Seed - clitoral vibrator discontinued by Zini - review by Jul!a

The Seed is marketed as a clitoral vibrator, which really just means "don't insert it anywhere." You can easily use it to stimulate the clit, the nipples, earlobes, belly button, perineum, anywhere really. It's small enough to fit in a large pocket or even a relatively small purse, and it's virtually silent. It is a bit on the pricey side, but the vibration strength and (lack of) noise level will be a good fit for most people.

Seed is made mostly of silicone and plastic. The part that makes contact with your skin in the front and runs down the underside is a soft, velvety silicone with virtually no drag. It's also not horrible about picking up lint either. The plastic that's everywhere else is smooth, shiny, and nice to touch. The silicone might hold on to some scents like flavored lubricant or scented soap, but being left out to air out for a few days after a thorough cleaning will normally help make the scents dissipate if you don't like them.

In total, the Seed is just about 4 1/2" long. The first inch of the tip is wrapped in the deliciously soft silicone, and then travels downward in a V pattern so that all your body feels is the silicone. The rest of the top is all plastic and houses the controls. The small size makes it easy to travel with, and easy to use on your own or during sex. It's only about 4 1/2" around, so even the daintiest of hands should be able to wield this with easy. The buttons and a ring around the control pad are backlit, with the color depending on what setting you're on.

It's also not immediately obvious what the Seed is upon first glance. Sure it doesn't take much to figure out that it does stuff, but it can be passed off as a pinpoint massager for knots and what not in the back or neck.

The Seed has a whole bunch of fun settings you can play with. First you have to charge it. This should take about 2 hours and give you about 3 hours of play. You can follow how charged it is based on what color the control pad is lit while plugged in; red = 0-10% power, orange = 10-50% power, yellow = 50-70% power, light green = 70-95% power, green = >95% power and blue = charge complete. You can also check the charge between uses by pressing and holding the center button, same colors apply. Next you'll have to remove it from travel mode. To do this (or re-enable travel mode for easier traveling) simply press and hold both the + and - key at the same time for a few seconds until they light up. You've now changed modes.

To start the vibrations, press the + key. This will cycle you up through a total of 5 steady vibration settings, each being signaled with a flash of white as you press the + button. The lowest setting is actually pretty strong for a low setting. Enough for the super sensitive to finish most likely. The highest is pretty strong. Not Hitachi or Wahl strong, but for something that doesn't plug into the wall, it's still pretty strong. And quiet. I kid you not when I say that my Blackberry is louder than this on its highest setting.

If steady vibrations aren't your thing, then press the button in the middle to start going through the patterns. Each pattern is identified by a pulsing light of a different color and can be cycled through up or down by pressing + or - and returned to steady vibrations by pressing the center button again. A white light accompanies a slow roller coaster. Light green is a faster roller coaster, blue is an even faster roller coaster; very similar to pulsing. Orange is an escalating vibration, pink is a longer escalation, and green is a shorter escalation with two very short pulses. Purple is a faster pulsing, blue is another variation of pulsing, fuchsia is two quick pulses and a very slightly longer one, and the darker fuchsia is a bunch of short rapid pulses followed by a longer one.

The vibrations are pretty rumbly, but also a little buzzy, and located mainly in the tip, but travel really well through the rest of the Seed. This might lead to numb fingers depending on how you're holding it. The other problem that I can see with it is that if you're resting your fingers on the edges, your fingers can slip down and change the setting you were on. The manual says that it's waterproof, but since the charging port cover comes off easily I'd highly recommend against full submersion.

Care and maintenance is pretty simple. If you want to use a silicone based lube, do a tiny spot test first to check for interactions, but otherwise stick with a water based if you feel the need to use any lube at all.

The silicone charger flap should adequately keep out water if you're just washing in the sink, but still try to be mindful of it. You can spray this with a toy cleaner, clean it with a toy wipe, or wash it with warm soapy water. Towel dry and put back into storage! You can either keep the Seed in the lovely pouch that it comes with or you can just keep it in a drawer. It's not bad on picking up lint, so you won't have to worry about that.

The packaging for this is unlike any I've seen before, and just screams "classy." Remove the lid, find the Seed inside under a piece of cardboard with a Seed shaped plastic indent. To find the charger, instruction manuals, and storage pouch, twist the box open. That's right, I said twist. Even after reading reviews and watching the video I still forgot and was trying to pull the box apart to get to everything underneath and it wouldn't budge. Instead, it opens like a door hinge, revealing everything else underneath the first section. There are two manuals; one is a quick reference of all the different display modes and charging modes in 8 different languages. The other gets into more specifics like the sound level (<49dB) and what kind of battery (Li-Ion) for all of the Zini toys, also in 8 languages.

The box would make a fantastic gift, or you could even use it to hold other things.

I hemmed and hawed over getting this when it first came out, and when I finally bit the bullet and got it, it went out of stock and I ended up waiting months to get it. When it finally came I seriously did a dance in my living room. I got interesting looks from my mom and husband who just kept on chatting as I giddily tried to turn it on and get it plugged in to charge.

I love this toy, I really do. For me it works great on its own or with my husband. It can be a little awkward to hold it in place sometimes, but it's not a really big deal for us. I can see how the vibrations might not work for those with a clit'o'steel, but for most women the vibrations should be more than strong enough. Since it's quieter than all of my other toys except for maybe Nea, I use it when I know people are still awake because it won't get heard and it's really easy to control without having to stop what I'm doing and look, unlike my MiMi. As far as the vibrations between the two go, it's hard for me to say which is stronger. To me they're both about the same but in different ways because of the way the vibrations get transferred. I thoroughly enjoy them both though, and I do think this one is worth saving for.