The first item I saw in the Icon Brands Fashionistas line was the Fashionistas Bunny Plug (small and large). One day while browsing for a new crop I ran across the Fashionistas Riding Crop. They also make a whip. Both are available from Amazon. The design looked super pretty and I knew I had to have one.
WHAT IT IS
The name pretty much says it all. The Fashionistas Riding Crop is a crop. Didn’t take much to figure that one out, huh? Crops are used for impact play. The difference between this crop and others is that the handle is made of glass, etched with a pretty fairy design. You could use the handle as a dildo, but it’s pretty thin. It does do double duty if you need it to.
PACKAGING
The packaging on the crop is pretty, but not at all discreet. It’s entirely made of plastic with the front clear so the crop is visible through it. It says “Fashionistas Glass Crop” on it. The back has a little blurb about the product and has photos of the other products in the line, including nipple suckers and a paddle.
The packaging holds up well (it’s been sitting in my drawer for a while and hasn’t lost shape), so it’s possible to use it for storage. Since crops tend to take up enough room without adding bulk around them, I doubt you’ll end up using it for that.
MATERIAL
The crop is made from leather and glass. The packaging doesn’t list the material of the middle, but our best guess is plastic with nylon coating.
The leather is semi-soft and pliable. It has the letter F enclosed in a circle embossed on it. The ends of the leather have a lot of the little fuzzies that you get with leather items. It isn’t extra high quality, but it’s better than cheap leather.
The glass is black with fairies etched onto it. It’s quite weighty. The weight from the glass makes holding this feel different than holding other crops. You can really feel the weight in your hand when you hold onto it. My husband says he really likes the weight while using it.
The stitching on the leather is a bit off. It doesn’t seem to be perfectly straight and is fraying a bit from use. It does seem like it will hold up, it just doesn’t look spectacular.
SIZE
The total length of the crop is 19″. The crop portion is 3 3/8″ long and 1.75″ wide. The handle is 6.5″ long and 1″ wide.
At 19″, this is a shorter crop. This makes it easy to store, which is a plus. In use, the length will depend a lot on preference. My husband seems to prefer the shorter crops as he can use them during sex and doesn’t have to be far away from me to hit me with them. The length really makes no difference to me as the receiver. Since he likes the shorter ones, I try to buy to his preference.
DESIGN
The crop is done in slapper style, meaning that it’s a piece of leather folded over on itself. This creates a loop in the middle. The encircled F on the leather isn’t something that can be felt, nor will it leave the lettering on the body.
The crop portion is very pliable. I can push on the top of the loop and flatten it down. The pliability of the material seems to make it more “slappy” in feeling. And, yes, I know that’s not a real word.
The middle is, as best I can figure, plastic with a nylon wrapped around it. The nylon has a shiny appearance that catches the light and makes it look sparkly. It’s cut in a diamond design which is probably why it has the sparkle effect. Through the diamond cut outs you can see the black plastic.
The handle is simply stunning. Etched onto it is a grey-ish gold design of two fairies and some floral accents. The fairies appear in naked silhouette with what can only be called stripper heels. I thought my husband would hate the girly design of the handle, but the naked fairies must have won him over.
RIDING CROP IN USE
Since it’s got the slapper loop, this makes the crop louder than a solid leather crop. It makes that familiar “smack” sound that reverberates through the room. It’s not something you should use when you have house guests.
The impact of it isn’t super intense, but isn’t weak either. It falls right about it the moderate category perfectly. Probably too intense for a true beginner (when hit with full force), but perhaps not intense enough for those who enjoy high levels of pain. We find this to be the perfect crop for warming up. Sometimes we’ll just use this one on a lighter evening. Most of the time it’s followed by a more intense impact toy.
If you slap with it lightly, it can produce very mild results. Because of this, beginners who have a light hand may be able to use it. Just be cautioned that it can get stronger with a heavy hand.
The end result after using this for a while is a red backside, but not a bruised one.
The feel of the crop is somewhere between stingy and thuddy, leaning a bit more to the stingy side. The crop has enough width that it doesn’t have the same sting as a narrow tip crop or cane would have. It’s also not thuddy in the same way that a thick leather flogger would be.
I quite like this as a warm up crop given the moderate intensity and the fact that it doesn’t sting terribly. I like both stingy and thuddy sensations, but prefer thuddy.
Apparently this crop really shines on the holder’s end. Since we got this crop, my husband has used it every time we play. Before writing this review I asked him why that was. He says he really likes the weight of the glass in his hand when he wields it. Where most crops are light, this one has a heavy weight to it. He also likes the length of it because he doesn’t need to be far back to use it.
I’m a big fan of the design of the crop with the pretty fairies on it. I also think it’s one of the better warm up tools we have. I like the slapping sound it makes as well.
RECOMMENDATION
If you’re looking for a moderate pain level crop, then yes. If you want something to the softer or harder side of impact then this won’t work. I think the market for this will be intermediate impact players or advanced users who want a warm up item. Or advanced users who want a pretty glass handle to hold onto.
IN CONCLUSION
Given how much my husband seems to adore this crop, I can’t help but give it five stars. It may not produce the heaviest impact, but you need something to warm up with! Plus, you know, fairies!
Rating: 5/5
Intensity: N/A
Noise: N/A
Pros: Heavy glass handle, Middle appears sparkly, Makes slapping sound, Good for warm up
Cons: Won’t work if you’re looking for heavy impact
PURCHASING
The Fashionistas Riding Crop is available from Amazon for $37.43.
