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I love light shows. Aurora Borealis type light shows. I buy those little light show lamps from Think Geek, the ones that throw morphing colors over your walls and ceilings. So naturally, when I found a vibrator with a light show built in, I was absolutely interested. The Aurora is a body-safe rechargeable vibrator which has a silicone body (use water based lube only) and a PC-ABS (hard plastic) handle. Mine is a deep burgundy wine color. There’s a leaf pattern on the handle/base that illuminates when the toy is either in use or charging. During use, each vibration setting has its own color which is handy if you want to remember a favorite. I’m personally fond of the aquamarine setting. I find it really poetic to remember a color setting as opposed to remembering, “setting five,” or, “the vibe/pulse setting.” The colors cycle through when the Aurora is seated in the charging cradle, until a full charge has been reached, at which point the light stays a steady deep blue.

Motors

There are two motors, one close to the tip and one near the bottom of the usable shaft, from what I can tell. There are a number of vibration patterns that I’ll get into in the next section. The motors are not controlled separately. Each pattern uses them together differently, either steadily, oscillating back and forth, pulsing, etc. This is different from the larger dual motor LELO vibrators which allow you to choose if you only want to use the motor at the tip, or just the motor at the base, or both, or some pattern of the two. I’d like to say I prefer the way Aurora does it, because in theory, I do. In practice, however, my vagina prefers LELO’s control over the motors even if it sacrifices the cool patterns. The motors are strong, and the low setting feels more like a medium, but pressing the increase speed/intensity button I don’t notice much of a change. This is nice initially, but I find my clit gets kind of desensitized to the vibrations after not too long and I struggle to orgasm.

Design

There’s a product image on the site that shows the floral part of the base, the part that lights up, casting a pattern on a person’s neck in teal light. I’m sad to report, this is an unrealistic image. The light isn’t strong enough to cast patterns on anything. It will glow against your skin, but not with patterns, just in one big amorphous blob.

I think the Aurora would be way better if the shaft was round rather than triangular, and if it was curved rather than straight. The straight shaft with a very very slight overall curve doesn’t do much for the g-spot and doesn’t make it terribly ergonomic. Oh, and the tip is kinda pointed and it pokes my cervix, which sucks especially for me because I have an IUD, so my cervix gets annoyed really easily.

It’s also a bit difficult to grasp during use to maneuver and press into the g-spot, when used internally. Used on the clit, the “seams” on the silicone irritate my clit so I need to make sure I’m using an edge or a flat surface that doesn’t have a seam on it. Needing to be careful of this means that, when used on my clit, I can’t always see the color to know what setting I’m on, which sort of defeats the point of having colored pattern settings. The seams are where the silicone was joined together during manufacture, like the seam in any plastic toy or whatnot. This one isn’t big or rough, but to my clit, it’s more than noticeable.

Controls

There’s three buttons on the handle arranged vertically: +, Power, and -. Power turns it on and changes the settings/colors. + increases speed, and – decreases speed. The Aurora does not remember what setting you were on if you turn the vibrator off, you have to scroll through and find it again. Oh, and if I accidentally change away from a setting that I’m using, I have to scroll through all of them again to get there again. It’s a nuisance.

Vibrations

I’d like to break down the vibration pattern settings. The handle glows a unique color depending on what pattern you are using. I think this is the single coolest feature of the Aurora. They say there are ten settings, but I count nine. I may be wrong, but it’s difficult to tell because after you cycle through the settings once, they start to pop up randomly and unpredictably, so an accurate count becomes difficult.

1. Lavender: Steady vibration with a slight oscillation or pulse.
2. Fuschia: Smooth back and forth pulse between the motors.
3. Orange: Short-short-short-short-long. But it’s different than just that. Each “short” has a slightly different frequency. It’s kind of rhythmic.
4. Amber/Yellow: Short-short-short-short-long-supershort-long-long-supershort-long.
5. Yellow/Green: This is a similar frequency rhythm to the last, but it’s insanely complex and hard to describe, and it’s slightly more intense.
6. Aquamarine: An escalating pulse that travels between the motors and concentrates in the tip rhythmically, when the pulse gets there.
7. Royal Blue: A higher, shorter, faster, more regular escalating pulse that almost feels like throbbing.
8. Indigo: More intense, almost a rumble, a play between the motors. However, this setting sounds like the smoke monster on LOST. RUN!
9. Deep Blue: A pulse with less discrepancy. It’s not going back and forth so far, so it’s more regular, more steady, and is a good solid almost-steady vibration and less a pattern. Stronger than lavender.

Charging Cradle

I have seen the charging cradle feature on other rechargeable vibrators, and seen them done better. Maybe it’s that from the promo image on the site, I imagined Aurora’s cradle was going to be a nice heavy glass or lucite type of material, but it’s opaque black and feels like cheap plastic. Aurora needs to be set just so in the cradle, and if it gets nudged it interrupts the charging, and the light show, until it settles back into place correctly again. Granted, Aurora is 9″ long and 1.4″ wide at the widest point, and therefore is kind of tippy in general when stood up tall, but I feel an improved cradle might make this happen less. I feel like I may be being too hard on the cradle. Most people probably won’t give a damn. Most people will just love that they can easily set their vibrator on the cradle and charge it without needing to mess with batteries. The cradle isn’t bad, it could just be better.

Conclusions

I really wanted to love it, and I loved it initially, but I have always struggled to climax with it. I like the theory behind this vibrator. It’s classy looking, it has a charging cradle, and it glows like the Northern Lights. Thing is, though, cool ideas don’t get the job done. I struggle to get off using this on my clit, and when I use it internally with something else on my clit, I have a hard time grasping the handle. Also, I’ve come to realize that I don’t really care so much about vibrations inside me. I’d rather a cool shape inside me. I’d like an extreme curve to hit the g-spot, or a ball shaped head, or both.

Other people may have different experiences and different preferences when it comes to vibrators. If you usually use a straight or slimline vibrator, this might be something you’d be interested in. I just happen to like more of a curve. Also, as cool as the vibration patterns feel in my hands, they lose something during use. My vagina just doesn’t appreciate the nuance of the patterns. This becomes a case of my needing a steady setting to climax. Overall, I’m not a huge fan. It’s pretty and all, but I’d rather a fugly toy that rocks my world than a pretty one that doesn’t.

I think there’s potential for this vibrator to improve in a second generation, but some changes would need to be made. First, the seam along the usable part would need to disappear. There would need to be a curve for the g-spot and less point at the tip. And maybe a cool translucent charging cradle to catch the lights more and make it actually glow through a room, like I thought it was going to. I hope X-tassie makes some improvements because they have some really unique ideas.