Hands on with my Gemini

This review was written way back in March but has been stuck as I draft whilst I waited for some photo opportunities to become available. Those did not come and I've given up waiting fro mthem. My opinions have not changed in the 5 months since writing this.

During the Lovense-themed 3DXChat TTS Podcast episode, one of the questions that I raised was ‘what would we like to see next from Lovense’. They’ve done so many toys that are intended for use between your legs, I really felt it was time that they branched out a little into providing pleasure and stimulation for other sensitive areas as well.

In the marketing materials for the Exomoon, Lovense did mention using it for nipple stimulation and, having tried that myself, I found it very pleasurable indeed. But it left me wanting more. How about a toy that was primarily designed for that purpose? So, for that reason, my suggestion was vibrating nipple clamps.

And here we are; Lovense have delivered for me with the Gemini; a pair of vibrating nipple clamps that revolve around Lovense’s signature controllability. The question is, would they live up to my expectations? Let’s find out!

Unpacking

It goes without saying that Lovense’s packing is always on point. You know the drill by now. Everything arrives in plain brown boxes that give no hint of the lewdness contained within. Remove that and you then get to the typically well designed product box. Remove the lid of that and then you finally get to the good stuff within. But what exactly is that for the Gemini?

Well, you actually get a little more than you may be expecting. Obviously there is the toy itself, as well as the now standard magnetic USB charging cable and satin toy bag for storing it in.

Then there are a couple of little toy-specific accessories for fastening the toy to you while you use it. I’ll come on to why they are such welcome inclusions in a little bit though.

What about the toy?

As for the Gemini itself, you get a pair of nipple clamps that are each tethered to a control control unit by a small cord.

The clamps are fairly bulky. No doubt in order to be able to house motors that will be providing the vibrations. And, despite having an unusually plasticy feel to them (almost cheap) for something from Lovense, they seem pretty robust. The plastic adjustment screws were a worry for me initially but they actually seem pretty strong. They also seem to have a good range of adjustment depending on whether you really want them to be pinching hard or simply gripping tight enough to hold on. I think they do a good job on that front.

My only concern in terms of durability is actually how close the wire attaches to where you will be pressing down to open the clamps up. On a number of occasions my fingers have slipped off the end of the clamp and onto the wire. Something that is easily done when things are getting wet and sticky. And the clamps do have a powerful pinching action so you do need to use a fair bit of force to open them. Damaging the wire is definitely a worry for me.

At the other end of the wire we, of course, have the control unit. It has a single multi-purpose button for turning on and off, as well as cycling through the pre-programmed patterns. Presumably, it is also the home of the battery which can manage up to 2 hrs of use between charges, although you may get less deepening on how strong you like your vibrations.

When powered on, the Lovense logo on the control unit will light up and flash. You can pick from a number of different colours for the light via the app, although my favourite was the cyan sort of colour.

A word of warning though, even if you are wearing clothes over the Gemini, the light on the control unit can penetrate through those, so pick your clothes carefully. I’ve even had it visible under a t-shirt and thick hoodie so anything thin or revealing would be best avoided..

You’ll probably also want to consider how obvious the bulk of the clamps are as well. I’d suggest wearing them under at least a semi-padded bra to help hide their presence or you might get some very odd looks..

Although stuffing it in a suitable bra obviously isn’t an option for any guys who want to use the Gemini, which I say in full seriousness because Lovense do market it as being a unisex toy. Which does beg the question of why they’ve stuck with using pink for the toy. But not even their signature brand pink. The clamps transition from a fairly recognisable pink at the tips to an extremely pale pink further. The same pale pink is used for the control unit. Seems like a bit of a head scratcher to me. Surely a more gender-neutral colour would have been appropriate? But that’s not something to get hung up on.

Those surprise accessories

As mentioned earlier, a couple of accessories are included along with the toy itself.

First of all, there is the bra clip, which is a clear plastic shell that fits around the Gemini’s control unit and has a clip on the back that can be slid onto the centre part of your bra. The second option is just a very simple nylon string necklace that can be clipped onto a small loop on top of the control unit and then worn around the neck.

Both very simple accessories and, some may say, a bit on the cheap side considering what we are normally used to from Lovense, but I would argue that you may find them priceless when playing with the Gemini.

You see, although the control unit couldn’t exactly be described as heavy, if left to hang freely by the wires to the nipple clamps, it would certainly add a lot of tension to the wires. By either fastening the control unit to your bra or hanging it around your neck, all tension is removed from the wires and you can get a pure pinching feel from them.

Of course, you might actually like that tension being put on the clamps, in which case, by all means let the control unit hang freely. But I’m glad that Lovense have given us the option to decide for ourselves with, not just one, but two fastening options.

And we shouldn’t forget the other, more practical (and less sexy), need for them, which is if you are planning to wear the Gemini out for some public play. In that sort of situation, I really don’t think you would want to be relying on the clamps remaining securely clamped onto your nips. Imagine the embarrassment if they came loose from too much buzzing!

I do have one little grumble about the bra clip though. There is actually a hole on the back of it which, when attached to the Gemini, sits over where the magnetic charging points are. It looks for all the world as if this is to allow charging without having to remove the bra clip. However, I just could not get the charging wire to make a proper connection when the clip was on. Seems to defeat the purpose of that design element and a little disappointing that something like that would slip through.

Trying it out

OK, time for the part that I’m sure you are most interested in!

I’ll be upfront and admit that I still don’t know quite how to feel about this part. In fact, my initial experience was most definitely an underwhelming one. It took me a little bit of use to try to understand how to get the best out of the Gemini.

So first off, I just didn’t feel like there was enough strength to the vibrations. But there is definitely more to this than the toy being under-powered. Lovense are all about the power, after all. I mean, let’s be realistic here and bear in mind the form factor that we are dealing with here. Yes, I said the clamps were somewhat bulky in order to house the motors, but the motors are still going to be much smaller than in other toys. That’s just an inescapable necessity.

That said, the motors do buzz like crazy so why doesn’t it always feel like it?

It would be easy to say that the problem is that the vibrations aren’t that deep rumbly vibration that we know and love from other Lovense toys. Instead, it’s a very shrill, high frequency buzzing and, the noise aside (I could imagine it being very obvious when in public), that is absolutely fine, because I don’t think that’s really the problem.

If you do feel that there is a lack of strength to the vibrations, I think the more likely cause is the position of the motors within the clamps which seems to cause more of the vibes to go to the back of the clamp instead of to the tip where it's actually pinching. I’ve seen a lot of users comment on this, and I tend to agree with them, that this actually causes a lot of the vibrations to be felt through the areola, rather than through the nipple itself.

Furthermore, if you like the clamps to be pinching quite hard, that sensation can completely drown out the buzzing sensations. This was something that I experienced early on when still trying to figure out how tight I best liked the clamps to be. (It would be doing the Gemini a disservice not to mention that the clamping aspect of them seems very good indeed!)

Taking all of this into account by adjusting the tightness of the clamps and trying to angle them to be more erect instead of lying against my boob (to focus contact on my nipples), I have found that I have been able to get a more satisfying experience.

Some other thoughts

Before I try to turn all of these thoughts into some sort of coherent conclusion, there are just a few other quick thoughts to drop in. Most of these you will have heard before in my other Lovense reviews so I don’t feel like I need to dwell on them for too long, hence the brevity.

The Gemini is made of body-safe materials and super easy to clean. Just be aware that, while it is IPX6 water-resistant, it is not IPX7 waterproof. Something to be aware of when cleaning or planning for where to use it (in the shower is not recommended).

Also, it is fully supported by the Lovense mobile app. It doesn’t necessarily work well with existing patterns that have been made for other toys. Generally, I’ve found that patterns transfer from one toy to another quite well but the Gemini seems a little inconsistent. I’ve had some that work fine, some that will only buzz one clamp and some that don’t really do much at all. It likely depends on which toy the pattern was created on.

Finally, I would be very nervous using this for public play. I’ve already mentioned both reasons so I don’t need to really go into this one any more except to say that it feels more risky than other Lovense toys because you not only need to be conscious of people being able to hear it but there is the added risk of them being able to see it.

In closing

As I alluded to earlier, I still have slightly mixed feelings about the Gemini.

On one hand, I love the concept and think you can definitely have a lot of fun with it. But, on the other hand, I think some compromises have had to be made in order to keep the size down and that does hold it back somewhat.

All hope is not lost though. Lovense do have a track record of listening to customer feedback and implementing that in future versions of their products. If you are a member of their Discord, you may well have seen that they got plenty of feedback on this one.

So, while the Gemini is not quite the game-changer for me that I hoped it would, it really only needs a little refinement here and there to potentially become one. And none of my experiences with the Gemini have dulled the excitement that I would feel if a Gemini 2 was announced tomorrow. No, I would still be very eager to give it a try!

And don’t let anything that I have said put you off, if you are interested in this toy. The Gemini may not be a great toy but it is still a good toy, and I’ve seen a lot of very positive feedback for it from users who are very happy with it. As with anything, what works for one person, may not work as well for another, and vice versa.

If you cannot wait until that day though and want to give the current Gemini a go, why not head over to the Lovense store and order yourself one today!

Or, if you are a guy that has tried the Gemini, I would love to hear your thoughts on it to see how they compare with mine. Drop me a message and let me know!