Lina - vibrator kit discontinued by Cal Exotics - review by DeliciousSurprise

Lina is a cleverly disguised vibrator, meant to be highly discreet and totally portable. Under the ruse of a pen, Lina features moderate vibrations and no giveaways that would let anyone who wasn't picking up the toy to write with it would notice. Because there's a pink crystal set in the top of the toy, this is geared towards women more than men, though pens aren't really gender-specific.

Lina is made of two major components--the pen, and the tickler sleeve. The pen is made of a hard, inflexible plastic, whereas the sleeve is made of a squishy, flexible, nubby TPR silicone--both are totally odorless and tasteless. The textured sleeve diffuses the vibrations and adds interesting texture to the toy for those that don't like or want the solid plastic feel the "pen" offers.

Lina, of course, is shaped just like a standard pen (approximately six inches long)--though perhaps a little bit more sturdy than a standard ballpoint pen--and is made to write like a pen, as well. The top of the "pen," where the vibrations are located, is capped with a sparkly pink rhinestone. The pen itself is grey/silver, with a pink logo of a woman's body on it. There's also an "on off open" demarcation on the top of the toy where the batteries are inserted--this part would be really obvious to anyone looking closely at the pen and would clearly mark it as being more than a writing implement. It's also not as discreet as I thought it might be since it's fairly heavy for a pen--it feels weighty when you're holding it.

This is a single speed vibrator; it doesn't have any interesting patterns or functions. The vibrations are of a moderate strength, and will be enough for a majority of users; if you wanted to diffuse the vibrations or use Lina as a warmup toy putting the sleeve on it will work well to do so. The vibrations are focused in the top of the toy, but they can be felt all the way down the toy. Unfortunately, I've found that with increased pressure on the tip of the toy, the vibrations dampen.

I didn't find the toy to be noisy, and the quiet discretion boded well for its undercover aesthetic.

More obnoxiously than anything else, though, when you turn the toy too far left (such as when you overshoot turning the toy off) the entire top of the toy pops off and the batteries fall off. This happened to me rather frequently when I was trying to remove the nubby sleeve unsuccessfully--it was much easier simply to peel the sleeve up rather than to slide the sleeve off.

The manufacturer's provided instructions indicate that it may be used with a water-based lubricant, so oil and silicone based lubricants are out--though if you don't use the nubby sleeve a silicone based lubricant would probably be fine. The care instructions do indicate it should be cleaned before and after each use with soapy water or an antibacterial cleanser. Unfortunately, though, you can't submerse this toy for a thorough cleansing since it's not waterproof, so a toy wipe might be an easier method of cleaning.