From The Full Body Project by Leonard Nimoy

I’ve been thinking a lot about size in general, both big and small and everywhere in between. Chicory (who I met face-to-face and is fantastic!) and I have been conversing about it, via email, comments, and in our meeting yesterday, and inspired by Thursday’s Child’s Sex and Intimacy Project I want to pose some questions to all of you.

Size acceptance is coming to be an issue I am passionate about. I’ve forever had the same hangups as, well, just about everyone in this culture. The same negative feelings towards my size. Though it’s important to distinguish between health and size, even though our society does not really view it that way. We are told that thin equals healthy and fat equals unhealthy, though I know plenty of thin people who eat much much worse than I do, and yet. But I digress.

The questions I want to pose have to do with the intersection of size and sexuality in your life. They may have no intersection at all, or you may have never thought of the intersection, but either way I want to hear about it. This may seem obvious, but the most interesting aspect, I believe, will be to see how everyone differs and what similarities there are, as well as being able to get a glimpse of the person within their answers.

Weight and size are touchy subjects in our culture, as is sexuality. Both have to do with the body and have moral judgments thrust upon them. Both are aspects of the self that are extremely personal and also that have strong cultural expectations and meanings. Both affect the way we present ourselves and think about ourselves.

Want to answer the questions? Fill out the questions below and send them to me: scarletsexgeek AT gmail DOT com

In order for these interviews to be what I would consider successful I need you to be completely honest. This is about real people talking honestly about their bodies and their sexuality, recognizing what society tells us about our bodies and recognizing how that affects our own ideas about how we should or should not act. If you wish you thought one way but really think another I want to hear that, not just what you wish you thought.

The focus of these questions are not just on large/fat/plus-sized women, I’m interested in answers from everyone of all sizes, all genders, all sexes, and so on. If you want to answer them, please do!

Feel free to skip any of the general info questions you are not comfortable answering, but please do answer all of the others. The more in-depth the answers the better, but in-depth and lengthy are not always the same thing (though they can be).

General Info
Name (what you’d like to be called):
Age:
Gender identity and presentation:
Sexual identity:
Relationship status:
Blog/Website (if you have one):

Size & Sexuality
What size is your body (you can use dress/pant sizes, a general description, anything you’re comfortable with, though remember that not all terms mean the same thing to the same people.)?
How comfortable are you with your body both in general and your body size specifically?
How has your relation with and attitude toward your body and the size of your body changed over time?
How important is sexuality to your life?
How has your relation with and attitude toward your sexuality changed over time?
How comfortable are you with expressing yourself and your body sexually?
How comfortable is society with the idea of viewing your body as sexual?
Through answering these questions and/or thinking about your relation to your body and your sexuality, have you noticed any links or similarities between the two? If so, what?
Anything else you would like to add?

Feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments or via email, but please don’t answer the questionnaire in the comments. scarletsexgeek AT gmail DOT com

-Scarlet Lotus Sexgeek

The incredibly sexy and absolutely awesome NoFauxxx.Com is having a Holiday Photo Contest! You can win some delicious queer porn, and who doesn’t want that? Anything from NoFauxxx is hot, sexy, and delicious. I have a review coming soon of them as well!

Win a Free Year-Long Membership to NoFauxxx.Com for you and a friend!

Holiday Photo Contest Info from Trouble:

We want to give you, and one of your friends, one of the best holiday gifts you can get - free queer porn! All you have to do is send us a photograph that shows your definition of “QUEER.” We will judge the photo on artistic quality and content readability - and we will post all of the entries in a special gallery on NoFauxxx.Com!
Here are the rules.

1. YOU MUST BE 18 OR OLDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS CONTEST. Please include a photo of you holding up your ID (with date of birth clearly readable) along with your photo submission.

2. Photo can be of anything, but it has to include YOU and a symbol of your definition of “queer.” You do *not* have to be naked, however you are also free to be as naked as you like, and doing anything you like in the photo just as long as it is legal!

3. Please use your own ideas, we’re looking for something unique and one of a kind! We are looking for photos that have emotional content - we want to look at the photo and say, “Oh! This is what ‘queer’ means to this person!”

4. Please fill out the additional questions on the form, such as how you took the photo, what gave you the idea, and what your definition of “queer” is.

Models, members, and fans are all eligible to win. Photos must be self-shot or self-directed, and taken specifically for this contest. Photos from a professional photo set probably wont win this one!

If you are ready to enter this contest, please fill out the submission form now!

Submission Form
Contest Home Page

Good Luck!

xo Trouble

Much by accident I just came across this quote:

Marilyn was revered as a tigress, but she was loved (and pitied) as a kitten. In that sense her sexuality did not present a challenge; vulnerability made her manageable–it guaranteed her femininity.

The threat of other lustful man-killers is diminished by intimations of their androgyny. Mae West looked all girl but her style was decidedly butch. “It’s [men's] game,” she says with trademark smarminess of her multiple, casual seductions in She Done Him Wrong. “I happen to be smart enough to play it their way.” Marlene Dietrich in tux and top hat is also both hyperfeminine and faux homme, a man in drag in drag. -My Enemy, My Love By Judith Levine p. 92

It goes on to talk about the book’s real point in bringing this up: the antipode to the Seducer or femme fatale, The Slave. But, that’s not really what intrigued me about it. I especially love this line: Mae West looked all girl but her style was decidedly butch. It is an angle I hadn’t really contemplated before, but basically Mae West as femme. It’s pretty damn obvious now that I’m thinking about it, but it just wasn’t a connection I’d made before. Though she wasn’t queer in the sense of sleeping with women, but she did have an affinity toward gay men and wrote The Drag.

Mae West

The two ways used to describe Mae West and Marlene Dietrich are both incredibly queer, while Marilyn Monroe is more of an archetype for traditional femininity. Mae West was femme in look, butch in action, or simply a description of a type of queer femininity, or simply femmeininity. Marlene Dietrich was a man in drag in drag, a queer masculinity on a female body so that it is not the same as masculine because it is also overtly feminine.

Of course, this has the threat of falling into the trap of femme = weak and butch = strong, or femme = passive and butch = active/aggressor, but that’s not what I’m taking it to mean. While the original writer may have had those gender stereotypical ideas in mind, though I don’t know because I haven’t talked to her, I don’t believe that saying Mae West is femme in look butch in action is necessarily falling into the same gender stereotypes any more than us calling ourselves butch or femme does.

Mae was a lover of elegant dresses, furs, jewels, nearly anything extravagant. While many femmes can be and are strong, straightforward, and aggressive there is a difference between a strong femininity and a strong masculinity though they can look quite the same, otherwise we wouldn’t use terms to differentiate them, and that is what I’m taking the phrase to mean. I see her as a drag queen, or a faux queen, a term I have found for female drag queens, putting on her extravagance for all the world to see in a very masculine manner.

Marlene Dietrich

Similarly with Marlene Dietrich, there is a big difference between a faux homme, as termed by the author of the quote, and a butch. I take it to be an element of faggetry within it, that extra addition of femininity to the butch that may make you do a double-take. It makes me think of Emmit in Queer as Folk (Onyx and I are watching through the series–now on Season 5!), a queer masculinity that, while masculine, has a touch of the feminine within it as well, though that isn’t a perfect representation, but he could also be termed “a man in drag in drag.”

On a more personal note, I found myself identifying with both the statements. These are, of course, only two of an infinite number of queer genders in the gender galaxy, but are especially interesting to me because I identify with them.

Most of the time I’m in femme drag, I look all femme but my style is decidedly butch. Yet I also absolutely love to get into boi/butch drag on occasion as well, but when I do it it’s never to pass, it’s always to pass as queer, a fagette rather than a man. Hence hyperfeminine and faux homme, a man in drag in drag. I absolutely love it.

Lately I have been struggling with the different genders within me, my femme drag queen and boi fagette sides as I affectionately call them, though there are more gendered sides than that, but those are the easiest to categorize (but not box in). I was amazed when I found the quote above since it clicked with me so perfectly. I embrace those exact styles up above: a drag queen femmeininity which is more butch in style but femme in look, and a faggette butchness which is very faux homme.

-Scarlet Lotus Sexgeek

From Video “Eleven - Eddie/Aya in the Woods 3″ on Good Dyke Porn

Each time I start writing this review of Good Dyke Porn I have to stop and start over, because I keep on not being able to convey just how much I’ve enjoyed this site, and how wonderful I believe this site and these videos are. Not only does every video look like real dykes having real dyke sex (interpret that as you wish) and actually genuinely enjoying themselves, they are doing it in a way that is incredibly enjoyable to watch as well.

The only negative I can say about the site at all is that I found myself getting so turned on by it that I got turned around on it, unsure of how to get back to a page I was on before without the back button or scrolling through multiple pages. Part of that was me forgetting how I got to a page after watching a video, cumming, and being generally brain-addled from that.

Even with the slightly confusing navigation videos aren’t at all difficult to find, just getting back to a specific video or page was difficult for me, and I enjoy the general layout and the way each video is laid out, with the ability to watch or save each clip from each scenario. Another nice thing about the way it’s set up is that you can choose get a general membership to the site or just buy individual clips that pique your interest, which is extremely handy because not everyone is into all the same things, so you can just pick and choose what you want to watch and what you don’t. Of course, the more clips you buy the more you would save by just buying a membership.

I’ve watched a number of different clips and different scenarios, from a familiar pizza boy scenario to a femme circle jerk to a femmed up male-bodied dyke and his lover engaging in play, and many more! Each one was strikingly different but they all were exactly what the title indicates: good (or great) dyke porn. I loved the feeling that I got from watching these, not just the turned on feeling but like I was peeking in on what these dykes normally did with each other, not that I was watching some elaborately staged visual adult entertainment that was trying to be anything other than real dykes getting it on.

I especially loved that everyone looked like they were real people, with all different breast sizes, body types, and skin tones. Like I said, every scenario is different, with a variety of tones, toys, and activities. Some have strap-ons and other toys introduced into the mix, some are just dyke-on-dyke fingers and mouth on cunt action, some have restraints and BDSM or D/s overtones, some have all three. They are all in various locations both outdoors (hot!) and indoors and each one of them is extremely fun to watch.

Some of the videos even have extra ‘behind the scenes’ clips as a seperate clip after the hot action, where you get to talk with those involved in the scene and learn a little more about them. I loved this, almost more than the actual videos (though not quite–I did say almost!) because it just emphasizes that these are real people that you’re watching having sex and having fun. Hearing the participants explain what made them want to do porn and how they were feeling post-scene was a wonderful experience that I really appreciated being able to see.

I also love that there is a male-bodied individual in one of the scenarios. I noticed a post on the forum about this as well (another great feature to have on a sex-positive very women-friendly porn site, the ability to converse with other members about the porn and just about anything). The forum post had the title “Do men belong in dyke porn?” It wasn’t someone complaining, just wanting to know what the others there thought. There were quite a few responses, including this one from Bren Ryder the creator of GDP:

“Women like different things and some may argue that there shouldn’t be a dildo or there shouldn’t be cake or there shouldn’t be young beautiful femme women with perfect bodies or there shouldn’t be a scene where a bio-guy is dressed up like a woman and then gets fucked in the ass.
I say there absolutely should be all of those things and MORE. Anything that serves our queer fantasies. ”

The majority of others on the forum agreed with her and I couldn’t agree with her more. I was extremely surprised and excited to see a femmed-up male-bodied person in dyke porn! If you’ve been reading me for a while you know that I’ve been talking a lot recently about the queer ways in which males and females can interact sexually, so I love having a video on a dyke site to point to exactly that!

I think Good Dyke Porn is an amazing site full of wonderful videos enjoyable to everyone even remotely queer (and in my world that’s just about everyone). If you haven’t, I highly recommend you go check out the site, look at the samples, sign up for the forums, and maybe even buy some clips. You know you want to.

-Scarlet Lotus Sexgeek

In addition to being made by Lelo and therefore being sleek, elegant, and gorgeous simply by design, Mia is also the first sex toy of her kind, a high-end rechargeable sex toy that is powered by your computer alone! You heard me. Mia charges via USB port and dubbed by Lelo to be “a lipstick vibrator for the iPod generation.” If the sheer geek factor of that alone doesn’t already have you desiring one, let me tell you a little more about her.

Mia, much like her big sister Nea, is small and discreet and made of PC-ABS (Polycarbonate-Acrylonitrile/butadiene/styrene blend) which is a phthalate-free thermoplastic and completely safe to use.

She looks like a slightly oversized tube of lipstick or a round slightly long thumb-drive, so having her out in public or someone else coming upon her in your handbag wouldn’t be a problem. She is just barely over four inches long and not meant for insertion, though a couple inches of her could be if desired.

The vibrations course through the entirety of her, so both ends can be used for stimulation. One end tapers into a rounded point for small accurate pressure; the other side, the lid, is sloped flat and wide for a greater surface of vibration. Both ends are fantastic for clitoral (or perineum) stimulation.

Like all Lelo vibes, Mia has multiple speeds and pulsation modes, all accessed by the + / - controls on her. Simply press the plus and on she turns, revving up to a nice strong vibration that always gets me off quickly. Once she is turned on to her highest pressing the plus again will cycle through her other modes of vibration, three pulses of varying speeds, then the minus button to get back to continuous vibration. She can also be locked by pressing the plus and minus together until the LED light comes on and stays on, handy so her charge doesn’t run out while bouncing around in a bag.

She comes with an elegant black storage box, a satin bag to carry her around in should you so desire, a manual, a 1-year warranty (comes standard with all Lelo toys), and an extension USB cord. I’ve also found she works with a wall-charger I have for my iPod, as the iPod charger uses a USB connection from the iPod to the charger, which can easily be substituted by the Mia.

Another perk of being able to charge her via USB is that, unless you are unable to access a computer (and in this day and age that is difficult to do), you will never not be able to charge her. Rechargeable toys are wonderful, but they also mean more cords to keep track of, and with Mia all you need is a computer. Any computer.

In addition to the geek factor, her elegant, sleek, and easily accessible size has turned Mia into a favorite of mine. Like her sister Nea I have gotten into the habit of taking her with me wherever I go, just in case I might need her. One of these days I’m going to charge her up on a public (library?) computer and then go into the bathroom and use her, or something equally as scandalous.

-Scarlet Lotus Sexgeek

How do I start a review of a book which speaks to me in such personal and intimate ways, beyond being about sex? How do I begin to describe the ways this book has clicked with me? I guess by answering those questions.

The brilliance of the book is that it delves into theory while still having an element of smut in it, mixing the two together in a true Carol Queen-esque way, because in some ways it’s impossible to seperate the smut from the theory and the theory from the smut. The first book I read of Carol Queen’s was Real Live Nude Girl back nearly four years ago when I was still living in Oregon.

I fell in love with her then, realizing how similar we were, wanting to become like her, to explore my own sexuality and look at it through the lens of theory. She was my inspiration for nearly all that I do now, and all I’m working toward including San Francisco and The Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.

I found Leather Daddy and the Femme by Carol Queen to be not only wonderful hot get-your-genitals-stirring smut but also an interesting look at gender identities and identity politics. It starts off with the meeting of Miranda/Randy and Jack, then follows their relationship as it progresses, adding in a third partner, Demetrius, and playing with others as well. It is a wonderful queer genderfucking depiction of a gay leather daddy and his boy/femme and the creation of a family.

I found that the identities and relationships within The Leather Daddy and the Femme were some of the closest depictions to what I consider perfect. This wouldn’t be true for everyone, of course, not everyone would have such a personal reaction to the book, dreaming of being in an open and poly-committed relationship or having two different but equal genders that are easy to step into. I found myself identifying in some way with all of the characters and realizing that my dream situation is one very similar to what Jack, Miranda, and Demetrius have, with slight modifications of course.

In some ways the situation in the book is similar to my own, it emphasizes that queerness isn’t restricted to same sex relationships, that there are more ways for males and females to interact sexually and romantically than within a heterosexual model. Something I’ve thought was true for years, but that is difficult for me to describe.

The biggest thing that Leather Daddy and the Femme did for me, I think, was make me think about my own identity, my own desire for a chosen family (as opposed to born family), my desire for multiple lovers, for queer sex, for my own embracing of my multigendered self. It opened me up to looking at my own gender and sexual identity paths, how I got here and where I want to go from here. Oh, and it also made me wet.

I could probably go on for pages about exactly how it touched me, about what part of which characters I would like to inhabit, what I have thought of due to the book, how it has changed my perceptions and desires… but those things are all for posts previous and to come. Instead, I’d love if you have read it for you to give your reaction to the book in the comments.

-Scarlet Lotus Sexgeek

This is my second strap-on harness, the first that I bought about four or five years ago, the Terra Firma Harness, and has served me well over the years, but as I always want more than one option for any given activity I decided it was time to get another harness. I looked around for something different, and something a little less basic than the terra firma with a little more show.

I was first attracted to this harness because of the back side of it. Similar to the Corsette Harness the Hardcore Harness laces up the back and emphasizes curves in all the right ways, wide enough to flatter any figure. It also has flame detail on the leather, which makes me think about bikers and leather style and is what gives this harness it’s name. The harness is well-crafted and gorgeous.

My first priority when it comes to choosing a strap-on harness is if it will fit me, there are a number of harnesses that I lust over which are just simply too small for my body. Many harnesses only go up to 42″ or so, which is fine if that fits you, but for those of us of the bigger variety we need to go for something larger. The Hardcore Harness fits up to 54″ hips and smaller, I found it to fit well, with some room to maneuver around in as well.

Only the front and back of the harness are leather, and the front panel of leather can easily be taken off if you prefer to feel the dildo’s base against you. The sides are nylon and have the kind of fasteners I associate with backpacks: ones that you can easily tighten and release by a tug, which makes putting it on and taking it off incredibly easy! It’s also very easy to adjust The Hardcore Harness to exactly where you want it, tightening or loosening even while in the middle of fucking with it.

I’ve used this with both Bandito and Celestial Perfection (reviews coming soon) and it easily held each of them. It comes with an o-ring already which fits toys up to 2″ in diameter, but you could easily exchange the o-ring for a smaller or larger ring to fit your toy perfectly.

It is a two-strap or jock-strap style harness and the front panel rests against the mound so it doesn’t cover up the rest of the vulva at all. I also found The Hardcore Harness to be extremely comfortable as well, honestly I didn’t notice it at all while wearing it, which is a great feeling to have when wearing a harness.

It’s gorgeous and both feminine and masculine at the same time, easy and comfortable to wear, what’s not to love? It was a perfect addition to my toybox, and has helped to re-awaken my love of strap-on sex, so look forward to more harness reviews in the future!

-Scarlet Lotus Sexgeek

Remember: you have 8 days left to take advantage of the Obama for President Coupon (vote for change!) from VibeReview, which will give you 10% off any purchase until November 4th!

Image from my own batch, Thanksgiving 2007

Inspired by Essin’ Em’s post on how to make pumpkin pancakes, I thought I’d share one of my favorite recipes, also fall- and pumpkin-related, delicious pumpkin cinnamon rolls. Although I’m not quite as obsessed with pumpkins as Essin’ Em admits to being, I do love pumpkin, especially these and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (which I may also post a recipe for!), and I’m definitely going to be making the pumpkin pancakes she gave us the recipe for.

I found this recipe last year via the Vegetarian community on LiveJournal, just in time for Thanksgiving. That was the first time I made them, and let me say, they made Thanksgiving last year. They are amazingly delicious, if you like cinnamon rolls or pumpkin you will love these!

The recipe is for vegan pumpkin cinnnamon rolls (use Earth Balance or another vegan margarine), but you can (of course) make this non-vegan by using regular milk and vegan or non-vegan margarine. I made it vegan, though I’m not vegan but vegetarian, but I don’t really do milk and I already had soy milk, so it was just due to not wanting to buy cow’s milk. I’m sure it’s delicious either way.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Dough:
1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/4 cup warm water
3/4cup Pumpkin Puree
1/4 cup soy milk (or cow’s milk if you prefer)
1/4 cup margarine, melted
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground ginger
3/4 c all-purpose flour
1 T vegetable oil

Filling:
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons chilled margarine, cut into small pieces

Glaze:
3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 tablespoon hot water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, combine the warm water with the yeast and whisk together with a fork, let stand for 5 minutes. Add the pumpkin, milk, melted margarine, and sugar in with the yeast, and lightly mix. Sift in the first two and a half cups of flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Take the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and use it to flour the top of the dough and your surface a tablespoon at a time, as needed to keep the dough from getting sticky as you knead it. Knead the dough for about ten minutes, the dough will be elastic but soft and still a little sticky to the touch without being floured.

Place the dough in a large bowl coated with oil, turning to coat the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Punch the dough down; cover and let rest for 5 minutes.

Combine the sugar, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in margarine with a fork until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Roll the dough into a 12 x 10-inch rectangle on a floured surface. Sprinkle with brown sugar mixture. Roll up the rectangle tightly, from the long side, pinch seam and ends to seal. Cut roll into 12 (1-inch) slices. Place the slices in a 9-inch square or round baking pan coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise 25 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375°.

Bake the rolls for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 15 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

Sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl. Add the water and vanilla, and whisk until smooth. It should be thick, but easy to drizzle. If it’s too thick, add another 1/2 teaspoon of water.

-Scarlet Lotus Sexgeek

If this already hasn’t become apparent to you, then you probably have not read my other reviews of Lelo products because I rave about them every time I have the honor of reviewing one. This time it is no different. Although the first time I tried out the Ella I actually didn’t enjoy it, but that was because I was in a strange sexual headspace and not really enjoying anything at the time. It was obviously all in my head because the second and all further times playing with Ella I was in love.

Like all Lelo toys she comes in a gorgeous black box with a satin pouch, manual, and (one year) warranty information. Although unlike Iris and Nea (and most other Lelo toys) Ella is a dildo, so there’s nothing to plug in or charge up, Ella is ready to go immediately. She is made 100% out of silicone, is extremely sleek and classy, and comes in either black or white from EdenFantasys (I got the black).

Ella is currently the only dildo in the Lelo line, and is a double-ended dildo to boot. Her two ends look a bit like the Gigi and the Liv put end-to-end. I’m a bit of a size queen, though I appreciate small toys as well if they are well made, and Ella is a little smaller around than I thought she would be. She is only just over one inch in diameter (1 1/4″), but regardless I found them to be absolutely fantastic for g-spot stimulation, especially the end that is curved with the flat head (Gigi-like).

I tried Ella a few different ways: thrusting inside of me, working inside of me, and with a vibe on my clit. Of course (clit whore as I am) I got off with a vibe on my clit, I used both the Hitachi and Nea and enjoyed each combination. The femme accessorizer in me enjoyed having the black Ella and black Nea working together (though I would have loved a black Lily instead, because the finish matches the Ella better than the Nea’s finish, but that’s just my OCD talking). Thrusting with both ends was highly pleasurable and Ella seemed larger when she was inside of me, I’m not sure why. Working it inside of me was pleasurable as well (by “working” I mean very slight thrusting, basically). Both ends make a wonderful handle for the other so the toy is extremely easy to maneuver.

Like all Lelo toys Ella was just absolutely fantastic, and looks more like a work of art than a dildo (”pleasure object” as Lelo calls all of their items). It is sleek, fem(me)inine, elegant, and gorgeous. I am constantly amazed with the pleasure objects Lelo produces and I can’t wait to get my hands on more of their toys! I’m especially lusting over their newest toy Bo, which I just discovered today, though I could list all of the toys that I don’t have as ones that I want.

-Scarlet Lotus Sexgeek

If you read my review of Lelo’s tiny Nea vibrator then you already know that LELO (Luxury Erotic Lifestyle Objects) is my new favorite toy company. When I had the chance to pick out some new toys from VibeReview, Lelo’s “pleasure object” Iris was right at the top of my list.

Iris comes in a beautiful black storage box with a charger (like all Lelo toys Iris is rechargeable–no pesky batteries to mess with), a satin pouch for traveling, warranty information (Lelo gives a one year warranty standard with all of their toys), and an instruction manual. The manual informs us that Iris is made of medical-grade silicone (the insertable shaft), and PC-ABS (the handle), both of which are non-porous and some of the highest quality material for sex toys on the market.

Like all Lelo vibrating toys, Iris has a LED strip around her interface dial that lights up when you press any of the four “quadrants” of the dial (+ or - vibration, and < or > vibration type). The manual mentioned that Iris will change color from white to red if the rechargeable battery is running out, alerting you to plug her in, blinking while she’s charging and then solid white when she’s charged up and ready to go. It takes up to three hours to charge her up for a full four hours of play. Other information in the manual includes how to turn Iris on, how to lock for traveling with Iris (a standard feature), troubleshooting, and the different types of vibration Iris offers.

Not only is Iris beautiful like all Lelo toys, the details on her shaft reminding me of the bud of a flower getting ready to bloom, but she also packs a pretty hefty punch. She has two different vibration centers, in the crown (or tip) and in the base (where she meets the handle), which you can set with continuous vibration in one or the other, or both. The other two vibration options are pulses either a slow or quick pulsation of the entire length of her. Personally I love using just the crown vibration for clitoral stimulation, which it does quite a wonderful job at!

Iris is curved just right for g-spot stimulation, be it shallow or deep, so she’s good for both thrusting and just pressing inside and letting her pulse as you play with something else on your clit (my favorite way to use her). She is also curved nicely for clitoral stimulation, as Iris curves right along the mons allowing for ease of maneuvering. I did find it a little too easy to press on the dial when in the middle of masturbating, which was annoying but not overly so.

Like I’ve said before, “there’s just no substitute for the quality of pleasure Lelo’s pleasure objects bring.” They are well-made, beautiful, elegant, and inform you of all the information you might need about the toy in the manual (including troubleshooting and recycling instructions!). I absolutely love the Iris, though it hasn’t quite outranked the Nea, it definitely comes close. I would highly recommend Iris to anyone who especially enjoys high-quality g-spot stimulating toys as well as works of art.

-Scarlet Lotus Sexgeek