Year: 2022

Vic Mensa has just sprinkled a surprise Valentine’s Day release in the form of the sensual 4-track EP, Vino Valentino. For Mensa — who was released from a brief stint in jail last month following an arrest for LSD and mushroom possession upon returning to the US from Ghana — the EP is a departure from the politically-charged nature of 2021’s I TAPE and really most of his previous material. But the Southside of Chicago lifer more than holds his own as a romantic crooner on this new joint.

Album opener “D’ussé Tears” is a mildly auto-tuned swoon over gentle bedroom R&B and jolts of electric guitar. “Will you be my Valentine? All the time… every time …anytime?” he asks on the track’s climax, making it a worthy addition for mid-February playlists. He’s brought along a stable of longtime collaborators and Chicago hip-hop’s finest, like producer and multi-instrumentalist Peter CottonTale, producer Stefan Ponce, and poet Malik Yousef.

Check out the Vino Valentino cover artwork and tracklist below.

1. “D’ussé Tears” (feat. Dixson & Malik Yusef) – Produced by Vic Mensa, Additional Production by Peter CottonTale, Greg Landfair, Dwayne Verner Jr., Dixson
2. “Alone Wit U” (feat. Do Or Die) – Produced by Stefan Ponce
3. “Cancer” (Interlude) – Produced by Stefan Ponce
4. “Can I Call U Baby” (feat. Peter CottonTale) – Produced By Vic Mensa, Peter CottonTale, Stefan Ponce, Dwayne Verner Jr., Greg Landfair, and Erik Rumsa

Vino Valentino is out now via Roc Nation. Listen to it here.

For the past few weeks, Fight Club has been in the headlines after cinephiles noticed that China censored the ending to the over 20-year-old film. Interestingly, Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk had a surprising reaction to the film’s censorship thanks to the Chinese version matching the ending he originally wrote in the book. (In the new edit, Tyler Durden is arrested by the police before he can blow up several credit card buildings. He’s released from jail years later to pursue a happier life.)

However, the situation seemed to resolve itself when Tencent Video, who was streaming the film in China, quietly removed the censored ending with no explanation as to how or why the edits were made. Until now. In a new interview, Fight Club director David Fincher reveals how the whole thing happened and why it makes absolutely zero sense to him.

According to Fincher, the film was licensed to stream in China with the standard boilerplate provision that “you have to understand cuts may be made for censorship purposes.” What no one expected is that those cuts would involve just straight-up changing the ending (which will now be a concern going forward), and Fincher, for the life of him doesn’t understand the reasoning behind any of it. Via Empire:

While the ‘trims’ are more significant than that word implies, Fincher is less frustrated, more bemused by the whole situation. “If you don’t like this story, why would you license this movie?” he asks. “It makes no sense to me when people go, ‘I think it would be good for our service if we had your title on it… we just want it to be a different movie.’ The f*cking movie is 20 years old. It’s not like it had a reputation for being super cuddly.”

Like Palahniuk, Fincher also found it amusing that the edit actually matches the book, which means whoever censored it more than likely read the source material. Was this whole thing just someone taking “the book was better” to the extreme? Probably not, but maybe.

(Via Empire)

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car is the first Japanese film ever to score an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. It’s also up for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best International Feature, and after slowly rolling out in limited release over the past few months (with arthouse blockbuster success), the film is now in over 100 theaters.

That’s a lot for an indie, but it’s tiny compared to the 3,280 theaters that Death on the Nile — which is an hour shorter than Drive My Car, but feels twice as long — opened to this weekend. If you’re not near any of the cities where Drive My Car is playing (the list is here), don’t worry, it’s coming to HBO Max on March 2. There goes your excuse.

Drive My Car follows stage director Yusuke Kafuku (played by Hidetoshi Nishijima) who, two years after his wife’s death, accepts an offer to direct a production of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima, Japan. That’s where he meets Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), who is assigned to drive him in his Saab 900. “Forced to confront painful truths raised from his past, the official plot description reads, “Yusuke begins – with the help of his driver – to face the haunting mysteries his wife left behind.”

Better start looking for a red Saab 900 now. They’re going to impossible to find once Drive My Car (hopefully) wins at least one Oscar on March 27.

The news of Ivan Reitman’s death hit at almost the exact moment the Super Bowl ended. One of the biggest popular culture events of the year ended with the news that the man who created so many cultural touchstones – two Ghostbusters movies, Stripes, Dave among them – was gone. Ivan Reitman just felt like one of those directors who would just be around forever.

It might be a strange choice that, hearing of Reitman’s passing, the first movie I thought about was Meatballs, which was Reitman’s first time directing a somewhat mainstream film. A few months ago I rewatched Meatballs and, honestly, I was expecting something crass or crude. (To be fair, most movies that take place at a summer camp tend to lean on the crass side.) But Meatballs is a surprisingly sweet movie – at least about as sweet as a late-’70s movie that takes place at a summer camp can possible be. But there’s a lot of interesting stuff in Meatballs that would help inform a lot of Reitman’s greater successes over the years.

There’s basically no plot to this movie. The entire film seems to hinge on turning the camera on and letting Bill Murray riff for however long he wants and about any topic he wants. Murray plays Tripper Harrison, a wiseass councilor for Camp North Star who, when we first meet him, is telling a news crew (while pretending to be from another, better, summer camp) about how Yasser Arafat and Henry Kissinger are going to come hang out at the camp with the kids. I have a hard time believing almost anything Murray says in this movie was actually in the script. There are scenes where it feels like Murray literary jumps into frame, does a comedy bit about something that has almost nothing to do with what’s going on in the movie, then jumps out. It’s a movie star performance like we don’t see anymore. It’s jarring, now, how the whole movie hinges on one actor’s ability to capture the screen – especially considering this is Murray’s first starring role and no one was quite sure if he had the ability to do that or not. (You will probably not be surprised to learn that right up until filming no one was quite sure if Murray was going to show up or not.)

What’s surprising about Meatballs is it never devolves into, well, pretty much every other movie from this era with similar topics. There’s no scene of “the boys peaking into the girl’s shower,” or any of the other crude tropes at the time. Tripper is just a positive guy who just wants the kids to feel good about themselves and do the best they can in the athletic competition against the rival, more expensive camp. It’s here that Murray delivers a speech about none of this mattering that is, strangely, both motivational and also feels like it’s not entirely part of the script. And about halfway through the kids in the room stop rooting for Tripper Harrison and begin rooting for Bill Murray.

One of Reitman‘s greatest attributes as a director is it feels like, after the success of Meatballs, he decided, “What if we let all these kinds of moments happen in a movie where there is a plot?” So instead of Bill Murray just kind of hanging out, not doing much of anything, the same kind of “anything goes, let’s see what happens” momentum was used in Reitman’s next two movies where Bill Murray joins the Army, then Bill Murray busts ghosts. There’s just something so freewheeling about all three of these movies and it creates a one-two-three punch of movies in a row that’s hard to beat for comedies from one director. (It’s the one thing about the original Ghostbusters that’s so difficult to recreate. It’s not the lore that makes it works, or really even the jokes, but more just the (at least displayed) laid-back atmosphere of the production. It’s basically Meatballs only with a plot and a huge budget. To the point, I think it’s just something that’s impossible to recreate. It was a perfect storm of happenstances that will probably never happen again.)

Reitman’s next movie after Ghostbusters, Legal Eagles, works as the exception that proves the rule. This is not a freewheeling movie where it feels like everyone is going with the flow. Legal Eagles is a movie that should be terrific. (To be fair, it was a fairly big hit at the box office.) Ivan Reitman, Robert Redford and Debra Winger all together (not to mention a hit Rod Stewart song with a video in heavy rotation at the time) should have been a recipe for success. To the point I also rewatched Legal Eagles somewhat recently in a, come on, this has to be good kind of way. But it gets bogged down with too much plot. To the point Reitman’s three prior films lean into their vibe, while the movie feels like it’s fighting against itself, resulting in a movie that is way more confusing than it should be for what it is. (I thought maybe I was just being stupid, then I looked up the contemporary reviews from the time and almost everyone complains about how confusing this movie is.)

What’s remarkable is if not for Legal Eagle, Reitman has a seven comedy film stretch that would be hard to beat. After Legal Eagles, Reitman puts out Twins, Ghostbusters II (I am in the camp that thinks this is a good movie), Kindergarten Cop and Dave. Few comedy directors have that kind of run.

Meatballls is not Reitman’s best movie. But I truly believe Reitman was at his best when he incorporated the feel and vibe of Meatballs into his big-budget movies. With Meatballs, it was proven Reitman could have a hit with no plot, no budget, and one charismatic star. That’s all it took to keep people entertained. Then was a deft enough director to realize, hey, what if we keep these elements that work and just add money and plot. And it worked and we, as a society, benefited and will continue to benefit from Ivan Reitman’s work. But I’m not convinced any of this happens without Meatballs.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

(Plentiful spoilers from Netflix’s Ozark will be found below.)

Any devoted Ozark viewer surely already tore through the first half of the show’s final season (which arrived on January 21), so you’re undoubtedly wondering when the next fix will arrive. The unusually structured season will actually wrap up the show, and god only knows whether the Byrde family’s money laundering ways will end, and they’ll be able to peacefully head back to Chicago. This doesn’t seem too likely, especially since the series has let us know that there’s a major car wreck involved.

As well, Ruth Langmore ended the half-season in a rage, justifiably so, following the death of her cousin, Wyatt, who was murdered by Javi after he killed Darlene. Ruth discovered the scene and went straight to Marty and demanded answers on who did the deed. She steadfastly vowed that justice will be served upon the killer. Jonah, of course, spilled the details of Javi’s identity, and even though Marty warned Ruth away from vengeance, it’s unlikely that she’ll listen to him.

When will the repercussions go down? Netflix hasn’t revealed a precise date, but we can make a guess, based upon similarly structured seasons from the streaming service. With Masters of the Universe: Revelation, the first part arrived on July 23, 2021 and the next followup on November 23, 2021. For Unsolved Mysteries, the first half season streamed on on July 1, 2021 with the rest arriving on October 19, 2021.

So, anywhere between four and six months seems like the spacing that Netflix typically works with during divided seasons. We should know more soon, but fingers crossed that we’ll see the Ozark finale this summer.

‘Ozark’ is currently streaming (Season 4, Part 1) on Netflix.

When the Oscars failed to recognize the year’s most popular film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, many took to Twitter to voice their disappointment at the Academy, which already doesn’t have a great reputation. Well, now there’s good news on that front: the Oscars will now recognize a fan-voted film on Twitter. The key word here is “recognize,” i.e. not actually give an award to.

Between Feb 8-12th, fans can vote on Twitter for their favorite film from 2021 by posting it with #OscarsFanFavorite, and that winning fan-favorite film with the most votes will be announced during the 94th Oscars broadcast on March 27th.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Twitter to help build an engaged and excited digital audience leading up to this year’s ceremony,” says Meryl Johnson, digital marketing VP at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said in a statement. “Through these activations, social media users around the world now have more opportunities to engage with the show in real-time, find a community and be a part of the experience in ways they’ve never been able to before.”

The fan-picked film will get recognized during the broadcast on March 27th, and three voting Twitter users will win an all-expense paid trip to the 2023 Oscars to present an award. In addition to picking a movie, Twitter users are also encouraged to tweet about their favorite scene from a 2021 film using #OscarsCheerMoment.

The winning fan favorite scenes will be shown at the Oscars ceremony, alongside the fans tweets, and five users who participated in the campaign will receive a celeb-worthy gift basket from the Academy itself. So, you just might be able to see Woody Harrelson say the iconic line “Let there be carnage” from Venom: Let There Be Carnage on the Oscar’s broadcast after all.

While the rest of the country sorted through celebrity crypto commercials and a game of football to enjoy the Super Bowl Halftime Show, Donald Trump Jr. sat in his office, ranting about everything from Bob Woodward to Hillary Clinton and Watergate before concluding that his dad is right … about everything.

Don Jr. streamed his unhinged tirade during the big game last night, attacking a host of people he views as responsible for the latest “smear campaign” against his father. Recently, Trump has been in the news thanks to an investigation into alleged activity between a server linked to the Trump Organization and two servers belonging to a Russian bank known as Alfa Bank. The communication between the servers was first noticed by computer data scientists in 2016 and used by Hillary Clinton’s campaign as a tactic to cast doubt on Trump’s relationship with Russia. Last year, Trump-appointed special counsel John Durham indicted a cybersecurity lawyer who passed information about the Trump-Alfa Bank connection to the FBI but failed to disclose his working relationship with the Clinton campaign.

Despite prominent computer scientists continuing to back their findings — that Trump’s server had suspicious communication with the Russian bank’s servers over the course of his campaign and presidency — Don Jr. and the rest of Trump’s supporters are pointing to the indictment as proof that Clinton and other Democrats were spying on Trump for years. And he chose to make this argument during the Super Bowl for some reason.

In the video above, Don Jr. can be seen skewering Clinton and name-checking journalist Bob Woodward — who he says has been “milking” his Watergate expose for 40 years — before claiming that the server scandal has been created by Dems to make his dad look bad.

“This is worse than Watergate,” a squinty-eyed Trump yells at the camera. “Given that spying continued into my father’s presidency, this is literally worse than Watergate. Trump was right. Trump was right about everything guys.”

Now it’s not clear whether Don Jr. is distracted in the video or just looking down to make sure he doesn’t miss the “compare something to Watergate” cue on his notecards but either way, you can tell this dude really believes his delusions because of all the finger bunnies he breaks out in the minute-long clip.

In recent days, it has been reported that Ye (aka Kanye West) and Julia Fox’s relationship has been on the downtrend recently. Now, it appears Fox has confirmed that and more: Based on how she tells it, it looks like she and Ye have broken up.

Pop Crave reports Fox responded to rumors that she was seen leaving LAX in tears, “Y’all would love if I was soooo upset! The media would love to paint a picture of me a sad lonely woman crying on a plane by myself but it’s NOT TRUE!! Why not see me for what I am which is a #1 hustler. I came up yall lol and not only that but Kanye and I are on good terms! I have love for him but I wasn’t in love w the man Jesus Christ what do u guys think I am 12 years old?! and for the record the only time I cried in 2022 was on Feb 6th on my dead BFF bday. Anyway If u want the full tea ur gonna have to buy the book when it comes out :).”

Furthermore, a representative for Fox told E! and Page Six, “Julia and Kanye remain good friends and collaborators, but they are no longer together.”

Meanwhile, hours ago on Instagram, Ye posted about how he is still hoping for a reunion with Kim Kardashian, writing, “I DON’T HAVE BEEF WITH KIM I LOVE MY FAMILY SO STOP THAT NARRATIVE IM NOT GIVING UP ON MY FAMILY […] I HAVE FAITH THAT WE‘LL BE BACK TOGETHER […] PEOPLE CALL ME CRAZY BUT TO BE IN LOVE IS TO BE CRAZY ABOUT SOMETHING AND I AM CRAZY ABOUT MY FAMILY HAPPY VALENTINES.” In a post shared shortly after, he asked that if fans see “Skete” (it’s believed this is referring to Pete Davidson) in real life, they “SCREAM AT YHE LOOSER AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS AND SAY KIMYE FOREVER.”

Don’t get me wrong, I love flowers, chocolates, and fluffy teddy bears as much as the next gal. That shit makes me swoon like the final scene of a cheesy rom-com. But when it comes to Valentine’s Day, there’s more to it than romantic gestures, fancy dinners, and sugary treats. It’s about getting intimate with your favorite person (or with yourself) and learning more about each other both emotionally and physically.

To put it more bluntly, it’s about making love, getting laid, shagging — whatever you want to call it. And there’s no better time than Valentine’s Day to experiment in the bedroom and live out your (consensual, respectfully discussed) wildest fantasies.

This, of course, requires setting the mood. Smooth jazz music and aphrodisiacs are great, but what can really step up the romantic ambiance is the gift exchange. When the sun goes down and you’re ready to hit the hay (wink, wink), break out the products below. I’ve gathered a list of sexy gifts that are sure to put you and your Valentine in the mood.

OhMiBod’s Lovelife Rev

Price: $69

The Company Line:

The Lovelife Rev by OhMiBod is the personal intimate massager you never knew you were missing. Ideal for foreplay, oral sex, and the main event, this easy-grip finger massager delivers a purring vibration to all the right places. It’s designed with accessibility in mind, featuring an ergonomic design that’s easy to hold. The quiet yet powerful Lovelife Rev is made with body-friendly silicone, includes five present pulsations, waterproof material, and USB rechargeable.

The Bottom Line:

The bottom line is that this toy is basically an orgasm waiting to happen (for both parties involved). Not only does this handheld, rechargeable vibrator take your sex life up a notch (or ten notches), but it’s also accessible and easy to use for couples of all kinds.

It’s a simple yet highly effective tool to keep things fun and interesting with your partner.

Buy Here

Girard Artistry Wine

Price: $60

The Company Line:

Artistry is perfected from a blend of five classic Bordeaux varieties to showcase the very best of each year’s harvest. Sourced from St. Helena, Oakville, Diamond Mountain, and Pope Valley for their ability to offer rich and supple fruit flavors with well-integrated tannins.

The Bottom Line:

There’s nothing like a tall glass of red to get things going. Loosen up by opening a bottle of this Girard Artistry blend that’s rich in flavor and goes down smooth.

Buy Here

Lovers Aphrodisiac Sex Chocolates

Price: $1

The Company Line:

These gourmet chocolates are chock full of aphrodisiac herbs to boost arousal and sensitivity. This specific blend is designed to enhance libido and improve sensation with a subtle amaretto flavor.

The Bottom Line:

Chocolate is a Valentine’s Day essential, so you might as well opt for something that gets you riled up (and I’m not talking about the sugar high). Let’s just say these fanciful chocolates became a viral TikTok trend for a reason.

Plus, this might be the most affordable Valentine’s Day gift ever.

Buy Here

Euka shower bombs

Price: $16.20

The Company Line: Take your at-home spa day to the next level. Euka Wellness Shower Bombs are made with a proprietary blend of essential oils designed to open your airways, relax your body, and transform your mood.

Feel at ease — our Shower bombs are all-natural, organic, and preservative-free. Shower bombs come in four uplifting scents: Breath Well, Happy, Calm, and Detox.

The Bottom Line:

What better way to get intimate with your partner than by hopping in a hot shower? It’s the perfect steamy finale for your romantic holiday celebration. These deliciously scented bombs will infuse your shower with all the cleansing aromatic vibes you could ask for.

Buy Here

Lovehoney Oh! Kinky Confessions Truth or Dare Card Game

Price: $8.99

The Company Line: If you’ve always wanted to find out more about what your partner prefers in the bedroom, then grab yourself these cheeky cards and find out! With 52 sexy “Would You Rather” questions, take it in turns to reveal your preferences.

To play the game, simply shuffle the cards and pick out ten at random, then take it in turns to read the questions to each other. Some of the questions included are, ‘”Would you rather have sex in the bath or shower?,” “Would you rather eat chocolate sauce or ice cream off your partner’s body?,” and “Would you rather spank or be spanked?”

The Bottom Line:

This game is where intimacy meets playful fun. It’s an excellent tool for creating a safe space to talk with your partner openly about what you love in the bedroom. This can help you get to know each other a little better and ultimately bring you closer as a couple — that’s important.

Buy Here

Harridan Vodka

Price: $59.99

The Company Line:

Strict, bossy, or belligerent old woman. This premium, small-batch vodka is handcrafted and distilled in Ovid, New York from local, organic corn grown by fifth-generation farmers. Bottled in glass bottles handblown from recycled glass and sealed with a signature black wax. At 88 proof, Harridan is not your traditional vodka — cheers to the spirit of defiance! This vodka is both woman-owned and gluten-free.

The Bottom Line:

This vodka is basically made from unapologetic, strong women. The kind of women who aren’t afraid to embrace their sexuality and try new things in the bedroom. It’s the ultimate Valentine’s Day libation — create festive cocktails using sweet mixers to set the tone of the evening.

Buy Here

Maude burn no. 1 Soy Massage Candle

Price: $30

The Company Line:

Made with skin-softening jojoba and soybean oils, this hand-poured massage candle is unscented and made with a 100 percent cotton, lead-free wick and cruelty-free ingredients. Once melted and extinguished, it can be poured on the skin. Scent no. 1 is blended with warming notes of amber, cedar leaf, lemongrass, tonka bean, and Medjool date.

The Bottom Line:

This gift will literally light up the level of intimacy between you and your partner. Set the mood and burn this earthy candle during dinner, then use the wax for some flaming hot foreplay you’ll be thinking about for days. (Yes, I went there.)

Buy Here

Anouchka Unlined Bodysuit

Price: $49.95

The Company Line:

Tap into your bolder side of sexy in this red-hot plunging bodysuit, designed to make a fiery, showstopping appearance! Anouchka’s floral eyelash-lace details highlight your curves, while the sexy G-string and open-back details may just be ready to bear it all. Whether you’re layering this curve-loving look during the day or making your daring move at night, there’s no telling where the next hour will take you…

The Bottom Line:

Is it really Valentine’s Day without lingerie? It’s safe to say your partner’s jaw will hit the floor the second you step out in this sexy red bodysuit.

Buy Here

Our Erotic Journey Wild at Heart

The Company Line:

Release the wild side in you with the “Wild at Heart” mini-vibe! Don’t let the size fool you. The “Wild at Heart” is a powerful clitoral stimulator with three speeds and seven orgasmic, pulsating, vibrating patterns. Rechargeable, water-resistant, and made from silky soft silicone, the “Wild at Heart” is discreet enough to throw in your bag and go with you wherever your next adventure takes you. So stay curious, try new things, and always stay “Wild at Heart.”

The Bottom Line:

It’s a heart-shaped vibrator, for Cupid’s sake. There isn’t a more perfect toy out there for a Valentine’s Day sexscapade. This is the one thing where size actually doesn’t matter. Its mini form makes it easy to bring added pleasure with you anywhere. So you’ll be ready for spontaneity and adventure with your partner at any moment.

Buy Here

Woo Hoo Coconut-Passion-Fruit-Flavored Lube

Price: $12.74

The Company Line:

Whoop it up in bed with Woo Hoo! With its smooth and buttery texture, this coconut passion fruit flavored sex lube effortlessly enhances all the pleasures of intimacy. Got an oral craving? Tasty Woo Hoo is great for making foreplay and sex even more exciting.

The Bottom Line:

Good lube is an easy way to enhance sex with your partner. But when you add enticing, edible flavors to the mix? Well, that’s a whole other level of pleasure.

Buy Here

Weed and sex. Two of the best parts about being alive, besides dogs, friends, and other drugs of course. While the old-school way of incorporating weed into your… romantic interactions — simply sharing a joint with your partner — still works great, an explosion in specified products has revolutionized the cannasexual realm.

Lubes, tinctures, edibles, serums, suppositories, and more are aimed at heightening pleasure, reducing pain, and relaxing the anxiety that often messes with performance or your ability to climax. Unlike other arenas in the cannabis space (like celebrity weed brands or CBD hot sauce) that leave you asking… por que? Cannabis sex products have blown up because they’re so goddamn effective. They really help people, sparking sexual awakenings, healing trauma, saving partnerships, and everything in between.

There’s a scientific explanation as to why weed and sex pair together like a euphoric ying-yang. THC is a vasodilator, meaning that it widens the blood vessels, therefore allowing blood to flow more freely through the capillaries, enhancing sensation. While CBD can reduce pain, inflammation, and relax nerves, THC is, in my opinion, where the money is if you’re in it to up your pleasure game.

And what better a time to start than Valentine’s Day? Don’t let capitalism trick you into thinking this holiday has to be a stressful obligation to spend a ton of money. You can celebrate love by just having sex and doing weed about it! Here are some fun, sexy, and stoney products to remind you what this holiday is really all about.

Night Moves by Quim

Price: $51

Another cool thing about the cannasexual arena is that it’s largely for women, by women. While men of course benefit from these products, they’re really more tailored to enhancing the female experience.

Such is the case with Quim, a woman-owned brand that’s been my go-to in this arena for years now. My favorite of her products is Night Moves, a THC heavy oil with damiana to enhance libido, and tea tree to support proactive vaginal health.

Bottom Line:

This is my favorite cannabis sex product, because I use it to increase pleasure, not decrease pain. Perfect for fun nights with your partner if you want to spice it up and get a little wild.

Highly Orgasmic CBD Pleasure Oil by Her Highness

Price: $60

Another of my woman-owned favs is the Highly Orgasmic CBD Pleasure Oil from Her Highness, an NYC brand for the chic and savvy “ouid girl” in all of us. This is an extremely giftable and high-quality product, exquisite in execution from the packaging to the oil itself.

The formula was concocted by a professional female herbalist (girl power!) and contains botanicals aimed at increasing wetness and relaxing muscles. This is not a lube. This is an orgasm enhancer.

Bottom Line:

This product is great if you struggle with pain, anxiety, endometriosis, or other issues with reaching climax. It works…really well.

Mello CBD Suppositories

Price: $60

Ahh, suppositories. Hilarious? A little. Effective? A lot. Seriously, for period pain, any kind of internal female issues sexual or not, nothing works better than CBD suppositories. It’s actually insane how well Mello’s CBD suppositories work. You can feel the pain melt away from the inside out.

This is true when it comes to sex, too. Unlike oils, serums, and lubes, which take 20-40 minutes to take effect (an awkward amount of time to preempt the sexual experience, which often happens spontaneously), the “lower body bliss” as they call it, will hit you 5-10 minutes after, well, insertion.

Bottom (lol) Line:

Whether for fun or function, Mello’s CBD suppositories are great, surely one of the most positive things you can stick up your ass.

1906 Love

Price: $30

1906 has a whole line of “LOVE” products that are super effective and won’t break the bank. These, to me, feel more like something you would buy for yourself than gift a partner, but either way, they’ll get the job done.

Their proprietary Love blend contains five herbs renowned as aphrodisiacs around the world. Damiana, ashwagandha, muira puama, catuaba…you get the point. This blend is available in three forms, drops (swallowable pills), chocolates and chocolate-covered espresso beans, and range between 2.5-5mg THC:CBD per serving.

Bottom Line:

Mild yet psychoactive options for the low dose cannasexual queens (and kings)!

Yummi Karma Love Potion

Price: $30

Yay for another woman-owned brand! Yummi Karma slays the tincture arena, with fun, fem-oriented flavors that titillate and delight, as opposed to the rest of the products in the tincture genre which tastes more like the bottom of a bog.

My absolute favorite of their products is Love Potion. This herbal aphrodisiac contains THC, CBD, passionflower, guarana, ginseng, turmeric, and natural strawberry flavoring.

Bottom Line:

Sweet, sexy, uplifting, and hot, this tincture is perfect for elevating your body AND your mind.

Sensualitea by Kikoko

Price: $44

Kikoko’s Sensualitea is great for those seeking a softer, more stoned experience. This product is definitely geared more towards casual users than newbies looking to experiment by incorporating weed into their sex life. 7mg is a fabulous dosage to enhance intimacy for someone like me, but if you’re new to weed, I think it would be far too much to start with.

Aside from dosing, everything about this tea from the woman-owned Kikoko is beautiful. Hibiscus cardamom rose flavor, with hints of lavender, licorice, orange peel, and, of course, weed.

Bottom line:

Great for stoners, but too strong for noobs, check out this tea, and send some noods.

Velvet Swing Lube (Condom-safe)

Price: $25

Another woman-owned brand, but this time, it’s lube! While the rest of our topicals on this list are epic for enhancing pleasure, they don’t work like a kinky sex lube like this Velvet Swing does. And most importantly, it’s condom safe!

Most oils and lubes are not condom or toy safe as they contain ingredients that eat away at the latex. Designed by a dominatrix and activist named Mistress Matisse, this soft, velvety lube contains a balanced ratio of THC to CBD, and aims at enhancing pleasure AND safety.

Bottom Line:

Surely the most adventurous product on our sexy little list, cop some Velvet Swing and let your freak flag fly!

Herbacee

Price: $28 (4-pack) $8 (single can)

While not a traditional intimacy product per se, the gorgeous new Herbacee cannabis beverage from weed hospitality guru Jamie Evans is the perfect wine alternative for setting the mood. I’ve said this for years, but I personally do not find alcohol to be a suitable aphrodisiac, even if it is wine.

For me, it lowers my vibration and ability to experience physical sensation and eventually makes me sleepy/a bitch. Herbacee gives you all the euphoric, realizing, and fun properties of your first few drinks of alcohol, without all the icky shit that comes with it. Akin to a sparkling rose, Herbacee contains a balanced ratio of 5mg THC:CBD per serving, and sets a mood that’s just right.

Bottom line:

Ditch the wine and the possibility of drunken arguments on love’s special day. Instead, elevate your experience into something magical with this sexy, effervescent delight.