June 2013 - Skinny Dip

Over the past year, I’ve been fortunate to work with some really great brands from the UK like Rocks Off and Lovehoney to name a few. Vibrations Direct is another fab UK brand based out of London. From bondage kits and lingerie to designer sex toys— Vibrations Direct carries 1000’s of products to tickle your fancy and get the most out of your sex life. When they asked me if I would like to review one of their pieces, I was immediately drawn in by their selection of sexy lingerie – in particular the corsets.

I eventually settled on this gorgeous nude coloured, “Victorian” inspired Ivory Grace Corset by Sweetstreak. Since most of my lingerie is either dark colours or vivid brights (like red or pink), I loved the subtle colour and delicate details of this piece.

The Ivory Grace corset is a Victorian inspired corset made with white and gold jacquard material and decorated with frill edging at the top and bottom, along with pretty bows. The material is 90% polyester and 10% spandex to allow for some give. The corset features flexible boning and a lace up back to shape your figure and create an hour glass effect.

The corset is really pretty in person, however as you can see by the photos below, the fabric isn’t a nude or blush shade at all, but rather yellow and white with white ruffles. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing (it’s still a really pretty piece), it’s just completely different than what I expected based on the product photo.

Now for the moment of truth! Here is what the corset looks like on. The corset fit great and was very good at hugging my curves in all the right places. Although I could have cinched in the waist more to give more of the effect shown in the product photo, doing so wasn’t very comfortable. I wanted to still be able to breathe 🙂

When it comes to lingerie, I’ve discovered that corsets generally aren’t the most comfortable garments. However, you sacrifice comfort for the look. This piece made me feel sexy, supported and definitely helped me stand up straighter (ha!)

Back in the day, women of means would often have a maid who would help them get into their corset. Now I can see why – putting on a corset by yourself is a bit challenging. The Ivory Grace can either be done up by lacing up the back or by using a series of metal hooks & eyes located on the front. To get the best fit, I would suggest putting it on then using the laces at the back to adjust the garment. Once you have the perfect fit, you can leave the corset done up and then just enter/exit the garment from the front.

I had a lot of fun playing dress up in this piece. Maybe it’s the yellow & white jacquard print, or the fact that it was sent to me from jolly old England, but I felt regal in this piece…almost like I was ready to go hang out in Buckingham Palace & have tea with the Queen. Instead, I just had an awkward tea-party for one in my underwear.

Now, for the bad news. Unfortunately sometime between when I received the corset and wrote this review, Vibrations Direct stopped carrying it on their website. The good news is that they have lots of other sexy lingerie. Here’s a few pieces that I’ve been eye-ing.

1. Seven Til Midnight Scene Stealer Bra Set.

2. Seven Til Midnight Naughty Little Secret Bustier.

3. Seven Til Midnight Veronica Bustier.

Which one do you like best?

*Thanks to Vibrations Direct, this lovely corset was provided to me free of charge in exchange for my honest assessment of the product. All views are my own because that’s how I roll.

Being single and having sex in your 30’s can be weird.

On one hand, your hormones are raging and you want to have as much sex as possible. However, after a decade of bad decisions in your 20’s you’re now way more selective about who you get naked with.

As I was telling a friend of mine the other day, “Most days I want to have sex with everyone and no one, all at the same time.”

It’s confusing.

As a 30-something, it’s likely you’re way more comfortable in your own skin and what works for you in the bedroom. Added to that, it seems like every magazine article written about women in their 30’s never fails to point out that you’re in your “sexual peak” (whatever that means.) In theory, you should be having the best sex of your life thus far – right?! As I’ve discovered, this isn’t necessarily the case.

People assume that because I’m a sex & relationship blogger that I must be having the hottest, steamiest, kinkiest sex, all the time. However, when I first started to date again following the big break-up in 2011, I had a string of awkward, bumbling, just plain bad, sexual encounters. Coming from a 6.5 year relationship where my partner knew my body almost as good as his own, I knew I was spoiled. However, I was totally not prepared when my love life turned into a living, breathing (panting?) version of this e-card.

Luckily, it seems as though the curse of bad sex has been broken (woo hoo!). However, for awhile I was getting worried. Up until very recently, I’ve been avoiding all contact with the opposite sex, for the sole reason that I just can’t bear to add another item to my growing list of “bad sex” stories (situations I thought I had outgrown when I bid my twenties farewell.)

Everyone weighs the importance of sex in a relationship differently. Having dated several people over the years with whom I didn’t have the greatest sexual chemistry with (but who were good people), I’ve come to the conclusion that a strong physical connection is really, really important to me. I even wrote a column for the Toronto Sun about whether bad sex is reason enough to break up (my answer: yes, yes, a thousand times yes!)

So, what exactly qualifies as “bad sex”?

Well, that’s really different for everyone. Personally, after extensive research in the field throughout my 20’s and 30’s (and some preliminary research in high-school) I’ve come to the conclusion that what I consider “bad sex” usually falls into one (or several) of the following categories. Let me know if any of these sound familiar:

1. “The Guitar Solo” – Really great sex is like music: there’s a give & take between the different instruments, crescendos, melody and a good use of rhythm. “The Guitar Solo” basically takes all of those principles and blows them straight to hell. It’s a one person performance that usually involves spastic movements reminiscent of an energizer bunny on meth, bizarre vocalizations (“Fuck Yeah! Score! Touchdown!”) and perhaps even some rodeo-style arm movements. Yee haw! When it comes to guitar solos, the second guy I slept with was a regular Jimmy Page. FYI, in my experience, the most prolific “soloists” usually have a sex face that looks like Steven Tyler having a seizure.

2. “Let’s Not Make Eye-Contact” sex – What’s the deal with people not wanting to make eye-contact during sex?! Do women do this too? I’ve slept with a couple of guys who seemed to only want to have sex in facially obscuring positions. I don’t mind a bit of doggy-style action, but if we’re having sex and it’s been 45 minutes since I’ve seen your face, that’s a problem. What’s even worse is when you try and make eye-contact and the person dodges you, looking away. It gets to the point where it feels like you’re in the sexual equivalent of a Larry David style stare-down. Make eye-contact with me! I DARE YOU.

(And yes, there really is a Larry David gif for every life situation)

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A couple of people have asked me what it’s like travelling with Joe the Intern. Although I brought Joe with me to Vancouver Fashion Week in March, our recent trip to Las Vegas was his real “coming out voyage.” The answer I usually give: it’s interesting.

Although I never have to wrestle Joe for leg-room or access to the arm-rest, travelling with a 12″ tall naked man isn’t without it’s share of challenges and strange looks. However, being that I’m kind of shameless to begin with, I decided to embrace the weirdness of carrying Joe in my purse & just go with it. Because, Vegas.

A blogger & her Intern.

Things only got “weird” whenever I’d try and interact with guys other than Joe. When I went to Vegas last year, I was finally at the point after the big break-up where I was ready to embrace being single and maybe even flirt a little…and that I did! To quote Caryn, “You were on a roll!” Considering I’m still living in my hometown where everyone is either a hipster or a senior citizen and meeting people the old fashioned way seems next to impossible, I was really looking forward to interacting with members of the opposite sex and getting my flirt on.

When I sat down on the plane, I looked across the aisle and spotted an attractive guy in his 30’s. We made eye-contact. I smiled. He smiled. Just when I thought things were going well I felt something fall out of my tote bag. I looked down and there was Joe, lying spread eagle on the carpeted floor of the airplane looking quite pleased with himself. The guy’s reaction looked something like this:

I quickly grabbed Joe, sat down in my seat and didn’t make eye-contact for the rest of the flight.

When a called my ex a few weeks ago to tell him about my Grandfather’s passing, we stayed on the phone for a while catching up on the recent events of each other’s lives. The conversation eventually wandered over the topic of my recent trip to Vegas & Bloggers in Sin City. That’s when I confessed,

“I think Joe is kind of a cock-blocker”

To which he responded, “I think Joe is just a BLOCKER period.”

It’s true, Joe does have a way of impeding certain social interactions and generating stares from TSA agents, but he’s a damn fine intern which is why I keep him around.

While at Bloggers in Sin City, I was telling my friend Casey about the incident on the plane. I’m a huge fan of How I Met Your Mother and can never resist a good dare. So, while lounging by the pool I made the following proposition to Casey:

“This weekend, if you successfully introduce yourself to someone as Sean Patrick Harris, aka the guy from Save the Last Dance, I’ll pick someone up with Joe”

Casey & Sean Patrick Thomas. A close match? Hardly. However, I know from 10+ years of friendship that he's pulled this off in the past.

“How are you going to do that?”

“I’m not sure, but it’s going to happen”

“Ok, deal.”

If Barney Stinson can pick up women while dressed as an old man, I can surely meet guys with a 12″ GI Joe at my side.

I was totally prepared to fulfill my end of the bargain but then Vegas happened. Way too many margaritas & lots of awesomeness later, we’d forgotten about the dare.

On Monday afternoon, Casey, Jen, Michelle and I found ourselves in the All Saints Store at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. I’d persuaded them to come join me while I ogled all the pretty things, including the notoriously handsome sales staff. At this point of the trip I’d completely given up on trying to flirt and had gotten into the habit of allowing Joe’s head to peak out of the top of my trusty Longchamp bag. I was fondling a rack of gorgeous leather jackets when a dark haired (and very cute) sales associate approached me to see how I was doing. He immediately asked,

“Who’s that little guy?”

(Slightly flustered) “Oh, that’s Joe. He’s just along for the ride.”

When I explained that Joe had been travelling with me all weekend, the sales guy said:

“Wow! That’s so cool! So, you take photos with him and everything?!”

We both laughed as I showed him photos of Joe lounging in the pool and posing in front of Caesar’s Palace. The whole time I was thinking. “Seriously? Is this is really happening?!”

I told him about Skinny Dip and he said he’d love to read my blog sometime.

“I’m Jesus” he said as he handed me his card.

I didn’t have any cards on me, so I told him to look me up on the Internerd sometime.

Still slightly stunned, I walked over to Casey and the other BiSC-uits.

“I just picked someone up, with the help of Joe. I mean I think I just did.”

It’s very possible that Casey promised this guy that he’d buy an expensive belt in exchange for asking me about Joe, but I prefer to think of it as a Vegas miracle.

The problem? Ever since we came back from our trip Joe has been telling everyone:

“Simone and I went to Vegas and found Jesus.”

Oh Joe, I have so many things to teach you.

As a lingerie addict who is trying to stick to a budget, I’m always on the lookout for affordable, cute lingerie that’s also nice quality. I was super excited when I stumbled across Blue Bella Lingerie – a lingerie line from the UK. Their pieces are gorgeous and sexy, without being over the top. Most of the pieces have that vintage inspired look that I love so much.

I was thrilled when the nice people at Lovehoney offered to send me one of their pieces to try out. The whole line is really pretty so it was hard to pick just one piece, however I eventually settled on this Anais Cami & Shorts Set. As someone who often blogs about things like oral sex simulators, this may seem like a really “safe” choice, however I’m really happy I chose this set. As I’ve mentioned before, I love sleeping in lacy, sexy things. Even if I’m sleeping alone, wearing something comfortable that’s also pretty makes me feel good. This is the kind of set that I could easily wear solo or with someone else.

The Anais Cami & Shorts Set is made of crinkled, light pink, sheer polyester trimmed in black lace. The camisole is lined with a silky soft non-crinkly fabric which makes the piece ultra-comfortable. The shorts are not lined, but instead feature two thin layers of the crinkle fabric which meet at the bottom to create the ruffle effect. The shorts are a “hipster” cut which means they sit comfortably below the belly button.

Although the shorts have a built in cotton gusset (which means you could wear them as panties if you wanted to), I still prefer to wear them with a pair of my favourite hipster or boy-shorts for sleeping. The shorts are quite sheer, so unless you live alone, with your partner or are trying to establish your reputation as the roommate/family member that’s always flashing everyone, you’ll probably want to pair them with some panties! For the purpose of this post, I wore a pair of black bathing suit bottoms underneath.

I really like this lingerie set. It’s fun, flirty and just slightly retro. Although it’s named “Anais” (I assume after the famous French writer?) this sleep set feels way less like 1930’s Paris, and more like a toned down version of something Barbara Streisand would have worn in The Owl and the Pussycat or the girls from Grease would have worn at one of their sleepovers.

In other words, it’s the kind of thing I imagine guys think we wear at sleepovers when really we’re rocking our flannel PJ’s.

To give you guys an idea of what the set looks like in person, I snapped a few photos last Sunday before heading out to meet my Dad for Father’s Day brunch. Since I rarely wear makeup and do my hair on the weekends, the theme of this DIY photo-shoot is “bed-head.”

Et, voila! Although I look a little depressed in this photo, I’m actually really excited about the forgiving cut of this camisole. I did a lot of eating and drinking in Vegas, and I’m still trying to get my abs back in shape. This top cleverly disguises any tummy insecurities you may have.

As you can tell from the photo below, this set was way more ruffly in person than it is in the product photo. The ruffles are fun, however if you are trying to draw attention away from your hips, they do create a lot of extra volume in that area. On the flip side, if you want to create more curves, this outfit will definitely do the trick.

Whenever I’d stay in hotels with my parents as a kid, my favourite thing was jumping up and down on the ultra-bouncy hotel beds. I’m pretty sure it drove my parents nuts. Sorry Mom.

Overall, I give this lingerie set by Blue Bella two Skinny Dip thumbs up. I love the gorgeous pink and black colour combo, I feel cute in it and it’s comfortable. The problem? Now I want to try everything Blue Bella makes. Ahhhh!

Thank you Lovehoney for this review and for fuelling the fire of my lingerie addiction 🙂

Lovehoney.com The Sexual Happiness People

*I received this garment free of charge in exchange for my honest review of the product. All opinions and awkward confessions about over eating in Vegas are my own because that’s how I roll.

It’s been almost a month since I got back from Bloggers in Sin City…and what a month it’s been. There have been some really happy, fun moments (My first radio interview! A fun getaway to Vancouver!) but also some very sad ones. Do you know what’s been getting me through the bad days? This video. Almie has once again worked her magic and created another stunning video of BiSC. People always ask me what it’s like to spend a weekend in Vegas with 68 bloggers and I think this video says it all. From “Ugly Fashion Shows” to fancy footwork, it’s all there! She even included a clip of me riding the mechanical bull. Enjoy!

BiSC 2013: Bloggers In Sin City from almie rose on Vimeo.

What many people don’t realize is that this year was the 5th and final year of Bloggers in Sin City….as in, the last one. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know how much I’ve enjoyed going to #BiSC the past few years. When I told a non-blogger friend that this would be the last year for the un-conference, she responded by saying:

“What?! NOOOO. It’s ending?! WHAT ABOUT ALL THE BLOGGERS? ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO BE OK?”

Although it does make me a little misty eyed to think about Bloggers in Sin City coming to an end, I’ve had such an amazing three years and am so incredibly grateful for the experience. I think it was either Doni or Nicole who said that they’ve started to think of their 5 years at #BiSC not as separate events, but as one GIANT magical weekend. I like to think of it as a trilogy. This year’s Bloggers in Sin City was everything I’d hoped it would be & then some, making it the perfect conclusion to an epic 3-weekend long adventure. It’s time for a few final shout-outs!

Let the credits roll!

Over the past three years I’ve been truly blessed in the room-mate department and roomed with some of the smartest, funniest, nicest women I have ever met. In 2011 I roomed with Carly who is hilarious and the perfect partner in crime. Last year I roomed with the lovely Grace, who was sweet, kind and funny. This year I roomed with Kate from Suburban Sweetheart. She’s one of my favourite bloggers period and I’ve been wanting to meet her forever (ever since I started reading her blog 3+ years ago!) I was kind of nervous to meet her for the first time (what if she didn’t like me?!), but it turns out Kate is just as awesome & funny & amazing in person as I suspected she’d be (& then some!)

I’m so glad that we got to be room-mates. Finally getting to hang out with Kate in person was definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

Any good trilogy includes the introduction of a few new characters. After hearing me talk about Vegas non-stop for the past few years, my good friend Casey finally decided to take the plunge and join the mayhem this year. I’ve known Casey for over a decade and he’s awesome. At the risk of sounding totally geeky, it was so cool (and kind of surreal) to see one of my favourite “real life” friends meet my favourite “internet” friends. It was also Joe the Intern‘s first year at BiSC and I still don’t think he’s come down from the high (every time I mention anything about Vegas he does a bunch of backflips and the “running-man” around my office. I’m not sure what’s up with that except, VEGAS. YAY!)

The only thing I don’t like about BiSC is that there are always so many awesome people and only so much time. I absolutely loved the group this year and everyone new that I met was AWESOME. There are so many people I wish I’d been able to spend more time with, but hopefully that’s something that can happen in the future!

As someone who works from home and wears a lot of leggings a pants, one of the things I love about BiSC is that it’s 4-5 days where I actually get to wear real clothes. My favourite night is always the Saturday theme party. In 2011 we got decked out in black & gold, last year we got retro and did it up Mad Men style and this we had a fabulous White Party on the roof-top at Pure.

I never thought I would actually become emotionally attached to a hotel in Las Vegas, but that’s exactly how I feel about the Flamingo. From your white padded headboards and pink striped wallpaper, to your weird casino smell that vaguely resembles a mix of chocolate and mouthwash, I can’t quit you.

Lastly, Vegas wouldn’t be Vegas without some of these fine people. To Sad Mickey – thank you for being so sad and for perfectly embodying how most of us feel after spending 4 days in Vegas. To Edie, the host of Zumanity – I’m not sure who I like more: You or Almie’s impression of you. Either way, thanks for the throaty come ons. I will never think of the word “lover” in the same way again. To Rigo the bartender at the Flamingo pool – After the surprise grinding incident at the pool, you told me “I have just the thing for you!” and then handed me a drink that was 80% vodka and tasted like pure pineapple juice. You are my hero and your bar-tending skills are commendable. To Gilly, the Mechanical Bull: I’m sure you’ve done some things you regret and seen some things that can’t be unseen, and yet you still have some of the best dance moves on the strip. Thanks for the wild ride. You’re an inspiration to us all.

To the sticker of Donnie Osmond that used to reside in the lobby of the Flamingo: RIP.

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Show & Tell | Keep Calm and Wear a Corset

When Bad Sex Happens to Good People

On Flirting & Finding Jesus. No, Not That Jesus.

Show & Tell | Ruffles, Lace & Bedhead

Bloggers in Sin City 2013: The Trilogy

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