Tag: Toy Box

13

C is for clitoris, C is for clip

 

What we used: Clitoral clip/clitoral clamp
From: Sh! Women’s Erotic Emporium
Price: £6.00
Material(s): metal (unspecified), fabric (unspecified), plastic (unspecified)

Earlier this week, we reviewed Japanese clover nipple clamps. Today, Lizzie ventures below the waist with a clit clip from Sh! Women’s Erotic Emporium.

First impressions …

Lizzie
As you probably gathered from my last Toy Box post, I particularly enjoy the sensation of clamped nipples, so taking things a little lower was a logical progression for me. I also quite like the idea of clitoral decoration but am too much of a chicken to get anything pierced, so a clit clip seemed like a nice compromise.

This particular clip is an own-brand item from Sh! Women’s Erotic Emporium and arrives without an extraneous branding; the packaging is simple, utilitarian and, accordingly, female-friendly. (Unlike the clover clamps I reviewed recently, there’s no porn star displaying the clip in a raunchy pose, or laugh-out-loud back-of-box-copy talking about ‘excitement areas’.)

The clit clamp itself is very simple in design – a 6.5 centimetre (2.56 inch) metal clip that looks very much like an oversized hairpin with two strings of pink plastic beads, each measuring 4 centimetres (1.57 inches) attached to its looped ends. It’s very unintimidating, to be perfectly frank – no springs, screws or sliding parts – and looks like something you’d keep in your jewellery rather than your toy box. Weight-wise, the clit clip is very light, tipping the scales at a mere three grams, so there’s no need to worry that you’re going to be trying to accommodate something the size of a Christmas decoration between your legs. Continue reading →

10

Squeeze. Tease. The agony and ecstasy of nipple clamps

What we used:  Squeezer Teaser clover nipple clamps
From: Lovehoney
Price: £7.99
Material(s): metal (unspecified) and nylon

Intrigued by nipple clamps but not sure if they’re for you? Lizzie gives her opinion of You2Toys’ Squeezer Teaser clover clamps.

*This post is NSFW (not suitable for work) as it does contain an image of a bare breast and a nipple (shock horror). If you choose to read on, please take the time to peruse the Behind the Chintz Curtain disclaimer before doing so.

First thoughts …

Lizzie
I’m quite a fan of nipple clamps but I’ve always had a bit of a thing for the pleasure/pain dynamic, so I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise to me. However, this is the first set of Japanese clovers or ‘butterfly’ clamps that I’ve tried – previously, Thomas and I have stuck with the tweezer design – and I’m dying to see if I can handle them because, from an intensity perspective, they’re pretty near the top of the tree when it comes to pressure. Just how intense will they be? Will they be too much? Will I back out?

The packaging …

Lizzie
Ye gads. This is tacky sex toy packaging at its best. A woman sitting on the bonnet of what I can only assume is a police car and wearing nothing but a fake policeman’s hat and the Squeezer Teaser clamps on her extremely large nipples. Oh, and sporting the obligatory heavily deforested pubic area. The bit that has me in stitches, though? The hilarious ‘crime tape’ graphic emblazoned across the lower half of her body with the words ‘excitement area’. Continue reading →

30

Do TheyFit? The new frontier: custom-fitted condoms

What we used: TheyFit custom-fitted condoms
From: TheyFit
Price:  £6.99 for a pack of six
Material(s): Latex

Custom-fitted suits? Pfft. So last year. You can now buy condoms tailored to the length and width of your penis. Thomas gets the opportunity to try out TheyFit’s unique ‘sized service’.

First thoughts …

Thomas
I have to admit that when Jane got in touch about trialling custom-fitted condoms, my first thought was ‘are they going to send someone round?’. I had visions of a seedy individual arriving on my doorstep with a tape measure and some chalk (or perhaps a roll of Clingfilm). Disturbing.

But as it turns out, there’s no bloke in a raincoat. You simply go to the TheyFit website (www.theyfit.com), print out a template, and use it to measure the width and girth of your todger. Armed with your vital statistics, you then submit your size code via TheyFit’s online ordering service and they send you one of 95 sizes, ranging from modest to bloody humungous (my words, not theirs). I’m intrigued … Continue reading →

20

‘I’d like more … ‘ survey results

Back in July, we ran a poll asking what you’d like to see more of on Behind the Chintz Curtain. Interestingly, the results were very close, with an identical number of you voting for the two most popular options:

More Garden of Earthly Delights posts – 33.33%

An equal mix of all three – 33.33%

More book reviews – 22.22%

More Toy Box reviews – 11.11%

So, given your feedback it seems the current balance of posts is about right for now – albeit there’s a bit of a bias towards book and Garden [*no longer available on the blog] entries. We’ll try and include a few more of these going forwards but we may also start introducing some new topics during August, too.

There’s more Garden on the way this week (unfortunately, I’m a bit behind on writing this as the 40 degree heat in Italy played havoc with my ability to do much beyond recline on a sun lounger like lady muck) and you’ll be pleased to know that Nick and Grace have actually made it to the dinner table …

Finally, I have something I’d like your help with. I’m curious to know how many of us actually have ‘toy boxes’. Have we finally moved past hiding things in our knicker drawers and, if so, what are we now keeping our playthings in? This may seem like a bit of a random question but I’m currently researching sex toy storage options and I’ll be publishing the results of my findings here on Chintz for you. (Don’t worry – the poll is completely anonymous, so if you click on one of the voting buttons we’re not going to know that it’s you who’s hiding your vibrator in the freezer or linen cupboard!)

 

 

16

Just Tease Me

What we used:  Tease Me Soft Satin Blackout Blindfold
From: Lovehoney
Price: £14.99
Material(s): Satin

Lizzie and Thomas have the opportunity to try out Lovehoney’s innovative satin Tease Me blindfold. Will they encounter the slippage issues they experienced during their last blindfold roadtest?

Lizzie
A few weeks ago, we reviewed Coco de Mer’s ‘Freedom is deciding whose slave you want to be’ blindfold as part of the Christian Grey’s Playthings toy series. If you read our post, you’ll know that we loved the look and feel of this pretty and luxurious bit of kit but had some issues with it slipping off at inopportune moments.

Enter the very lovely Alice from Lovehoney who, after reading our review, kindly sent us Lovehoney’s very own Tease Me blindfold to try out. This innovative product has an ingenious flexible wire embedded inside the satin, so the wearer gets a much better fit across their nose and cheeks and, consequently, there’s less chance of it parting company with the face during use.

First impressions …

Lizzie
The Tease Me blindfold arrives in a slim white cardboard package featuring the Lovehoney’s branding in purple white and black and encased in a clear plastic sleeve. Very simple and understated (I wouldn’t have been offended if Thomas had bought this for me as a gift).

The blindfold itself is pretty; the outward-facing side is rich purple and the inward-facing panel a lovely glossy black. The section that’s designed to sit over the nose and eyes is delineated by a half-moon of leather-like piping and inside the curved section of this is a thin, flexible wire (which you can easily feel and manipulate with your fingers).

Thomas
This is a very nice blindfold. It looks high quality, the stitching is good and it feels soft to the touch. The packaging is nicely discrete as well. Continue reading →

31

A not-so-Happy Rabbit

What we used: Happy Rabbit G-Spot Rechargeable Rabbit Vibrator
From: Lovehoney
Price: £49.99
Material(s): Silicone (main body and operating buttons) and plastic (base)
Lizzie is on a quest to find a new rabbit vibrator. Will Lovehoney’s Happy Rabbit G-Spot rechargeable rabbit vibrator make her, well, happy?

First thoughts …

Lizzie
I have been looking for a new rabbit vibrator for AGES. I bought my first one over ten years ago and fell completely in love with it. It was ridiculously cheap, was likely full of terrible un-bodysafe plastics, smelled dreadful, was louder than a 747 at take-off, and had an awful and superfluous bubble of moving beads the colour of boiled sweets near the base. But it could make me orgasm, no problem at all, and it was used on a weekly basis with much enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, after a few months of faithful (heavy) service it gave up the ghost – the battery chamber corroded – and, in any event, I’d started to do a bit of research on phthalates and had decided that I shouldn’t be putting things that were potentially harmful inside myself.

So I bought another more expensive one – and to my great disappointment, it was not a patch on the cheap-as-chips original. The rabbit ear position was slightly different and even though the vibe was quieter and smelled loads better, it wasn’t nearly as easy to orgasm with. Eventually, I got cross with it, threw it away and started experimenting with some different vibrator designs to see if I could find something I liked better.

But nothing I’ve tried so far has given me quite the same pleasure as my first rabbit and I’m desperate to find one that I adore as much as my original.

Bring on the Happy Rabbit. Continue reading →

30

Durex Deluxe condoms: a slightly thinner plastic bag for your willy

What we used: Durex Deluxe condoms
Manufacturer: Durex
Price: £8.60 – £9.99 for a pack of 5
Material(s): straight-walled polyurethane, non-spermicidal lubricant

At nearly £2.00 per condom, are Durex’s new Deluxe condoms all they’re cracked up to be? Thomas gives us his verdict.

First thoughts …

Thomas
I’ll be totally honest. Condoms are not my favourite sexual aid by a long shot. They fall into the category of ‘necessary evil’ but as STIs are with us for the foreseeable future, they are the best barriers to infection. As a rule, I always take the words ‘Ultimate’, ‘Ultra’, ‘Super’, and ‘Ultra-mega-f**king-amazing’, etc., with a large (large) pinch of salt when I see them applied to condoms. That fact is they all involve sticking a plastic bag over your willy, which is not terribly erotic, and they certainly don’t heighten any sensations, despite what some ribbed brands may say. Continue reading →

23

O is for orgasm

What we used: Play O orgasm enhancing gel
From: Durex
Price: £11.39 – £15.35 (depending on retailer)
Ingredient(s): aqua, propylene glycol, arginine, lactic acid, hydroxyethylcellulose, aroma, PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, isopulegol, methylparaben

Can Play O gel really help you achieve orgasm? Lizzie discovers that, yes, it can.

First thoughts …

Durex Play O has been around for a while now. I first saw it on a shelf in my local Boots pharmacy a few years ago, lurking unobtrusively next to the condoms and lubricants. The word ‘orgasm’ caught my attention and within seconds I was scanning the back of the box:

‘Durex Play OTM Gel is a revolutionary product for enhanced orgasm pleasure. Play OTM Gel has been specially designed and tested by women for women using a unique combination of ingredients that create a multitude of cooling, warming and tingling sensations all at the same time, heightening sensitivity of the clitoris for more intense orgasm pleasure and easier to reach orgasms.’

All of this sounded marvellous but to be brutally honest, I was pretty sceptical about whether a gel could have that much of an effect. An easy orgasm is pretty much the Yetti of intercourse – for women at least; everyone talks about it, but no one really believes it exists. Surely, if this stuff actually worked, I’d be hearing shrieks of pleasure echoing around the neighbourhood? Nevertheless, I’ll try anything once and so proceeded to march off to the checkout with my new discovery. Continue reading →

17

Christian Grey’s playthings, part four: handcuffs

What we used: Luxury Suede Leather Handcuffs in red
From: Bondara
Price: £25.99
Material(s): Cuffs – suede and leather. Fastenings – nickel-plated steel

Read Fifty Shades of Grey and curious about bondage? If so, we hope you enjoy the fourth and final post in our Christian Grey’s playthings series, in which Thomas restrains Lizzie with some very comfortable leather handcuffs and she does a bit of … hanging about.

Important: If you haven’t already, please read the Behind the Chintz Curtain Disclaimer. (It’s not as dry and boring as you might think, so please do take the time to have a look.)

First impressions …

Lizzie
I have a bit of a thing for the colour red, so it was probably a given that I’d like the look of these cuffs. They arrive in generic brown packaging and, I have to say, my first thought when I extract them from their plastic sleeve is that they appear to be very well made; heavier and a lot more substantial than I imagined they would be. I can’t resist giving them a quick sniff – I adore the smell of leather – and am not disappointed by their aroma!

Each red suede cuff is lined with smooth black leather and has a metal buckle, a leather strap with punched holes, and a metal D-ring (to which the accompanying chain can be clipped to secure the cuffs together) on its outer surface. A close inspection reveals that the finishing is excellent: the stitching on the cuff edges is neat and the rivets that attach the D-rings and buckle sections are firmly set. The leather is wonderfully supple and bends easily when I manipulate the cuffs with my hands – a very good sign since having something stiff or hard around the wrists isn’t a great idea if you’re going to get physical. (You don’t want restraints chaffing, cutting into your skin or affecting circulation.) Continue reading →