I was having a little chat with the lovely Sam from Simply Pleasure the other day, and she asked if I'd be interested in trying out one of the Palm Power Massagers. I've never used a vibrating wand before, but I've been hearing great things about the Hitachi and the like since forever, so I was definitely keen to give this a shot. As always, check out the review below.
The Palm Power massager is a mains-powered vibrating wand from BMS Factory, the Canadian company behind the Swan, Leaf, & Lux product lines, as well as the renowned PowerBullet™ vibrating motor.
What's surprising about the toy is actually the size of it, because despite looking like quite a hefty piece of equipment in photographs, it actually does fit into the palm of your hand. The whole thing is about 7 1/2" long, and when you have your fingers wrapped around the nicely curved base of the handle your thumb comes to rest right on the power button near the top, so it really is ideal to hold. The head of the wand measures in at near to a 1 1/2" diameter sphere, but don't be fooled by the size because it really does pack a punch.
The wand is made largely from a hard grey ABS plastic, with a soft matte finish which provides ample grip when holding it, as well as a couple of hot-pink accent pieces, including a removable silicone end cap. It's a slightly odd colour combination, and looks almost as though they borrowed a few ideas from the Jimmyjane colour palette. Personally I might have designed something a little more muted, but in this case I'm not overly concerned with appearances.
The Palm Power has only one button, and is operated by what the manual refers to as the "Press and Hold" system. You press the button once to turn the toy on, you hold it down to increase the power level, then you press it again to turn it off. It's a pretty simple system and it works well without overcrowding the small handle. One thing which is nice about how it works is that there aren't incremental power levels, so instead of picking between pre-defined strengths you can set the intensity to any point on the scale between zero and maximum. I wouldn't have minded if they'd included another button or two, because the two possible things which can go wrong during use are: a.) you try to increase the power just slightly and accidentally turn the wand off completely, or b.) you increase the power by too much, then have to turn it off and start again at the beginning to find where you were. Another button or two could solve this, but honestly I'm really nitpicking here as for 99% of the time it works fine how it is.
When the Palm Power is turned on it's amazingly powerful, and truly rumbly too, even at low speeds. My first reaction was to flit between thinking "wow, so much power can come out of something so small?" and "so this is the difference between mains power and battery toys!" If you've ever looked at a small wand before and jumped to an assessment along the lines of "it looks like a child's toy, what can it really be expected to do?" then dispel that pre-judgement from your mind, because you're in for a surprise. What's interesting about the toy is how differently it performs depending on the intensity you have it set at. When you first turn it on you find that you get quite a bit of feedback, and the handle vibrates just as much as the head, causing your arm to judder around. Once you get it right up to the high speeds it's only the head which moves, and the handle feels calm and almost entirely motionless. There's a curious point right in the middle where you can switch back and forth between the two actions; if you press the head firmly against the body then it can cause the handle to start vibrating, but if you then move the wand away and squeeze the handle it sends the vibrations back into the head. It's one of those cases where you can tell that the behaviour is down to physics, and it would probably take engineers quite a while to eliminate it from happening, but it's not that bad. Personally I lean towards the higher power settings, but if you prefer to play on low then a little shaking in the arm shouldn't be to bothersome.
Power inevitably does bring with it increased noise, so when you're up close with it it can come across as a little loud compared to other toys. What's good about it is that it's a pretty standard vibrating noise, and not some terrible rattling sound. I can safely say that leaving it 1m away from a closed door, and standing on the other side of it, it can only be heard ever so faintly. This really surprised me, but it's obviously the type of noise which doesn't travel, so I wouldn't worry too much about people in adjacent rooms hearing your sexual exploits, unless you're the one making the sounds rather than the toy.
There are two main ways you can use the Palm Power: as an actual body massager, and of course as a sex toy.
It almost seems strange to review it in its capacity as a body massager, and maybe this is why I can sense that this paragraph will be short. The simple fact is that it really works. I've never used a massager such as this before, but those strong rumbly vibrations I mentioned earlier really do penetrate deep into the muscle tissue of the body. All you need to do is press the tip into the muscle you wish to massage, crank up the power, then just relax and feel how soothing it is. I'd be highly inclined to suggest it to anyone who has a lot of muscle tension, or who has a partner who could benefit. A few minutes spent feeling the vibrations rippling through your body is enough to make anyone feel better. If you want to double the action then you can move the head around the muscle at the same time, and use a firm pressure in a circular motion to massage manually alongside the vibrations.
As a sex toy the Palm Power in it's basic form is somewhat limited in how you can use it, because it is essentially restricted to being an external vibrator, but as soon as you start using it and feeling its power then the last thing that will be on your mind is what it can't do. Massaging the head and shaft of the penis with the wand is quite an intense experience; there are some vibrators which feel pleasant enough but which still take a while to get you off that way, but this certainly isn't the case. With the Palm Power turned up to full strength, and applied to just the right spots, I could have climaxed in seconds if I'd allowed myself. That's just how effective it is. Of course rarely does anyone want to cum that quickly, most of the time you want to draw it out for a good long session, and this is perfectly possible with the Palm Power too. Changing the power settings is always one option, and a low vibration is better for sustained steady titillation. It's also about where precisely you apply the wand. With a little bit of water-based lube applied to the tip you can slide it wherever you want it, so instead of focussing mainly on the more sensitive parts of the penis, around the head and frenulum, you can work lower down on the shaft, only occasionally making contact with the most erogenous regions. You don't have to use a lube, the silicone head does slide quite nicely over the skin, but there is a degree of drag which not everyone will appreciate.
Another thing which is fantastic about the Palm Power is that a selection of interchangeable heads are available for it (sold separately), and I was lucky enough to be given these to test out as well. There are two sets, the Palm Body and the Palm Sensual, each containing two different heads, and I'm going to be awkward here because I prefer one from each. The pink silicone cap easily pops off the head of the wand, and one of the attachments slips on securely in its place. The new heads are all made of 100% silicone, but what's interesting is that they feel different to the standard cap. They're quite a firm silicone, but the surface of them feels softer, more velvety, and slightly more luxurious. It made me wish that the standard cap was a little more like this, not that there's anything wrong with the way it is currently, it just shows that there is room for some slight improvement.
The Palm Body kit contains two attachments specifically designed for use when massaging the body: the Palm Finger - "two pointed edges to relax every muscle in your fingers and palm" and the Palm Arm - "two rounded edges glide over your arm for a truly magnificent massage."
The Palm Finger is one of my favourites, and not for the reason for which it's apparently intended. It has two little prongs at the end, which stick up like bunny ears on a rabbit vibrator, and these really focus all the vibrations from the wand at their tips, seeming to amplify the intensity further. I gather that you're supposed to use it on the hands and fingers, but I didn't get much out of this; where it really comes into its own is on the genitals. I've always been curious about those two-pronged vibrators like the Jimmyjane Form 2, and this pretty much satisfies the question of whether or not that design is effective. Running the two prongs up and down the shaft of the penis is blissful, having them lodged beneath the head and straddling the frenulum. I dare say that using the Palm Power like this is better than using it without. If you could only pick one attachment then this would be the one which I recommend.
The Palm Arm is an attachment which really is best suited for use on the body. Because of its shape it also focusses the vibrations from the wand at its tips, but because they're so far apart it makes it impractical for genital use. On the other hand it does feel rather nice to run attachment over the forearms and biceps, so it does fulfil its intended purpose, though I'm not altogether certain that I'd acquire a vibrating wand with the express intention of massaging arms. If you do have a penis as thick as a forearm, then perhaps you could re-purpose it, but I'd still maintain that the Palm Finger is more suited in that capacity.
The Palm Sensual kit contains two attachments specifically designed for sexual stimulation, though more female sexual stimulation I hasten to add, but at least one of them is good for a man. The first is the Palm Below - "rounded flexible neck for G-spot stimulation" and the second is the Palm Dual, which looks a little like a miniature version of the Silver Swan.
The Palm Below is my second favourite attachment, because it can be used like a prostate massager. It has a nice flexible neck, so you can comfortably insert the end of it into the anus, then have the head of the wand sitting against the perineum. The downside to the attachment is that the vibrations don't travel through it quite as well as in the Palm Body pieces, so rather than the vibrations becoming focussed right at the tip, instead they remain strongest down closest to the wand. The result is that you feel vibrations mostly strongly outside the body along the perineum, but enough do travel through the silicone to deliver pleasant sensations to the prostate. It doesn't stimulate the prostate as well as some specialist prostate massagers, but it's definitely nice to have this option and versatility with the product.
The Palm Dual I must confess I haven't used. The shape of it and flexibility of the material just makes it impractical for a male body in terms of trying to insert the ends anywhere. The tips do again help to focus the vibrations, however, so you can use the ends for more pin-point accuracy during external stimulation if you wish. Other than that there really isn't a great deal to say.
The Palm Power utilises one of the same type of universal power adaptors as the Silver Swan, but the two aren't interchangeable due to the use of different voltages, as well as having dissimilar plugs which connect them to the products. I still find the whole design of them to be rather ingenious however. The adaptor comes in two separate parts: there's a transformer connected to the power lead which plugs into the toy, and then there's a selection of different prongs which clip onto the transformer, depending on where in the world you want you use it. There are four different attachments in total, one for the UK, EU countries, Australia/New Zealand, and North America/Japan. Each of the sets of prongs clips on really firmly to form a secure unit, and it's a simple button push to pop them back off again and switch them. For added peace of mind the button is located in a position where it can't be pressed while the charger is plugged into a socket, so there's no chance of accidentally separating it while live current is flowing. The design is convenient in two ways, firstly because you can buy the product anywhere and know that it'll work when you get home without the need for adaptors, and secondly because you can customise the adaptor when you're planning to travel abroad on holiday.
The power cable for the toy is nearly 2.5m long, which is great for a mains-powered product as it gives it gives you a lot of distance to utilise while still being tied to the nearest socket. What's slightly unusual for a mains-powered toy is that the power lead isn't wired into it and can be detached. I rather like this though, because it means I can neatly put the wand away into my toy drawer, then wind up the lengthy cable and store with all of my other adaptors. Conveniently the plug actually has "Palm Power" printed on it, which makes locating it amongst my drawer of cable spaghetti so much easier, compared to every other toy and its generic charger.
The Palm Power is not waterproof, so you want to be careful when cleaning it. What's good is that the end cap is removable, so you can wash it separately then replace it when it's dry. If you make a mess with lube all down the handle then you'll have to try to carefully wipe it up with a damp cloth, when it's unplugged of course.
The packaging for all the Palm Power products and accessories is a nice simple clear plastic box, which can be recycled. I'm really not going to go into too much detail in an already essay-length review. Suffice it to say it's tasteful and serves its purpose, but you probably won't choose to keep it. You don't get any sort of pouch to keep the wand in so you might want to buy one yourself.
The Palm Power is available from Simply Pleasure.