As most gardeners know, not every seed you plant will bloom. It's nature's way of letting the strongest plants grow, I suppose; natural selection at its best. Unfortunately, though I tried letting this one bloom, it simply did not grow for me.

The Zini Seed is a rechargeable clitoral vibrator, best used for external stimulation. This toy would work on both men and women, since the vibrations are focused enough to be used to tease and please the clitoris, labia, nipples, testicles, or anywhere else you can think of putting it. Well, not ANYWHERE. This toy is not safe for penetrative anal play, and I wouldn't recommend it for penetrative vaginal play, either. The base of the Seed is made of hard plastic, and the tip (The purple part) is made of a smooth, silky silicone. For penetrative use, once you got past the purple silicone, it would be pretty uncomfortable.

The Seed itself is pretty easy to use; it comes with an instruction manual, but it's entirely unnecessary (at least for me; I much prefer just toughing it through and going, "Hey, what's this button do...? Oooh.") It's controlled by three buttons, a + to turn it on or to pump up the power, a - to decrease the power and turn it off, and a button in the middle. Once you hit the button in the middle, you can change your pattern of vibration. One of the cool things about the seed is the colour coded vibrational patterns; no more counting button pushes, just look for the colour (light blue, for example, is a revving pattern, purple is quick pulses) that tickles your fancy, and remember that one for next time.

The patterns are a little similar (five of what I'd call the revving style patterns, one that's like gunning a car engine engine and then stopping suddenly, two pulses, one that reminds me of a trance/house dance beat, and one that's kind of an erratic pulse rhythm) but offer enough variety to keep you intrigued about them. There's also what I fondly refer to as "manic mode." This one you can find by hitting the center button, choosing a pattern, and then holding down the center button again, and it cycles through all of the patterns, one by one.

A true luxury toy, the Seed is rechargeable; it comes with a black charger (why are they always black? I never know which charger goes with which toy!) and the total luxury of being able to visually view your charge level. This is probably my favorite thing about the Seed, because I HATE surprises. A blue light, when you hold down the center o button (when the toy isn't vibrating away) will indicate you're fully charged, whereas a red light indicates you must feed the Seed. The other colours (yellow, orange, light and dark green) each indicate varying levels of charge.

Because the Seed is made of silicone, you should avoid silicone based lubes, and stick with water or oil based. Another caveat is washing this one in your dishwasher, or boiling it; the mechanical parts mean that you should be tender with it. For routine cleaning, soap and water work well, but if you want to sanitize it, a 10% bleach solution would work--but be careful, and only wipe down the silicone section. I have tested this one out in water, and it didn't leak, but it also didn't fill me with the confidence that I should take this in the tub. My call is that it's safe for washing, but not for swimming. Take it in the shower if you must, but definitely avoid the tub.

The Seed is very comfortable to hold, as well, its petite size (5" or so) makes it easy to rest your finger on--though if you have smaller hands, it's a little less cozy, since the end of the Seed will be poking you. However, be careful if you're using it like this, because your finger will be poised right over a button, and that button, of course, is the - button. This means that, sometimes, during a lovely moment, you'll bump your power down, which is the last thing you want to do once you've found a sweet spot.

The Seed is very quiet, even on its highest intensity, it's not loud enough to be heard through the covers; if you're worried about nosy neighbors, a bit of music will mask the sound. Unfortunately, I didn't find the power to be substantially impressive. The vibrations are more buzzy than the Mimi or Form Bunny, and I found that the power was also less. For comparison, if the Mimi is a five, Form Bunny is four and a half, but this is only a three. This is, of course, assuming that the Hitachi took the chart and blew right through it and is up by ten somewhere. I must, however, admit that I don't much care for buzzy vibrators, which is probably why I found myself so disappointed.

Even so, I've enjoyed buzzy vibrators before, but this just didn't have the combination of... Well, whatever I need, really, so I find it very difficult to use to climax. Even when I get there, it feels like I've done way too much work for the orgasm it induced. How depressing.