Review: Je Joue MiMi Vibrator
Update: Despite the Je Joue Mimi winning the top spot in a sex toy round-up in Good Housekeeping UK, I feel that the new Je Joue Mimi Soft is a slightly better version. It finally earns my respect! The Je Joue Mimi Soft also taught me that my old original Mimi had some flaws that newer ones don’t.
After hearing a LOT of hype and talk on how powerful and rumbly the Je Joue Mimi was (and how underwhelmed I was by the vibrations of the G-Ki) I decided to take matters into my own hands and not wait to be offered one for review, I just bought it. I got the purple and it’s not a bad color. Very dark, eggplant-like purple.
The vibrator itself is pretty plain and discreet. It looks like a flattened egg – not the sex toy egg, but the chicken egg. In fact it’s about that size, too. A jumbo egg, probably. The quick specs borrowed from the EF page for MiMi:
- Small, elegant, discrete, and powerful
- Rechargeable via magnetic clip
- Waterproof
- 5 levels of vibration and 5 pulse patterns
- Covered in new soft and smooth 100% silicone
- Packaged in a beautiful black gift/storage box
- Available in pink, rose, purple and black
I would say that the Je Joue Mimi is discrete in how it looks, but not in how it sounds. It’s twice as loud as my Doc Johnson bullets. At least in my opinion I don’t agree with the “2 bee” sound level rating listed on the site. Yes, it is rumbly and pretty powerful but it’s just shy of surface-buzzy, too, on the highest setting. It’s hard to describe. If the vibration pitch were lower, then the top level of vibration wouldn’t feel like “too much” to me. And it kinda does sometimes. Given the shape of the toy I also find it hard to really get good contact with the toy and my clit. I think I prefer the shape of the traditional remote handpack bullet vibes over this. I’ve used it a number of times and can get off about half the time. Just the other night I was using it and I’ve noticed it has a bad habit of not really giving you great warning that it’s about to die. I thought it was feeling fairly strong, maybe in need of a little charging and then bam. It shut off. Do you know how irritating that is?!? It’s even moreso with rechargeables because you can’t just pop in a new battery and quickly return to business. No, you’re out of commission for a good few hours at least. It’s these moments I’m thankful that I have my Wahl permanently plugged in and within easy reach from the bed.
I had been warned by a few other reviewers that the buttons on the MiMi are notoriously difficult to press. And when it’s actually turned on, they’re not so bad – it’s getting the thing turned off or on that I find difficult. You have to press and hold it for a few seconds. (and press hard) Since it’s a uniform shape you can have a hard time knowing without looking which way you’re holding it, i.e. is the up button on the left side or the right side? Perhaps if you’re very thin and all, you have no obstacles in your view but I do. I’ve found that the Up button has a subtle raised plus sign on it while the Down button has an engraved minus sign on it. Once you know this and are accustomed to it you can employ a little rudimentary braille reading into your masturbation session.
There is a tiny red light that emits from underneath the silicone skin right where the tiny Je Joue logo is etched into the silicone, but again….if you have it turned around you won’t see that red light. It blinks when you’ve successfully depressed a button. Does it give off warning blinks when the power is about to slam shut on you like prison gates during a riot? I guess I’ll have to experiment to find out.
Mimi comes in the typical Je Joue box – pretty, textured pressboard like, black, with a lid that ties shut to the box with a black ribbon. Since this one is a lot smaller than the G-Ki I’ll probably keep the box for holding various little things. No little bag or anything for the vibe, but that’s ok. Mimi, like all Je Joue toys, recharges magnetically. The Up and Down buttons are metal for a reason – that’s where the charger attaches. Now when I had the G-Ki, I never had any issues with the charger staying on the toy. The magnets were strong enough to keep it in place, but not so strong that you had trouble disengaging the charger from the toy. Not so with the Mimi, or at least the one I own. The magnets seem weak and I had to set up the toy and the charger “just so” otherwise the charger fell/slid off the toy. It’s really irritating to think you’re charging a toy and come back to find the charger just laying there like it passed out from the sheer effort of it all.
So….is Mimi worth it? While I applaud the new motor (which would have been greatly appreciated on the G-Ki), I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this thing. Unless you really have your heart set on an earth-friendly rechargeable handheld clit vibrator. When compared to the power of the Lelo vibes, however, it’s much better. But there’s still something just slightly “off” with either the shape or the pitch of vibration that makes it a little more difficult for me to orgasm with this as compared to either of my Doc Johnson bullets. But then again many women are easier to get off than I am, so I have a feeling it will appeal to a lot of people.
Who would like this vibe: If you consider yourself to be middle of the road in terms of sensitivity and ease of achieving clitoral orgasm. If you really liked the idea of the Lelo clitoral vibes but felt they weren’t quite powerful enough, I think this one has a little more oomph.
Who would probably not like this vibe: if your clit is really sensitive AND you like patterns, this might not be the vibe for you. Unlike Lelo toys where you can set the intensity level and then pick a pattern, this one does not. So most patterns have all or some of their pulsing times on the highest power setting. If you fall into this category, then I’d suggest the Lelo Siri.
