The Basix Slim 7 is designed for vaginal or anal insertion as a realistic dildo. The toy is also designed with a wide, flared suction cup base to make it harness-compatible and safe for anal use. Although it is safe for anal play, the toy can’t be disinfected and I’d advise either using a condom when playing or buying two separate toys since the price tag is small enough to allow for this.

The Basix Slim 7 is made of phthlate-free, latex-free rubber. In spite of these few safety features, rubber is a highly porous material that cannot be disinfected. This particular rubber is squishy and pleasant to the touch, but I honestly didn’t have high expectations, given that this is my first rubber toy - I’ve heard horror stories about how awful they smell once out of the packaging. However, there are worse rubbers on the market with more chemical additives than this, so it isn't horrible.

When I opened the Basix Slim 7, I was surprised that I wasn’t immediately assaulted by a strong smell emanating from two feet away from my face. However, sniffing the toy produced a different result. It has a definitely rubber-y smell, although not as unpleasant as I had imagined. It’s kind of a fruity smell, for lack of a better term: definitely a chemical smell, but it isn’t strong and pungent like a latex condom, new shower curtain, or new plastic. If you’re thinking of getting this toy, know that it definitely smells, and you may find the smell to be more bothersome than I did.

I noticed that after handling the toy, my fingers smelled like the rubber until I washed them, and felt slightly slimy, for lack of a better description. This grossed me out somewhat, but since the label states that this toy is phthalate-free, I can only hope that this isn’t produced by anything harmful. The feeling went away after I washed them, but this was slightly off-putting and not something that I’ve been used to when playing with my existing toy collection in the past.

The Basix Slim 7 is designed to be a realistic dildo. It’s offered in a Caucasian skin tone, with veins crisscrossing the shaft that are supposed to add to the realism. I don’t find this toy to be too realistic-looking, since the head is disproportionately small and narrow in relation to the length of the shaft and, for some reason, the veins look strange to me. The veins and various bumps on the shaft of this toy are also not enough to add any extra texture to the sensation, but since it's designed to be realistic, I doubt that this was the intent and they're probably there for aesthetic reasons.

The Basix Slim 7 offers 7” of insertable length, and is relatively thin throughout most of that length. The toy measures less than 1.25” in diameter and 4” in circumference at the head, which is very thin, and increases in size to about 1.5” in diameter and 5” in circumference at the base. When coupled with the toy's unintimidating price tag, I would say that that makes this suitable for beginners. It also features a suction cup base, which makes it suitable for harness play. I would not call this toy discreet, and based on my description and the pictures, I don’t think that I need to explain why.

Since this is my first rubber toy and I’ve been spoiled by my silicone ones, I honestly didn’t have high hopes for this toy. I used a condom while playing with the Basix Slim 7, since it is such a porous material and I wanted to make every possible effort to keep it (relatively) clean. Before I played with the toy, I washed it with soap and water - I found that this somewhat masked the scent by adding a whiff of Dial to it, but only time will tell whether the smell actually will go away over time. Before using the toy, I also tested the suction cup: it held pretty firmly to my kitchen table and the hard surface of my bathtub, although it probably would serve its function better if it were made of a firmer material than this flexible rubber, but for the most part, it is what it is. I mentioned this earlier, but I haven’t used it in a harness, so can’t speak for how well it functions there.

The toy fit well in a standard Durex condom, although it took me some time to get used to the idea of having to use a condom with a toy. However, that was a minor issue: for a standard, cheap, rubber toy, this felt really good in use. It’s thin enough at the base to not require much warm-up, but is thick enough to fill you up once you get past the head. It’s squishier and not as firm as an erect penis, but is firm enough to provide nice sensations with some degree of realism. One minor complaint is that since the suction cup base is kind of floppy, it may not stand up to harder thrusting and/or large amounts of lube coating your fingers and the toy. I can’t imagine that this would bode well when it comes to harness play, either. However, I enjoyed my experience with this toy and was pleasantly surprised by how well it performed, although I will have to keep buying condoms to use over it.

Since rubber is a very porous material, it doesn’t clean well and cannot be disinfected. I would recommend using a condom over this toy during each use to both keep you safer and prolong the life of the toy. Rubber is compatible with water-based or silicone lubes, but oil-based ones would ruin the material and the condom you would use over this toy. If you plan on sharing or switching orifices, you should also use condoms, but you might as well buy two of these toys since doing so won’t break the bank.

In order to keep this toy clean and prolong its life, I would advise cleaning and drying it thoroughly after use before storing it in either its original packaging or (more likely, since the packaging is a bit bulky) a simple plastic baggie. This is what I plan on doing, both to keep the toy more sanitary and contain the smell, and keep it from interacting chemically with my other toys.

The Basix Slim 7 comes in a very basic, clear, clamshell packaging with relatively little design. Most of it is simply clear plastic, and the front features a simple white card with “Basix Rubber Works Slim 7” in large print, with smaller labels indicating the name of the manufacturer and the fact that this toy is phthalate-free, American-made, latex-free, and non-toxic. The back offers the usual disclaimers (“sold as a novelty only”, etc.) and a short mission statement from Pipedream Products.