Saturday, May 26, 2012

A:muse personal massager review

Hello everybody! My friends over at Body Jungle were nice enough to ship me out some things to review this week, so the A:Muse by Lifestyles will be the first of two reviews sponsored by them. Body Jungle is a fairly new shop. What's their forte you ask? They have EVERYTHING! They have more products on their site than most shops I review for combined. So if you're looking for something but can't find it, I highly recommend hopping over there to see what they have.

I added the A:muse to the list of products I wouldn't mind trying for a few reasons. First off I saw that someone was asking about it on Tumblr, which initially got me thinking about it. Secondly, I am for some reason very interested in trying toys made by condom companies. I feel like they should know what they're doing if anyone does!

As usual, the box this came in was discreet and brown. The label doesn't even have the Body Jungle company name on it, so there's no way that those you live with will be able to tell who the package was from. For a lot of people like myself this is a huge deal, I don't want my mum handling a package that says it's from Dildos R Us.

The A:Muse by Lifestyles comes in a fairly compact purple box. When I first pulled it out I was surprised by how classy it looked compared to a lot of other toys. It's very feminine and at a glance no one would know that it's packaging for a toy. It's entirely purple, black, and white.

The front has a small flap that you can open to see the toy and read some more information about the features. Unless you get curious and open the flap you can't see the toy, which also makes it more discreet. It tells you how to control it and a bit about the settings.

When you flip the box over to the back there's quite a bit more information, especially concerning the materials and design of the toy. It's informative enough that you certainly know what you're going into, and it feels very high quality for the price range. Here's a picture of the front, flap open, and back:



 
The A:muse itself feels very quality when you first take it out of the box. Made of smooth plastic, this toy is both nonporous and body safe. This means it isn't going to seep out any ucky chemicals and that you can fully disinfect it. It's also very firm, which means you have more control of the pressure you put behind the toy.

It's about 5 inches long and 4 inches wide at the largest point. It's also about 3 inches thick at the thickest point, so it's not as easy to hide or take with you as a more traditional bullet. On the other hand, it's also a lot more ergonomic than a bullet, and it's much easier to control.

Here's a picture of the A:muse VS a pen



The area that has the strongest vibrations in it is the tip by the control pad. This tip also has a bit more of a point to it for better pinpoint stimulation. The vibrations are about halfway between buzzy and rumbly, and on high I would rate it about 2.5 vrooms and 2.5 bees.

It's not going to be strong enough for people who really need a lot of power, and this is one of the few toys I have that I wish had a bit of a higher setting. It's also not going to be heard over the shower or through the wall, though you can't use it in the same room as someone else.

You control this toy by pressing the three buttons on the dark purple control pad. There is a power button, an up button, and a down button. They're all way to press, but I haven't had any issues with accidentally pressing them in use. Here's a picture of the buttons:
There are three intensity settings to the A:muse and there are 5 different pattern. This means that there's a total of 15 different combinations that you can play around with, something that I would appreciate a bit more if it was stronger. The five settings are as follows:

1) Steady
2)  BZZ BZZ BZZ
3)  BZ BZ BZ BZ BZZZ
4) bbzzBBZZZZZ bbzzBBZZZZ
5) bz bz bz bz bbbZZZZZ

You turn on the A:muse by holding the power button and can turn it off at any time by holding the power button. You press the power button to switch settings, and when you press it on the 5th setting it goes back to being on the constant vibration mode.

Another thing I want to mention is that it's REALLY hard to open the battery compartment if you follow the instructions. It says that you should squeeze the sides and pull up a little to open it, but in reality you just need to get your fingernail under the top part and yank. I squeezed and squeezed, and it's much easier just to pull. Here's a picture of the toy open:


The A:muse also comes with a sleek travel bag. It's great because it keeps it clean and safe, though there's not much room in the bag if you want to pack lube or spare batteries. Here's a picture of the A:muse VS the carrying bag:
Overall, the A:muse is an ergonomic toy that has a lot going for it. It has a ton of patterns, it feels quality, it comes with it's own bag, and it's waterproof. On the other hand, I usually use toys on their lowest setting and I had to crank this one up to high, so if you need much power at all this one isn't a good place to look.

I had a really hard time rating the A:muse, but I settled with a 3.5 because it's awesome in concept, but I just feel that if you have a current favorite, even if you don't like a lot of power, this isn't going to replace it. 

You can find the A:muse over at Body Jungle by following this link right here. If you're not big on external stimulation or you want something with more power, Body Jungle is sure to stock something that's more up your alley so you should still check them out!

Overall
Power: 2.5/5
Volume: 2.5/5
Waterproof? Yes
Recommended? Yes
Overall rating: 3.5/5


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Pleasurists 175


Image courtesy of Blacksilk*

Welcome to Pleasurists, a round-up of the adult product and sex toy reviews that came out in the last seven days. If you like what you see and want more of it be sure to follow the RSS Feed and Twitter for updates.

Did you miss Pleasurists 174? Read it all here. Do you have a review for Pleasurists 177? Be sure to read the submission guidelines and then use the submission form to submit before Sunday May 20th @ 11:59pm Pacific Time.

*Pleasurists now accepts photo submissions for the art at the top of editions! For more information click here.

Want a shiny new toy? All you’ve got to do is enter.

Editor
Scarlet Lotus

On to the reviews:

Vibrators

Dildos

Anal Toys

Sleeves, Rings, & etc.

Harnesses

Lube, Massage Oil, Bath Stuff, & etc.

BDSM/Fetish

Adult Books & Games

Adult DVDs & Porn

Sex Furniture

Lingerie

Miscellaneous

Pleasurists adult product review round-up

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Laid D.1 Dildo Review

Remember how I mentioned earlier that Our Naughty Secrets was willing to order toys for customers if they didn't carry the color/toy you were interested in? This was one of those toys. It actually inspired the guy who runs it to start carrying all of the Laid toys, which all look awesome.

I had actually sold a lot of my lightly used, sterilizable toys for cheap to save up for this dildo. Ever since I saw it the color, shape, and material just seemed perfect for me. After I'd made enough money I shot Our Naughty Secrets an e-mail and asked them to snag it for me. They actually gave me a discounted price in return for this review.

Now as soon as I pulled my Laid dildo out of the box I knew it was a quality toy. It comes in a rectangular, black and white box with colored sides. The color of the sides matches the color of toy you chose. It's sturdy and great to store your toy in if you're not concerned about space.

The front of the box has the name of the toy and some small lettering telling you that it's a silicone dildo. It looks very modern and classy, but it doesn't try and hide the fact that it's a sex toy. On the back is an image of the toy and some information highlighting the features.

Here's an image of the front:

And the back:


When you open the box, the toy is nestled into a black foam insert. It's very secure and it really sets off the color of the dildo. It's a great way to keep the toy if you aren't worried about space because it's super easy to open, and it's very secure.

Here's a picture of the toy in the box:


When you look closer there is a small, plastic loop around the cardboard insert that can be used to pull it up. How cute is that?! Here's a picture of it:


When you lift it up inside there is a little booklet highlighting the features of all the different Laid products, including a vibrator which they don't make anymore. It's classy and nice, and informative enough since this is a pretty basic dildo.

And what's this taped under the insert? A lube sample you say!


Well okay, enough about the packaging. I just needed to point out just how awesome my first impression of this dildo was. It looked to be everything I hoped for in a dildo! Pretty, classy, functional... Until I tried to use it.

The reason that I've been putting this review off. I am just heartbroken that this toy didn't work for me! I saved and saved, and now I can't even play with my fancy new toy I got. The main problem is the rigidity of the dildo and the girth.

The widest point at the large end is a bit over 5 inches around, and at the smaller end it's about 4.75 inches around. This makes it perfect for ladies who can take toys that are a bit over 'average,' but I don't happen to be one of those women.

Here's the Laid front and side VS a pen:




Since this toy has no motor, it's super quiet. Dildos are awesome for people who can't afford a noisy motor buzzing away where people might hear it, but if you're into vibrations you may not want to start with something this high quality in case you don't like it.

The silicone is a tiny bit of a lint magnet, but it's not tacky at all and has little drag to it. Due to the girth I still recommend using a lot of lube. Because this toy is silicone it's not compatible with silicone lube, and you also should try and not store it in contact with other silicone-based toys in case they react together and leave you sad. Here's a picture of me bending it to show you how little give this toy has:


I wouldn't really recommend this as a first toy for a couple or for solo use because of the large girth and the rigidity. If your partner gets carried away it would be easy to accidentally get bruised thrusting, and if someone isn't used to things this thick it may be unpleasant enough to scare them off of toys for a while.

Overall I HIGHLY recommend the Laid D.1 Dildo... If you like things this large. If you're like me and are a total girth wimp, good news is that Our Naughty Secrets carries a ton of smaller dildos and vibrators. If you're loving the looks of this awesome toy you can click this link to snatch it up in blue, current, or hot pink.

Overall
Power: N/a
Noise: N/a
Waterproof? Yes
Recommended: Yes
Total Rating: 5/5