I know it’s the middle of January, but Dicksmas is still going strong. I have twelve days to get through, people! I’m not going to abandon you before that. So, for the tenth day of Dicksmas, I have an Adrien Lastic Caress review. If you have no idea what that is, stick around. This vibe, which I affectionately call the Clit Garlic, is an interesting concept with pretty good functionality and few drawbacks.
Background Info
I purchased this toy with my own hard-earned money, rather than arranging a review purchase. I know, I know, revolutionary. The Caress caught my eye while I was shopping in NYC for our biannual Girls’ Weekend, which always involves hitting a bunch of sex shops. This particular day found us in Purple Passion/DV8, a fetish and latex shop that we’ve visited a few times before.
A bit about the store. I generally like this place for its selection, but front counter staff often seems predisposed to being defensive. We called ahead of time about their hours, since we were planning to visit one evening and were surprised to see that they closed at 8. This is NYC, after all. When we called to confirm their hours, staff seemed quite offended that we dared to ask. Similar reviews online indicate that our experience is not an isolated issue.
In the main body of the store, though, I had some great conversations with staff, and always felt welcome. They have a ton of fetish products and a wide selection of impact toys. We spent a bunch of time hitting each other (consensually) with all kinds of fun stuff.
Up front, my friend pointed out the Caress. I’ve never heard of the parent company, Adrien Lastic, but the Caress looked fun. I got to play with their demo model. Knowing my anatomy, I figured the Caress would be a fun time, so I bought it.
Out of the Box
The Caress comes in a white box that advertises all its various features.
It’s a pretty nice array of features, as you can see.
When you open the box, there is the toy with its attachment heads.
The Caress is silicone, very pink silicone. In addition to the toy and the heads, it also comes with a USB magnetic charger, a white satin bag, and some documentation (not pictured).
Here is a picture of the actual toy body with no head attached. You can see the on/off button in the middle.
I think you can tell why we call it the Clit Garlic, right? The other thing it makes me think of, especially when it’s got one of the flappy attachments on it, is the Overlord as depicted in StarCrafts:
The two magnetic connectors are on the top of the body, and the on/off button lights up when the toy is charging.
The five heads range in stiffness and form.
Two of them (on the left) have soft, flexible fins. Those fins are either spiraled or straight up and down. One (back row center) has many small, stiffer bristles, and another (front row right) has fewer bristles that are also stiffer than the fins. The final head, pictures on the far right, has two protrusions like antennae that are fairly firm.
Onto My Box
An important thing to note about the Caress. It is advertised as “whisper quiet,” and it is not. The Caress whirrs at an average volume. It probably wouldn’t seem that loud if I hadn’t been expecting “whisper quiet.” I don’t know what Adrien Lastic thinks a whisper is, but this is not it.
The Caress has eleven settings: one vibration and ten rotations. Yup, it’s a rotating device: the heads spin around on their axis. The settings change the direction and speed of the rotation, including switching back and forth at a few different speeds.
I took time to cycle through each of these five heads and these eleven speeds for a little while. Because I have prominent labia, I have to hold them out of the way with my free hand. If I try to use the Caress without that, it doesn’t spin and instead makes annoyed noises. My lips hold it mostly stationary. Once my labia are out of the way, though, the Caress spins freely and nicely and does some pretty great things to my clitoris.
I had a difficult time figuring out which head I liked best. I spent a bunch of time on the one with the broad fins that fan outward, but in the end, I decided to use the two-prong antennae one to actually reach orgasm. Personally, I like the settings that alternate directions back and forth. For most heads, this meant that my clitoris was exposed over and over again to the stimulation, since every direction change moved the skin. This was a really nice feel.
I did eventually decide to go for orgasm with this, instead of just screwing around with the different settings. The two-pronged antennae are very firm, and at orgasm, they became a bit too intense for me and I ended up moving them off-center to reduce the sensation somewhat. Now that I know this, I’ll probably only use the softer fins to get to climax.
I also tried out the Caress on my nipples, since it’s made for “several erogenous zones.” I found the flappy fins interesting, but not really doing it for me erotically. No big deal.
The Feel
I wanted to put a separate section into this post to talk about the Caress sensations more specifically. The silicone is really nice and soft. I love touching the attachments. The varying firmness and actual composition of the heads means they mostly feel different from each other.
What’s really amazing, though, is that the Caress actually feels like someone is licking me. If I don’t press it hard against my clit (and you shouldn’t, because it stops spinning), the soft fins flick really nicely back and forth, and I can imagine there’s a person down there. I didn’t use lube, because I’m usually a sloppy slut, so I bet using water-based lube makes it even better.
Cheers and Caveats
Cheers for the shape of the Caress. The design of this toy is aesthetically pleasing. I like having the bulbous garlic shape, and the heads are super easy to slide onto and off the toy. Having so many settings is helpful, since there are a lot of different ways one might like to use the Caress. Also, it’s waterproof, and that’s awesome. I like having a toy that I can take into the shower. With the detachable silicone heads, I can sterilize them, but they’ve got some serious deep grooves for me to just wash them in the sink. Best to boil or dishwasher these. Also, if you’re planning to share the Caress with a partner, know that there’s no real way to sterilize the bulb, and there’s gonna be fluid transfer. It’s just gonna happen.
Holding my labia out of the way is a big drawback to this toy. I can’t pair it with a dildo, because I can’t hold a dildo and still hold myself open. The motor just isn’t strong enough to operate if it has to flap around vulva flaps. If you have particularly tiny labia, this might be fine for you, but I don’t fall into that camp. It doesn’t make the Caress a dealbreaker for me, but it means this won’t be my go-to toy.
The noise is another caveat. It’s not a sexy noise. It’s not super loud, not like a Hitachi, but it’s also not a whisper, and its at a pitch that pulls me out of the moment. Fortunately, little flippy fins on my clit bring me right back in.
Final Thoughts
I like the Clit Garlic, aka the Adrien Lastic Caress. It’s a fun toy, and I’ll probably use it again at some point. It’s not going to go to the top of my drawer, since it requires not one but two hands to use, but the sensations are fairly unique and I enjoy them. When I want to feel like I’m getting head, I’ll pull this little guy out. I also imagine it’s fun to use on a partner, since experimenting with all the different heads and settings is half the fun.
Go forth, folks, and enjoy your toys.
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