All Reviews

Review: SSA Glass Royal Adventure

Kate Sloan

Dear SSA Glass: I love you, I love you, I love you! Sincerely, GJ’s vagina.

Seriously, though – this month I was lucky enough to receive a Royal Adventure dildo, and my ladybits are smitten.

Previously, my favorite SSA Glass toy was the Amethyst, with the Bubbly coming in a close second, but the whimsically-named Royal Adventure has usurped them both.

Like all the toys this company makes, this one is made of glass, but unlike all their other toys, the Royal Adventure is semi-realistic (in layman’s terms: it kinda looks like a penis). It has a defined head, complete with a coronal ridge and a little faux frenulum, and its shape and size are reasonably average. (It has an insertable length of 6″ and a diameter of 1 ¼”.)

The not-so-realistic element of this dildo is the corkscrew-like ridgy texture that swirls around its shaft from base to head. These ridges are intense and are spaced closer together than I’m used to, so at first they felt foreign and jarring – but with enough lube and arousal goin’ on, I quickly grew to love this texture.

The Royal Adventure has a curve, but it’s hardly anything at all; this isn’t a G-spot toy. Rather than targeting a particular spot, it stimulates the entire front wall of my vagina, while also being long enough to nudge my A-spot.

Another notable thing about the Royal Adventure is that it’s harness-compatible. This is pretty uncommon for glass toys. I can think of a few people who would look totally foxy with this sapphire beauty strapped to them. It’d work not just for vaginal penetration but also for pegging, if the recipient’s ass is experienced enough to be able to handle the texture and firmness.

In summary, yeah, I absolutely adore the Royal Adventure. It is so good that I can forgive SSA Glass for occasionally making baffling mistakes, like releasing an entirely smooth and straight dildo.

Review: JeJoue SaSi

Kate Sloan

Imagine how you would feel about a lover who was totally inept at getting you off, who always seemed to change their technique just as you were getting close to coming, and who approached your genitals with a grimace of apprehension, and you’ll understand how I feel about the JeJoue SaSi.

Several years old and probably discontinued by now (though still available through Sex Toys Canada), the SaSi seemed unbelievably innovative when it first launched. It’s an oral sex simulator consisting of a small ball moving around underneath a silicone covering in various patterns that are meant to be tongue-like. Most notably, you can actually “program” the SaSi using its “skip” and “don’t stop” buttons, so it’ll learn what kind of patterns you like and give you more of those.

In theory? Bravo, JeJoue, you brilliant geniuses! In practice? Ugh, fuck you, SaSi, I hate you.

Problem number one: the motions kind of suck (and not in the “oh, yeah, suck on my clit just like that” way, unfortunately). They’re random, erratic, and weird. My inner labia and the sides of my clit have never gotten so much lovin’ in their life – which is great for them, I guess, but those aren’t the most responsive parts of my pussy. There are only a few patterns that focus on the top-centre of my clit where most of my sensitivity is, and none of them are a steady back-and-forth or up-and-down motion. This makes no sense.

Problem number two: the ball is too damn slow. It has three speeds and even the highest one feels merely like teasing and not like actual competent tonguing.

Problem number three: the SaSi does have vibration in addition to its minuscule movements, and you’d think vibes would improve the sensation, but I actually can’t feel the ball moving when the vibrations are on. I suspect this is because the ball can barely be felt when the vibrations aren’t on.

To the SaSi’s credit, it’s an elegant-looking toy, it feels relatively ergonomic in my hand (like a computer mouse!), and its silicone covering is removable so you can wash and sterilize it without ruining the rest of the toy. These are all good things, but they’re not enough to make SaSi a good or even passable sex toy.

If you want an oral sex simulator that may actually be able to get you off, try the Sqweel 2 or the oscillating mode on the Jimmyjane Form 2. But please, for the love of all things sexy and orgasmic, do not buy the SaSi. It is 100% frustrating and cruel.

Thanks, Sex Toys Canada!

Review: Sportsheets Doggie Style Strap

Kate Sloan

At their best, sex toys enhance your sex life (whether solo, partnered, or both) and improve your pleasure. At their worst, they can injure you. And at their most mediocre, they make no discernable changes to your experience. That last option is the best one to describe the Sportsheets Doggie Style Strap.

It’s a pink and black fuzzy strap with rough handles that remind me of the adjusters that hung down from your second-grade backpack. The strap goes around the front of the midsection of whoever’s getting fucked, and then the person doing the fucking takes ahold of the handles and this arrangement is supposed to make doggie-style fucking a whole lot more “comfortable” and “intense.”

As doggie-style is maybe my favorite position, I thought I should at least try a product like this. I’m glad I did, because now I know my boyfriend doesn’t need any extra crap to help him fuck me like a champ.

We switched back and forth several times between using and not using the strap, and I really couldn’t feel a difference at all. He wasn’t able to go deeper, harder, or faster when using it. He also said it was no easier than when he just holds my hips with his hands.

Additionally, maybe because I’ve got big hips, the rough handles rubbed on my sides, which started to feel like carpet burn after a short while.

It’s possible that this strap would have something to offer for people with mobility issues, but for regular able-bodied joes like me and my boyfriend, it gets in the way more than it helps.

Pocket-Sized Porn Reviews: Matriarchy, Twins, and Dylan Ryan

Kate Sloan

I made a decision a while ago that I wasn’t going to review porn on my blog anymore, because I just don’t feel I’m very good at it. I also think I have pretty specific tastes in pornography, and it’s hard to review something that every single person is going to react differently to.

However, now that I no longer have the stress of feeling obligated to review porn by the companies who used to send it to me for free, I feel like it’s okay for me to talk about porn here from time to time, maybe just a little. You don’t mind, right?

Here are some porn flicks I’ve seen recently that I thought you might want to know about…

Women On Top has a really silly but interesting premise: it’s a story set in a female-dominated world, where women are expected to be promiscuous and brash, and where men are expected to do the housework and please their women.

I thought it would be empowering from a feminist perspective, but it actually just showed the mirror image of a lot of gross stereotypes about both men and women (e.g. that women shame men for their sexual desires, that women only have sex to please their men, etc).

There was also far less cunnilingus and far more blowjobs than I would expect in an actual matriarchal world, though I guess I should’ve seen that coming – it is mainstream porn, after all.

Joined at the Hip is a goofy, badly-acted porn about two ditzy blonde twins trying to get to Vegas.

I was totally prepared to hate this one, but just couldn’t as soon as I realized that James Deen was in it.

He’s only in one scene, but it’s great. He plays a chef and (of course) makes a terrible joke about a “bun on a stick” which is actually his cock wrapped in a hot dog bun. (Ugh. So bad it’s good.)

Additionally, he starts off the scene dressed in full chef’s garb, and the chef’s hat stays on for the whole scene. It falls off at one point, but he puts it back on. Because that’s the kind of sense of humor James Deen has. Dear god, I love him.

This porno surprisingly proved to be a goldmine for threesome inspiration. Since the twins in the movie are actual, real-life sisters, they don’t have sex with each other, but have all sorts of sex with various third parties – so there’s some inventive fucking, sucking, flicking, etc.

Fifty Shades of Dylan Ryan is a kind of meta response to the poorly-written BDSM novel we’re all too familiar with. It’s basically Christian and Ana all over again, but with lesbian sex. Really, really hot lesbian sex.

Dylan Ryan is a stunner as always – she’s like the slightly androgynous girl-next-door – but I was most blown away by Sadie Lune, who plays “Ms. Grey,” the wealthy, dominant lady tycoon. I’d never seen her in anything before and she’s absolutely captivating. Girl knows how to dom the shit out of people.

I actually haven’t watched the whole thing yet (what can I say – I came hard sometime during the third sex scene and fell asleep), but I feel confident in saying that anyone who likes lesbian porn, especially of the feminist variety, and can handle BDSM, will dig this movie. And damn, I really need to see more stuff Madison Young has directed.

What sights and sounds are getting your rocks off lately?

Review: Tantus Splish

Kate Sloan

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It makes me sad to have to write a negative review about a Tantus toy, since they’re usually so fantastic – but the Splish has been a total letdown for me.

It’s a good-lookin’ dual-color dildo, a smaller version of the formidable Splash. I waffled a lot about which toy to get, because the Splash is too wide for me at 1 ¾", and the Splish is too narrow for me at 1".

I went for the smaller one. I don’t know why.

The Splish feels good for about three minutes, assuming I haven’t been penetrated by anything else recently. But after that, my vagina widens with arousal and I practically can’t feel the damn thing anymore.

It’s not even long enough to reach my A-spot. And if a toy is too narrow to stroke my G-spot, it better be able to work some magic on my A-spot. The Splish can do neither.

While I might recommend the Splish for a beginner to anal play, or for someone suffering from vaginismus, I think just about everyone else would be happier with the larger Splash.