Utterly Fluttery USB Rechargeable Extra Powerful Clitoral Arouser

For such an overtly female-oriented device, this turned out to be a surprisingly hot couple or even male-friendly toy. More on that later.

In all fairness, you should keep a couple of grains of salt on hand while reading this review because: 1) I cannot yet say if I am a power queen, because I haven't had much experience with powerful vibes; and 2) I am not a particular fan of traditional vibes. The second is what attracted me to toys like the Sqweel and this one, which endeavour to provide something a little different.

It is indeed a little different.

I'll just mention the packaging really quickly, since you can see the box in the product photos. The largely clear plastic container lets the toy speak for itself. It's pretty easy to open, is recyclable, and the bottom part is reusable. (It's a good quality cardboard caddy that could be used as something like a penholder or mail cubby or whatever else.)

The toy itself is as pictured. The body is smooth, shiny pink plastic. The business end, though, has to be described rather than seen. It's made of a firm but flexible silicone and it has a lovely velvety feel. The plastic parts have no odour and the silicone head has only a slight, not-unpleasant scent to it that you have to stick your nose right onto to it to smell.

Plan ahead for your first use, as the initial charge is 5 hours. It's not hard to find the charger port, but you do have to push it in with a firm hand. While charging, the body of the toy flashes red which I can't help but feel is a little unnecessary and somewhat annoying. Definitely not subtle. I mean, you wouldn't leave this charging out in the open if you were worried about someone seeing it; but for those who don't have much privacy and therefore have to get creative, the flashing could seriously limit their options. Once charged, it stops flashing and glows solid red until you take it off the USB.

But now on to what you really want to know: how it performs. I think I've only ever had experience with 'buzzy' vibrators, so I don't know what 'rumbly' ones feel like. I'm fairly confident in placing this toy in the 'buzzy' category though.

And buzz it does. I recommend buying a pair of vibration resistant gloves if you plan on using this a lot. I can't tell where the motor is located, but the whole toy buzzes hard, the plastic body providing zero protection. It soon becomes a bit much for one-handed use; using both hands helps, but it doesn't take much longer for them both to go numb. After use, all my fingers are tingly and pins-and-needly for some time afterward. My partner experienced the same thing when he held it.

Despite this, it is very quiet. Just a low hum.

I suppose the short story is this: it is called a clitoral 'arouser' and it can achieve that. As to actually getting me off, it achieves that too, but only with perseverance and an up-and-down tease-fest of shoot-right-through-you thrills and numb boredom. Again, it's difficult for me to comment on the 'extra powerful' part. Either I'm a latent Power Queen and it isn't powerful enough, or it's too powerful for me and that's the cause of the numbing. Or I just need rumbles instead of buzzes.

The long story, for those interested, is thus: the curved shape of this toy makes it hands-free compliant, which helps with the finger-tingling problem. Unfortunately, I found that it did very little for me when left in place. I had to move it to get any pleasure from it. The fluttery nodules in the head are very soft and flexible when the toy is off, but they become curiously rigid with the vibrations going through them. So they don't so much flutter as... well, vibrate.

In addition to this, the rim, while it is a good fit for cradling my vulva, spreads out the vibrations over too large an area - meaning there's a reduction in sensation. Moving the whole head over my clit and labia is pleasant, but that's about it. For any real stimulation, I had to angle it so that only the rounded tip was pressed into my clitoral shaft. Then I could feel strong vibrations shuddering through it, yet still I had to move it around a bit to avoid becoming numb or bored. I think the velvety silicone gives it a one-up over the hard plastic vibes I've tried. It moves easily over the skin and feels great whether lubed or not (I tried it both ways).

For just continuous vibration, it has three power levels. It also has a number of pulsing patterns, but they can't be controlled separately to the power. Some of them are quite enjoyable and got me built up until the point where I needed the powerful continuous buzz to tip me over the edge. It works on the all-too-common and rather annoying click-through control; you have to cycle through them all to get back to a previous setting. Which can kind of set you back a bit, if you know what I mean.

As promised, I'll tell you what surprised me most about this toy - the fact that my SO might actually like it more than I do. On a whim, I broke it out while we were on the sofa together and rubbed it over his penis. He found it both extremely relaxing and arousing, getting him hard in no time. He and I both tried running it up and down his shaft and gliding it over the head. He said we'd have to keep it on constant charge.

It's not a bad toy - and as lacklustre as that sounds, coming from me it's high praise for a vibe. However, it does have several drawbacks. Improvements could certainly be made. For me personally, it wouldn't be worth the price; though it is a step in the right direction. It has renewed the idea that there might be a vibe out there for me, after all, and redoubled my interest in supersoft textured ones and clit-cradling designs. And the fact that my SO liked it has made me much more interested in getting a wand with attachments.

The fact that a portion of the sales goes to charity is a nice bonus which might make it more worth the risk.