Water-based lubricant
by Love To Love

So Warm Arousal Gel

I got this gel hoping for something that would really help to get me in the mood; it's just okay. For the price I was hoping that this would really be something that I can get on board with, but even though it feels high quality I wouldn't recommend it unless it's on sale. For something that's slightly warming and condom safe, I feel like it deserves 3.5 stars.
Published:
Pros
Slightly arousing, not too intense, great packaging, dries smooth
Cons
Not intense, very expensive, glycerin, tastes bad
Rating by reviewer:
3
extremely useful review

Use

This chic (if you'll pardon my French) bottle of gel is sold as an arousal gel by the company Love 2 Love. From what I can tell they're trying to make their sexual products marketed more towards the 'fashionista' who might not want to buy "Ben Dovers Sexy Gel" with a giant smiling willie on the front.

Arousal gels (including this one) tend to work in two ways. The first way is that they usually have some type of warming or cooling effect on the genitals. This is supposed to provide heightened sensation and make you feel more 'aware' of what's going on down there. This is a bit more psychological than physiological.

The second way that arousal gels are supposed to work is by increasing blood flow to the area it's applied to. This is supposed to help to arouse you physically and increase sensitivity, and it's supposed to help aid in both sex and solo play.

This product itself is actually great for both sex or solo play, but for reasons discussed below it's not ideal for oral. It's a waterbased product so it won't degrade latex condoms during intercourse, and because it's not silicone based it's compatible with all toys.

The ingredients are as follows:

Propylene Glycol, Glycerin, Carbomer, Aqua, Panax Ginseng Extract, Sodium Hydroxide, Zingiber Officinale Extract, Sorbitol.

Propylene Glycol is used as a thinner and skin conditioner. It's not a common allergy, and it's not known to have any real side effects.

Glycerin is a skin softening agent as well, but some people are SUPER allergic to this stuff, so watch out.

Carbomer is a thickening agent and isn't a common irritant or allergy inducing chemical.

Panax Ginseng Extract is actually a really good topical ingredient for those men with premature ejaculation.

Sodium Hydroxide is mainly a buffer, intended to keep everything at a pH that's safe and not going to hurt you. It's not a common allergy.

Zingiber Officinale Extract is actual ginger root and is used to cause a warming sensation where applied and increase blood flow.

Sorbitol is a thickener and sweetener, found naturally in most fruits.

Especially if you haven't tried products that have gycerin in them before, you should do a spot test of this product before you smear it all over your neither regions. Other than that if you are allergic to ginger in any form it might be best to just steer clear of this product altogether.
    • Foreplay
    • Mood enhancer
    • Sex

Texture / Consistency / Thickness / Viscosity

This product is a 'gel,' so it's fairly thick. As far as viscosity goes this is about as thick as a viscous silicone lube, especially the ones I've seen intended for anal play. When you pump this onto your skin it does tend to run a bit, but once you rub this into a layer over your skin it doesn't drip at all.

When on your skin this forms a thin layer of the fairly thick gel. It's shiny and if it dries a bit a tiny bit tacky. Once it dries completley it doesn't leave any type of residue on my skin, something that is a huge pro for me. What this means is that you don't have to wash off any excess in fear of getting sticky.

Once this starts to dry you can reactivate the more lubricating properties and turn it back into a slick gel, but once the heating element stops you can't reactivate it with anything but more gel. It's also water-soluble so if you do have to wash this off it comes right off with soap and water.

After this dried on my skin I was able to taste a small aftertaste, but no where near as strong as the wet product. It's also not greasy at all, and just feels like a high quality product. If you're playing around a lot you might end up with it absorbing into your skin after about 10 minutes, but if you just apply it and pull up your pants you stay wet for hours.

Overall, this is a great consistency for the gel. It stays in place, but it's not so thick that it's hard to smooth over erogenous zones. It's easy to apply and it's also easy to remove, and I really like how it doesn't leave my skin feeling any different than before I applied it.

Here I am where I tilted my hand and the photo was timed for 3 seconds:
So Hot Drippy
    • Slick
    • Smooth
    • Thick

Taste / Aroma

When I first got this product to review I was pretty nervous because I HATE ginger. It's not that I'm sensitive or allergic to it, but to quote "The scent and taste make me want to throw my food against the wall." I don't know if I has some traumatic childhood event with ginger or what, but I don't like it one bit.

The great thing for me (bad for you, if you love ginger) is that the only gingery part of this are the effects derived from the extract. This product is actually completely scentless both in large concentrations and after it's dried onto your skin. This is also nice because sometimes scented products smell wonky when they mix with my 'natural lubricants.'

While this doesn't taste like ginger at all, it just tastes downright nasty. It's a very sickly sweet taste that leaves a bitter aftertaste, but it's different from the normal taste that glycerin tends to give products.

This product also contains ingredients that aren't good to ingest, and that combined with the nasty taste make this a horrible addition to oral sex. If you're planning on giving or getting oral sex, apply this afterwards.
    • Bad taste
    • No smell
    • Strong taste

Performance

Performance wise, this is a fairly good product. I'm going to break the performance wise part down to two different sections, one for arousal and blood flow (the more physiological effect) and one for warming (the more psychological effect).

As far as the warming portion of this gel goes, it's moderately powerful. I previously have tried the Fire And Ice condoms by Trojan and those were similar to lighting my genitalia on fire, so this is very mild compared to that. The warmth is more like sitting by a space heater in the winter; it's pleasant, but nothing to write home about.

The arousal portion is a bit harder to judge. When I rubbed this onto my clitoris and the surrounding area, I did notice that my clitoris became more 'active' than it normally does. Because it was more 'erect' than usual it was more sensitive. It was something that I had to watch for, but this gel did have a slight effect.

The warming effects of this gel last about 7-10 minutes if you're using this during sex or masturbation. After they fade the only real thing to do to get the warming sensation back is to apply more of the gel. It fades fairly quickly I think because it does absorb into your tissues, which causes the more topical warming sensation to fade a bit.

The arousal effects are a bit harder to judge. After applying this I do feel more sexually aroused and it usually lasts for a few hours, but again I was just rubbing slick stuff all over my clitoris. I also feel like it may be because I don't really use this when I'm not in the mood to be in the mood (when my boyfriend and I are arguing for an example) so I don't know how this would work when one is not psychologically susceptible.

If you need to wash this off, soap and water do fine. As soon as you wash or wipe this gel off of your skin the warming sensation stops, but again it's hard to judge the arousal portion. If you are having a severe allergic reaction it isn't going to be possible to wash off the gel that has been absorbed into your skin, but I have a feeling that you'd notice long before it had much opportunity to absorb.
    • Absorbs into skin nicely
    • Allergy concerns
    • Performance

Packaging

The packaging of this product really makes it feel high quality. When you first get this from Eden it comes wrapped in a plastic bag 'just in case.' I've had products that weren't wrapped leak before, so I really appreciate them wrapping things like this up.

The box itself is black, white, and pink. It has a highly contrasted image of a woman on the front sitting down, and it also is very clear on what this product is. While it's not discreet, the packaging would make this a great gift. Despite being so aesthetically pleasing, the box itself isn't super informative.

I was glad to see that this product also came with supplemental instructions, but they also aren't very helpful. It tells you in 8 different languages to essentially apply this gel to erogenous zones and enjoy. While it's a fairly straightforward product, a little more information couldn't have hurt.

The bottle itself is black and white with a hot pink cap. You get quite a large amount in this bottle and I feel like it will last a long time. The bottle is made of matte, thick plastic and the cap is made of transparent thin plastic. This is sturdy enough to toss into a bag or purse for sure.

The pump on this bottle is also very high quality. My one complaint about the pump is that one full depression gives you enough to cover several erogenous zones. I find myself only needing to use about a quarter of a pump, so I think that the pump could be a bit less efficient.

As far as discreetness goes, you might not want to leave this out on your desk unless you want people to pick it up and ask you about it. It does draw attention, and it really would be a stretch to pass it off as some sort of hair product.

Here is the bottle next to a pen:
So Hot VS Pen

Here is a closeup of the label:
So Hot Detail

Here is a picture of the box it all came in:
So Hot Box

And here's a closeup of the pump:
So Hot Pump
    • Can be opened with one hand
    • Does not leak
    • Easy to use / dispense

Experience

I was introduced, reviewing on my blog for another site, to arousal gels and such almost accidentally. I got an 'orgasm balm' with a bullet and tin and to my surprise it was my favorite thing in the whole kit. After this discovery I set out to try and review as many of these as I could.

Despite my bad experience with the Trojan Fire and Ice condoms, I decided that warming couldn't be that bad all of the time. One thing that's important to consider with products like this is that everyone reacts differently to products, especially when they rely on extracts like ginger.

This product was just meh to me. It was warming, but it was just 'pleasant.' The warming sensation wasn't intense enough for me to really feel either rubbing or after applying this and going to class. I would recommend this (as it effected me) to people who are just looking to get into arousal gels.

On the other hand, this product gets a much lower rating from me due to the price. For over $20 (when most arousal balms/gels go for about $10) I was really expecting for this stuff to blow me out of the water. When it failed to impress me, the fact that it contains the common allergy glycerin and tastes horrible are hard to overlook. I wish that I could give this 3.5 stars, but as it is I have to go with 3.
This product was provided free of charge to the reviewer. This review is in compliance with the FTC guidelines.

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Comments
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  • Contributor: Do emu
    Such a disappointment. i think the packaging got me too hyped up about it. Thanks for sharing! Very thorough.
  • Contributor: CountryPrincess
    Thanks so much for the review and the pics!!!
  • Contributor: ellieprobable
    Thanks!
  • Contributor: Feisty
    Thanks for the helpful review!
  • Contributor: pinkzombie
    Great review
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