UPDATE: APRIL 2020: The Touche The Dukes is no longer in production. This review remains as a reference for anyone who needs that information in the future.
The Dukes is a set of vaginal exercisers. The set includes two different silicone ball-holder shells as well as two different sets of plastic balls for use. One set of the balls weighs 30 grams each while the other set weighs 40 grams each. Each one of the balls has a smaller, inner ball that moves around during use. The set comes in both pink and purple. The on-site pictures are accurate to the color of the pink set.
The packaging of the Touche The Dukes is really cute. It comes in a plain black box that shows off the toys through a see-through panel on the front of the box. The box does show the toys clearly, but it displays them really nicely, and it looks very cute. Inside the box, the toys are in a plastic tray that holds them in place, and there are two instruction books included – each instruction book includes four different languages. The Dukes can be stored in this packaging after removing them, but as the packaging is a lot larger than the toys, you might not want to go that way.
The design of The Dukes is actually pretty unique. I like the way that they have made it easy to use either a singular ball or to use the double-balls. You can use the heavier weights or you can use the lighter weights. The Dukes set really makes it easy to adjust what set you feel like using depending on your mood as well as your vaginal muscle strength.
The biggest issue I have with The Dukes is the fact that it’s pretty darn difficult to get the plastic balls in and out of their shells. Silicone, as you might or might not know, isn’t known for being very flexible, so stretching out the silicone shells to fit in a large plastic ball is a bit of a pain. They do fit in, though, with some effort, and there is absolutely no way that the balls will come out. Once they are in the sleeve, they will stay in.
Once the balls are inserted, though, they do stay in pretty nicely. They do require a bit more lubricant than some of the other vaginal exercisers out there because the shells on these vaginal balls actually have little “crown” designs on them (which is Touche’s logo). It does give you some texture to keep the balls from falling out as easily, though.
The retrieval string stretches really nicely. I stretched it out to about 8 inches repeatedly with no issues of it looking torn or breaking. As the retrieval string is directly attached to the shell itself, there should be no issue with the retrieval string breaking. The string does have a sperm-like tail which looks cute, but make sure you lubricate the edge of the tail before use. If you don’t (depending on your body, but it did to mine), the tail could end up rubbing uncomfortably against your body while you walk around and move. The string does work great for retrieving the product though.
So how do they feel during use? You can certainly feel the vaginal exercisers during use, but don’t expect the sensation to be orgasmic. It feels pleasant and it brings blood and your attention to the area which can easily arouse you, but it really doesn’t provide strong enough vibrations to be sexually orgasmic. It does feel nice, though, and it’s a neat way too add more sensations to your life without being “obvious” about it. You can feel the balls moving, but you certainly can not hear these balls moving inside of you, so they are very discreet. The balls aren’t all that heavy, and I would say that most women would be able to retain the singular 30 gram ball with no issue. Retaining some of the larger weights (smallest weight: 30 grams, larger: 80 grams) might be difficult if you don’t have experience exercising your pelvic muscles, but most people should be able to take the 30 gram one with no issue.
I felt that the double sets were much more exercising to me than the single-shell ones. This is probably because the double-shelled ones allowed me to get a lot more weight than the single-shell ones. The single-shell ones don’t cause me any soreness or muscle work to be able to retain them, but the larger-shelled ones can make me a bit more sore to keep them in, and I’d consider myself an intermediate user of vaginal exercisers.
Compared to other vaginal exercisers: The Luna Beads, whcih is the closet vaginal exerciser to this one, has two sets of balls. The pink balls weigh 28 grams while the blue balls weigh 37 grams each. The Ami set, which is somewhat different, is set up differently. The Stage 1 item, which is a singular ball, is 47 grams. The Stage 2 is 39 grams for each ball, and the Stage 3 is 53 grams each ball. As you can see, the weights for The Dukes are pretty on-par with some of the other vaginal exercisers out there.
As the Luna Beads are the most similar in design, here’s more about a comparison on them. The Luna Beads are, certainly, much easier to get the balls in and out of the shells. With The Dukes, I definitely have to try really hard to get them in. However, at the same time, the Luna Beads do not come with a single-shell version, so if you think you’d like to go between using the single-space shell and the double-space shell, I’d recommend using this one instead of the Luna Beads. The weight of both items is comparable with the heavier set being about ten grams heavier in each one, but overall, The Dukes’s larger set is 3 grams heavier than the Luna Beads. Both of them are body-safe, and both of them work about the same, so it really is a matter of preference. If you’d like to have the ability to switch to a single-space shell once in awhile, The Dukes is a good choice for that.
Cleaning these does require taking the two pieces apart because of the seam on the balls where the plastic ball is inserted. However, once taken apart, all of the pieces clean really easily. If you want to share these with others, the silicone sleeves can be boiled and the plastic balls can be bleached, but regular cleaning with warm water and anti-bacterial soap should work for most uses. It’s compatible with water-based lubricant, and the material doesn’t pick up any lint or dust, so you should be fine to keep it wherever you’d like.
Overall, The Dukes ends up being a good set of vaginal exercisers which ends up being perfect for beginners. Because of the single and double-shell options as well as the two different weight variations, beginners can choose what will work perfectly for them and their body and what weight level they would like to start at. Once that is chosen, they can continue to “work out” in weights with The Dukes or know what options they should be looking for with further vaginal balls.
