CHRISTMAS 2021 THROWBACK: flavored lube, penis strokers & plugs

Among the perks of the sex blog­ger life: gift box­es from busi­ness part­ners! <3

This hol­i­day sea­son, XOXTOYS​.ca sent me a pack­age full of sexy stock­ing stuffers — the lit­tle things that add a dash of spice to playtime.

The box con­tained a lit­tle something-​something for everybody:

• Flavored lubes from System JO, Wicked, and Doc Johnson
• A Tenga GEO Coral penis mas­tur­ba­tion sleeve
• A small­er Tenga Easy Beat Shiny Egg
• A Fun Factory Bootie medi­um plug
• And, my per­son­al favorite, a jizz-​like hybrid lube sam­ple from Wicked

Consider the many, many rea­sons to add plugs, mas­tur­ba­tion sleeves, and fla­vored lube into your draw­er of cou­ples’ sex toys!

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Flavored personal lubricants, compared

What is the purpose of flavored lube?

Partnered sex doesn’t have to be lin­ear, and fla­vored lube reminds us of that.

By lin­ear sex, I mean how our cul­ture assumes sex pro­gress­es by default: kiss­es, fondling, oral on her, oral on him, inter­course, end when he finishes.

Not every ses­sion has to fol­low that rut, though; mix up the order. You can inter­sperse inter­course with cun­nilin­gus breaks. Or fist some­one with fla­vored lube and watch them lick their juices off your fin­gers. You get the idea.

Consider also lubri­cat­ing one’s throat dur­ing fel­la­tio for eas­i­er deep-​throating. Or, since latex con­doms and den­tal dams don’t always taste great, use fla­vored lube to make it a lii­it­tle bet­ter for the giv­er. (Flavored or not, some lube on the receiver’s end is gen­er­al­ly encour­aged for glide, too.)

UPDATE: Find my favorite fla­vored lubes & more in my sen­su­al body care guide!

How the flavors XOXTOYS​.ca sent me compare

XOXTOYS​.ca sent me System JO's Tri-​Me Flavors pack, a straw­ber­ry fla­vored lube sam­ple from Wicked Sensual prod­ucts, and a jar of Doc Johnson's straw­ber­ry Pussy Licker gel.

Here’s my subjective ranking of them, purely flavor-wise.

1. System JO H2O Succulent Watermelon

Reminds me of water­mel­on Pop Rocks but mild. Not over­pow­er­ing. Quite watery. Not too bit­ter, but it may remind you of soap if you use melon-​scented Bath and Body Works products.

2. Doc Johnson Pussy Licker oral sex gel

HOOOH, this smells strong­ly like can­dy. Like a Push Pop. Slightly med­i­c­i­nal and bit­ter, but it start­ed to grow on me. THICC.

3. System JO H2O Tropical Passion

Eugh. I can tell they were going for a trop­i­cal fla­vor, and it’s present enough for some effort and style points.

4. System JO H2O Strawberry Kisses

EUUUGH! More tart, less candy-​sweet. But way more bit­ter. VERY cough syrup-​like. It will not grow on me.

5. Wicked Aqua Strawberry

Also very med­i­c­i­nal in taste. More candy-like.

A caveat about flavored lubes and vagina-friendliness

I wouldn’t use the above for­mu­las intrav­agi­nal­ly. Stick with using them on the exter­nal bits.

These fla­vored lube for­mu­las are way more osmot­ic than the vagina’s epithe­lial cells. In oth­er words, they can suck the water out of the tis­sues, lead­ing to less resilience to fric­tion (i.e., dur­ing inter­course!) and increased irri­ta­tion and risk of infection.

My top recommendation for the best flavored lube

For intrav­agi­nal use, I sug­gest Sliquid Swirl's fla­vored lube. Its for­mu­la is pH bal­anced and takes into account osmolality.

Instead of hyper­os­mot­ic glyc­erin or propy­lene gly­col, Sliquid’s fla­vored lube for­mu­las use small­er amounts of cot­ton cel­lu­lose as the thick­en­ing agent.

As such, Sliquid’s osmo­lal­i­ty is low­er and in the vagina-​friendly zone. The slip­per­i­ness might not last as long before dry­ing, but it’s easy to re-​activate it by mist­ing some water.

Taste-​wise? I like Sliquid Swirl’s Cherry Vanilla fla­vor a lot. Green Apple has been a crowd-​pleaser, too.

UPDATE: Find my favorite fla­vored lubes & more in my sen­su­al body care guide!

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Tenga GEO Coral super soft masturbation sleeve

What is the Tenga GEO series?

The Tenga GEO mas­tur­ba­tion sleeves deliv­er dense­ly packed, nature-​inspired tex­tures to envel­op the penis in a DUMMY THICC lay­er of squishy elas­tomer. Like, macaroni-​in-​a-​pot lev­el squish­ing, soft­er than the soft­est sol­id sil­i­cone I’ve ever touched, and thick­er than the Tenga Easy Beat eggs.

The GEO Coral sleeve's web­bing is quite pro­nounced, with many small peaks sur­round­ing the penis. My part­ner com­pared it to “grav­el, in the best of ways.” Like fid­dling around with smooth rocks in your under­wear, but soft­er and more sensual.

It may be too short for some users, though. If your penis is on the long side, con­sid­er using the Tenga GEO just on the tip or main­ly on the shaft, like the Fleshlight Quickshot. If an intense­ly focused and local­ized tex­tures are what you crave, the Tenga GEO stro­kers fit the bill.

Also, the lube includ­ed? Also THICC. Like, ovu­la­tion cum thick. Watch the vis­cous strands form between your lubed fin­gers when you slow­ly spread them apart thick.

Tenga’s Easy Beat Egg sleeves are cheap­er and an entry-​level upgrade from your hand alone. In par­tic­u­lar, the Easy Beat Egg Shiny tex­ture also has a lot of angu­lar­i­ty to it, so with many tiny, focused points of con­tact in the rib­bing— almost sharp, but too squishy for that to be quite the right word.

One major perk of a stretchy sleeve over a cup-​style stro­ker is that you can adjust the pres­sure as you go. Rather than one set tight­ness lev­el, you can tight­en it as you please or loosen your grip after ejac­u­la­tion when you’re super sensitive.

Unfortunately, the Easy Beat Eggs are easy to bot­tom out. After a cer­tain point, you’re less slid­ing the sleeve and more stretch­ing it over the head. They’re best for focus­ing on the tip but can help you fig­ure out what kinds of tex­tures you like before com­mit­ting to some­thing pricier.

Browse Tenga Easy Beat Eggs at XOXTOYS​.ca

Ways to use a penis masturbation sleeve with a partner

The “obvi­ous” answer: to enhance hand jobs.

Another fun answer: enhance clit rub­bing or use it as a hump­ing toy, too! Slip the stro­ker, texture-​side-​out over your hand or onto a Magic Wand. (Yes, there are so many ways to use wand vibra­tors with part­ners!) If both part­ners have penis­es, con­sid­er stick­ing both of them inside the sleeve simultaneously.

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Fun Factory Bootie medium silicone butt plug

What is the Fun Factory Bootie

The Fun Factory Bootie is a slight­ly tapered butt plug with a gen­er­ous for­ward curve for G‑spot or prostate stim­u­la­tion. Its base is slen­der and gen­tly curved to fit between the cheeks or lips. I gave it a shout-​out in my guide to the best butt toys for begin­ner and inter­me­di­ate play.

Why it’s so great

For starters, the Bootie’s forward-​leaning bulb press­es against the front wall. It slight­ly tips back-​and-​forth with your move­ments; you can’t help but feel its pres­ence every time you clench-release-clench-release.

The neck is slim for com­fort­able long-​term wear. And the base? YESSS, a long and thin butt plug base makes sense! It’s big enough to stay anchored for safe­ty (i.e., it won’t get lost inside you) and com­fort­ably stays put.

And the clas­sic shape comes in three sizes for a vari­ety of expe­ri­ence levels:

• Small — 3” long x 1.1” max diameter
• Medium — 3.5” long x 1.4” max diameter
• Large — 4.4” long x 1.6” max diameter

Ways to use a butt plug with a partner

The “obvi­ous” answer: for anal train­ing or vagi­nal dila­tion. Or pair that with an exter­nal vibra­tor for extra pizzazz.

There's a new Bootie Fem designed with a short­er base, so that it doesn't block the front hole if you have vagi­nal inter­course while wear­ing a butt plug.

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Wicked Simply Hybrid Jelle lubricant

Ah, I love hybrid lubes for their longevi­ty and cloudy, jizz-​like con­sis­ten­cy. Hybrid lubri­cants are a com­bi­na­tion of pri­mar­i­ly water-​based lube with juu­u­ust a lit­tle silicone.

They’re longer-​lasting than pure­ly water-​based but still most­ly okay for use on sil­i­cone toys. Wicked Simply Hybrid Jelle is nice­ly cush­ioned for glid­ing, and, again, I love how it looks.

Use it with a lube launch­er to sim­u­late a creampie or, bet­ter yet, water it down to fill up an ejac­u­lat­ing dil­do syringe.

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Further reading

• 3 Must-​Have Pleasure Products For Couples: Tongue-​Tied, Wicked Jelle, & The Layer
• My top 10 sex toys & prod­ucts for part­ner play
• 4‑Inch Clitoris: a homol­o­gy to penis­es in pleasure

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What about you? What's your favorite sexy stock­ing stuffer for spic­ing up part­ner play time?

(Also, just FYI, this post was spon­sored and does use affil­i­ate links, which give me a com­mis­sion at no extra cost to you. <3)