Heart warmer - massager discontinued by Pipedream - review by Jul!a

A friend of mine used to do the whole Passion Party thing, and she had a few of these leftover and gave me one. I was so excited, since I had wanted one of these forever, and to my dismay, it had already been popped, and left. That one wouldn't re-liquify no matter what I did (make sure not to leave yours solid for too long), so I decided to go buy another one.

It came in a cute little box that says Heart Warmer Massager on it, and has pictures of the heart on the front and the back. On the back is also the instructions for how to use it, popping, boiling, etc. Nothing about this box screams 'inappropriate' unless you're nervous about the Pipedream logo on the bottom. In case you did want to ditch the box, the plastic bag the heart comes in also has all the usage instructions.

The heart itself is pretty decently sized at about 5"x5", easily taking up an entire small hand and being easily palmed by a larger hand. It's also really easy to use. In its liquid state, it squishes and bends and folds any which way. Once you activate it by flipping the little metal disc inside, it crystalizes in an outward pattern that's almost entrancing to watch. If you activate it with the disc down in the lower corner, it radiates throughout the rest of the heart.

Once activated, you're supposed to knead everything around and make sure it all gets mixed properly. You can start using it right away so long as you have a towel or something between you and the heart. Since it can reach temperatures of 54C and 129F, it can definitely get a little burny. The cooler it gets, the more solid it gets. After about 35 minutes it's still somewhat warm and somewhat bendy.

After about an hour or so, your heart should still have a teensy weensy bit of heat left in it and be pretty well solidified. Once it's completely cool, you can reactivate it by boiling it. The directions recommend that you put a towel across the bottom of a pot of water and then bring it to a boil. I used a washcloth since it fit in the bottom of the pot better, and it worked just fine. You'll want to make sure once you drop your heart in that it's laying on the towel of choice and not the bottom of the pot, since otherwise it could melt to it and that would suck. Keep an eye on what's going on, since your heart will be ready to pull out anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes. You should definitely use a pair of tongs to pull them out to avid burning yourself. I did use a pair of metal ones with no problems whatsoever, but if you're nervous about metal, go ahead and use wood. You can either dry it off right away or let it air dry on a towel, which is what I did since it was too hot to use again anyway. Once it's cool and dry, go right back to using!

For those of you interested in heated massages, go ahead and use your favorite massage aid, be it lotion or oil. When you're done, if the boiling doesn't clean it off or you want to clean it pre-boil, just wash it off in the sink with soap and water.

Since nothing about this heated heart says anything inappropriate, you can even leave it out and not get any dirty looks. After I boil mine, I leave it on the counter on a towel to dry. One night I got home from work and couldn't find it. Turns out my mom used to have a bunch of these in her desk at an old job and loved them, so when she saw mine, she just went to use it on her back sitting on the couch, so I think I know what I'll be getting her for Christmas.

For me the first time I used it, I popped it, waited about 10 minutes for it to cool down enough to put on my bare skin, then applied it to the desired area, which happened to be a pinched nerve in my lower back. I wanted some heat but not for a long time since I was also really tired and about to fall asleep. I figured this was safer to fall asleep on than a heating pad, but it was only warm enough to be felt in the same area for about 20 minutes. After that if you put it on a new area, that area felt warm, but once it warmed up to the temperature of the heart, I couldn't feel it anymore. Either way, I'm not all that disappointed, and I will definitely buy more.

I still love this thing, even if I hate having to reboil it to reset it. I've used it a whole bunch of time since I got it, and was gifted more things very similar. I'd gladly purchase this over and over again, and give them as gifts where I can. Everybody should own something like this!