Marital Aid Test Kitchen: Lelo’s Intima Silk Blindfold & Sutra Chainlink Cuffs

Stepping into the realm of mystery and intrigue in the bedroom, one would be hard-pressed to find more elegant accoutrements than Lelo's Intima Silk Blindfold coupled with their Sutra Chainlink Cuffs. But does function match form?

As I've already mentioned, these are very beautiful pieces (and well they should be, running at $59 for the blindfold and $89 for the cuffs!) that add a touch of luxury to your dirty, dirty deeds. The blindfold is very smooth and soft—it is silk after all—and is very well made, with no poke-y, uncomfortable seams or stitches to detract from my full sensual experience. The description boasts of it being "fully adjustable", which may lead one to believe there is more involved than just, you know, tying it, but that's not really the case. A portion of the back is comprised of a ruched elastic band that I actually found pretty useless. With just the strength of the elastic, the blindfold was too loose on my head such that I needed to tie the back ribbons anyway. And quite tightly, I may mention, in order to override the thick elastic band.

I found I couldn't be too mobile at the risk of slippage, but matched with the cuffs (more below) the excess mobility problem was solved. Once the blindfold and I were secured, I have no complaints. The blindfold material is thick and dark, and doesn't allow light to peek through anywhere—resulting in a pretty thrilling sensation in the hands of a frisky lover.

On to the Sutra Chainlink Cuffs. Each cuff is made with a smooth silk ribbon attached to a velvety suede back, making restraint a quite pleasant experience for better or worse. They fit me perfectly—not uncomfortably snug or too loose. Although even with my freakishly child-sized wrists I felt adequately restrained, which may be of concern for those larger-wristed among us. But I digress. The outside end of each cuff is adorned with a heavy silver clip complete with a smooth, full swivel so your arms are never (unintentionally) forced or twisted. The cuffs can be slipped around a bedpost, or anything really, and clipped together or just connected together on their own resulting in an ever-so-enjoyable decreased range of motion. Both ways I found pleasant, along with a formerly undiscovered delight in clipping them together and sliding my arms around my lover. There's some meta-restraint for ya!

On a first run, both these bedroom accessories performed quite well and made for a unique, luxurious experience. This is definitely not the last I'll be seeing of them. And I'm sure having just one or the other would be nice, but the two of these in concert were a thrill!

· Buy the Intima Silk Blindfold and Sutra Chainlink Cuffs (goodvibes.com)
· Lelo (lelo.com)