UPDATE MAY 2020: The Madame’s Flog-Her Flogger is no longer in production. This review remains as a reference for those who are looking for more info.
Madame’s Flog-Her Flogger is an interesting-looking flogger made by Ruff Doggie Styles. The flogger is made from leather, lace, and metal. The tails are leather, the lace covers the handle, and the metal rivets run down the handle. The handle is 8 and a half inches while the tails are about twenty inches long. This makes it a pretty long flogger. The flogger does have a hanging strap that makes it pretty easy to store.
The flogger doesn’t come with any sort of packaging. It does come stored in a plastic baggie can it has to be pulled from, but there’s no sort of tag or anything aside from the plastic baggie.
The handle seemed a bit awkwardly long. I’d expect a handle of this length if there were knots (those large ends on most floggers) on either side of the handle. Instead, it’s completely flat. This means that the extra length just felt really awkward in my hands and really awkward to handle. I feel like the handle should have been about two inches shorter to make it easier to handle. (If you are curious about the length of the handle, the EF real-size function just shows the handle of this flogger.)
The tails are just as awkwardly long. They are about two and a half times longer than the handle which is pretty long for tails. Each tail, of which there are 11 (which is a really odd number), is made from pieces of leather being braided together. It looks like these are round braids. The braids are tied off right at the end of each of the braids which allows the ends of the tails to hang unbraided. The braids are “tied” off with tight wrapping of thread which will keep the tails from unraveling. Each one of the 11 tails has four little leather strands in it to make the braid, so you end up with 44 little leather strands dangling at the ends of the flogger.
The flogger does look pretty. I’ll really give it that. It looks gorgeous with the lace overlay on the handle and the soft leather tails. I can’t tell what the underlying material of the handle is, but it looks like something like red plastic or wood painted red. Either way, the handle is extremely lightweight – awkwardly lightweight actually. Whatever it is, the lace is just wrapped over the handle and fastened with the metal rivets that are shown in the pictures. I’m not fond of the rivets honestly. They just don’t look “gothic” like the rest of the flogger was made to look. The hanging strap is firmly attached to the handle, and it holds the flogger up just fine. The hanging strap is not long enough to work as a wrist strap.
This flogger has an odd scent. Like, a really odd scent. I think this particular flogger must have been sitting around in a warehouse or something for a very long time. It smells like my attic at my parent’s house. It’s really not a sexy scent. I haven’t managed to make the scent go away after two weeks of leaving it out of the bag, but I have a feeling it will air itself out after sitting out for awhile. I feel like it’s worth mentioning in case you had plans for foreplay straight out of the bag.
Before first use of your flogger, I do recommend that you shake/hit it above a garbage can or easy-to-clean area. This is because the leather of the tails is still shedding. The tails seem to still be shedding – even after a couple uses, so shaking it out will help take off some of the black specks that will appear if you don’t. The flogger still leaves the specks, but it’s gotten a lot better since we first got it.
How does it handle? Awkwardly. That’s the best way I can describe it honestly. The handle feels too long for my hands, and the tails too feel long for the flogger. This is not a beginner flogger with handling. This takes some skill to handle, and it’s one of those floggers that definitely requires some practice because it’s so “out” of the norm when it comes to the measurements. They don’t resemble any measurements that I’ve dealt with in floggers before. My other floggers are about 4/5 inches shorter than this flogger. While this would make it a perfect dungeon flogger for a scene, it does require some practice if you want to really use this without worry of hurting someone. It can be “handled” with precision if you make sure to take the time to learn how.
However, you can rest a bit easy. This flogger really doesn’t hurt. It would have been a lot more painful if Ruff Doggie Styles left the braided strands all the way braided, but they didn’t. Instead, the flogger does split ends at the end of each braid. This makes it much more thuddy. There’s a slight bit of sting involved, but it really is very slight. For the most part, it just feels like having the tails hit your skin then glide away. This might be a slight bias on my handling part. I’m afraid to hit too hard with this because I honestly can not control it. I’m not going to take out his kidney with it, but I am hitting moderately, and he says it really does hurt all that much. All of the tails always travel together as a group which helps the sensation of the flogger being thuddy instead of stingy. It’d be possible to use this to bruise/hurt someone, but you’d have to put a lot of strength into it. For average users, it’s just going to feel nice and not stingy.
However, the main problem you are going to have with this flogger is the wrap-around. That is when you swing a flogger and the middle of the tails hit instead of the tip so the tip wraps around the body and hits somewhere else. Since the tips have gained some force, they usually hit pretty hard. The wrap-around of this one is a lot more painful than the tips themselves are, and as such, again, only hit lightly with this one unless you intend on taking the time to learn how to control it.
A tip? If you want to use it more easily or have to use this flogger in a small space, you can hold onto the handle then wrap a circle around the handle with the tails and hold down the tails on the handle. It will significantly trim down the length of the flogger. This flogger is near-impossible to use in small areas like a dorm or small bedroom. This little adjustment is really the only thing that will make it usable in small areas. Although, you’ll then have to deal with attempting to use it more awkwardly.
This flogger can be cleaned with special leather cleaner. Avoid getting it near bodily fluid or blood. If it does, it is now fluid-bonded to that partner for at least six months. Don’t be stupid with you kink toys. For storage, I highly recommend hanging it up by the hanging strap.
Overall? It’s a good flogger, but I’m not sure it justifies the price tag. The other Ruff Doggie Styles floggers are of a much higher quality for a lower price tag. The flogger is awkwardly long, and while it’s nice and soft to play with, it’s also pretty hard for a newbie (or an oldie, in my case) to handle because of the awkward measurements. If you want a soft flogger that looks more “gothic” than other options, it’s a good pick, but it will require practice to use.
