The Lovehoney Desire Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator is a shiny new version of the very well received original Lovehoney Desire Clitoral Vibrator, which I first received in the 2016 Advent calendar. You can read my mini review of that product here. For the special edition version Lovehoney have added some ribbing on the inside surface of the Desire Clitoral Vibrator and introduced a new beautifully cosmic shimmering silicone. The storage bag has also been changed to a more compact pleather zip up pouch. This is great if you would like a small and discreet place to store your sex toy, but I must say I do miss the bigger harder boxes that used to come with the original Desire range, as you could fit multiple toys inside them and they were hard wearing and secure. I’m guessing these pleather pouches that come with the newer Desire products are a way to cut costs and maximise profit, which is a shame, because I think the original Desire range is really outstanding, and little touches like the quality of the storage bag were a part of what made it so good. Having said that, I am glad that a good quality storage solution is included at all, as many toys do not come with one.

Packaging

 

 

 

The Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator comes in a nicely designed box, like all Desire products. It is simple and stylish, featuring the sex toy pictured on the front and some product information on the side. It’s not sturdy enough for long term storage, but you don’t need it to be, because the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator comes with its own storage pouch.

What you get

Inside the box is a USB pin charging cable, a pleather storage bag, a little multi-lingual instruction booklet and the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator itself.

The Storage Pouch

 

 

 

The pleather storage pouch is very simple in design, I love that it is plain black, with just the lovehoney logo embossed on the bottom right front and on each of the zips. It’s small, with just enough room for the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator and its charging cable and instruction booklet, so it’s easy to hide away. From looking at it there is nothing to suggest that a sex toy is inside, so it’s fairly discreet, and it’s double zips have a loop on one end of each, so you could padlock them together if you wanted the case to be secure. A padlock isn’t included so you’d have to buy one.

Charging up

To charge the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator  you need to push the pin end of the charging cable in to the base of the vibrator. The hole is really tiny, so you might need to be quite forceful to get it to go in completely. Once it’s pushed fully in, plug the other end into any USB port. I used a wall plug. When the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator  is charging the plus button will flash with a white light. When the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator  is fully charged this light will stay on. It should take a couple of hours to charge fully, and the manufacturer recommends charging it up fully before first use.

Controls and Settings

There are three control buttons on the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator: the plus button turns the vibrator on if held down for a few seconds, and increases the intensity of vibrations when clicked, the minus button turns the vibrator off if held down for a few seconds, and it decreases the intensity of vibrations when clicked, and the central circular button changes the mode, i.e. the pattern of vibration. There are eight patterns to choose from, the first is a constant speed which is what I like the most so I tend to stick to that. The other severn are a mixture of pulses and oscillations. All the patterns are sensible, and give good variety.

What’s great about how the controls are set up on the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator is that you can easily make each setting more or less intense by using the intensity controls button. This is really intuitive, in that the top button increases and the bottom button decreases intensity, and it means you can tailor the settings to your taste in the moment. They are indented so you can find them by feel alone. The buttons are placed well too; they fall where my thumb naturally sits when holding the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator. However, I think they are a bit difficult to push, I really have to push quite hard, which would be a problem if you have pain or strength issues with your hands. I think this is to do with the new kind of silicone that has been used, as I did not have this problem with the original Desire Clitoral Vibrator.

The Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator  also has a travel lock. Holding down the plus and minus buttons together for five seconds will activate it, and doing the same action will de activate it again. This is just an extra level of security, should you be concerned that it will come on during travel. If you are worried about this however, I recommend running down the battery of your toy so it can’t turn on, and charging it up again when you arrive at your destination.

Using the Vibrator

The Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator is light and easy to hold on to. The shimmering silicone it is made from creates a lot of friction, more so than the usual high quality silicone Lovehoney uses in it’s Desire and Fifty Shades of Grey range. Friction is the price you pay for the interesting cosmic finish to the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator. However, all you need to do is add plenty of lube to the ribbed underside. Make sure your lube doesn’t contain silicone as it could react with the silicone the toy is made from and make it degrade.

The shape of the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator is really nice; I find the angle means I can easily use it to massage my vulva, or other body parts. I’m someone who like precise clitoral vibrations, so the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator is not the perfect sex toy for me. I need pin-point precision (or clitoral suction) to achieve quick and intense orgasms, and you just cannot be precise with a large rounded end sex toy like the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator. Having said that, I can achieve orgasm with the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator if I use it to massage my clit and whole vulva. It feels good, although not intense, and the vibrations are nice and rumbly. It does make me come, and I can use this toy when I want slow, lazy masturbation, rather than a quick hard hit. If you know you like broad (rather than precise) clitoral stimulation, the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator  would be a good choice for you.

I can’t say I can feel the ribs much when using the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator, as they are not particularly pronounced, but they do add a little bit of texture. The vibrations are quite powerful for such a little toy, but if you love very powerful vibrations, say from a mains-powered wand, you might find the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator isn’t powerful or rumbly enough for you.

Clean up

Clean up is easy because the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator is 100% waterproof. You can use it in the bath or shower if you want to. After use I wash mine in warm water and anti bacterial soap, then dry with a lint free cloth and put back in its storage pouch. As the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator is made from silicone and ABS plastic, both non-porous body safe materials, you can sterilise it by using a very mild bleach solution (5% bleach, 95% water), or use baby bottle sterilising fluid. Make sure you rinse it thoroughly with clean water after either method. You only really need to sterilise it if you have had a recent infection or other vaginal problem such as thrush, or you are intending to share it with someone else. Otherwise, washing with soap and water should be fine.

Conclusions

To sum up, I think the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator is great, if you like broad clitoral stimulation and you love the look of the cosmic, shimmering, changes-colour-when-it-catches-the-light silicone. It is a fun and different look. The Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator also has a decent motor for a small toy, the controls are well thought out and easy to use, and it is waterproof and comes with a good storage case.

However, I prefer the original Lovehoney Desire Clitoral Vibrator. This is because the silicone felt nicer and had less friction, the buttons were easier to push, and the storage case was better. The ribs that have been added to the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator do not, in my opinion, greatly improve the stimulation.  This is just me nit-picking though, the Special Edition version is still a great product, and if you like the look of it more, or see it is on sale, it’d still be a great purchase.

If you’d like to buy your own Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator you can find it here.

I’d like to thank Lovehoney for sending me the Lovehoney Special Edition Ribbed Clitoral Vibrator free of charge in exchange for an honest review. This in no way altered my opinion of the product.