I’m going to be honest: I’ve written about sex for the past decade. I’ve become a proponent of sexual freedom and expression. A champion of the rights of consenting adults to get up to all kinds of hijinx. Kink is a huge part of what makes the sexy world go round.
BUT.
In my private life, I’ve never been very kinky. Not for lack of interest, exactly—I’ve always been open to it. But it’s never been a priority, so it’s just never really happened. Being the n00b that I am, I never felt comfortable jumping into the deep end of a play party, but I never really found good opportunities to work kinky play into my everyday sex life, either.
But we live in an amazing time, when you can get just about anything you want delivered to your doorstep. Subscription boxes exist for everything from pre-packaged meal kits to drug store goods to mini-cupcakes to geek culture trunks… So, what about kinky stuff? Where’s my introductory kink box?
Well.
Here’s Playbox—a fun, low-key, pre-packaged box of kinky goodies that can be mailed to you discreetly from kink lifestyle company Play. When I discovered it, I thought, “Hmm…” When Valentine’s Day rolled around, I decided to add a little jolt of electricity to the bedroom routine!
And so I asked the folks at Play to send me a custom box. I told them what kinds of things I was into, and what kinds of things I didn’t already have. (Basically, “I’ve already got rope and a bunch of impact play toys, so what else you got?”) The box that arrived was a delight to open: the presentation was approachable, tasteful, and discreet. And what I found inside was an interesting mix: a temperature-play-ready glass insertable; a few glass pressure point thingamabobs; an ergonomic, adjustable blindfold; a feather tickler; a spatula for wax play; a bunch of condoms; some sexy scented soap; and a really cool lube bottle that lights up so you can see what you’re doing with it in dim light. Pretty nifty!
On Valentine’s Day (okay, honestly, the Friday after Valentine’s Day because I didn’t have time for a prolonged kink sesh on a Wednesday), I got down to biz with my partner. Full disclosure: I played the domme, so I didn’t get to personally experience all of these. But judging from the reactions that my bound-and-blindfolded partner gave me, I feel pretty confident in saying that…the Playbox was way fun!
The glass pressure points were particularly delightful, as they offered a really unique sensation. The ergonomic blindfold, which didn’t fall off every five seconds and actually kept the light out? Fab. The feather tickler was an adorable addition. And, though we didn’t get to use the insertable or the FlipLight this time around, I’m pretty excited to put them on the menu for our next bout—hopefully we’ll switch roles and I’ll get to experience what the PlayBox has to offer.
I will add that I was left scratching my head over some of the items, and I’m probably not alone on that. A bit of context could have gone a long way. I’m sort of well-versed in matters of kink, so I recognized the wax spatula and the pressure points for what they were right away, but I’m pretty sure that less-learned folks might not get what these items were for. And, let’s be real, when sex is on the table, people can get some very, um, creative ideas about where to put some things. When those ideas are misplaced, well…that could go all kinds of wrong.
Some boxes, the website says, do come with instructions, so my worries might not be justified. And, since I got a custom box, the people who put it together may have assumed I didn’t need any guidance, given my reputation as a sexpertish person. Still, my box was a rather random assortment, and it’s a good thing I have a broad knowledge base and a world view that includes using Google for anything I don’t know. But that’s not true of everyone.
Another issue is that one of the glass pressure points in my box broke in transit. That made me have to dig around in a bunch of packing crepe to find the broken-off piece of glass. Kind of scary. The Playbox folks might want to work on strategies to better insulate those in the future.
But, despite those little hiccups, the Playbox was a fun, unintimidating, and ultimately successful way to take a stroll on the kinky side! It broke the ice between our usually vanilla sex life and the kinky stuff we could be trying, heating up a cold winter’s night. If you’re in a spicy-leaning vanilla relationship, Playbox might be the push toward kink that you’ve been searching for! It was just what my partner and I needed to start exploring our kinky sides, in a safe, fun, and pressure-free way.