The Nick Hawk Sinful Desires Kit offers users three items to spice up their sex life: a blindfold, a small set of anal beads, and a silicone rope. It's perfect for when you want to tie someone up, blindfold them, and probe them anally — or for when you want someone to do those things to you. Of course, you don't have to do all of those things at once, but with this kit, you have what you need to do that if you so desire. As I discovered, it's also possible to have a good time by yourself with these items.

The items are pretty basic, but fully functional. The purple blindfold is made of nylon, with an elastic rubber strap to hold it in place on your face. It's possible to shape it, which I found surprisingly effective at blocking vision. It's feather-light, and pretty comfortable. I've got a big head; my wife has a small one. It fits both of us well.

The purple rope is silicone, which I don't consider to be a good material for rope generally — but it does make it possible to use in a wet environment. I can't stress this too strongly: IF YOU PRACTICE BONDAGE IN OR AROUND WATER, USE EXTREME CAUTION. Injury, or even drowning, can result from carelessness around water, especially if bondage is involved. The dominant should remain with the submissive AT ALL TIMES and should pay close attention to their well-being. The reasons I don't like silicone for ropes are that it's easy to create rope burn (without meaning to), and it's hard to tie someone up securely with silicone. Knots don't hold, unless they're tied very carefully and well. My wife wasn't able to tie me up with it. I was able to tie her up, but she found the rope too uncomfortable for more than a couple of minutes. We still haven't decided whether to leave the rope as one 20-foot piece, or to cut it into more useful lengths. Since we likely won't be playing with it much, we'll probably look for other uses for it.

The anal probe is made of PVC, which I usually abhor. But this PVC is different from any I've used before. It doesn't have a strong chemical smell, and it doesn't seem to hold odors. I was pleasantly surprised by this, too. It consists of four pairs of beads, with the smallest around 3/8" in diameter, and the largest just over 3/4" (not much bigger than a finger). The insertable length is 7". There's a ring on the end to make it safe for anal, and to make it easy to manipulate and/or remove. The small diameter beads should be good for anal beginners, and for those who like small anal toys. I'm an intermediate player and I found the length made up somewhat for the lack of girth. That the probe was fun to use was another pleasant surprise.

None of this stuff seems built to last. But this could be yet another pleasant surprise; only time will tell. At this point, all I can say is that it hasn't fallen apart on us yet.

I tried this first solo. I found the blindfold worked remarkably well (as I mentioned above), and that the probe was also fun to use. I tied up my ankles with the rope, just to see how it worked. I had to try a couple of different knots before I found one that held. I found the rope pulled uncomfortably at my leg hairs. I put the rope aside and concluded my solo session without it.

When I tried this kit with my wife, I found I had enough rope to do a loose hogtie. She didn't mind the position, but again, the rope itself proved too uncomfortable. As I had also done, she found the blindfold effective and comfortable. She is lukewarm (at best) about anal play and said she didn't mind the probe. I performed oral sex on her with it inserted and kept moving it in and out, and around. Finally, she asked me to take it out as it was too distracting for her to climax. Right after I took out the probe, she came. Afterwards, she said it had added an extra dimension to the pleasure of oral, which she enjoyed.

As I mentioned above, my wife wasn't able to tie me up with the rope. I showed her the knots I'd used on her, but she was unable to get them to hold on me. Frankly, I was relieved, as I found the silicone uncomfortable. I liked being blindfolded while she lubed me up and inserted the probe. I lay on the bed and she climbed on top of me and rode me until I came. I enjoyed the sensation of the probe inside, and the blindfold, too (although I wouldn't have minded looking at my wife, either!).

Should you need to wash the nylon blindfold, simply use soap and water, and let it air dry. The PVC probe can be cleaned with water and antibacterial soap, or your favorite sex toy cleaner. The rope, being silicone, can be cleaned several ways: simply wash it with soap and water, or to disinfect it completely, boil it for 3 minutes, clean it with a 10% bleach solution, or even run it through the top rack of your dishwasher.

The probe is compatible with water- or silicone-based lube — but if you're using the silicone rope, I'd recommend water-based lube, as silicone lube can damage silicone products.

The kit doesn't take up much space, so storing it is pretty simple. Due to possible interactions between materials, I put the probe in one little plastic bag and the rope in another. This is probably excessive caution.

The packaging is non-discreet, but not exactly trashy. The kit comes in a glossy paper box with a picture of Nick Hawk, the muscular, tattooed star of the Showtime series Gigolos. The items are also pictured on the box. No instructions are provided. I recycled the box at the first opportunity.

We'll almost certainly keep using the blindfold. I'm sure the probe will get used again, too, but until we find another way to use the silicone rope, it's just taking up space in our toy box.