Sex Toy Reviews

Lube Week, Day 3: Sliquid Organics Stimulating O Gel

Kate Sloan

I’m not the biggest fan of “arousal gels,” but if you’re gonna get one, you should get Sliquid Organics Stimulating O Gel.

Seriously, even high-end companies make the mistake of putting glycerine in their arousal gels. As if they think it’s not a big deal because you’re only putting it on your clit, not in your vag. As if gravity doesn’t exist. As if no one likes to get their G-spot tingly as well as their clit. Silly lube manufacturers!

As usual, Sliquid gets it exactly right. Their ingredients list doesn’t contain anything that’ll lead to vaginal misery.

Peppermint oil and menthol create that tingling sensation. It has a sweet, minty taste and smell. The tingling lasts about five minutes, which is more than I can say for any other arousal gel I’ve tried.

But is it orgasmic? Well, sorta. When I can manage to reach orgasm during the five-minute tingling window (rarely), the orgasm does seem to be more intense. Then I’m left with a sticky clit, of course, but that’s no biggie.

I’ve never really been a fan of cooling lubricants – I find them more distracting than arousing – but if you like ‘em, Sliquid O Gel is the one I would recommend.

Thanks very much to Conscious Contraceptives for letting me try out this gel! Be sure to check out their mission statement and support their good work in any way you can.

Giveaway: Tantus Tsunami from SheVibe!

Kate Sloan

I have excellent news for you today, lovelies: I’m teaming up with primo sex toy retailer SheVibe to give away a Tantus Tsunami!

I had the good fortune of reviewing a Tsunami last month, and it’s easily one of my favorite dildos. Made of 100% body-safe silicone, it features several delicious ridges and a curved tip. If your G-spot or A-spot need some loving, the Tsunami is just the ticket. It also has a flared base, so you can use it anally, and a spot for a bullet vibe, which it comes with.

This competition is open to anyone in the USA, Canada, UK, or Australia who is age 18 or older. The winner will be chosen at random; the more ways and times you enter, the more of a chance you have to win! The winner will get to pick whichever color of Tsunami they’d prefer (strawberry, purple haze, or midnight purple).

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Edited to add: Please note:
1. Reblogging this post counts as one entry, for “reblog.” It does not count toward “blog about this giveaway.”
2. When you submit an entry for “blog about this giveaway,” that entry must have a link to this post.
3. When you submit an entry for “comment on another post,” that comment must be thoughtful and non-spammy. For example, a smiley face or “Great post!” does not count.

Lube Week, Day 2: OO Lube

Kate Sloan

When I was offered some products from OO Lube to review, I said yes immediately. There are soooo many questionable lubes out there – lubes that contain vagina-hatin’ ingredients like glycerine, propylene glycol, and parabens – that any vag-safe product immediately gets my attention.

OO Lube is free of all those nasties. It’s water-based, so it’s safe to use with condoms and any kind of sex toy. If you’re shopping for a lube based solely on ingredients, it’s one of the best you’ll find.

I was sent a bottle of their warming lube, as well as samples of their original and tingling formulas. The bottle is really lovely; it seems to be made of aluminum, and feels very sturdy and durable. It has a pump-top, so you can easily get just as much lube as you need.

I should tell you right off the bat that I’m not a huge fan of tingling or warming lubes. I like a little bit of something tingly on my clit from time to time, but inside my vagina? No thanks, I’ll pass.

However, OO Lube is a bit different. The warming is created by cinnamon leaf essential oil, and the tingling comes from triple-distilled peppermint and eucalyptus essential oil. These are natural, organic ingredients, and I find that they’re less intense than the other hot or cold lubes I’ve tried. Some people will want super intense ingredients that are akin to getting IcyHot on your junk, but I prefer a milder sensation, so I liked these. My boyfriend couldn’t feel the warm or cold through a condom, and was actually grateful for that, but you might not be.

I do wish the sensation lasted a little longer, though. Both the warmth and the tingling wear off after a minute or two, so I have to reapply if I want more.

The texture of the lube itself is nice and slick, almost oil-like. It fares about as well as you can expect from a water-based lube; with no added moisture, it’ll wear off after two minutes or so.

The warming lube tastes and smells cinnamon-y, the tingling lube tastes and smells like mint, and the original formula has a pleasant but subtle herbal smell (I’m guessing this is from the lavender extract it contains). These lubes taste fine in tiny doses, but I’m not sure I would recommend using the warming or tingling ones if oral sex will be involved; just a drop on my tongue was kind of uncomfortable for me.

OO Lube isn’t my favorite lube, because it doesn’t last very long, but the warming and tingling formulas are nice and I’ll be using them when I want to mix it up. If you’re looking for hot or cold lube with no objectionable ingredients, this is a good choice.

Thanks, OO Lube, for sending me your nifty products to try!

Lube Week, Day 1: Sliquid Sassy Booty

Kate Sloan

It turns out that I have lots of backlogged lube reviews at the moment – so I figured I’ll just get ‘em done all in a row, in an entire week of lube reviews! (I know, not everyone finds lube a fascinating thing to read about. Hopefully you’ll find some value in these, and if not, then hopefully you’ll tune out until next week when I’m back to your normally scheduled programming!)

First up: Sliquid Sassy Booty, sent to me by the lovely and charitable folks at Conscious Contraceptives.

I can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt, that Sliquid is the best of all the popular brands of lube today – at least, if you and/or your partner has a vagina. All of their products are free of glycerine, propylene glycol, parabens, and all the other gross stuff that shouldn’t go anywhere near anyone’s vag.

Sassy Booty is a thick gel lubricant. It has only a few ingredients (purified water, plant cellulose, cyamopsis, potassium sorbate, and citric acid), all of which are vegan and totally okay to put inside you.

It’s completely devoid of all scent and taste, which really surprised me. If you’ve been seeking an utterly tasteless, unscented lube, this is a great option.

As you might have guessed from the name, Sassy Booty is designed for anal play. Personally, I hesitate to recommend any water-based lube for anal use, because they dry up so fast when compared to other kinds of lube – but if you find yourself looking for a lube that can safely be used with a silicone anal toy, Sassy Booty is probably the best you’re gonna find.

Most water-based lube will last about two minutes without any additional lubrication. Sassy Booty, on the other hand, can last up to five or six minutes without adding any moisture. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it’s practically unheard of for a water-based lube. The only other one I own which can compare is Blossom Organics, which has been my go-to lube for months and months.

The texture is very slick and wet, but not drippy. It leaves a slightly sticky residue once it’s dried down, which is easily taken care of with a wet wipe or a quick wash with soap and water.

Anyone seeking a good water-based lube should definitely consider Sliquid Sassy Booty, even for non-anal purposes. It holds up better than any other water-based lube I’ve tried, and is totally body-safe and non-irritating. Just don’t expect it to work as well as a silicone-based lube for anal play; you’re still going to have to re-lube your butt plug every half hour to stay comfortable if you use Sassy Booty.

Thanks so much to Conscious Contraceptives for sending me this snazzy lube! Did you know that they are philanthropists in the world of contraceptive distribution? Plus their prices are awesome. You should shop there!

Review: RodeoH briefs harness

Kate Sloan

The first time I was ever penetrated by a partner, it was with a strap-on. My girlfriend at the time had recently bought a harness-and-dildo kit, a pink and grey beaut that looked mad cute on her. It wasn’t good sex at all – in fact, it was pretty horrible, since this was a first for both of us – but it left me with a feeling of determination: I wanted to have good strap-on sex someday. Not with that same girl (we broke up before we had the chance to get any better at fucking each other), but someone, eventually.

So I was really excited when Conscious Contraceptives offered to send me a RodeoH harness. I’m in a straight relationship now, and my boyfriend has no interest in pegging, but I still felt I needed to have a harness in my collection. Even if it’s not for years, I know I’ll have awesome strap-on sex someday.

RodeoH makes really, really nice harnesses. Compared to the one my girlfriend had way back when, which was super strappy and took a minute or two to get into, my RodeoH is a dream. Imagine a wonderfully comfortable pair of cotton/spandex men’s briefs, except with an O-ring and a little dildo pocket in the front.

The briefs are obscenely cute, in a Shane McCutcheon-y kind of way. The wide, supportive waistband bears the company name and looks hot as fuck sticking out of low-slung jeans. It’s rare that I’m willing to use the phrase “super fly,” but that’s how these briefs make me feel.

The O-ring is sewn into the harness, unlike some other designs which have swappable O-rings. This means that you’re stuck with the one that’s there, but fortunately, it’s got some stretch to it. At rest, it’s 1 ½" in diameter; with some jimmying, I can get my slightly wider Tsunami to fit into it, and it also works just fine with smaller dildos like the Acute (see?), though you’re obviously going to get a bit more flopping around if the dildo you choose is smaller than the O-ring’s diameter. Lengthwise, I’ve had the best success with dildos in the 5" – 5 ½" range; toys longer than that, like my VixSkin Mustang, tend to flop a lot and are difficult to control with this harness. I’m utterly vexed as to how to get this harness to fit toys with big balls, like the Tantus Raptor; I bet it would be possible to squish ‘em through, but I love the RodeoH too much to risk breaking its O-ring. (I don’t even like the Raptor that much, anyway…)

A note on sizing: I ordered my RodeoH based on my waist measurement, stupidly not realizing until later that you really should do it by your hip measurement. So I got a size large when I probably should’ve gone for an XXL. However, amazingly, the harness actually fits me comfortably! The cotton/spandex blend is so stretchy that I can easily wear these briefs all day and only experience very minor muffin-top. RodeoH also recommends sizing down in general because a tighter fit ensures more control when thrusting.

One potential issue some buyers might have with the RodeoH is that it doesn’t allow any access to your pussy (or whatever) underneath the harness. This might be a positive feature for female-bodied genderqueer or trans folks with body dysphoria, who want to fully conceal their junk so only the dildo is visible or feelable – but the average harness user probably wants their genitals to be accessible, at least some of the time. This also means you can’t use double-ended dildos with the RodeoH briefs, though this issue was remedied with their boxer-briefs.

If you want some clit lovin’ while wearing a RodeoH, I recommend slipping a bullet vibe behind your dildo of choice – the pocket holds it nicely, and it stays in place reasonably well on my clit while thrusting.

Speaking of my clit… When I’m wearing the RodeoH, the base of the dildo rests on my pubic mound, not my clit. Again, the stimulation issue is easily resolved by wearing a bullet vibe inside the briefs, but if you want to get clit stim from the dildo and thrusting motion alone, it’s probably not going to happen unless your anatomy is very different from mine.

Overall, though, I love love LOVE this harness. I can’t imagine a better one to be my first. It’s comfy, sexy, low-maintenance, works with all my favorite dildos, and gives me the utmost confidence that I’ll have truly epic strap-on sex one day. It’s also blessedly inexpensive for a harness: only $45! Pick up a RodeoH for your strap-on adventures; it’ll do ya good.

Thanks so much to Conscious Contraceptives for sending me this marvellous harness to try out! Did you know that they donate some of the proceeds of every purchase toward sending contraceptives to underprivileged communities? As if you needed more reasons to buy sex toys!