Massage candles are wonderful things, and so are stone massagers. JimmyJane does both of these things pretty well and gives us this kit that combines two of their best for a great experience.

The Packaging

You'll get this kit in of one of JimmyJane's very nice 'set' boxes. Inside of that are both the Afterglow candle and the Contour M in the same packaging you'd get if you bought them separately. The outside of the Afterglow box advertises that it's a massage candle, tells you which scent you have, and gives you a description of the scent. Inside the box you'll find the candle, an instructional pamphlet, and a small book of matches. The box for the M tells you that it's a massager, and inside has a nice pamphlet that gives you a few suggestions for use, storage, cleaning, and safety tips.

The Afterglow Candle

On its own, the Afterglow candle is available in many different scents, but the one included in this kit is their Dark Vanilla. To my husband and I, the Dark Vanilla smells a lot like the generic run of the mill "vanilla cookie" scent that you might find at a lot of candle shops. It's still a pleasant smell, and doesn't overpower a room even when lit. According to the instructions, you should light your candle and let it form a good sized wax pool, and that should take about 30 minutes. In cooler rooms it does take about that, and in warmer rooms it takes closer to 20-25. You should still let it burn evenly across the top to prevent the candle from welling (burning only the center and not the edges) in the future. If you're not using this to give massages, you should get about 40 hours of burn time.

Before pouring, you should extinguish the flame. When you pour the melted wax on, it's just about the perfect temperature, being about as hot as it can be without being uncomfortable. JimmyJane recommends pouring about a quarter size pool onto your partner's back, and for us, a quarter worked for between 15 and 20 minutes before I felt the need to add more while using hands. There was a slightly greasy residue left, but not enough to bother either of us. If you like the scent, you can light the candle and use the oil as a moisturizer after a bath or shower.

The Contour M

M is made of a lovely double fired porcelain. In addition to being able to use it with just about any massage oil/lotion/what have you, being porcelain also means that you can experiment with temperature play. For warmer, more relaxing massages, heat M up in a bowl of warm water before hand. For a chillier experience, substitute that bowl of warm water with a bowl of ice water. Cleaning is easy as well, wash in the sink with warm soapy water if you feel you need to clean it.

The instructional pamphlet gives you a few tips on how to use this stone, which is great for those who don't have much experience with it. They say you can use it broad side down for shallower, lighter strokes, or you can vary the pressure and make them harder and heavier as well. It can be used with its 4 nubs facing down for a more direct pinpoint stimulation, or you can even use just one nub for really direct stimulation. If you're using an oil or don't want to pour one of the massage candles onto your partner, you can set M nubby side up and it'll act as a small bowl that you can dip your fingers into. Its size of about 3"x3"x3" makes it pretty compact and easy to hold, although smaller hands may find that it's harder to control movement with just one hand.

How they work together

While the Afterglow and the M weren't initially designed to work together, they manage to do so beautifully. The oil from the Afterglow makes skin soft, and easy to glide over. Pour on some oil, spread it around with your hands, and then let the M glide almost effortlessly over the skin. Cool down the M in a bowl of cold water before your massage for a unique "hot and cold" sensation during the massage.

I really do enjoy both my Afterglow and my M, but my husband likes the M more. We both enjoy having the oil from the Afterglow candle used on us, and aren't left feeling overly greasy or oily afterwards. Sometimes we feel like there's some extra on, but we'll either use it right before bed to let the oil soak in over night (leaving us both feeling silky and soft), or we'll wipe off any excess with a spare towel. I like using the M on him, because his back is fairly naturally padded, at least more so than mine. He really enjoys having the nubby side used on his back, butt, and thighs. Unfortunately for him, the size is easy to hold in one of my hands, but not as easy to control with one, so I have to use both, and then my hands start to hurt after a while. He has no problem with using one hand while using it on me, however my back is naturally pretty bony, and neither side of the M agrees with jutting bones very much.

Overall, this is still a wonderful set to give, or get as a gift. Both pieces can be used independently and work great together as well.