What with the greening of America, it is no surprise that folks are clamoring for eco-friendly toys that are good for their bodies as well as the planet. From rechargeable vibrators (like the screamingly popular Delight and Gigi), to paraben-free lubes, to organic and sustainable wood dildos and butt-plugs, Babeland is doing its part to keep up with the demand. I’m happy to report that our friends at Fleshbot have redeemed themselves after releasing the Gene Simmons sex tape on an unsuspecting populous. I won’t bother to link the tape (I’m sure we’ve all seen it by now), but will share what has to be said about the environmentally- and body-friendly boxful that is the Eco-Sexy Kit:

As the globe continues to heat up, our collective urge to go green gets stronger. But what to do when things start heating up in the bedroom too? If you’re looking for some environmentally conscious naked fun — or just can’t resist a certain kind of environmentally conscious marketing hype — consider Babeland’s Eco-Sexy Kit: an earth- and body-friendly toy box full of goodies that practically guarantee your fair share of a different kind of global warming. And you won’t have to worry about your carbon offset in the morning!

There were four parts to my kit: a Babeland massage candle (to get things warmed up nice and naturally), a bottle of Emerita OH Warming Lubricant (to keep the heat going), Mamba condoms (to keep you from getting, uh … you know), and, best of all, a Laya Spot vibrator (for when you need a little extra kick). All products in the kit (with the obvious exception of the Laya Spot) are all-natural, with no animal testing or animal-derived ingredients…

Next I checked out the lube. As a girl with a bit of experience in the fine arts of handjobbery and butt fuckery, I consider myself something of a lube snob: too often, artificial lubes are too thin, dry out too fast, or just taste really bad (an important consideration if you happen to switch to some oral action after you’ve lubed up your partner’s privates). Surprisingly, Emerita was none of these things. It had a pleasing thickness, lasted quite a while, and tasted pretty good (at least by lube standards). Though I was hesitant about the advertised warming action—apparently generated by cinnamon bark—it turned out to be surprisingly pleasant…

Finally, the clear crown jewel of the kit: the Laya Spot vibe. Small yet sensuous, the Laya Spot conforms to your curves while fitting into the palm of your hand. The easily accessible controls, which fall right under your fingers when your hand rests on the vibe, allow you to guide your body through six levels of vibration, as well as three distinct pulse patterns. For something so small, the Laya Spot rocks quite hard—I had no idea two AAA batteries could produce so much power.

Technically, the newly designed version of the NYC Condom has been available since Valentine’s Day. I just got my hands on one yesterday when I got to hear from one of the people who helped design the campaign and the condoms who works at the NYC Health Department and there are some interesting stories behind it.

It turns out that for the original NYC condom, they knew they wanted to do a subway inspired design. The head of the MTA agreed with this idea but then when the design was shown to them, someone decided that they didn’t like it. So, the NYC DOH could only use the subway theme if they didn’t actually use the route markers. So, if you’ve been wondering for the past year why the “N” is blue and the “C” is yellow when they should be switched - that’s why. The MTA wouldn’t let them look like actual route markers . Although I still really liked the design, that would have been amazing and just seems rather silly of the MTA.

The silliness gets even weirder. The MTA wouldn’t let them put up any advertisements in the subway that had the actual condom with the “route markers” on it. I’m still a little confused as to what they thought was going to happen; some poor tourist thinks the picture of the condom is a subway map? Highly unlikely.

I had wondered why they decided to redesign the condom this year when the old design was so cute but when I heard that story I understood - if you can’t fully advertise in the subway, why even bother? This year’s design keeps the color scheme and even manages to sort-of keep the “route markers” but doesn’t look at all like the subway. And yet, it does seem more modern. I like it.

The guy who designed it also made a dispenser for it (the silver thing in the above picture). It has a little space at the bottom that is sort of triangular-shaped that you can pull a condom out of but condoms won’t fall out of it. Apparently they weigh a ton which might need to be fixed but they’re pretty big and can hold at least a thousand condoms.

The health department is distributing about 200 of these dispensers to lots of different places (bodegas, hair salons, clinics, etc) and making sure that each location is stocked every week so they can see how they compare to other methods of condom distribution.

They’re also going to be surveying people in New York to see if they’ve not only seen the condoms but used one. Only a department of public health as big as New York would have the ability to really research this so it will be interesting to see if it’s working. Apparently their distribution doubled (from 1.5 mil to 3 mil per month) after they redesigned the condom the first time. Does more distribution equal more use? Possibly. Does it increase safer sex and decrease STIs and unwanted pregnancies? Not necessarily. Here’s why:

Imagine that you’re only getting free condoms from NYC as your condoms. You get them at your barbershop which you go to every couple of weeks. If you pick up 3 condoms for two weeks and have sex 8 times in those two weeks, there are still a lot of unprotected times. So, it can sometimes be hard to see population-level improvements in things like STIs and pregnancy because one unprotected event is enough to make someone a statistic, even though they might usually use protection much of the time.

I’m looking forward to seeing the results of their study and watching the numbers to see if a major city-wide condom campaign can be effective. In the meantime - free condoms for everyone!