The Intimate Love Toy is a very unusual sex toy.
It’s both a vibrator and an electrostimulation device. You can use it for BDSM play, or simply for new sensations, but also to tone your pelvic floor muscles.
It’s a Made in France sex toy. The brand Eymalis, which makes it, is part of the Plaisir de France association, a label that promotes brands choosing to make pleasure products in France. La Tour est Folle is also a member (no dodgy pun intended).
I contacted Eymalis to test the Intimate Love Toy.
Unboxing the Intimate Love Toy
The packaging is on a par with LELO’s: it looks the part, while remaining fairly understated. Then again, it’s in the same price range as the IRIS, for example.
The Intimate Love Toy, wrapped in clear plastic, is nestled in a lovely box made of thick, rigid cardboard and lined with foam.
A basic but decent storage pouch is included. Like LELO products, the Intimate Love Toy comes with a one-year warranty.
The sex toy
Appearance
The Intimate Love Toy is about 20 centimetres long, with an insertable section measuring 11.5 cm and a diameter of just over 3 centimetres: a substantial size, but nothing to be afraid of.
It’s slightly curved. There is a metal electrode on each side of the insertable section: the current passes between the two electrodes.
The model we received is grey, but it’s made in a wide range of colours. There are three different models: “l’Exquis” and “le Châtelain”, which have textured surfaces, and “le Courtisan”, which is completely smooth. We tested “le Courtisan”.
Texture and materials
The Intimate Love Toy is made of rigid, hard plastic. I find it a little less pleasant to the touch than silicone. But its very smooth surface glides surprisingly easily, so much so that I didn’t need a single drop of lubricant to use it. The instructions do recommend using a water-based lubricant, however, to increase conductivity.
The electrodes are made of metal and plated with fine gold to conduct the current better – and, as an added bonus, to look classier.
Power
The Intimate Love Toy runs on two AA batteries.
You might wonder why it has such a rudimentary power source when, in every other respect, this sex toy is aimed at the luxury market. If Wikipedia is anything to go by, battery-powered electrostimulation devices do exist, so it’s not technically impossible.
The most plausible explanation, it seems to me, is that the battery option had to be ruled out to stop some bright spark getting the idea of using it while the device was charging (which is very dangerous, even with a regular vibrator). On the other hand, it could simply be a question of keeping manufacturing costs down by avoiding the inclusion of an expensive battery.
Using the Intimate Love Toy
Controls
The Intimate Love Toy has four buttons.
One, marked with a green LED, has a sine-wave logo. Press it once to start vibration mode, a second time to switch to a “pulsing” mode (“pulsing” in the classic sex-toy sense of the word, alternating “vibrates, doesn’t vibrate, vibrates, doesn’t vibrate, vibrates”, not pulses like Fun Factory’s Stronic toys), and a third time to stop the vibrations.
Another, decorated with a lightning bolt, lights up red. It lets you start or stop the regular delivery of electrical impulses.
Two “+” and “-” buttons let you adjust the intensity of both the vibrations and the impulses.
The controls are a little tricky to get to grips with the first time, but you get used to them very quickly.
As a vibrator
A pleasant surprise here: the vibrations are powerful. I was worried they’d been sidelined, since they’re not the device’s main selling point, but that’s absolutely not the case: the Intimate Love Toy vibrates well and powerfully.
The vibration intensity is fully adjustable, with nine levels, and the maximum power falls somewhere between that of the LELO INA and the INA 2. It is, however, noisier than those two sex toys, with the sound seeming to resonate more in the hard plastic.
I first use it on my clit for an initial orgasm (or two, if I linger a little), which I reach fairly quickly with the vibrations turned all the way up.
The sensation is different from that of a “softer” sex toy. But its smooth, nicely rounded head spreads the vibrations quite well over my clit and deep inside, without me having to press down like a maniac.
Then I can insert it. The vibrations don’t get lost along the way: you can feel them along the entire length of the sex toy, with no loss of intensity. Its slightly curved, rounded head stimulates my G-spot. And here too, the powerful vibrations do the trick.
The only downside: vibrations or electrostimulation, you have to choose. With the Intimate Love Toy, you can’t have both at once.
The “pulsing” mode isn’t the most effective way to come, but it does give you a taste of the sensation produced by the electrical impulses.
As an electrostimulator
I’d never tried an electrostimulation device before. This was my first experience with this kind of sex toy, so I was rather apprehensive (and excited) about trying the “Electrosex” mode.
Precautions
First of all, a few precautions.
Some of them are obvious: don’t use it if you’re pregnant, if you have heart problems or a pacemaker, if you have a vaginal wound or infection, or if you can’t insert it without hurting yourself (no kidding!).
Others are a little less obvious: you have to wait until you’ve inserted the Intimate Love Toy before switching it on, and wait until you’ve switched it off before removing it. Why?.. I’m not entirely sure.
The device has a safety feature to prevent overdoing it. After 15 minutes of use in “Electrosex” mode, the electrical impulses stop, forcing you to take a break. You can still switch back to vibration mode, though.
As with the vibrations, the electrical impulses have nine intensity levels. Electrostimulation is pulsed: one impulse lasting 5 seconds every 10 seconds.
Sensitivity varies from person to person. So even though the first few levels are very weak, it’s best to take the time to feel the effects of each one before moving on to the next, so you can find the intensity that works for you.
Sensations
So I pressed the fateful button decorated with a lightning bolt.
At the first level, the impulses are almost imperceptible. So I press “+”.
The device vibrates for a second to signal that a power increase is imminent (the electrical impulses themselves make no noise). The first electrical impulse starts after 4 seconds.
The sensation is surprising, but pleasant. At regular intervals, the device causes involuntary contractions of the vaginal muscles, with the intensity varying according to the level selected.
When you venture up to slightly higher intensity levels, it’s a bit like the contractions you get during an orgasm, except that it isn’t an orgasm as such. It’s quite difficult to describe… It isn’t painful either, but it is surprising. The sensation and contractions start again at regular intervals. Between two impulses, you feel a certain apprehension as you wait for the next jolt, which I found extremely exciting.
Stimulating my clit manually at the same time brings me to particularly intense orgasms.
I finished each session with the Intimate Love Toy by switching back to vibrator mode for a final orgasm, to recover from all the excitement.
In short: the sensation surprised me, but I loved it. It’s thoroughly pleasurable, exciting and different from what you can feel with a vibrator or another type of sex toy.
I haven’t (at least, not yet) tried it for long enough to give a proper opinion on how effective it is for building up my pussy muscles toning the pelvic floor. I’ll let you know in a few months.
It’s worth noting that you can also use it for anal stimulation, but I admit I didn’t dare try it.
Conclusion on the Intimate Love Toy
The good points:
- The sensation produced by electrostimulation is new, exciting and pleasant.
- It vibrates well and powerfully. In “vibration” mode, it effectively stimulates the clit and the “G-spot”. In short, even if you realise after buying it that you don’t like electrostimulation, it won’t end up gathering dust in a cupboard.
- Its packaging and appearance are attractive and well finished.
The bad points:
- It’s a shame you can’t enjoy the vibrations and electrostimulation at the same time.
- It does feel a little “cheap” when you pick it up, mainly because of the plastic used. And a softer material might have made it quieter. It’s nowhere near as noisy as the Fairy, but you can definitely hear it with the vibrations at full power.
- Its price is still rather high. Admittedly, it’s original, nicely presented and made in France. But you have to pay an average of 120 euros for one.
I like the Intimate Love Toy a lot. Some details could be improved, but the concept is excellent, and the sensations are definitely there.
I would recommend the Intimate Love Toy without hesitation to anyone (and men? He, who’s a bit phobic about electricity, didn’t want to try it, so I’m not really sure) looking for new sensations without wanting to venture into more “extreme” equipment.
It also seems ideal for very soft electro-BDSM play, or simply as a masturbation accessory that adds a little variety to the sensations compared with a regular vibrator.
Note finale du test
Les plus
- Novel sensations from electro-stimulation
- Powerful vibrations
Les moins
- You can't use the pulses and vibrations at the same time.
- Cheap build quality
