Whether it’s quashed by busy schedules or sanded away by time and familiarity, playfulness seems to be the first thing lost when sex between partner(s) meanders towards routine. Though we were adventurous when we were younger, as Buster and I approached the end of our first decade together, our giggly, exploratory approach to sex dwindled into consistent, predictable sincerity. Only recently have we begun to approach sex with a willingness to sometimes be silly again, to try new things and be playful and imperfect in our execution.

As shill-like as it may sound, Big Oh! Box has played an undeniable role in inspiring us to experiment. The mystery products we receive in these boxes for review are often things we wouldn’t choose for ourselves – sometimes due to assumptions, sometimes due to shyness – and even when they’re as bunk as we would have supposed, the experience of trying something different or new is energizing. And with a box coming every three months, we’ve been consistently inspired but not overwhelmed, which is ideal for cautiously branching out.

Big Oh! Box definitely had playful sex in mind when they crafted this box. This one is all about taste, which regrettably isn’t a sense Buster and I usually play with. Sight, sound, touch – those are the senses we focus on. And until I carefully tore through the tissue paper blanketing this quarter’s contents, I hadn’t thought about what we were missing out on.

This quarter, subscribers received two bottles of Sliquid lube, a set of chocolate body paint, some fruity edible body pens, edible glitter, and a mini bullet vibe. We chose clitoral stimulation for our box, so we received a Satisfyer; other pleasure options are based around anal or penis toys, and folks who chose no toy for this box received a canvas and art set! It was a bold choice to stock most of the box with edible goodies, but I think it was a good one.

Satisfyer Pro Plus Vibration

Before we get into the yummy details of all the lickables, let’s talk about this box’s focal toy: a white and vaguely boomerangy offering from Satisfyer that’s meant to stimulate clitorises. And holy shit does it stimulate them.

Buster and I own one other Satisfyer product, the Satisfyer Pro Penguin 2. It rocks Buster’s world regularly, but its nozzle doesn’t cooperate with my anatomy so I’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing its air pulse technology. It just couldn’t get a good seal over my somewhat buried clit. But this model has a wider nozzle and a deeper ‘suction’ channel for stronger stimulation and a better seal. To my immense delight, the Pro Plus Vibration works for me!

For those who don’t yet own or have experience with pressure wave toys (what an excellent excuse to get this box!), the sensation is like suction, but… not suction-y suction? It’s a constant, thuddy, roiling pitterpatter-y massage of air that’s unlike anything else I’ve felt. And it’s exquisite. This model has optional vibration as well, which seems to vibrate the surrounding area – and the hand you hold it with – more than it does your clit. The vibrations aren’t anything special (and definitely not deep or rumbly), but I enjoy using the lower vibration levels while I’m building up to an orgasm, and then turn them off to just focus on the pressure waves.

I love the Pro Plus Vibration’s design. The pressure wave and vibration settings are each controlled by their own buttons (one to click through vibrations, one to turn the air pulse on, and one with +/- to click through the air pulse settings), allowing you to fully customize your experience with intensities and vibration strengths or patterns. The toy’s shape is very intuitive but as amazing as the handle is for comfortable holding, it could benefit from an even longer one – though while I strain my arm holding it in place, Buster has no such problems. It’s rechargeable and the charge cord is USB and magnetic; unlike most other magnetic cords I have, Satisfyer cords click into place with no fuss and stay in place. It’s relatively easy to clean, too, with the top portion of the toy’s silicone coating sliding free (simply work the sleeve loose with a fingernail) to be washed with mild soap and warm water. And more thorough cleanings or fun in the bath are just fine too, because the Pro Plus Vibration is waterproof!

Bodylicious Erotic Edible Paint Body Pens

The Bodylicious Erotic Edible Paints are plastic pen-shaped tubes of fruity gel-like liquids that you can use on skin to write and doodle. The tips are pretty fine point for their size, but the consistency of the gloss is slippery so especially delicate drawing is likely to be marred by random beads of excess liquid. For an example of the pens in action, you can see this NSFW picture of my partner Buster on Twitter. The pack comes with four flavors and they’re all pretty easy to lick up.

We actually tried these pens out when we weren’t planning on having sex, taking turns drawing crude words and flowers on each other’s torsos, but the giggle-filled intimacy of it ended up being accidental foreplay. I’m not usually into spontaneous sex, as I’m both a routine-fixated autistic and a boring old married person, so that was a nice surprise! There was something enchanting about just playing for the sake of playing.

All four pens taste and smell super sweet, and are a little nostalgia-inducing since they’re basically just liquid candy. My favorite was definitely the Strawberry Shortcake, which tastes exactly like the strawberry sauce you use for said desert. Buster’s favorite was the Blue Raspberry, which matched their sweet tooth’s expectations of candy bliss. We both liked the Banana Split and the Cotton Candy when just sipping a bit from the pens themselves, but actually licking up large swathes of them was a little too sweet.

As with all of the non-lube products in this Big Oh! Box, these pens are best kept away from actual genitals (sugary substances like these are sure to give sensitive vaginas hell) but there are endless possibilities for their use elsewhere. Draw hearts on your lover’s shoulders. Write slut on your partner’s chest. Doodle a fire-breathing dragon on your own stomach. Be like Buster and smear the stuff all over your patient wife because you wanna see if you can make purple out of the red and blue (you can, kinda.) Just make sure you lick it up thoroughly, even if you made it taste weird by mixing it (it’s your own fault.)

Sensuva Love & Luster Kissable Silver Diamond Dust

Kissable Diamond Dust is an edible sheen of glitter for your skin and comes in a plastic 2 ounce container, which is a pretty hefty amount considering how little is needed to make an impact. It’s structured like an actual makeup product, with a plastic divider helping to keep the dust from getting everywhere, and a tiny powder poof thing with a strap for easier application.

I love this stuff and I am not at all sorry. I’m gay, and you know how we gays are about our glitter! There is no reason too small to dazzle up our skin, and having sex while rocking an ethereal highlight on whatever body parts I choose is no exception. I’ve had fun sprawling out with temptingly sparkly breasts, fairying up my freckles for nude selfies, and dusting my throat with a heavenly glow to encourage kisses. I feel fucking fabulous in the best way, and again, this shit is edible. It tastes like vanilla and flour (yeah, the baking kind), and disappears under one especially keen lick of a tongue. (It rinses off with water, too, when I’m not giving the gift of my angelically embellished skin to Buster.)

I also love its vanilla cake scent. Because I put it on with the powder poof thing, it feels decadently feminine, my skin glistening and smelling like a dessert. I don’t often feel feminine in my day to day life, so sitting in front of a makeup mirror and deciding where to dust this on is a wonderful rush for me. It becomes a pretty, glittery costume.

It’s an elegant departure from the other more traditionally playful products in this box, which helps diversify the box’s offering of experiences.

Rock Candy Gummy Vibe

The Gummy Vibe is a tiny, boxy-figured gummybear bullet vibe made of a mystery material. I say mystery because the packaging had no indication of what the vibe’s slightly sticky, translucent gummy sleeve was made of, nor was that information initially available on Rock Candy’s website. I was pretty sure it was made of TPR (a nontoxic but porous material I’ve sworn off of – but we’ll get to that in a second) but I had to reach out to Rock Candy through their contact form to find out for sure.

And, look, I’m not mad that it’s made of TPR, but I am mad that the materials information wasn’t readily available so I could make an informed decision about what I was bringing into contact with my body. TPR toys are a hard no for me. I’ve had nothing but nasty experiences with TPR toys (like growing mouldy-looking spots or becoming irreversibly greasy even after repeated washings.) As Lilly of DangerousLilly notes in her piece on porous toys, there’s no research on what happens to the body when it comes into contact with the bacteria and other invisible nasties that can fester inside the surface of porous toys, so it’s hard to say what the dangers definitively are. But when a toy can or does go yuck, I have to assume there’s some uncool shit occurring that I do not want anywhere near my genitals.

My inclination is to not buy porous toys at all since they’re basically ticking time bombs of inevitable problems, but there are some unavoidable exceptions to this. Masturbation sleeves are still largely made of porous materials, for example. In cases of necessity, my advice is to consider the toy temporary. Clean it exhaustively, always allow it to fully dry before storing it, and throw it away after a few months of use or as soon as it seems funky.

The Rock Candy rep who emailed me back was incredibly nice and very thorough. They mentioned the porousness of the material themselves (though not the potential yuck), adding, “we recommend cleaning thoroughly with warm water and antibacterial soap -or- toy cleaner immediately after use.” They also updated the site to include the materials information and care instructions, and said that future packaging would list the materials! Which is awesome, and hugely appreciated.

Buster was pretty taken with this vibe (the bullet is small, single-function, and buzzy, but there’s undeniable charm in its shape), so they’ll be keeping it for a few uses and then discarding it before it gets wonky. It’s definitely cute, even with its weird pointy little nose (described as its “snuggle nose sweet spot” on the packaging.) But my vagina is infection-prone all by itself, so this TPR bear isn’t going anywhere near my junk… But if Rock Candy wants to release a solid-colored silicone Gummy Vibe (perhaps in bright blue?) I would be more than happy to do all kinds of illicit things with it.

Sliquid Swirl Blue Raspberry and Swirl Strawberry Pomegranate

Sliquid is my favorite brand of lube. First H2O, then Sea… now Blue Raspberry.

Oh, and I also received Strawberry Pomegranate.

I mostly side-eye anything that can be pitched as bettering oral sex through masking genitals’ natural taste (as such products often rely on bodyshaming to sell.) But Sliquid makes no such assertion; the bottle doesn’t even mention taste besides the flavor title and Sliquid’s site says the “subtle flavors” are made to “enhance taste, not disguise it.” Sliquid is my go-to for regular lube use, so there’s already a tart, salty layer of Sliquid Sea present when we’re having sex. It’s not horrible, but I definitely don’t love it on my tongue.

Blue Raspberry is definitely our favorite of the two Swirls we were sent. It smells amazing, and is both sweet and fruity without being overwhelming or cloying. (Seriously, it smells so good that every time we use it we have to pause to appreciate how nice it smells and then giggle over how weird that is to do.) It tastes like a milder version of Blue Raspberry hard candy, which may sound too sweet for those with picky palettes, but the taste is so brief it doesn’t have time to become an oversweet jolt to the tongue before it’s already dissipating.

Strawberry Pomegranate’s flavoring is even more subtle, which is great ‘cos I don’t like it! It’s mostly a vaguely watery strawberry flavor that’s easier to discern if you sample it from the bottle rather than taste it in use, and then a weird flat tartness beneath that I guess is pomegranate? Pomegranates are expensive and I’ve never had one, so who knows! I don’t know. But if they taste like this lube, I wouldn’t like them.

Both of these flavors are just as pleasant to use as a lube as my non-flavored Sliquids. They’re as slick-yet-unobtrusive as natural vaginal lubrication, and never get tacky or flaky when dried. Because they’re water-based, they do dry out fairly quickly, but some spit or a spritz of water reactivates the lube immediately. They’re also vegan, gluten-free, and don’t have vag-irritating ingredients like glycerin. And unlike most lubes we’ve tried, showering after use is never necessary, because it doesn’t leave any noticeable residue.

I love that Big Oh! Box chose 2 ounce bottles rather than sample-size packets. It’s great to receive a slew of goodies I can keep using, rather than a trickle of single-use products that are doomed to be forgotten as soon as they’re tried.

Erotic Lovers Chocolate Body Paint

The last product in this quarter’s box was a trio of chocolate body paints in thick glass jars. They came in a plastic slipcover, which was fortuitous because one of mine broke in transit. The folks at Big Oh! Box did try to thicken up the padding in their box with padding confetti wrapped in their usual layers of pretty tissue paper, but it wasn’t enough to guard the chocolate from our mail person’s notoriously rough paws. The plastic packaging – bearing the text Erotic Lovers and a cartoon splatter for each flavor – contained the glass and the white chocolate mess, and after careful extraction and a quick rinse, we were able to still make use of the two unbroken jars.

Each jar is 2 ounces, and the surviving flavors were Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate. The chocolate has a perfect consistency for drawing with or putting a little dollop on a lover’s skin, as it’s thick but glides almost like it’s melted. They smell lovely, and their scent lingers on the skin for several minutes after being licked away. I’m not going to say we didn’t make any poop jokes, because we are but humble juvenile bois, but the paint wasn’t chunky or weird in a way that actually warranted the comparison. We’re just obnoxious!

The Milk and Dark chocolate both tasted like their namesake, but tasted best when licked from skin. But they both also had a weird, stale-like aftertaste, much like the cheap generic chocolate used for gold coins or tinfoil-wrapped mini rabbits or santas around the holidays. It didn’t disrupt our enjoyment, but it was definitely present, and it’ll keep me from sneaking tastes from the jars when we’re not using it for sex. Probably a good thing.

The chocolate was harder to lick away than the body pens, and more likely to leave some stickiness behind if not thoroughly laved. That made using it a different experience than the pens, as it required really focusing on wherever it was dabbed. I love that while similar in concept to the body pens, the chocolate resulted in completely different mood for foreplay – which kept the box from feeling repetitive.

The Big Oh! Box Quarterly Sex Toy Subscription Box

Satisfyer Pro Plus Vibration: $60. Bodylicious Edible Body Pens: $10. Sensuva Kissable Diamond Dust: $16. Rock Candy Gummy Vibe: $10. Sliquid Swirl Blue Raspberry: $8. Sliquid Swirl Strawberry Pomegranate: $8. Erotic Lovers Chocolate Body Paint: $10. Box value total, give or take a few bucks: $122. Not taking curating, labor and shipping into consideration, this quarter’s goods just barely surpasses its subscription price.

But as I’ve said in the past, Big Oh! Box isn’t just about getting a pile of sex goodies at a discounted price. It’s about introducing new elements to your sex life. It’s about letting go of what you’ve made routine and choosing to explore. It’s about going out of your way to be playful with your partner(s) by letting someone else supply the goods while still leaving the creativity up to you.

It’s hard for me to find fault in this box besides the inclusion of a TPR product (which, admittedly, was disappointing.) Yes, a jar broke, but efforts were made to cushion them and my local mail folks are pretty infamous for destroying things. Everything was fun and engaging, and I appreciated the bold thematic choice of centering on taste-based products. It was completely unexpected, but not so removed from the usual format that I was put off by it. And each product was so different despite their uniting theme that I didn’t feel like I’d been cheated out of variety just because everything was edible. It was a great box.

If you’re like me and could benefit from getting in touch with your playful side, you can check out Big Oh! Box’s subscription plans to get an artist’s box of your own. Need a better idea of what a subscription could get you in future quarters? See my review for last quarter’s box (spoiler: I loved it too.) And if subscription boxes aren’t your thing, Big Oh! Box also has a shop full of toys and accessories so you can browse to master your own adventures…

However you decide to play, you can use the code BETTY to save 30% on your order. Make a masterpiece! 

I received this quarter’s Big Oh! Box in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links.