the original Magic Wand, which is to say, loud.

“Bodywand Plug In Multi Function Massager Black“ (a.k.a. “the black one”)

Pros:

  • The vibrations of this one, too, are strong and rumbly – though they do get slightly buzzier as you increase the speed.
  • It has a stellar eight speeds, and several patterns.
  • I like how its ABS plastic body feels in my hand: substantial and smooth, sort of like the original Doxy.
  • Also like the Doxy, it has a subtly curved/tapered body which makes it comfortable to hold, and feels sexy to the touch.

Cons:

  • Once again, I’ve gotta say, this appears to be a knockoff. I doubt Bodywand made this.
  • The head – which may or may not be made of silicone – picks up lint, dirt, and hair constantly, so I need to carefully rinse it off a lot.
  • The seam on said head is slim and thus tough to clean.
  • The shape of the head is too broad and round to suit my tastes; I prefer something with an angular edge I can use to focus the vibrations onto my clit in a more pinpoint way.
  • Most annoyingly: this wand, for no apparent reason, starts at its highest speed when you first turn it on. You have to press the speed button seven times to get down to the lowest setting if that’s where you want to start, and then it starts building back up again.

“Pipedream USB-Rechargeable Silicone Mini Body Massager“ (a.k.a. “the purple one”)

Pros:

  • Most amazingly, you can use EITHER END of this toy. It has one button which controls the motor in the head, and one which controls the motor in the shaft/handle. (You can’t have both on at once, but you wouldn’t really ever need to.)
  • Both motors are impressively strong and rumbly (though the head’s motor is rumblier).
  • Each end has 3 steady speeds and a bunch of patterns.
  • The toy appears to be covered in a body-safe silicone casing.
  • I love the petite size of this wand.
  • It’s got a fair amount of flexibility and squishiness to it, especially in the shaft/handle, setting it apart from most traditional wands.

Cons:

  • I’m sensing a theme: this is definitely a knockoff. Pipedream did not make this.
  • The controls aren’t intuitive. Several times, when I thought I was turning the vibrator off, its buttons just lit up in inscrutable rainbow colors and didn’t shut off until I pressed more buttons.
  • The toy feels somewhat poorly constructed: I can feel mechanical pieces sliding around a little underneath the silicone outer casing, and some of the buttons on the casing don’t quite line up with the places you actually need to press to get the toy to do anything.
  • The vibe occasionally overheats during use, to a worrying degree.
  • The floral texture all over the toy would be a bitch to clean.

Overall: the purple one is my fave. It’s somehow the rumbliest of the bunch, despite being the smallest, and I love the dual motors. I was surprised by how much I liked these vibes, given that they’re all under $40 and somewhat sketchy!

 

Thanks to SuporAdultProduct.com for sending me these toys and sponsoring this post. As always, all writing and opinions are my own.

Review: Honour Latex Skater Skirt

Kate Sloan

Wearing latex is one of many sartorial rites of passage for kinksters. If you want to flag as kinky with your outfit alone, you can pretty much wear latex (if you’re not allergic), leather (if you’re not vegan), or perhaps velvet (if you’re… me). Stretchy, shiny, skin-tight, and restrictive, latex oozes kink in the realms of both the visual and the tactile. When I see someone dressed in latex, I think, “That person’s a perv,” or maybe “That person’s a goth/punk/weirdo,” but I never once think, “Wow, that person seems totally conventional and vanilla.”

My first clear memory of latex clothing is the sexy nun costume my heroine Gala Darling wore for Halloween in 2008. Prior to reading her post about it, I had no idea that latex was so fussy: wearing it was “an arduous process, involving lots of baby powder… crazy shimmying antics… and rubbing the entire thing with liquid silicon to make it shiny,” she wrote. “It also feels like you’re wearing a swimming cap. And it makes a funny noise when you walk.”

Gala’s right that latex clothing is annoying to wear, and even just to own. Here’s a condensed version of the Holy Commandments of Latex Fetishwear (more info here):

  • Thou shalt wriggle into your latex with the help of silicone-based lube and/or talc powder.
  • Thou shalt not pull on or stretch the latex too much, lest thou fuck up its shape.
  • Thou shalt certainly not wear any sharp objects that could puncture or tear the latex, like rings, rhinestones, or even long nails.
  • Thou shalt not get any oils on your latex, including moisturizer, self-tanner, or even the small amount of oil that might seep out of leather.
  • Thou shalt NEVER FUCKING EVER put your latex in the washing machine; plain water in the sink is fine, or perhaps a small amount of soap if you spilled something on it.

In addition to all that, it’s usually recommended that you grease up the outside of your latex clothing with silicone-based lube to give it that signature shine, and that you skip underwear when wearing it because the shape will show through. And you have to be prepared to sweat, a lot, because latex doesn’t breathe. So. As I’m sure you’ve ascertained, this is a totally breezy and low-maintenance material to wear. *rimshot*

Nonetheless, I was excited when Honour Clothing offered to send me my dream latex item, a black skater skirt. Being fit-and-flare rather than body-hugging, this garment manages to avoid a lot of the most annoying things about latex, like the no-underwear thing and the oh-dear-god-I-can’t-stop-sweating thing and the how-the-fuck-do-I-get-this-onto-my-body thing. It seemed like a good introduction to this material, so I could see whether I liked it before considering buying more elaborate pieces. (This unbelievably sexy dress, for example.)

The thing that most surprised me about this skirt, when I first took it out of the packaging, was the way it smelled. It was – and still is, honestly – an onslaught on my nose, akin to someone opening a condom right in front of your face. While condoms are certainly a sexually nostalgic scent for me, I don’t know that I want to walk around smelling like one, you know?

I requested this skirt in size 2XL, because that seemed like the best fit for my measurements based on the on-site size chart, but I could have gone a little smaller. An XL probably would have clung to my 5’4″, 153-lb, size-12 frame a little better.

Aesthetically, I love it. It looks perfect with colorful crop tops and bralettes. The flirty shape twirls outward when I spin, sways when I walk, and makes me feel like an absolute vixen. It’s short, but not so short that I feel self-conscious in it – it lets my thigh tattoos peek out without also showing my ass. It’s not the sort of thing I would wear to, say, a family gathering or a church function, but for events where a little fetish flair is called for, it’s ideal. I like that it’s obviously BDSM-inspired while lacking the hard, severe aesthetic you see in most femdom fashion, because I am a softgirl at heart.

Sweetly and thoughtfully, Honour sent bottles of Skin Two Serum and Liquid Shine along with the skirt. The former is a dressing aid, to help you slide a latex garment onto your body more easily, and the latter is a spray-on liquid meant to bring out the shine of your latex. I couldn’t find ingredients lists for these anywhere, but as far as I can tell from reading latex kinksters’ how-to guides on the subject, silicone-based lube works just fine for both purposes. It is convenient to be able to spray the Liquid Shine directly onto my skirt, though.

Overall, my foray into latex clothing was a success! Aside from a sweaty waist and a nose full o’ condom smell, I’ve found no downsides of owning and wearing this latex skater skirt. It’s all fetishy sexiness, all the time.

 

Thanks so much to Honour Clothing for sending me this skirt to review! Check out their wide selection of latex clothing.