Review: P Style

The P Style is one of those random, really convenient ideas that comes up during conversation, and then everyone wonders why no one has invented it yet. The difference with the P Style is that someone did invent it. The P Style, as Babeland puts it, is a "compact and convenient Stand to Pee device, or STP." It's a simple piece of brightly colored plastic that allows people to, well, pee standing up.

When I first checked out the P Style, I assumed it was for pre-op FTM transgendered folk who preferred to pee standing up, but didn't have the plumbing for it. Besides that, though, the P Style comes in useful for female-bodied persons under many different circumstances. If you go camping a lot, it beats squatting on the ground to pee. If you're into watersports, the P Style would probably make it easier to control your pee-stream. Babeland also mentions that it would be useful for male-bodied persons who have disabilities, who have hypospadias, who have undergone surgery, etc. Heck, I've even thought that it would make a pretty good funnel for transferring liquids into a narrow-necked bottle.

You use the P Style by putting the "cup" side under your vagina, and the "pointy" side pointing towards the toilet. You can wash it with hot water and soap, or in the dishwasher or washing machine. The instruction card in the P Style package encourages you to sanitize it if you have an infection, and I assume if you wanted to share it, too.

My P Style came in a pleasant shade of emerald green. I've never actually felt the need to pee standing up, but I was interested in how well the P Style would work, so off to the bathroom I went to conduct several little experiments.

Pulling panties down completely/pulling up skirt and pulling panties down: Peeing standing up feels weird. I felt worried that I'd get pee on my clothes, but that didn't happen. The pee flowed down the P Style and into the toilet, like it was supposed to. It was very easy to use. The P Style instruction card advertises that the P Style "eliminates the need for TP", you can just do a few kegels to get rid of the remaining drops, and them off with the back of the P Style, but alas, I didn't feel like that was clean enough so I ended up using toilet paper anyway.

Pulling jeans down and keeping panties on: Pulling the crotch of my panties to one side and putting the P Style in place also worked pretty well. I would have kept my jeans on and just pulled the fly down, but I was wearing women's jeans so the zipper didn't come down far enough. Maybe it would work if I was wearing a pair of men's jeans with one of those big-ass zippers.

Pulling jeans down and keeping boxers on: What if I were GQ/trans and preferred to wear boxers? I donned the only pair of boxers I own, complete with dick-window. I unbuttoned the dick-window, stuck the P Style inside, and peed. It worked. Yay!

I did not try using it out of doors, though it would probably work just as well. I am not an outdoorsy person at all and would only pee in the bushes if I absolutely had to...

The only problem I've found with the P Style is its size. Whereas it's not completely obvious what it's for, I imagine standing at the sink in a public restroom to wash it would get you a few raised eyebrows. It's also too bulky to carry around with you all the time. It's small enough to fit in a bag, a glove compartment, or a really big pocket, but most jeans pockets are too small.

A P Style in the pocket.

I don't have a personal use for it - I'm actually giving it to a blogger friend who camps a lot - but I think it's a great idea, it's affordable, and would be very useful for someone who wanted to pee standing up, but lacks the means to.

Specs:
- Length: 7.5"
- Material: Plastic
- Colors @ Babeland.com: various (you can't pick, unfortunately)
- Price @ Babeland.com: $12

4 out of 5 hearts!

Review: Intimate Organics Sensual Cocoa Bean & Gogi Berry Cleansing Gel and Body Souffle

Intimate Organics Sensual Cocoa Bean & Gogi Berry Cleansing Gel (translation: bath / shower gel) and Body Souffle (translation: body lotion) from PinkCherry.com are something else: they aren't sex toys, or lube, but they promise "to leave your body and mind relaxed, invigorated and ready for whatever your night holds." I put them to the test one evening to see if they left me feeling ready for a sexy evening.

I hopped in the shower and as soon as I snapped open the Cleansing Gel, my nose was filled with the scent of what seemed like, to me, chocolate and raspberries. Yum. The only problems were that the scent was kind of artificial, and it only lasted while I was in the shower. Once I got out, I smelled myself (good thing I didn't run into any of my housemates) and the smell had pretty much gone. Kind of defeats its purpose, if you ask me.

Next, I dried myself off and smoothed on the Body Souffle. Now, I grew up in a tropical country and I am currently living in the frozen wasteland (not really) that is New England. My skin dries out so fast here that it's not even funny. After trying a slew of products, the only ones I've found that actually keep my skin moist are Eucerin (which is dermatologist-approved and specifically for dry and sensitive skin) and a moisturizer from Lush, the name of which I've forgotten by now. Basically, the Body Souffle had a lot to stand up to.

It held up alright. It left my skin soft and shiny, but definitely wouldn't protect my skin completely from dryness. The good thing about the Body Souffle was that the chocolate-raspberry smell lingered a lot longer, basically all afternoon.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about the scent. On the one hand, I love desserts, and chocolate especially, so I definitely found the scent pleasant at first and was turned on by the idea of making out with a partner and smelling that on them, or having a partner smell it on me (and thinking that it made me even yummier ) However, a while after my shower, when I was in the library and kept catching whiffs of the scent on my hands as I worked, it started to wear on me, and instead of liking it I began finding it too sickly-sweet. It didn't help that I ran into my friend SA and she asked, "what's that smell? It smells like those cupcakes I had as a kid with lots of artificially colored icing all over them." Not what I want my lover to associate me with when we're about to get down and dirty.

This is probably just my personal preference though. If you like sweet smells, you'll probably like these products, and I have to commend them because of their 100% organic and vegan-friendly ingredients.

If only the Cleansing Gel had a stronger smell, and if only the Body Souffle was less overpowering. My verdict is: for now, I think I'll stick to my favorite bath & skin care brands, Lush and the Body Shop. The pricing isn't that much different anyway.

Specs:

• All-natural, organic ingredients (no parabens, glycerin, DEA or animal products)
• Vegan-friendly
• Cleansing Gel amount: 240mL (4oz)
• Body Souffle amount: 150mL
• Price (of each, separately) at PinkCherry.com: $14.99

Two out of five hearts.

Review: Just in Case Condom Compact II

Ta-da! This is my first review for SexToy.com, and it's a condom storage case.

The Just in Case Condom Compact II is designed to look like a powder compact. (There's a version I that's a lot shinier and girlier and comes in lots of different colors, but I preferred the sleek, sophisticated black of version II )

There are a lot of other types of condom cases out there (French envelopes, condom cubes...) which you can either carry with you when you're out and about (you know, if you in into someone you absolutely have to fuck in that restaurant bathroom, or if you go home with someone... it's good to be prepared!) or set unobtrusively on your nightstand. Portable condom cases don't just save you the embarrassment of having condoms dicovered by friends who rudely rifle through your bag, they protect the condoms from items you might be carrying with you that have sharp edges, guarding against potential holes, as well as not exposing them to your body heat, like they would be if you stashed them in your wallet/pockets.

As a condom case, the Just in Case compact works fine. It holds two condoms, and easily snaps open and shut. I also very much like how it's designed - out of glossy plastic with a simple logo. It also comes with two complimentary Lifestyles condoms.

What the Just in Case has that other condom cases might not is an added layer of discretion, since it's designed to look like a compact. I decided to see how well it held up to one of my younger sister's actual powder compacts:

Exhibit A! As you can see, the Just in Case compact is pretty much exactly the same size and shape as a regular compact. The manufacturers have even thought about details like sticking a production label on the back in the same spot. There's even a tiny little hole in the back, just like a regular compact (also check out the reflection of my wonderfully classy Winnie-the-Pooh comforter):

Functionally, I'm not quite sure what purpose the hole serves. It definitely isn't big enough to allow poking (unless you carry pins with you...).

When you open the compact up, here's what you see:

There's even a mirror inside! However, clearly the Just in Case doesn't have any powder in it, so anyone curious enough to actually open it would be puzzled as to why you were carrying around an empty compact. Granted, making it an actual powder compact would be costly not to mention inconvenient to use, but adding a powder-poof would be a possible improvement.

...And the secret is revealed! If you pull up the "floor"of the compact, there are the condoms. The floor is pretty tamper-proof: when you snap the compact open, it opens to the mirror part, and there's another catch holding the floor in place, so you need to actually open that compartment to get to it. I.E. if you're not looking for it, you won't realize it's there. Just be careful to close the two lids separately, because if you close them both at the same time, the floor doesn't snap back into place.

So far, I've carried it around with me pretty constantly, and I also use it as a hand mirror when I touch up my hair/lipgloss/eye makeup, and nobody I've been with has made a comment about it.

In conclusion, the only things that might give the Just in Case compact away are: the emptiness, and the fact that it feels significantly lighter than a regular compact.

All in all, though, I think it serves its purpose pretty damn well, so it get's

5/5 stars

Sex Toys | Condom Cases

Review: Forplay Toy Cleaner

Today I'll be reviewing an "Adult Toy Cleanser" by ForPlay from PinkCherry.com sex toys. I requested it as a change from straight-up sextoys, and also wanted to try something that I could contrast with the antibacterial dish-soap I've been using to clean my toys so far.

I'll get the banalities out of the way first: using this cleaner is pretty straightforward. The cleaner comes in a 7 oz bottle, which lasts for about 11 washes. You pour 2/3 oz into 3 quarts of warm water and stir it around with your hand to mix the cleaner in. The bottle has lines along the side marking 1 oz so you can measure out the amount easily. According to the description on the bottle and on PinkCherry.com, the cleaner is compatible with pretty much anything, but works better with soft materials like silicone. I tried it out on a few of my toys and it was a relatively straightforward process, although I didn't find it necessarily more convenient or hygienic than just using soap.

That said, I discovered the problem with this cleaner when I decided to Google the main ingredient so I could contrast it with soap/other cleaners in terms of efficiency and hygiene. The main ingredient, as stated on the bottle and website, is Nonoxynol-9, known to some as N-9. The bottle describes N-9 as a "stabilized aqueous solution" and warns that it may cause irritation if splashed into one's eyes. Fair enough. I don't generally let my toys get too close to my eyes anyway.

Some quick research online and a shout out to my Tweeps yielded very different results. Apparently, N-9 is used in spermicides, condoms, cervical barriers and lubes because people thought it guarded against pregnancy and STDs (it can kill microbes in vitro). That would make sense as a sextoy cleaner, because spreading STDs and other germs is always something to guard against when sharing toys, right?

No. Studies have shown that N-9 not only isn't effective in guarding against STDs, but actually increases the likelihood of contracting them by 50%, to be precise. And this is including HIV and HPV. It irritates the vaginal wall, and several of my Tweeps said that using products with N-9 in them caused itching.

Okay, so the toy cleaner isn't meant to be applied directly to one's vagina, just on the toys, so if you rinse the toys thoroughly, you should have nothing to worry about.

N-9 is more effective in killing bacteria, which would make it a more effective cleaner than ordinary soap. But what about, say, bleach solution or rubbing alcohol? I'd be more inclined to use one of those instead of shelling out ~$10 for something that isn't absolutely body-safe.

2/5 stars.

More info about N-9:

• On Wikipedia
• On Go Ask Alice
• On Global Campaign for Microbiocides