Toy Review – The Ora2 by Lelo
Typically when I start to think about a review I like to map out a list of things I definitely want to talk about, a pros and cons if you will.
Well, for those who don’t like my multi-paragraph walls of text about these things, here you go, the TL;dr version
You know it’s going to be a good time when you not only opt to begin your list with the negative aspects, but you audibly sigh out “god where do I start?”
Sorry Lelo. I want to still be friends (not really), but this toy is just a clitoral disaster.
I own one of the first-generation Gigis from Lelo, and before my Hitachi and Eroscillator and Prism and Tango and basically every other vibrator I own…I actually quite liked my Gigi. I still probably could, if I tried, but if I’m honest I don’t even really know where it is right now much less know if it’s charged. Anyway, that’s how this whole mess started…I wanted to use the Gigi.
Unfortunately about a year ago I lost my charger, and it would have been a huge pain in the ass to order a new charger from Lelo, partially because they’re really fucking hidden on their website inside their Support section (who the fuck looks there, especially when you have an Accessories section?) and I believed I couldn’t buy a spare because of this – so there’s a direct link if you need it – and partially because I’d have to deal with shipping to Canada just for a stupid charging cable and thats a headache in itself. And I kinda wanted to check out a new toy anyway, so off to Stagshop I went armed with $200 and a desire for new orgasm experiences…and a new charger. I made the excuse that what I was really buying was a new $170 dollar charger and it happened to come with a free new toy in the box. It made sense to me, stop judging me.
I’d heard Lelo had developed a new “oral sex simulator” vibrator and was really intrigued. I’m not someone who can get off to oral stimulation. It feels good for a couple minutes and I like it when it’s done well, but it can’t bring me to orgasm so after a few minutes I’m just becoming frustrated and want to move on to something that will make me cum. And you know what makes me cum? Vibrators. Ergo, vibrating oral sex sounded AMAZING to me.
The first oral simulator toy I’d come across was the Squeel. It looks like this. Everyone make that disgusted wrinkly face and go “eeeuuggghh” on 3. Ready?
1..
2..
I’ve never actually held this toy in real life because most the stores I shop in these days aren’t so tacky as to actually carry it, but just imagining it I can’t help but think of some animal lapping at your cunt like a popsicle… just up..up…up..up…up..up…gross. The only way I’d ever even consider trying one of these is if a friend owned one I could borrow or someone sent me one for free, because as it stands I have no desire to even try owning one. I never wanted something like this. I don’t believe anyone did really, I think people have just settled.
So already Lelo had won my heart (I thought) with the WAY NICER NOT ICKY design of the Ora.
Standard metalic coating on the plastic and velvety silicone, no weird replicas of body parts or fancy gizmos. Everything I was used to with the Gigi. So far so good.
I thought I was really going to like the circular shape, it’s supposed to fit well in your hands, or something. I mean it fits in my palm, but the button placement vs. the “handle” doesn’t actually give me a good grip that also allows easy access to the buttons. If I want to change settings mid-masturbation session it honestly takes me a minute to feel out the right button or I just take it off my junk for a minute until I find the right setting.
I think it would work great if I were holding it against someone else’s body with my fingers through the handle and my thumb on the buttons sort of like how you hold a coffee cup (or how I hold a cup), but for my own body I have to
a) remember which button is “on top” depending on how I’m holding it and
b) feel all three to make sure the one I’m about to hit is the correct one, because if I’m lying down (which I usually am) I can’t see the buttons in my hand from my position, as they’re facing away from my body.
You never want to be nearing orgasm and want to turn the intensity up and accidentally hit the decrease or change pattern button, but taking that time to figure it out to be 100% sure you’ve got it right distracts you and can really kill an orgasm. Too much time running your fingers over the buttons trying to figure out which one feels like a + sign and it won’t matter anyway, you’re done, it’s just tears and frustration from here on out, give up.
Another little thing to note about the buttons is that they’re a departure from the typical circular button pad on most of the other toys, and are instead set inside the silicone sheath. It’s neat, I guess, but if you’re using lube or are someone who gets particularly wet, good luck rinsing those grooves out when you’re done. Keep a soft baby toothbrush on hand for your…vibrator. Yeah.
Luckily, and this was what really got me to buy this thing, the Ora2 is waterproof, despite the exposed charging port. I’m a huge huge HUGE fan of bath/shower sex and masturbation so I’m always on the look out for good waterproof toys and I really believed that everything made by Lelo would be golden so this was going to be my good waterproof toy. I had this luxurious mental image of myself sunk into a deep hot bath, heels up on either side of the tub, head thrown back in ecstasy at the feeling of vibrating oral sex happening on my clit underwater, seriously how much better could it get? Didn’t happen.
The button placement isn’t the worst part of the Ora, thats just the beginning. But let me add to it!
This is what the usual button pads look like. You’ve got your intensity settings + and – on one axis, and your vibration patterns < and > on the other.
THIS WORKS REALLY WELL. You can change things up and if you decide, oh wait, I liked the previous setting better, you just hit the opposite button. This was a huge complaint of mine with the new Hitachi – that you can’t reduce intensity or turn a pattern backwards, you have to cycle through the rest to get back to the beginning and start all over. This is the same for the Ora2, you can turn the intensity up and down, but the pattern button (the middle one that looks like a pair of parenthesis) only goes in one direction, so if you think you liked that previous pattern…good luck, you’ve got 9 more settings to go and by the time you get all the way back around, you may have forgotten what it felt like and aren’t even sure if you’ve made it yet.
Next we come to the fact that the actually useful part of the toy with the little oral sex nubbin is a whopping 1.75″ wide.
I don’t know about most people but my labia do not just open up to lay flat to either side of my clit so this bigass hunk of device can make maximum surface contact with the sensitive bits. So basically I’m already uncomfortably prying myself open as much as I can and pressing this thing hard into my cunt to keep everything spread. That would work okay except that the harder you push the toy into your flesh, the less the little nub thingy can move, it gets held up or even stuck, the mechanics are not strong enough to move past…squishy labia. But if you back off and don’t press it into you as hard, if you’re like me anyway, the nub is just moving across your inner labia (or not touching anything), not hitting your clit at all, because again, my junk doesn’t just roll out flat for these things leaving my clit perfectly exposed.
Then you turn to a setting that uses vibration as well as little nub movement, and you can’t feel the nub at all….it’s lost. All you have is a fat flat vibrator now that still isn’t really touching your clit in any meaningful way.
This would have worked a lot better with either a larger nub, or better yet, keeping with the circular curve of the toy causing everything to protrude more, but no…the part you use is actually flattened off.
I’ve tried using the whole thing as just a vibrator, turning it over and over in my hands trying to find a slim enough portion that still delivered powerful enough vibrations, but no dice.
You also can’t speed up the movement of the nub, and it’s only two actions are a full circle, or a half (or less) circle, so we’re back to being reminded of the icky Squeel with boring repetition. Riiigghhhttt…Leeefffttt..Riiiiggghhtt…Llleeffttt….
The nub DOES change speed with the vibration intensity button but once you’ve hit max intensity that’s it, and it’s just not nearly enough, and you can’t do something like low vibrations and faster nub movement, they increase together (or you use a setting without vibration)
The settings are as follows
1) Vibration and full circle
2) No vibration full circle
3) No vibration half-circle
4) Pusling vibration and half-circle, but the pulses don’t match up with the nub hitting it’s peak on either end of the half circle so it’s sort of weird and out of sync.
5) Shorter pulse vibrations and full circle
6) Wave vibrations (gradual increase then decrease) with half circle
7) Longer wave vibrations with full circle
8) Mixed pulses (feels random-ish) and half circle
9) Mixed pulses and full circle
10) Long vibration then long pause with full circle
The fastest full circle and fastest/biggest half circle look like these.
I got the speeds of the .gifs pretty close to the actual speeds on a full charge. Fastest speed completes a full-circle between 3 and 4 counts.
Seriously, the fastest half circle flicks are sooooo slow. Who does that? Robots. Slow robots.
And the slowest full and “half” circle.
(I don’t know why this one came out smaller, sorry)
You’ll notice that the nub isn’t even making a complete half circle when you turn the intensities down, it’s barely clearing a quarter circle. This is also sort of weird because when you change patterns to reach half circle settings from full circle settings, it just sort of stops wherever the nub was in it’s rotation, so sometimes you’ll catch the nub at the “top” of the toy where you want it, and sometimes it will be on the bottom, rubbing your vaginal opening instead of your clit (super effective for a clit toy…) and sometimes it will be to either side, just barely grazing your clit then rubbing the side of your labia. It’s just….ugh. And then you have to turn an already REALLY FAT toy on it’s side to get the nub to rub back and forth over your clit instead of other random parts of your vulva. Big frustrated sigh. I hate this toy. Sorry not sorry.
I’ve only managed to reach one orgasm using this toy (and that’s not for lack of trying many many times, this thing cost me 200 fucking dollars, I use it) , and it wasn’t all that great and I just sort of wanted to cry when it was over because I was so tired and stressed from how much effort it took to reach. NOT what a (200 dollar) orgasm is supposed to feel like. At all.
So in closing, refer back to first image : EVERYTHING SUCKS.
*On top of this particular toy just being awful, I cannot and will not recommend anything from the Lelo brand ever again. These other bloggers have done an excellent job of explaining why, as I agree with what they’ve written 100%. I’m leaving this review up because I feel the novelty and intrigue that caused me to buy the Ora will work on other people, so I want them to know how much this thing fucking sucks, but I will not be creating reviews for my other Lelo toys that I already own nor purposefully acquiring any in the future.