Sometimes, when I talk to my younger sex blogger friends about the way things used to be in this industry, I feel like a cranky old man describing his uphill-both-ways trudge from home to school and back again. You kids don’t know how great you’ve got it, I imagine myself saying (lovingly). Back in my day, a $25 vibrator barely felt like anything at all, and even a $100 vibrator wasn’t guaranteed to get you off. Can you imagine?!
That last part, at least, is still true, and always will be: no toy can guarantee orgasms, because every person’s anatomy and preferences are different. I will say, however, that vibrators in the under-$80 price range used to, pretty consistently, feel like almost nothing to me. Either they’d be so weak that I’d yell “THAT’S IT?!” upon reaching the highest setting, or they’d be so buzzy that my genitals would go fully numb before an orgasm was even visible on the horizon, or (most commonly) both.
That’s not the case anymore. Which is fucking awesome.
The Sohimi Rose Queen, for example, costs only $38 at time of writing. Ten years ago, a vibe at this price point would have made me sigh, roll my eyes, and toss it across the room; this vibe, on the other hand, makes me come.
Apparently rose sex toys are hot right now. When I told my spouse that this Sohimi toy was on my docket, they asked, “Is it the TikTok-famous rose vibrator?” I looked it up, and it’s not – but evidently, other companies are cashing in on the sudden cultural cachet that clit-pleasing roses have accrued. Like the toy that recently blew up in popularity on the ‘Tok (I’m 29, am I allowed to call it that?), this one is a clitoral pressure-wave toy shaped like a lovely rose – but this one has, in addition, another end, which vibrates and can be used to stimulate the clit, G-spot, or pretty much anywhere else you please.
The clit-sucking end is not my favorite, but then, very very few toys in this category of products really do the trick for me. On this one, as with many others, the suction feels too immediately intense and too precisely focused on the very tip of my clit, creating a buzzy effect that tends to be more annoying than arousing. However, as I often do, I’ve tended to use this one positioned on top of my clit and stimulating it through the hood, and that feels much better. It still has a buzzy, insistent quality that just doesn’t excite my clit the way something deeper and thrummier like the Lelo Sila does, though.
Oddly, this is one of the few pressure-wave toys I’ve tried that’s actually noisier when it’s on your clit than when it’s not. I wouldn’t call it loud, exactly, but I’d want to close my door and turn some music on if I was planning to use this toy when anyone else was home.
The other side, the vibrating one, is even louder – it sounds a bit like someone is mowing their lawn in a neighboring yard. But I find it much more stimulating and satisfying. The vibrations sit somewhere in the middle of the buzzy-rumbly spectrum, rumbly enough that my internal clit feels sufficiently stimulated but buzzy enough to give the surface of my skin that “whoa!” sensation that sometimes prompts orgasms. Though these vibrations start at a higher intensity than I’d prefer, they can get me off quickly and consistently, albeit sometimes with the addition of me rubbing the toy against myself in circles to counteract the slight numbness brought on by that buzzy top note.
That numbness, by the way, gets into my fingers, too, when I use this toy. The entire length of this rose vibrator buzzes when the vibrations are on, making it hard to comfortably keep a grip on it. I like using it hands-free for this reason, clamping it between my thighs once it’s positioned where I want it on my clit.
Both ends of the toy offer a few different patterns as well as a few steady speeds. I tend to prefer steady speeds when the sensations are as intense as they are in this toy, because the addition of rhythm to the equation can be overwhelming, but to each their own.
The shaft of the vibrator is flexible enough to be comfortable when used internally (though not necessarily pleasurable – it lacks a G-spot curve or anything else that my vaginal erogenous zones tend to like). But it’s not quite flexible enough for you to use both ends of the toy at once (unless you’re using one and a partner’s using the other, of course!). I don’t much care for using the vibrating end internally; it’s just buzzy enough that it makes my intestines feel mildly weird instead of stimulating any pleasurable zones in there. That said, it is smooth and slim, and could work well for someone who’s just easing their way into penetrative play, or prefers penetration on the skinnier side.
The shape of this toy leads me to believe it could be safely used for anal, because of how it flares out when the “rose” part begins. Just be sure to use a lot of lube, because the silicone is quite draggy.
If you’re looking for an inexpensive toy that can both suck your clit and vibrate your bits (though not at the same time), you could do plenty worse than this rose sex toy by Sohimi. It’s a genuinely powerful dual-usage toy that goes for just $38. But you’ll have to be willing to put up with its quirks, namely its lack of lower settings, its propensity for vibrating the fuck out of your fingers, and its higher-than-ideal noise level. Like any rose, it’s got its thorns – and sometimes the pain is worth enduring for the pleasure of the rose itself.
This post was sponsored, meaning I was paid to write a fair and honest review of this product. As always, all writing and opinions are my own. You can use the code GIRLY10 to get 10% off your purchase of this product.