The size of these beads makes them good for beginners. The first bead is very small, and the graduation is pretty steady. The spacing between the beads gets smaller as the beads get bigger, though. Insertion is rather easy (with a good coating of lube, of course) and the toy does flex pretty well, so it shouldn't jab into your rectum at all.

The X-10 beads are made of a very firm jelly. I actually didn't think these were made of jelly at all for the longest time, until I looked at the teeny writing on the back of the package. There isn't much smell at all to them, and they don't sweat like jelly toys tend to. The beads themselves are very hard, and there is no plushness to them whatsoever. Given their size, they are fairly comfortable to insert. Because they're made of jelly, they are compatible with both silicone and water-based lubes.

The beads are very smooth, though there is a seam running down the toy on either side. Lubricant will slide easily off of these beads, so use a good thick one. I didn't feel the seam very much on the smaller beads, but I could feel it on the larger ones if I didn't use enough lube.

The beads themselves aren't bad. These were my first set of beads (though I'd used other toys anally in the past). The smaller beads popped in with pretty much no effort aside from applying the lube. The larger beads needed a little more pressure, but they weren't painful. Someone who's never used a toy anally should be very careful and go slowly between the beads to avoid discomfort.

The jelly "strand" connecting the beads is fairly flexible, though it naturally wants to return to a curved shape, like in the package. I didn't feel the beads jabbing into anything, and they are the longest toy I've ever used anally, so that means they flexed around and followed my natural curves well.

However, the biggest, most damning flaw of these beads is the ring. The ring is far from anal safe. It's made of the same jelly as the rest of the toy, except that the ring is very thin. Therefore it's flexible; very flexible. Your tush will suck these beads up inside you. The second time I tried to use them, I decided to try leaving the last ball out, as if it were the flare. But the space between the beads gets smaller as the beads get bigger, and there wasn't enough space between the last two beads for my sphincter to close down. The beads wound up sliding out a minute or so after I inserted them.

The beads themselves are fine. I'm even okay with them being made of jelly, as it seems to be a more stable jelly. They've been hanging out in my toybox in a Ziploc bag for months now, and they haven't started to sweat like jellies so often do. But because the ring is so flexible and in no way stops your body from drawing the toy all the way in, these beads fail as an anal toy.

These beads are jelly, and so should not be stored in contact with other toys. They fold up pretty nicely into a sandwich-sized Ziploc baggie if you don't want to keep the package. Because they're not girthy, they just tuck in between other toys and the side of the box.

Clean them with soap and water or toy cleaner, and be very careful with how you clean them! No matter how careful I thought I was, both times I used the beads I wasn't able to clean them perfectly. Pay a lot of attention to where the beads meet the "strand".

These beads can't be sterilized, so no sharing, and no swapping between anal and vaginal (though I can't see how these would be comfortable or do much of anything vaginally, given their length and narrow girth).

The package shows a nice big picture of someone's back, with a towel draped across the tush. I'm not entirely sure if it's a male or female model...I think male, given the lack of an hourglass shape. But anyway, the package is not very discreet. No naughty bits, but it clearly belongs to a sex toy. The beads are kept in the clamshell in an arch, and the jelly seems to remember that shape permanently. I've never seen mine straighten out. You could store the beads in the clamshell, as it's not too much bigger than the toy, but a Ziploc bag is smaller.

I used these beads twice, and never again. The first time I used them, I didn't even feel the ring getting pulled up into my body. The toy actually worked its way in pretty deeply before I realized what had happened. And let me tell you, digging any toy out of your rectum while wearing acrylic nails is not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination! I must have spent half an hour trying to get the damn thing out. And nothing kills that sexy vibe like having to dig around in your own tush for a lost toy.

I'll get rid of them eventually. I just keep forgetting to toss them into the bag when I'm taking the garbage out.