Sometimes, the best part about sex are the noises: "Ahhh!" or "Ooohh!" or "God, Yes!" or sometimes "Uh, honey? That was the wrong hole!"

But sometimes, sex can be a whole lot dirtier without any 'dirty talk' at all.

That's the philosophy behind ball gags - rubbery gags that muzzle the moans, silence the sighs and reduce verbosity to mumbled, dribbling incomprehensibility.

The Basic Breathe-Easy Ball Gag is an awesome introduction to the concept of gagging - a nicely sized ball gag that combines sturdy silicone construction with a strategically-placed hole - to muzzle and muffle without choking and gasping.

The Ball Gag works simply - place it in the mouth, where it nestles between the teeth, then tighten the attached nylon strapping to hold the gag firmly in place. It's not comfortable - that would totally miss the point - but it is small enough in size and comes with that handy breathing hole so the sensation of being gagged isn't overwhelming.

There are two components to the Breath Easy Ball Gag - a soft, red, rubbery ball (I say rubbery, but it's actually made from silicone) and a thin, nylon strap to go around the back of the head.

The rubbery ball gag is GREAT. Silicone gives it a tooth-worthy bite and also means it's completely devoid of the rank chemical taste of rubber, jelly or elastomer gags. The hole in the gag is also perfect - it really helps with aiding breathing and combined with the tasteless gag, does a great job taking the edge off the experience of being gagged.

I wish I could say the same about the nylon strap - it's a little too short, the plastic clasp is a sod to work and tightening it brings said clasp almost to the gag itself, even on somebody with a big noggin like myself and my wife (we both have enormous heads - we're also the youngest kids in the family, almost as if our mothers both decided to stop having babies after squeezing us out. I'm sure the head size thing had nothing to do with it.)

Performance - what a loaded question when discussing the Breathe Easy Ball Gag!

The whole point of buying this ball gag - rather than a 'real' one, without the 'breathe easy' hole - is that it offers part of the experience of getting balled and gagged (or gagged and balled) with the 'edge' taken off. The ball gag is smaller, making it much less uncomfortable and easier to cope with for extended periods. The hole in the gag makes it easier to breath, which is often one of the more distressing parts of being forced to wear a normal gag. In short, it's a ball gag for people who aren't used to wearing ball gags.

And in that respect, it works brilliantly. The small size, easy-breathe hole and silicone construction make it a much less intimidating introduction to a ball gag than a larger one without the hole.

However - and, of course, there has to be a however - if you're actually looking for the intensity of a real ball gag, then this product might not give you the edge you're looking for. Serious BDSM fans might find it a little 'less' than they're expecting.

Silicone is the wonder material - it's non-porous and totally sterilizable. This means you can literally throw it into the top shelf of the dishwasher and boil it - killing all bacteria - without damaging the gag itself. The nylon belt is removable for separate washing. This means that it doesn't matter how much you chew, spit or slobber over the gag - one round through boiling water and it's 100% safe to use again or even share with your friends.

Talking about care a maintenance, though - it's worth mentioning something else that needs appropriate care. A ball gag is one of the tailor toys of bondage, kink and more extreme sexual adventuring. It's fair to assume that the use of a ball gag might go hand in hand with the use of ropes, handcuffs, whips and paddles (they certainly did in our experience.)

That's all part of the fun - but does present a new challenge. Normally in bondage games, there's a pre-arranged 'safe word' so a tied-up partner can let his or her 'top' know that the game has crossed the line and they want to stop the 'fun.' This is a VITAL ingredient in bondage play - otherwise what starts off as fun and games can become genuinely traumatic. Some couples use words like 'popcorn' as the 'safeword' so that they can scream 'No! No! Stop!' as loudly as they want with their partner NOT actually stopping (but if it gets too much, one scream of 'popcorn' will have them dropping the paddle and butt plug as if it was on fire.)

However, wearing a ball-gag presents an obvious problem - a safeword like 'popcorn' sounds more like 'Mllphfplf!' when you're wearing a ball-gag - so it's VITAL to arrange another 'safe-term' to communicate when the play is getting too intense.

It doesn't exactly fit into 'care and maintenance' - but considering that the Breathe Easy Ball Gag is a perfect starter for couples new to bondage and domination, this is an aspect of their games they might not have considered - but NEED TO.