These ties are gorgeous and sensual, but I found that for practical use, they're sorely lacking. If you're in love with the look of them or want a unique bondage tool that has the Lelo brandname, you probably won't go wrong grabbing these. If you want them because of the promise of the softness of silk or because you're hoping for a quick, easy, and effective method of bondage, though, I suggest looking elsewhere.

These are beautifully made, and I won't deny it. Lightly embroidered silk on one side, smooth on the other, the fabric itself feels amazing against the skin. The stitching is solid (with only one flaw on my set), and the rings are solidly set in the material.

Where the design fails, at least for me, is in use. I tried every method I could think of with these, and I came to one main conclusion: the rings are simply too big.

If you look at the ties, they seem like they'd be amazing for gentle play or those with sensitive lovers who want a silky caress rather than the hard restraint of leather. In practice, though, no matter what position you tie them in, those metal rings are going to bite against the limb you're restraining. If they'd been smaller or somehow designed to better spread the pressure (especially on delicate wrists) these would be one of my favorite toys.

The other major flaw in the design of these, in my mind, is that they're simply too easy to slip. The amount of effort it takes to bind two wrists reliably together with these ties makes me always wish I'd just gone for my rope.

Performance is the weak point of these ties, and it's all the more frustrating because they are as beautiful as they are. The silk is lovely, the design is gorgeous, the rich purple color makes me want to give them a permanent place in my bedroom- and yet, every single time, I end up more frustrated than satisfied.

I've tried these ties in a variety of different ways. First up, and most important for my use, was binding two wrists together. There's a short blurb on Lelo's site about how to use the cuffs, and I immediately tried it on both myself and my narrow-wristed partner.

No luck. No matter how tightly we cinched it, it was the work of a moment to slip out of it.

Hmm, we thought. Time to try again, using some of what we know from tying rope.

We finally struck upon one potential that would keep two wrists bound together, but the hard metal rings made it uncomfortable and the tie-time took away from the convenience of simply slipping a bag of pearls through.

We did find that they worked considerably better for binding ankles together.

Hmm. What next? Well, the website suggests using them for a bit of impromptu door-bondage. Simply restrain a limb and toss the bag of pearls over a door, then shut the door. Bam! Insta-bondage.

Except... wait. This was easy to slip. Ridiculously easy to slip, like, I had to concentrate on staying in it. And no matter how we contorted, we simply couldn't get a solid restraint.

Then we tried binding individual limbs to other items, like bedposts. Again, no matter what we tried, it was ridiculously easy to struggle free.

I'd use it again to bind ankles, but for everything else we've tried, these ties are a disappointment.

They come in a small Lelo box with no instructions on use.

I wanted to like these ties. I really did. They're beautiful and the silk feels fantastic against my skin. I just wish that the downsides weren't so noticeable in use.