Exercising your kegels can help increase the quality of your orgasms, help with incontinence, and can help strengthen vaginal muscles back up after a natural childbirth. The Dukes are a set of innovative and interchangeable vaginal exercisers that really do make it super easy to do your kegels. First choose if you want one ball or two, and then pick your weight combination, insert, exercise, and enjoy! Just make sure that you only use these vaginally. If they were meant to go in your butt, they'd be called anal balls.

With these balls, you're getting a total of 2 different materials. The weighted balls are a smooth, shiny plastic. There's no smell to them, and no taste.

The shells that hold the weighted balls are made of a really soft silicone. Slightly more matte than velvety, but still nice to feel all the same. It's stretchy up to a point and aside from a raised embellishment is completely smooth. It does pick up some lint and dust, but isn't as big of a dust magnet as some silicone pieces. It does have the tendency to pick up some scents, things like scented/flavored lubes or cleaners or soaps. Might not be an issue, but if you want total neutrality try to avoid using anything scented or flavored, and leave them out to air dry.

This might seem complicated, but it's really not. In total you're going to get access to two sets of weights, and two holders.

The weights come in 30g and 40g and you can tell them apart because the 30g weights are completely oval shaped while the 40g weights have a weird tip at one end. You can decide which weight combination you want in which holder. The single one will obviously only hold one or the other, but in the double one you can choose to have a total of 60g, 70, or 80g.

The single holder is about 4 1/2" in total length, with the spot for the weight taking up between 1 1/2" and 1 3/4" depending on which weight is inside. The double holder is just about 6 1/2" in total length; between 1 1/2" and 1 3/4" depending on which weight you have in the first ball, just under 1/2" between the first and second ball, and the second ball measures the same as the first. Both holders are one solid piece of silicone, and on each ball there's a "window" that lets you not only see the ball inside but also remove it and change it for one of a different size. On the outside of the window there's a raised crown type embellishment. It's enough to be pretty but not enough to be felt. Each retrieval cord is about 2 3/4" long when just sitting there in its little curve. On the very end of each is a little ball that gives you something to grab on to when you're trying to remove them.

To start, you should definitely get yourself some lube. There's no wrong way to insert these really, but different positions are going to be more comfortable for different people. You can either put them in like you would a tampon by standing with one leg propped up, or stand and squat a little bit, or even lay on your back to insert them. It seems to work best if you get a good hold on the base of the top ball and insert that one first, then follow by doing the same thing with the bottom ball.

Once inside, they should be comfortable. If they hurt you, feel like they're stabbing you, or are really uncomfortable, take them out. If you're not sure if you can handle the two, start with the single one. After they're all situated, you should be able to feel the inner ball inside the weight while you're moving. Things like going up and down stairs, stopping at red lights or stop signs, or even during your regular workout. Surprisingly, you can control the position of the inner ball while you're sitting still depending on your position. Laying at the right angle will allow you to tip the balls one way, relaxing pushes them out the other way. The balls are easy to hear when outside the body, but while inside the body they're not going to be noticed at all. Removing them is as simple as grabbing the end of the retrieval cord and pulling. It'll stretch, but it definitely won't break. If you feel like you need some extra help removing them, bear down like you're having a bowel movement while you're pulling.

Being able to change the weights is the biggest awesome factor with these exercisers. Removing them is pretty easy. However putting them back in, not so much. My best friend was able to get one of the balls back in correctly, but it involved a lot of finagling and spinning once the weight was inside. If you coat the inside of the ball with some water based lube then dry your fingers off, that's how I've had the most success getting the weights back in without being completely lopsided.

Both the single and the double are comfortable for longer term wear for most people. If you're wearing yours for an extended period of time and you need to relieve yourself, I would suggest removing them. If you need to take a bowel movement, definitely remove them because you really don't want to have to fish them out. If you need to urinate, use your best judgment. It is possible to urinate while wearing vaginal exercisers, although you'll want to make sure that you clean the handle portion of yours very well afterwards.

Care and maintenance shouldn't be too difficult. First you should stick with using water based lubes. Silicone based lubes can damage the silicone shells, so if you want to use silicone, make sure to do a spot test first. After removal from your body, your best bet is to rinse everything off, and then remove the plastic ball from the silicone shell. Some fluids can make their way underneath the lip of the shells and might promote growth of not fun things if left uncleaned.

You should try to avoid completely soaking the plastic weights. The plastic seam that runs around the edge might let water in (especially if you've managed to drop them at all while trying to change them), and for some reason the heavier weights have a pointed end with two small holes that could let in water. It's probably not the end of the world if water does get in there, but make sure to let the weights dry out in the open overnight after cleaning if you can.

The shells can be washed with warm soap and water, or bleached, or boiled. They do have a tendency to pick up finer bits of dust and other particles, so you'll also probably want to rinse them off before each use. An old T-shirt can be used as a towel in most cases to help keep particles from being put right back on the silicone.

You can store these just about anywhere. I'd recommend a toy pouch or plastic bag to keep them the most lint free they can be.

The packaging just screams "class." It's mostly all black and has the brand name and the product name in a few spots. The back has a single illustration of the set of two balls, and you can see all three through a window in the front. Also on the back is a little blurb and some specs in 4 different languages; English, Spanish, French, and German. The back has a little flap that opens and seals magnetically and allows you a slightly larger picture of the balls inside.

Everything is nestled inside a plastic clamshell type tray. When you remove that tray, you'll find two small instruction manuals. The reason you get two is that there are a total of 8 different languages; 4 to a booklet. Inside you get a lot of more generic information that would be more applicable to some of Touche's other products, but enough information to be able to care for your Dukes.

The packaging is certainly nice enough to give as a gift, although it's a little bulky for continual storage. The plastic clamshell keeps itself closed nicely, so if you want to keep that but ditch the box, you don't have to worry about it just spilling open.

I have a few pictures here to show you:

The two weights; 30g on the top, 40g on the bottom -



And the two sleeves next to each other, both empty and with something in one of them -

I always held out hope that my Smartballs would come back into the picture, but after use after use, they'd find some way to bother me. Most of the time they're fairly comfortable in use, other times they felt like they were attacking my cervix, and I never knew which time it was going to be until they were already in and I was already moving around, and then there was the painful removal part.

That experience made me a little nervous to use these. I started with the single ball and ended up really enjoying it. But I knew I wasn't going to have a problem with that one, it was the double set I was worried about. So I tentatively inserted them and got to being active. And they didn't hurt at all, weren't uncomfortable at all, and the best part was that I could move the inner balls while I was in a laying down position; sort of shifting the angle of my pelvis back and forth. It was a great way to get my exercising done. But then it came time to remove them, and I got nervous again. I braced myself, but there was no pain! A slight discomfort, but no pain!

These have quickly become my favorite vaginal exercisers, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anybody. The only real problem with them is that the balls are a pain in the butt to get into the holders.