Sex Toy Reviews

Review: Knotty Wood Arts dildos

Kate Sloan

Several weeks ago, I had the idea to ask various Etsy sellers if they’d like me to review some of their products. There are a lot of people making gorgeous sexual paraphernalia on Etsy – everything from leather floggers to glass butt plugs – and I love to support independent craftsters, so I thought it would be cool to do a series of reviews of handmade items here on Girly Juice.

Being mostly just normal people, rather than businessfolk, not all of the Etsians I contacted were totally professional. One insulted me for asking for “freebies.” One cut me down for writing a not-altogether-positive review of their product. One even made a feeble attempt at flirting with me. But the man behind Knotty Wood Arts was completely wonderful, helpful, and kind. Even if I didn’t like his toys, I’d still be singing his praises for the great customer service… but I love his toys, so I can sing their praises as well!

Knotty sent me three dildos to review. One was custom-made to my specifications – my first custom sex toy! – and it is perfect. I requested a ripply dildo, 1 ¼” wide and 6″ long (I have a pretty tiny vagina, so sometimes I wish all my dildos were this size). Drawings were exchanged, dimensions were discussed, and I felt absolutely cared for as a customer.

Naturally, the dildo that was designed specifically for me is definitely my favorite of the three, and indeed, now one of my favorite penetrative toys in my collection. It’s the perfect size for a warm-up dildo, helping me to transition seamlessly to a larger toy, if that’s what I want to do – but it feels so good that I quite often use it for my entire play session. The little balls stroke my G-spot easily and effectively. I love that I don’t have to be “in the mood for penetration” to use this toy, because it’s smaller than most of my dildos and never feels like a challenge.

One of the other toys Knotty sent me, the Turtle, is tiny and discreet, but is surprisingly good at hitting my G-spot. It has a grippy handle where my fingertips fit, allowing me to push up on it and apply more pressure to my spot. It’s a very clever design because it kind of looks like a wooden spoon, or at the very least, it doesn’t look like a dildo – so you could leave this out, or take it with you when you travel, and no one would suspect. The owner of Knotty says this is one of his most popular designs, and I can certainly see why.

I’m admittedly not in love with the third Knotty toy I received, a girthy double-ended dildo with a ridgy part on one end – but that’s probably because it’s made up of two things my vagina doesn’t really like: smooth thickness and little ridges. I know some texture queens and girth enthusiasts who’d probably be all over this one, though it’s not for me.

This has been my first experience using wooden toys, and I think I’ll be trying more of them in the future, because wood is a great material for dildos. It’s lightweight, so my wrist never gets tired from thrusting it, even when I’m going super quickly. Knotty dildos are all treated with several coats of a food-safe finish, which keeps the toys’ surface smooth and lube-compatible but also preserves the smell of the wood (which is heavenly, by the way – much more pleasant than steel or silicone). It’s easy to wash these dildos with soap and water or a quick spritz of some antibacterial toy cleaning spray. And best of all, wood is firm, so it makes my G-spot swoon.

Wood’s not perfect, though. These toys have some drag – not the kind that makes me fear for vaginal splinters, thank goodness – so I find I need an extra squirt of lube to get ‘em to slide smoothly and comfortably. However, that’s the kind of thing I only mind if the toy isn’t that great, and these wooden toys are great, so drag’s not a big deal.

As if it’s not awesome enough that all Knotty Wood Arts toys are hand-carved, coated in a body-safe finish, customizable, firm, and lightweight, they’re also affordable. If you’ve been lusting after a wooden toy by NobEssence, you’ve probably noticed that their toys are pretty pricey. I’m sure you’ll be surprised and delighted to know that most of Knotty’s toys are under $50. I can think of no better way to describe this than the following: YAY!

Thanks so much, Knotty Wood Arts, for giving me my first experience with wooden toys and making it such a good one! If you’d like him to make you a custom wooden dildo or anal toy, get in touch with your specifications!

Review: Tantus Echo

Kate Sloan

When I first discovered Tantus, I quickly scampered onto their website and flicked through their pages upon pages of sex toys. Only a few items really jumped out at me as something I desperately wanted, and one of those items was the Echo. With those corkscrew-like ridges and bulbous head, it is a thing of beauty. So naturally, I snapped one up when I saw they were on sale.

Now, before I review the toy, a word of warning: I ordered my Echo direct from Tantus, and the one I ordered was white. However, they sent me a purple one. Color isn’t that important to me, especially if the toy is good, but this experience does make me mildly wary about ordering through Tantus’ website in future. I love you, Tantus, but other sex toy shops always get my order totally correct!

Truly, though, that’s one of the only bad things I can say about this toy… and of course, the color mix-up isn’t the toy’s fault!

As usual, Tantus has knocked it out of the park in terms of material quality. Their silicone is easy to clean and care for, and has lovely little swirls of lighter and darker colors, almost like wood’s grain. The only negative aspect of Tantus’ silicone formulation is that it collects way more lint than any of my other toys; I feel the need to rinse off the Echo before every single use, which is not always convenient.

While I’ve appreciated the craftsmanship and beauty of my other Tantus dildos, they weren’t always a great fit with my anatomy. I found the Flurry O2 too ridgy in the head, and too straight and boring in the shaft, plus it ate lube. I love my Adam O2, but it’s too girthy for me to use on a regular basis; I need to be warmed up and extremely relaxed before my pussy will allow it to enter.

The Echo, however, works much, much better for me. Part of it is that the silicone is very squishy, way more pliable than I was expecting – I can easily bend the toy into a 90-degree angle. This squishiness isn’t always a good thing – I’ll discuss that more later – but in terms of vaginal comfort, it’s definitely a plus for me. The Echo’s design is also fantastic in that the head is the widest part of it, at 1 ½”, and the shaft gets skinnier – so while I sometimes experience mild discomfort when initially inserting the Echo, it quickly goes away as my vagina takes in more of the toy.

The Echo has a flat, circular base which would seem to indicate that it can be used in a harness or for anal play, but I wouldn’t recommend it for either. As I said before, the silicone is very pliable – to the point that the base and lower shaft feel almost flimsy. This is especially true because of the cavity in the bottom that’s made to hold a bullet vibe. I wouldn’t trust the Echo to stand up straight in a harness or to avoid being sucked up into a butt… or even to be easy to thrust quickly, which it isn’t. Despite the fact that its base looks big, it’s just not up to the task.

As for the bullet vibe – I dunno. It’s okay. When it arrived, its watch batteries were already loaded into it, which made me wonder if it’s safe to do that (don’t they tell you to always remove vibrator batteries between uses, to avoid corrosion?). The bullet slides easily into the hole at the bottom of the Echo when lubed a little, and while it’s strong for a bullet, I don’t find that the vibrations add anything to my experience. (The bullet’s presence does, however, make the Echo’s base slightly more substantial-feeling and thus easier to hold onto.)

The Echo’s ridges are perfect. I’m normally not a fan of ridges, particularly ones that are packed close together and intense, but the ones on the Echo are fairly spread out and feel similar to the coronal ridge on a penis – i.e. not overstimulating, just nice. I used to classify myself as someone who just doesn’t enjoy ridges on dildos, but I think I have to give up that label now, because the Echo feels just grand in my pussy. And only one side of the Echo is ridged, so if I’m ever having a particularly texture-sensitive day, I know I can just turn it the other way for a smoother surface.

Also: its head is magical. Maybe it’s because it’s so big and rounded, or maybe it’s the soft silicone, or maybe it’s both, but the Echo’s head never hurts my sensitive cervix – instead, it strokes it, creating that divine anterior fornix stimulation that I thought only my boyfriend’s penis could adequately achieve. I can thrust the Echo deeper than I can insert any other dildo I own, and my pleasure-starved cervix and fornices enthusiastically thank Tantus for that.

Overall, I’m very, very pleased with my purchase. The Tantus Echo has some design issues that detract slightly from its perfection, but it hits all the right spots, feels comfortable in my smaller-than-average pussy, and is of the high quality I’ve come to expect from Tantus. If this dildo was a person, I’d buy it a bouquet of daisies, stare at its ripply muscles, and start to fall in love.

Ask Girly Juice: Beginners’ G-Spotting Toys

Kate Sloan

Anonymous asked: What toy can you recommend for a G-spot beginner?

Hi, Anonymous! Welcome to the marvelous, messy world of G-spot adventuring.

When I read your question, the toy that immediately jumped to mind for me was the Amethyst. It’s the first toy I owned that really hit my G-spot, and could put a lot of pressure on it. And it’s glass, so it’s relatively inexpensive and very easy to care for.

You could also have a look at the Lelo Ella, a beautiful silicone dildo with a flat head that rubs the G-spot. I found that it couldn’t apply as much pressure as I like, because the neck of the toy has some flex to it, but some people swear by Ella.

If you’ve got a bigger budget, I can’t recommend the Njoy Pure Wand highly enough. It’s a better G-spot stimulator than any of the toys mentioned above, but of course, it’s quite a bit pricier because it’s made of medical-grade stainless steel.

If you think your G-spot would like vibration, I hear good things about the Gigi, and I absolutely love my Mona. Both are Lelo toys, so they’re rechargeable and high-quality. It might help you to first identify whether your G-spot is fairly shallow (Gigi) or deeper (Mona) so you’ll know which size of toy would work better.

Hope that helps! Have fun playing with your new toy(s)!

Got a question about sex or sex toys? Click here to submit it!

Review: Magic Banana

Kate Sloan

As a sex toy reviewer, one of the questions I get asked all the time is, “What’s the weirdest toy you’ve tried?” Up til now, I’ve typically told people it’s the Eroscillator (ridged bronze god that looks a bit like a medieval torture device) or the Pure Wand (large curved hunk of steel that my mom claims she could do bicep curls with) – but I think I have a new contender in my toybox: the Magic Banana.

This toy consists of a yellow resistance cord wrapped in a curved loop of “smooth, non-toxic, FDA-approved” tubing, and a black handle that seems to be made of hard plastic. I haven’t been able to find any concrete claims about the actual materials used, but the instruction manual only recommends water-based lube, so maybe there’s some silicone in there somewhere.

The Magic Banana is a kegel exerciser. That is its purpose, and it lives up to that label. What bugs me about this product is the incessant claims it makes about its purported other uses, none of which it does well.

For example, the Banana’s manual states repeatedly that it is curved to hit the G-spot. Yes, it’s curved. Yes, it brushes past my G-spot when I thrust it in and out. But it certainly doesn’t feel very stimulating, at least not in an erotic way. If I want to writhe with G-spot pleasure, I’ll use a toy that’s actually designed for it, not a kegel toy that thinks it can be sexy.

The Banana’s instruction manual is full of hilarity, but I particularly like this passage: “The Magic Banana expands your pleasure possibilities and can enable you to experience several types of orgasm at once. With practice, the Magic Banana can also help you experience full-body orgasm.” I take issue with this. There is no proof to back this up. Sure, doing regular kegel exercises will strengthen the PC muscles and make orgasms longer and stronger – but “several types of orgasm at once”? “Full-body orgasm”? I think not.

Continuing to read through the manual, though, I came across this: “The Magic Banana can be a great tool to enhance partner sex – especially when used with oral stimulation.” Yes! This is an idea I can get behind. Mainly because, when my boyfriend’s tongue is on my clit, pretty much anything in my vagina will feel good. We tried it out, and to my amazement, the Magic Banana is actually great for this purpose. It doesn’t slide out at all, unlike literally every other toy I own, and it’s fun to feel its resistance cord being squished by my vaginal muscles during orgasm.

I guess I have to talk about the toy’s primary purpose at some point, huh? As a kegel exerciser, the Magic Banana is decent. It doesn’t provide as much of a challenge as I was expecting, in terms of resistance, but it can certainly be felt when I squeeze around it. I think it would be best suited for someone who hasn’t quite figured out how to isolate their PC muscles yet, or hasn’t done much kegeling before. I have fairly fit vaginal muscles and wished I could upgrade to something harder to squeeze.

I’ve tried to use the Magic Banana to stimulate myself internally while masturbating clitorally, as the manual repeatedly suggests, but it just doesn’t feel that great. The tubing awkwardly pulls and stretches at my vaginal opening, and it’s all too easy to bump into my cervix with it on the way in. I inevitably get frustrated with it and switch it out for something more satisfying at some point.

I think I would’ve liked the Magic Banana a lot more if I hadn’t been told, over and over again, that it would be able to do everything for me. It doesn’t please my G-spot, it doesn’t enable me to have “several types of orgasm at once,” it doesn’t induce deeper sleep with better dreams (yes, the manual actually makes this ridiculous claim). It does, however, provide a small-to-medium amount of resistance for doing kegel exercises, and it stays put inside me during oral sex.

You’ll probably enjoy the Magic Banana if you’re looking for a fun new way to do kegels, or you like having people ask you questions about the strange-looking objects on your bedside table – but don’t expect any more than that from this toy, or you’ll be just as disappointed as me.

Review: Ttamage Large Smiley Dildo (vs. Njoy Pure Wand)

Kate Sloan

When Matthew of Ttamage offered me my choice of item to review, I combed through his entire shop looking for anything that caught my eye… and when I saw the Large Smiley Dildo (hereafter referred to as the LSD – ha!), I knew it was meant to be.

I actually mainly requested it because of its resemblance to the Njoy Pure Wand, a toy I’d been flagrantly lusting after. Little did I know, I’d soon become a proud Pure Wand owner – and the two dildos would arrive in my mailbox on the same day! Naturally, I had to immediately snap a photo (see above).

I spent the next several days testing out both dildos (my life is so hard, huh?). And I’ve determined that the LSD is a great Pure Wand alternative, for anyone who can’t shell out the $100+ or just doesn’t like the Wand’s heaviness.

As you can see from the photo, the two dildos share a very similar curve. I’m not sure if this was an intentional Njoy homage on Ttamage’s part, but either way, it’s brilliant. The LSD, like the PW, goes straight for my G-spot – and because glass is firm like steel, it can deliver the same amount of deliberate pressure, too. I don’t think my G-spot can really tell the difference between the two toys; it just knows it’s being deliciously pounded.

The LSD is quite big, as its name would imply: it’s eight inches from end to end (in a straight line, not measured along the curve). I can’t even fit half of it inside me. This means that it offers a larger “handle” in use. This, in addition to its much lighter weight, might make it a better choice than the Pure Wand for someone who has issues with mobility or whose wrists get tired easily. Thrusting and rocking the LSD is a walk in the park compared to manoeuvring the unwieldy Pure Wand.

At the same time, though, that weight does have its benefits. Many people find that it allows the PW to put additional delicious pressure on the G-spot. If you need that weight-driven momentum that only a steel toy can provide, the LSD isn’t going to be much of a substitute.

Now, let’s talk about balls. The Pure Wand’s big ball is 1 ½", and its small ball is 1". I find that the big is too big and the small is too small. The bigger side stimulates my G-spot beautifully when I do get it in, but it’s not always comfortable to insert or remove – and I certainly can’t remove it in a hurry, which I might need to do if/when I learn to squirt. The LSD’s knobs are both 1 ½" wide as well, but they have more of a tapered shape, which makes insertion and removal easier. One of the balls is pointier than the other, so you can have a bit of variety if you want it.

In terms of care and upkeep, these toys are about equal. Glass and steel are both nonporous, body-safe, boilable, bleachable, and soapable. This also means that lube goes a long way with both of these materials – they’re pretty drag-free. I find that steel retains heat for longer than glass, but that’s not particularly important to me; if you like temperature play, you might lean slightly towards the Pure Wand on that point.

At $45, the Large Smiley Dildo isn’t going to deplete your wallet nearly as much as the Pure Wand. It’s easier to wield, and easier to insert. It may not feel as luxurious, or bring the heftiness of steel to its performance, but it is a damn good dildo and I use it pretty much interchangeably with my beloved Pure Wand.

A zillion thank-yous to Matthew from Ttamage for sending me this stunning dildo to review! Check out his incredibly elegant, handmade glass dildos and massagers, and let him know I sent you!