Silk sashay cuffs - wrist cuffs by Leatherbeaten - review by Sam (aka Jul!a)

The first and most basic intended use for these cuffs is to restrain you. Whether you be using them on your wrists or your ankles, they're supposed to keep you held securely in place. In addition to being able to be restrained, you can also use these cuffs as sort of a decorative bracelet or anklet. They are a bit large for that, but they can definitely make a statement all the same. What I wouldn't recommend using these for would be any kind of suspension, but other than that anybody can get a use out of these.

These cuffs are made very well, with no hints of loose threads or anything about to just fall on off. Being made up of silk and what feels like fleece makes these a treat to the skin as well. The part that will be in the most contact with your skin is a long oval shape about 9" long and 3" wide in the middle. It's padded enough to make it comfortable but not so much that it's bulky, and is lined with a soft fabric that feels a lot like fleece.

When you flip it over you're met with the silk parts and the D ring. The D ring is securely attached to the cuff, sewn into place underneath the ties it looks like. The ties extend out from the D ring about 21" giving you plenty of room to still be able to tie them if you're securing an area larger than the cuffs and still get a good bow.

The pattern is sort of a fuchsia floral print on a black background. Most of what you're seeing is the color, but you (or at least I) get the direct impression that it's the foreground. It's not silky to the touch, instead feeling a little more like a pair of soft denim, but is still pleasant to touch all the same.

For most users, this is going to fit well. If you're particularly petite, you'll end up having to fold it over on itself when you wrap it around your wrist/ankle. My wrists are about 6" around, so there's a lot of extra fabric that needs to get folded over on itself, but on my ankles that are about 8" around there's about 1/4" or so of open space between the ends.

You'll want to make sure that you aren't tying these too tight to prevent loss of circulation just from the cuffs being on. I've found that on my wrists where the padding overlaps we can go a little tighter than on my ankles where there's no overlapping of the cuffs. You'll also want to make sure you've got a way to attach these to restraints. They don't come with clips, and our restraining system featured clips on the removable cuffs, so we had to get some. We ended up with small carribeaners that you might hold your keys on. For extremely heavy play they might not hold up, but they'll do just fine for most people, as will the cuffs.

After getting all clipped into our under the bed restraints, I experimented with how much I could struggle while sitting up and actively trying to get out without actually untying the cuffs. Long story short, we had to re-position the restraints because I pulled them out from under the bed a decent bit. During use they kept my hands securely fastened to the restraints and didn't dig in no matter how much I struggled. The large thickness that makes them overkill for bracelets is actually what makes them so great for thrashing around in, since the larger surface area helps spread out the pressure from moving and it's not so direct and less likely to cut off your circulation.

You can read more about the details of cleaning silk here but the basic gist of it is not to machine wash, soak, or be too rough with cleaning. So for this you would just hand wash any spots you may have gotten dirty. You can iron the ties if they get more crinkly than you want them to be, but do it on a low heat and be very careful.

As for storage? You can either store them in the plastic bag they came in or you can keep them in a drawer, but either way you should keep them in a cool dry place out of direct sunlight.

A plastic bag, similar to a ziploc bag. That's about it. There was a manufacturers tag on the cuffs, but nothing special.

I've been eyeing these for years, literally. I finally bit the bullet and asked if I could do them as a video review, and was very happy when I found out I could. I waited anxiously until they arrived, and tore into the box as soon as it got there. See, I had been wanting to have these double as decorative bracelets when going out. Unfortunately they were a bit too big for that, but that did make them perfect as restraints. We're not heavy players and these were fantastic for us. They held up and didn't give at all even when being tugged at with a lot of force, but were also easy to get out of quickly. I'm extremely happy with these cuffs, and I would happily recommend them to anybody who's looking for something "pretty" to add to their collection.