I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again: Blush Novelties must be utilizing some kind of silicone magic to produce dildos with such clean stripes. The Avant Pride P3 Beauty Silicone Dildo sports the colors of the (now retired) lesbian pride flag. Each block of color is as vibrant and self-contained as the last. It’s beautiful.

I came out as a lesbian in 2005, when I was just fifteen. There wasn’t a widely recognized lesbian-specific pride flag at the time, and by the time the largely pink-striped flag emerged a few years ago (originally pitched for lipstick lesbians specifically, but repurposed and popularized by the broader lesbian community on Tumblr) I had already begun identifying as queer in safe/online spaces. “Queer” better suits the nuances of my sexuality and my gender identity.

(EDIT: In the years since publishing this review, this flag has been retired in favor of the more inclusive sunset lesbian flag.)

It delights me to see a dildo in lesbian pride flag colors in Blush Novelties’ Avant Pride line, especially one that’s beginner-friendly and harness compatible. When I visited a small sex shop in Kansas as a young queer person, I was put off by how aggressively heteronormative the space and its stock was. Even toys traditionally associated with queer sex were marketed exclusively to straight couples. The Avant Pride P3 Beauty Silicone Dildo – while functionally useful for just about anyone who enjoys penetration – is undeniably lesbian, and it would have meant the world to me to see it on the shelves when I was young.

So when it came time to pick a review toy from SheVibe, I was adamant about reviewing the Avant Pride P3 Beauty Silicone Dildo, and SheVibe was kind enough to accommodate me. (Thanks, SheVibe, for getting it into my greedy gay paws!)

Because the Avant Beauty Dildo is made from silicone, it’s body-safe and can be washed with a mild soap and water (or sterilized via boiling it or cleaning it in a 10% bleach solution.) Its suction cup makes it anal-safe (as you need a flared base for anal toys to keep your body from pulling it in) and strap-on harness compatible.

The Avant Beauty is an endearingly small dildo, just 5.5 inches long and 1.25 inches in width. I called it beginner-friendly two paragraphs ago, but it’s also just plain me-friendly. Penetration is pretty much always painful for me and larger insertables are an impossibility – soft, small, and somewhat pliable dildos like the Avant Pride Beauty provide a more comfortable fuck for my body.

And that’s precisely what the Beauty Dildo is: comfortable. Mostly. Unlike the Temptasia Reina (another Blush offering in the gentler size category), the Avant Beauty’s head is smaller than its shaft, and that makes initial penetration much easier. It does get slightly thicker towards the base, but the transition is gradual and the tapering is subtle enough to go virtually unnoticed in use.

The Avant Pride P3 Beauty’s silicone is velvety to the touch. I can’t be vaginally penetrated without ample amounts of lube, but I imagine even those without my physical complications would best enjoy the Avant Beauty Dildo with some non-silicone lube to make it really glide. The veined texturing along its surface is somewhat apparent when rubbing it against yourself (a favorite pastime of my partner’s) but in penetration, it’s imperceptible.

This dildo is flexible, but doesn’t yield to bending as easily as the thicker Reina or the funky-shaped P2 (its more g/p-spot focused sibling from the Pride line) because it’s stubby. It also doesn’t have as much squish as I was expecting (or any at all really), as its body is firmer than flesh. I was hoping the silicone would be more squeezeable, but alas! My partner Buster doesn’t experience pain from penetration and said they found it quite nice to clench, so perhaps my lamentations are based more on my body’s peculiarities.

The shaft only has a very vague slope to it. My vagina isn’t able to discern g-spot stimulation, so I’m not at all disappointed with the P3 Beauty’s basically straight length when masturbating (or letting my partner do the work.) The uptilt of the shaft is more noticeable when using the Avant Pride Beauty in a strap-on harness. It’s still not especially pronounced, but I feel like it’s angled enough for some basic g-spot and prostate stimulation. My partner and I enjoy using the Avant Beauty in a harness a lot, as its silicone suction cup is both flat and thin, which makes it rest sturdily against the wearer; and the cup isn’t rigid, which would cause uncomfortable friction after awhile. And because it’s so stubby, it doesn’t sag or flop in the harness. With its sturdiness and tapered head, I think it would make an excellent dildo for strap-on anal too.

The Avant P3 Beauty is the first dildo I’ve ever been successfully strap-on fucked with, and it was great. Because of its unintimidating look and equally unintimidating size, I didn’t think of it as a challenge to endure but rather a cute addition to an already enjoyable roll in the sheets with my partner. And that’s a big deal to me, because I’m a trauma survivor, and it’s hard not to think of penetration objects as threats to my body. The P3 Beauty is difficult to characterize as threatening in any context, even mine.

The suction cup is – in addition to being a great base for strap-on play – strong as fuck. I was able to try it briefly while recently staying somewhere with regular walls and wood flooring, and the Beauty held in place while I fumbled around and eventually discovered that I don’t like riding dildos all that much because I’m old and lazy and also my vag hates it. The more you know!

The anatomy of the head is far more realistic than the other Blush dildos we own, with defined glans and coronal ridging. This, combined with the unmistakable roping of veins on the shaft, makes the Avant Beauty Dildo one of the most anatomically accurate dildos in my steadily growing collection. The colors disguise it well, cementing it in the camp of penis-inspired rather than penis-imitating, however, so it hasn’t roused any dysphoria in me… but I imagine my feelings would be different if it were in a skin tone. If realism is a trigger for you due to gender or trauma, have a closer look before you make your purchase decision.

(As an aside, though: I’m pretty pleased to see a lesbian-“themed” dildo even vaguely modeled after a penis, because penises aren’t the opposite/antithesis of lesbianism. There are plenty of lesbians with penises, and lesbians who love women with penises!)

The Avant Pride Beauty Dildo is not for lovers of length or girth – Buster, who sneezes like a displeased cat at anything slimmer than 1.6 inches, called it “a good warm-up dildo” – but for folks like me or people looking for a first time dildo on the smaller scale, it’s an affordable contender in non-gendered packaging and absolutely worth considering. It’s also versatile in usage, as it’s both anal safe and harness compatible. I’d especially recommend it for people looking into introductory strap-on sex.

For those of you who need a lil’ somethin’ more in the size department but were drawn to the Beauty Dildo’s gorgeous stripes, I’d suggest looking at the rest of Blush Novelties’ Avant line, which includes a number of kitschy color combos. If it’s pride you’re after, there are several other pieces in the Pride collection (also linked with the Avants), including butt plugs!

You can purchase the Avant Pride P3 Beauty from the sex positive superhero sex shop SheVibe, currently priced at just $40 USD.

If you’re in the US, you can get free shipping with a $69+ USD purchase. That’s perfect justification to also grab a strap-on harness and some lube, am I right?

Thank you, SheVibe, for sending me the Avant Pride P3 Beauty Silicone Dildo in exchange for an honest review. Affiliate links were used in this post.