I love surprising my husband with new things, and this was something I had had my eye on for a while. So I snapped it up and got to plotting a surprise.

The box was smaller than I had expected it to be, and is decorated with Shunga's traditional erotic Japanese artwork. Part of it unflipped so that you could read instructions right on the box, but inside the box, along with the two bottles of mix and the large gold sheet was another set of instructions. The gold sheet is kinda neat, see-through if you hold it up to the light and according to my husband, also a space blanket, which can be used to keep you warm in cold weather. The two bottles are numbered in the order in which they should be added later on, and also have the ingredients listed. Mix #1 has demineralized water, glycerin, acrylates, artificial flavoring, DMDMH, sodium saccharin, methyl paraben, aloe vera, and colors; Exotic fruits gets Blue #1, Strawberry gets Red #40, and Melon-mango gets Yellow #6. Bottle # 2 is simply demineralized water, triethanolamine, and methyl paraben. Those of you who are sensitive to glycerins, parabens, aloe vera, or artificial sweetener should probably not choose to roll around in a pit filled with those things.



This experience does require some prep work. First you should start by setting up your "bed" area. The instructions say to fold a large thick sheet in half and lay it on the floor for some padding. If you're on carpet this is less necessary, but you could use a comforter or something thick and fluffy instead if you wanted. Then you're supposed to take 4 large bath towels and roll them lengthwise to create a barrier wall around each edge. You can go ahead and double them up if you'd like for some extra protection from spillage, I did and it worked just fine. After that you spread out your gold sheet. You could use the silver side up too if you really wanted. It measures about 4 1/2' by about 4' or so depending on how closely together you set the towels up. Tall people won't be able to spread out well in this.



After all that you should take the time to add anything else you want for the mood; candles, rose petals, etc. The gel cools off quickly and will be more enjoyable while it's warm. The next step requires bottles 1 and 2, a 4 liter or 1 gallon container, and something to stir with. First you'll pour bottle number one into your large container. I used a pickle jar but you can use anything that's the right size. Next, add 3.5 quarts or 3.5 liters of warm tap water, followed by bottle # 2 and a good stirring. At this point you'll have a nice gel. I'm not sure if the gel from bottle 1 is supposed to be completely dissolved, but in mine there were chunks of it floating around. Not a big deal, but easy to spot. The gel itself is very easy to pour, but looks remarkably rigid. The instructions say next to gently pour the lukewarm massage gel on your lover's body, begin the body-to-body massages, let your imagination be your guide, and let the fun begin.



Something to keep in mind is that this gel cools very fast. By the time we got to use it in the gold pit it was a very pleasant temperature (from pretty darn warm) and just a few minutes later felt pretty chilly. I had prepared an extra 2 1/4 quart pitcher of warm water that was still warm after the gel went cold, and it warmed things up a little bit but as it became part of the gel it cooled off too. We had a lot of fun slipping and sliding all over each other and rubbing each other's bodies. My husband decided to taste ours, which is the Exotic Fruits flavor (also available in Strawberries & Champagne and Melon-Mango). Well it smells exactly like their flavored lube, and wouldn't you know it, it tastes just like that as well. Unfortunately, after 20-30 minutes or so, the little pool o' gel had become too cold for us, so we left it to go take a shower.

A shower is also the easiest way to clean this off of you, but a wipedown with a towel will work just fine too. It doesn't seem to stain anything like carpet, or the towels, and washes off very easily. This is also great because if any of you with lots of hair (long hair or lots of body hair) manage to get this in your hair, it won't take forever to get out.

I really have been eying this for a long time now, and finally decided "what the hell" and got it. I have to say that I'm really happy we did. I teased my husband for a few weeks about his surprise and when the time finally came, I shut him up in another room and got to setting up. Completing this with candles and some rose petals added a very nice touch and the whole experience was very romantic for us. The only thing we didn't like was how quickly the gel cooled off, but we started planning ways to make it stay warmer longer next time. One of them includes a suggestion I was given to try and put an electric blanket underneath the pit on the floor. It might not keep the gel as warm, but it should help keep us warm which also might help. There was just enough liquid to stay in the pool area easily, but it was also easy to splash out if you weren't careful. But for just rolling and rubbing? Not bad. We'll definitely be buying this again in the future.

I have two different objective and subjective ratings for this. Subjectively, it'd get close to 5 stars. The only thing we didn't like about it was how it got so cold so fast. It stayed nice and slippery and we were able to use it as lube and it was just an all around awesome experience for us. However, objectively I can see where $25 for a one time product that's only good for the first 20 minutes or so isn't something that's all that fantastic. I'll compromise the two with a 4 star rating.