Hearts leather whip - flogging toy by PHS International - review by Emma (Girl With Fire)

The Hearts Leather Whip is a high quality flogger that can be used for teasing, as well as both light and heavy BDSM play. The flogger can be used on the breasts, ass, thighs, calves, and more carefully on the genitals. It is not ever a good idea to flog the lower back or stomach, as you can do a great deal of damage to the kidneys and other organs.

This is a great flogger for beginners as well as advanced users. The ease of control, and light weight makes it an ideal tool for beginners. It is also a great tool for those who are more advanced and capable of using it to create the different sensations that it is capable of, stingy if the tips are the impact point, thuddy if it is the midsection of the falls, and a mild nondescript sensation when used in a lighter and less accurate fashion which is great for warm ups and cooling down periods.

The length of the falls makes this an ideal whip for travelling, as they are long enough that they do not stand straight up, and still short enough that they are unlikely to tangle. If you have a pouch you could easily transport the whip in it as long as you do not crush it and damage the falls.

I think the design of this flogger is really great. The falls are actually created by cutting into the same piece of leather used to wrap the handle. This means that instead of the falls being held in by a wrap around the handle (like you will find in cheap floggers) it is made up of one sturdy piece of high quality leather. This piece of leather is wrapped around a wooden dowel and secured with metal bolts which are presumably driven into the wooden dowel. There is also another small strap of leather wrapped around the top of the flogger handle which prevents degradation at the base of the falls, and another at the base around a wide leather strap which serves to hold the D-ring in place; both of which are also secured with a bolt. This design ensures a sturdy, durable flogger, with stationary falls (meaning that they wont become uneven, or fall out at any point).

The material is a smooth finished leather on one side and an unfinished suede on the other; both sides are very soft to the touch. The finished surface is turned outwards which means that it is the surface you will be holding onto, and also the one which will more often come into contact with your bottoms skin. The falls are all evenly cut, 1/4" wide, and roughly 15" long. The handle is not as long as a whip handle, however in comparison to many of the floggers I have come across this is actually on the larger side. It is very comfortable to hold and adds to the ease with which you can control your flogger.

This whip performs admirably. I found it very easy to control, it takes no more than a minute or two of practice before you should be fairly competent to wield it. The width and number of falls enable you to produce a heavy and somewhat thuddy impact capable of leaving welts and bruises, and the tips of the falls are angled and create a very stingy sensation on contact when wielded right; as a result the sensation your bottom receives will be entirely dependent on how you choose to use the whip.

Whips and floggers are also nice when used for more gentle play. They can be used to tease, gently swept, or flicked across bare flesh, stimulating erogenous zones and driving your bottom to a frenzied desperation. Remember, sometimes punishment can be pleasurable and vice versa.

Regardless of how you choose to use your whip you can be assured that it is a sturdy piece of equipment and if taken care of, it will be around for you and your partner to enjoy for a long long time.

Leather is one of the tougher materials to take care of, it can not be simply thrown in the sink or wash. To clean leather it needs to be first carefully wiped down or gently scrubbed with a lightly dampened sponge or cloth. Once it has been wiped down it should be hung to dry in a well ventilated area; if it is stored somewhere air tight the leather can degrade rapidly, cracking, drying out and in some cases molding as well. Once the leather is dry you should apply a few thin coats of a natural oil such as linseed or mink oil and once the oil has stopped absorbing, wipe off any excess and hang again to dry (it should be noted that while leather should be hung in a well ventilated area, it should not be hung in direct sunlight or heat). If your whip or flogger has come into contact with any bodily fluids it is best to soap it as well, this can be done with either a saddle soap, which is specifically designed for treating leather, or with an unscented glycerine soap. If using soap in a bar form, first dampen your soap and then pick up a small amount on your sponge or cloth and again gently wipe down or carefully scrub the surface of the leather. Once finished you can again wipe off excess, again using a cloth only lightly dampened with water only. Hang to dry in a well ventilated area.

Ideally floggers should be kept hanging but this is not always an option. If you plan on storing your whip in a box, bag or even the original package, make sure that you carefully gather all of the falls and wrap them in the widest arc possible so they are least likely to warp. Warping is rarely if ever permanent in leather, but it can cause a difference in the amount of control your whip provides.

The packaging for the Hearts Leather Whip is fairly minimal, it comes in a plastic box with an attractive insert. There is very little information on the package aside from a small snipped about the whips available from the company accompanied by a small photograph of them. The packaging also comes in very handy for storage, if you don't mind it taking up the extra space, but if you have no need of storage it can be recycled or reused for storing other toys.

It is possible to add to the damage that a leather flogger is capable of by dampening it ahead of time. If you do choose to take this route, it is important to remember that the water can cause some of the oils to leech out of the leather and these should be replaced with a thin coat or two of linseed or mink oil.

Another way of increasing the impact of a flogger is to knot the ends of the falls. The Hearts whip falls are not as long as they ideally should be for this and are also slightly thicker, but it is a possibility if you are not satisfied with the whip as is.

I loved this whip (flogger), it performed exactly as I had hoped it would. The craftsmanship is really great, and it just provides the most amazing sensations upon impact. It can also leave anywhere from light pink impressions which fade quickly to bright red welts that swell and leave sweet purple reminders of your play session. The fact that it works so well for both stinging and thuddy sensations keeps me grinning like a crazed woman and I am really excited to see if this holds up over time as well as I think it will.