Your lover comes up behind you and suddenly you are blinded without even a millimeter of light to be seen. You hear them Velcro the straps together and now you are ready for whatever is to come. Suddenly, you are panting and finding it difficult to breathe and you feel your hair being pulled, sadly these are not because of your lover, it is because of this leather blindfold!

Upon purchasing this blindfold, I was excited to upgrade from a scarf to an actual blindfold. It is black, made of leather on the front and some softer material on the back, and advertises to block out light extremely well. There was some hesitation because of the Velcro, but I decided to take the risk. I was very disappointed when it arrived. The picture made the mask look like there is a little puff or padding to it, but there is none. It is very thin, but the upside, it is supple. When my husband first put it on me I was excited by the fact that I really could not see a thing! That is the one positive about this product. Quickly I began to realize that I could not comfortably breath through my nose and to top it off I kept smelling some weird synthetic smell that does not smell like leather. This made breathing through the nose even worse. The mask is constructed with a slit shaped like an upside-down 'T' in the middle of the blindfold which is meant for your nose to poke through. The problem with this design flaw is that you have pressure on the outer sides of your nose and the part beneath your nose feels like you are sucking it through your nostrils each time you breathe in.

The blindfold is able to stay on due to Velcro straps and as we all know, Velcro LOVES to eat hair. I have long hair and tend to tie it back for play, but even doing so my hair still would get pulled in the Velcro and not in that good kinky hair pulling kind of way. On the positive side, once it is strapped to the tightness you would like, there is enough stretch to just pull it off without undoing the Velcro straps. But in the end, you are just pulling out more hair.

Overall, love the leather and the darkness this blindfold provides. I do not like the construct of the nose hole or the Velcro straps. I constantly debate cutting off the part of the blindfold that rests under my nose, but I think I will just go back to my scarf for now until I find a more comfortable blindfold.

The Extreme Blackout Blindfold by Spartacus has moved up a little bit in my esteem, but this is only because my husband has altered it slightly. I think he felt really bad after reading my original review on it because it was an item he bought for me. So, he took an exacto knife to it and cut off a chunk of it that is under the nose, but before it hits the seam. This REALLY made a difference! I do not have that suffocating feeling any longer. While the sides of my nose do still feel that way sometimes, with a little adjustment, the mask is great. I still do not like the velcro but if I have my hair in a braid, it is not as bad. While I still don't think I would recommend this to the world from a mountain top, I would say it could be a great buy for guys with short hair/girls with hair pulled back, and only after cutting of the part under the nose to your comfort level.