Nina Hartley has been in the adult entertainment business for quite some time, so when I found out that she had a guide to masturbation, I was quick to hop on it. Pleasure with a partner starts with understanding how to pleasure yourself, and I must say, I'm a willing student.

I popped in the DVD, ready to get started. After the ads that are prerequisite on nearly all adult DVDs, I got to the good stuff. Or so I thought. When I think of guide, I think of an informal instructional video. Explain a technique, explain why it feels good, and demonstrate the technique. This DVD spent the first 15 to 20 minutes explaining the basics of male and female genitalia; if you know very little about your body, Nina will cover that for you. If you're pretty advanced already, don't feel bad about skipping this part.

One interesting thing Nina did was to compare the pleasure centers on the penis to their respective places on the vagina. I had never pieced the two things together before, and I think it's easier to relate to your partner's pleasure if you know how the same movements would affect you.

After the basics, Nina and her female partner demonstrated techniques. However, of the three techniques demonstrated, they all used very complicated toys. A pump, a thrusting machine, and an electric anal plug aren't toys that would be in the everyday collection of most people, so I found it a bit off-putting that these would be the toys used. They are enjoyable, yes, but expensive, and a strange choice for a guide video. To go from the basics of masturbation to such advanced toys didn't make much sense to me.

Despite this, Nina does give tips throughout the demonstrations. Some of these tips are quite useful, and could be considered warm-up techniques in their own right, but they feel buried in the fervor to get to the big toys. Moreover, unless you remember the exact spot on the DVD where they illustrated one of the tips, they are very hard to find again if you need a refresher.

To end, there is a video that shows what a "masturbation only" session would be like between a couple. I enjoyed seeing how a couple could pleasure each other without penetration, and though the video was short, I wasn't disappointed. There is also an extra video included as a bonus; it has nothing to do with masturbation and it's rather standard, but it was still a nice addition.

All in all, the DVD had good tips and techniques, but it feels inconsistent throughout, jumping from masturbation basics to using advanced toys. Furthermore, the small tips that can be immediately employed (with your own fingers and hands) are scattered throughout the video and very difficult to find again should you want to review them.