Review: Papaya Toys Rainbow for Shevibe.com

From the very first time I saw pictures of vibrators from Papaya Toys, I wanted one, bad.  The colors are bright and the designs beautiful.  Getting to see one in person and use it, however, sealed the deal.  

The Rainbow is a traditional vibrator made nontraditional by the fact that there’s a slight curve to the shaft.  The one I got is purple with a turquoise ring to seal the battery compartment: a very pretty color combination, and waterproof to boot.  It has a bulbous head attached to a slightly narrower shaft with ridges down to the turquoise ring.  Below the ring is the handle, which has a grippy rubber feel and houses the battery compartment and the controls.  The pure silicone is squeezable, but the shaft has a limited amount of flexibility (presumably due to the mechanical parts inside).  You get minimal packaging and instructions in both English and German (the English is a straightforward translation of the German, happily with nothing left out or unidiomatically translated).  

The motor is in the head of the Rainbow, so the vibrations are concentrated there and in the two or so inches immediately below.  The vibrations travel down the rest of the shaft but they aren’t as strong.  Here’s now the settings work:

There are two buttons.  The one on the left turns the vibrator on and cycles through the three patterns (if pushed once) and turns up the intensity of vibration (if held down), while the one on the right turns the vibrator off (if pushed once) and turns down the intensity of vibration (if held down).  It’s a pretty intuitive interface, and the buttons make this nice “click” noise when you push them.  Push the left button once and you get a steady buzz.  Push it again and you get a buzz buzz buzz pattern.  Push it a third time and you get a buzzzzzzzzzz buzz buzz buzz buzzzzzzzzzz buzz buzz buzz pattern.  Push it once more and you go back to the steady buzz.  On each of these settings you can turn the vibrations up or down from very faint to moderately intense by holding down one or the other button.  Here’s the kicker: when you turn the Rainbow on, it remembers the setting you were on when you last turned it off.  It’s pretty smart.  

The Rainbow takes 2 AA batteries (my Eneloops worked fine and I assume other rechargeables will as well).  The battery compartment is also intuitive: you unscrew the base from the shaft and insert the batteries into the removable compartment.  Slide the compartment back in, screw the base back on, and voila: playtime.  The seal around the battery compartment makes it completely waterproof and submersible.  

In practice, I found the Rainbow to perform quite well as what it was intended to be: a traditional vibrator.  The head is a bit too soft and the shaft a bit too flexible for great g-spot stimulation, at least for me (I tend to favor stiffer toys for that particular purpose), but for straight up penetration it felt really nice.  Once you get past the head, the ridges are big enough to be noticeable during thrusting but not big enough to be uncomfortable.  The head is big enough for all-over external stimulation, but is too large for pinpointed clit stimulation.  I happen to like the all-over buzzy-on-the-vulva type of stimulation, so it worked for me.  The Rainbow is fundamentally unpretentious: what it does, it does well, and it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is.   Plus, it looks awesome and stuff.