Strap whip - whip discontinued by Spartacus - review by Trashley

As we all know, this is not technically a whip, guys. It's a flogger. ::Ahem:: Y'all over at Spartacus might wanna take note here! This flogger can be used at all skill levels, but is targeted more for beginner to intermediate experienced players in BDSM. You can use it lightly, to skim the soft leather against your nipples or lightly slap or tickle your partner's thighs, but you can also put some elbow grease into it and leave a nice sharp sting and some pretty little red marks. It's a safe toy, as it's leather and not going into any special places, so it's great for a communal setting as well as private play.

It is not a whip, so you're not going to get the same amount of intense pain as you would with a whip. Be sure to keep this in mind when looking for a toy, if you're a beginner. This can hurt and sting a good pretty bit, but if you want to experiment with INTENSE, screaming pain, you might want to look elsewhere (Perhaps a la the Serpent's Tongue Whip?).

You can also use this flogger's gripping end to penetrate your partner (with a condom of course!). Safety first! Then teamwork.

It's not really travel friendly, as it's obvious what this is. There's no getting around it. It's definitely small enough to fit nicely in any medium handbag, though, so you can always take this on a lunch date.

This toy is absolutely stunning, for the most part, but let's get the practical details out of the way first. The flogger comes in at almost two feet at 20" long, and the actual falls make up a bit over a foot of this at 14", leaving the handle at 6". The falls themselves are each about 1/8" thick and the ends are cut at about a 30 degree angle, which aids in its delightful sting. There's 22 falls in all. The handle has a diameter of about 1 and 1/4 inches, while the bulbous tip of the handle has a diameter of about 1 and 3/8".

The flogger is a good medium size. A couple of the cheaper smaller floggers on this site are really just novelty toys. A proper flogger should be at least this size to deliver the proper amount of force, and this guy will really show you how its done. It's not too long for a beginner to have an awkward or difficult time manipulating it, and not too short to compare itself to a leather feather tickler.

There's a silver D-ring weaved into the top of the flogger. The bulbous tip is all weaved together and leads into the rest of the gorgeous fire engine red handle. The main part of the handle is a piece of bright red leather wrapped around a sturdy wooden core. The layer wrapped around the core is held together by five evenly spaced round silver studs. The falls are cut from this and are basically a shredded continuum of this layer that falls down smoothly.

The handle has a good grip. The studs are placed far enough apart to let your fingers lay between them and accommodate a wide range of large and small hands. The only problem I can see is that with larger sized hands, the handle seems a little bit thin, but remains sturdy.

The leather smells deliciously leather-y, but not overpowering, and is nice and hard, as it should be. Any softer and it would lose any bite it has. The shiny finished side of the leather looks sexy and stylish, and the dye has no breaks or runs. The colour is vibrant, but the raggedy other side of the leather takes on a lighter red/pinkish hue.

The couple of things I dislike about the appearance is the wrapping around the handle and the unfinished leather. It looks unfinished and unprofessional. The only finished part of the leather is the very top layer. The rest is shaggy. And there's also the issue of the shedding. During use, you get little speckles of red (or whatever colour you choose) all over your body. It's not a big issue, but one that you shouldn't be seeing if you buy a higher quality flogger. The other thing that I'm not particularly keen on is that the falls crease. If you store this in a box, the ends will retain the weird shape they sit in, so you've gotta keep this flogger hanging straight. I'm not sure this is a complaint against the product, but more against leather floggers in general. This tends to happen with most/all of them.

HOWEVER, even though I said I don't like the look of the unfinished leather, I LOVE the feel of it. It catches across the skin and causes a little bit of friction.

I believe this toy will last quite a long time, as leather products seem to do when you take good care of them, but I can forsee the loss of some of the bright colour and firmness.

This flogger works great for me! From light and gentle to absolutely mind-blowingly tear-creatingly painful, I can see why people praise this toy for its versatility. My favorite part of this flogger is that the handle is large enough to use as a dildo. I like the pain of the falls, but I also love it when my partner slips a condom over the handle and uses it to penetrate me. Obviously only vaginally, because there's no grip to control its position and whereabouts for anal. Using the handle vaginally is not for beginners, let me say. It is rough, and it is painful, and for most people, ANYTHING but pleasureable, so play safe and play cooperatively with lots of communication.

I also really like using this toy for teasing. The falls are soft enough to tickle and stimulate all parts of your body for a really romantic warm up exercise.

It met and exceeded my expectations functionally, but fell a little short appearance-wise. I expected a more seamless flogger, but the wonderful workings of it TOTALLY balances out my little nitpicking things about the looks. Overall, it's beautiful and red and sensual, and that's really all you're going to be noticing during the act anyway.

Oh! And can't forget that it's the gift that just keeps giving. I can seriously get off just by seeing my red-as-the-flogger back and butt after we're done. The red marks aren't unexpected from this stingy at the tip and thuddy in the middle flogger. This will definitely be a flogger you'll be excited to explore.

This toy is really easy to care for. You can clean it with a damp cloth and leather cleaner, but for deeper cleaning you can use gentle soap flakes or baby shampoo to lather the leather and subsequently dry flat in the sun and store. Be careful when you let it dry in the sun, because you can lose color pretty fast. If you have the time, you can blow dry it or let it hang dry. When you store it, avoid extreme temperatures, excessive dryness, and humidity. As I said before, the falls WILL crease, so take advantage of the D-ring and hang it!

The toy wasn't packaged in any way, shape, or form sans for the clear plastic bag it came in inside the EF shipping box. There weren't any instructions, but I'm pretty positive you don't need instructions on how to use a flogger. A small card on care and maintenance would have been nice, though!