strap-on

Review: Tantus Cush O2

Kate Sloan

I have been eyeing the Cush O2 for a long time, but always feared it wouldn’t fit inside me. It seems to be a favorite of reviewers who proudly identify as size queens – which I most definitely do not.

However, one day the wonderful folks at Tantus offered me an item of my choosing, and I just couldn’t get my eye off the Cush.

It’s a beautiful dual-density silicone dildo that comes in your choice of pink, purple, or blue. Tantus sent me the blue, which is my favorite color (how did they know?!).

At 1 ¾" in diameter, Cush is a pretty girthy dude. The squishy outer layer of silicone helps a little, but O2 is significantly firmer than VixSkin, so you can really feel the entirety of that girth. Small-vagina’ed folks, don’t buy Cush thinking you’ll be able to wrassle it into your pussy more easily because of its squish, because it doesn’t have much.

One of my favorite features of the Cush is its tapered tip. Much like a well-designed butt plug, the Cush’s tip allows it to slide into me with minimal discomfort. (I do, however, still recommend warming up with a smaller dildo first if this is your first foray into toys of this girth.)

The Cush’s big, defined head presses up against my G-spot with little effort, and if I push it deep enough inside, it can nudge my A-spot as well. The squishiness of the tip means I don’t injure my cervix even if I attempt some fairly enthusiastic A-spot stimulation with this toy.

I find that I don’t thrust a lot with Cush. The silicone feels draggy, even with lube, and my vagina gets a little overwhelmed by that texture paired with the toy’s girth. Instead, I like to slide it in all the way and then rhythmically tap or slap the base with my hand. This feels really good, even though the toy is barely moving at all. The girth basically does all the work for me, stimulating my G-spot and my whole vagina without me really having to do anything.

One of the Cush’s claims to fame is the slightly sharp ridge toward the bottom of its shaft. Some reviewers love how this ridge rubs their G-spot or the front wall of their vagina. As for me, my vag is short, so even when I’m extremely aroused, that ridge still sits at my vaginal opening and won’t go in any further. If you find yourself lusting after Cush for the ridge, you might want to measure your vagina’s depth before you buy, so you don’t end up disappointed! (The ridge is about 4 ½" down the shaft.)

I love Cush’s base. It’s thick, firm, and sublimely easy to grab and thrust with. It would also make this toy work great in a harness (a claim which I unfortunately can’t prove for myself because I don’t have a willing strap-on sex partner!).

I was fearful when I first decided to take on the challenge of the Cush O2, but I’m glad I did. It gives my vagina something nice and thick to clench around, and it works magic on my A-spot in particular. I have to admit that I sometimes wish O2 was squishier, like VixSkin, but at the same time, it’s sort of nice to have differing dual-density options. If you like girth, I’m pretty sure you’ll love the Cush!

Thank you so much to Tantus for sending me this great toy!

Sexual Goals for 2013

Kate Sloan

I’m a big list-maker. I make lists year-round, but especially when a new year is starting. And because my life and work are sex-centric, many of my goals end up being sex-related too. Here are some of the sexy things I hope to accomplish in 2013.

1. Get fucked in the ass with a strap-on.
Though I am interested in having anal sex eventually, it’s not something I think I’ll be emotionally and physically prepared for this year, at least not with my current partner’s average-sized penis. But I do want to explore anal play with him, so I came up with this compromise: he can wear my harness and fuck me with the teensy Tantus Acute. It’ll be much less intimidating than “real” anal sex, on multiple levels, and it’ll allow us both to figure out whether we’re ready to actually take that next step.

2. Enjoy G-spot play more often.
The sensations that emanate from my G-spot are almost scarily intense. They evoke all sorts of frightening thoughts and feelings, from the profound (“Will this open a door in my sex life that I will never be able to close again?”) to the trivial (“Am I going to pee the bed?”). For this reason, I tend to shy away from playing with my G-spot as much as I should, even though it feels awesome. In 2013, I want to step up my sexual exploration and take additional steps toward figuring out my G-spot.

3. Be photographed nude by my partner.
A girl I know has started up a magazine of feminist erotica, filled with hot images and words. I want to take some photos to submit to her, even if they get rejected for being too amateurish (hey, I’m no model). I want my partner to look at my naked body through a camera and take some shots of me playing with toys. This shit will be hot on so many levels.

4. Incorporate more spanking into our sexytimes.
My boyfriend used to spank me on a semi-regular basis, both as foreplay and as an accent to doggie-style sex. We’ve let it dwindle lately, which is silly, especially since I have an awesome paddle. More ass bruises, please!

5. Kiss somebody cute at #CrushTO.
I am an introvert. If I want to kiss someone, I have to put it on a list where I can check it off when it’s done, or it just won’t happen; I won’t have the motivation. So, here it is. I hope 2013 brings another giant game of tipsy Truth or Dare in a dark bar where everyone is sex-positive and in costume, and I hope for sweaty chemistry with some random stranger for a minute or two. Yesss.

What sexual things are you going to do in 2013?

Let’s Get Christmasy!

Kate Sloan

Sometimes I have silly ideas for blog articles, which nonetheless get put into action. This is one of those.

Here are some fun red-and-green sex toy combinations for you to indulge in this Christmas!

SpareParts Tomboi harness + VixSkin Mustang

It’s hard to say whether someone wearing this toy combo would appear masculine, feminine, or just alien-like. Either way, it’s hot.

Tenga Flip Hole + Ripple Triple Silicone Stimulator

Admittedly, the Ripple Triple is supposed to be for G-spots, clits, and female asses… but I’m thinking you could slip the “vaginal” part into your (male) butt, and the so-called clit stimulator would put pleasurable pressure and vibration on the perineum. Combine that with a Tenga masturbator and any gentleman’ll be good to go!

Duncan Charles Pleasure + 10-Speed Vibrating Egg

It’s hard to beat the classic combination of dildo and vibrator. So much the better if you can color-co-ordinate like a BAMF.

Rosebuds Crop + Sex and Mischief rope flogger

Kinky Christmas, y’all! See, impact play doesn’t have to be all about somber black leather equipment – it can be festive, too.

We-Vibe Salsa + Fleshlight Freaks Frankenstein dildo

Here’s a pairing for someone who needs a lot of stimulation. The Salsa is super rumbly, and the Frankenstein has a freakish (literally) amount of texture. Sensory overload!

Do you have any toys that remind you of Christmas?

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!

Review: Happy Valley Fuze Harmony

Kate Sloan

The Harmony, sent to me by the lovely folks at SheVibe, is from Happy Valley’s new-ish Fuze line. You may remember that I gave away some Fuze butt plugs a few months ago; well, this is my first time trying a toy from this range, and I… well, I feel pretty ambivalent about it.

The Fuze toys all come in black 100% silicone. It’s a very dark, glossy, sexy black, but it shows every single piece of lint it collects (many). The silicone is firmer than Tantus’ blend but squishier than Lelo’s blend. It’s this firmness that led to me having a hellish experience with another Happy Valley product, the Joe Rock butt plug – but vaginally, it works better. I’ve learned that my G-spot responds more favorably to harder toys.

Speaking of my G-spot… The Harmony is supposed to target it, and sadly, it doesn’t really. The shaft’s curve is so minimal that it brushes right past my G-spot without taking the time to stimulate it. The very slight ripples on the top side of the dildo feel nice going in and out of my vag, but this is certainly no Acute or Tsunami – it does little or nothing to my G-spot.

Both the Harmony and its thicker counterpart the Wilde have a unique feature I’ve never seen anywhere else: a harness-friendly base that has ridges on the bottom. It’s meant to stimulate the clit of the person wearing the dildo in their harness, and I applaud Happy Valley for being innovative and taking risks in this arena. Do the ridges do anything for me when I rub them on my vulva? Not really. Not much more than a regular flat base does, even with lube. But I’m not an experienced harness user at all. I know plenty of people who would probably appreciate this feature a lot. (And it helps that there’s a hole for a bullet vibe at the base.)

With an insertable length of about 5 ½” and a girth of 1 ¼”, the Harmony is a good size for a warm-up dildo. And that’s primarily what I use it for: warm-up. It satisfies my vag easily for the first few minutes of jerking off, while my G-spot is starting up and I’m easing into penetration – but as soon as I start to get really aroused, I need something better. Try as I might, I can’t have blended orgasms with the Harmony, because what it does to my vagina is more like “passing through” than “rubbing and stroking.” It makes me wonder if I might prefer the Wilde after all, even though it’s larger than the toys I usually use, because the girth would please my love-starved G-spot better. Who knows?

I can recommend the Harmony to someone who wants a smallish dildo, ideally for harness use. I have a feeling I’d like it a lot more if it were strapped onto someone I love, but on its own, it just doesn’t satisfy.

Thanks very much, SheVibe!