Icicles No. 38: review

Icicles No. 38 at a glance — a glass dildo with a flogger at the other end

Icicles No. 38 is Pipedream’s hand-blown glass flogger, and it’s harder to place into a category than almost anything else in the range. One end is a weighted glass rod with textured swirls and a round ball at the bottom. The other end is a bundle of leather straps that the manufacturer describes as a Cat-O-Nine Tails in genuine ox leather. It’s two completely different products that are attached together in the same item, and it’s the single most important thing you need to understand before you value it.

The manufacturer’s specification looks like this: total length 67.5 centimeters, maximum width 3.8 centimeters, and insertable length 17.0 centimeters. Materials are listed as glass and leather. The product has neither a motor, a battery, nor a charging cable—it is entirely mechanical. The item number is PD2938-00, and the manufacturer’s list price is 67.99 US dollars. In Sweden, the item is sold by eight shops at prices between 336 and 659 SEK, and six of them had it in stock at the price check.

This review applies exclusively to the variant with EAN 603912314656, which is the only one available—Icicles No. 38 is produced only in the Clear & Black finish, meaning translucent glass with black leather straps. The EAN number is verified against the manufacturer’s own product entry, where the barcode is linked to item number PD2938-00. All eight Swedish shops list the same number, which is unusually tidy in this category and means you can compare prices directly without risking that you’ll end up on a different model.

What does it mean when a product is both a glass dildo and a flogger?

The construction is easy to describe. The glass rod is the actual handle of the flogger. It’s hand-blown as one piece, has a ball at the bottom that functions as a stop edge, and a shaft section with a swirl-pattern above it. Where the glass ends, there’s a black leather cuff, and from that come the leather straps. When you hold the leather cuff and swing, the product is a flogger. When you hold the leather cuff and insert the glass, the product is a dildo. The same object, two uses.

The manufacturer is straight to the point about both functions. Pipedream states that the weighted glass handle is hand-blown and that it doubles as a glass dildo for vaginal or anal use, and that the textured swirls provide extra stimulation. About the leather straps, they say they are soft enough for beginners but heavy enough to deliver a solid thwack. It’s an unusually concrete description from a manufacturer in this industry—and it’s worth reading carefully, because it simultaneously explains why the product is more difficult to care for than a regular glass dildo.

What can be established purely in principle is that a two-in-one product always involves a compromise somewhere. Here, the compromise isn’t in the glass—the glass part is, in practice, a full-size Icicles wand—but in the fact that the two halves place opposing demands on care. The glass wants to be rinsed under warm water. The leather doesn’t want to get wet at all. We’ll get back to that, because it’s the question that determines most whether the product will suit you.

Icicles No. 38, No. 29, or No. 8 — which one is which?

The Icicles line is numbered with no logic you can figure out, and Swedish shops mix freely between the numbers. Three models are close to each other in this comparison, and all three numbers below come from Pipedream’s own product pages.

• Icicles No. 38 — the model this text is about. Total length 67.5 centimeters including the leather restraints, width 3.8 centimeters, insertable length 17.0 centimeters. Material: glass and leather.
• Icicles No. 29 — a pure glass massage wand without flogger. Total length 17.8 centimeters, width 3.0 centimeters, insertable length 17.0 centimeters. Material: glass.
• Icicles No. 8 — a pure glass dildo. Total length 17.8 centimeters, width 3.8 centimeters. The manufacturer doesn’t publish an insertable length for this model. Material: glass.

The number that matters most is the insertable length. Icicles No. 38 is listed as 17.0 centimeters—exactly the same as No. 29. In other words, the glass part on the flogger isn’t a shortened compromise version of a real glass wand; it’s a full-length glass wand that just happens to have leather at the top. The difference from No. 29 is in the width: 3.8 vs. 3.0 centimeters, i.e., barely one centimeter more in circumference expressed in diameter. It’s a noticeable difference in this size class.

Material and build quality: hand-blown glass and genuine ox leather

The material question is always the most important line in a specification for an intimate product, because it’s the only characteristic that neither experience nor care can compensate for. Icicles No. 38 is unusual here in that it includes two materials with directly opposite properties. Pipedream lists the materials as glass and leather, and both parts deserve their own rundown.

Why non-porous glass is the category’s best material

The manufacturer describes the glass as hypoallergenic, non-porous, and safe for the body, and writes that each hand-blown Icicles piece is designed to last a lifetime if it’s handled correctly. The first of the three qualities is the decisive one. A non-porous material lacks microscopic pores where residue can become trapped, and that means the surface can actually be cleaned—not just wiped. Glass is therefore at the top of the entire category in that sense, alongside stainless steel and medical-grade silicone.

The comparison with soft materials is instructive. Soft intimate products are often made in soft-molded plastic, and that softness comes from added plasticizers. Kemikalieinspektionen describes phthalates—the most common group of plasticizers in soft PVC—as substances that can affect the hormone system and make reproduction more difficult, and several of them are restricted or prohibited within the EU. Glass needs no plasticizers at all, because it doesn’t need to be soft. That’s why the material description “glass” by itself is better information than almost any other line in a product specification: there’s nothing in the material that can leach out of it.

Pipedream, however, doesn’t publish two things, and they’re worth noting. The manufacturer does not state which type of glass is used—whether it’s borosilicate glass or regular soda-lime glass. The difference matters specifically for temperature changes, since borosilicate can withstand faster temperature fluctuations without cracking. And the manufacturer does not publish any weight for the product, despite the description expressly highlighting that the handle is weighted. That means the weight—which is one of the selling points for both the flogger and the dildo side—can’t be compared to any other product in numbers.

Leather: the half that changes everything for hygiene

The leather straps are described by the manufacturer as genuine ox leather. Leather is the opposite of glass in every relevant respect: it’s a porous natural material, it absorbs moisture, it gets damaged by soaking, and it can’t be disinfected in any way that resembles how you clean glass. It isn’t a flaw in the product—it’s what leather is—but it’s that property that makes Icicles No. 38 a product with two different care regimens.

The consequence is concrete and stated in the manufacturer’s own cleaning instructions: the glass handle should be rinsed under warm water, but the leather areas must not get wet. In practice, that means one half of the product can never be cleaned in the same way as the other. For a product used vaginally or anally, that’s a real limitation, since the leather sits directly above the part that’s inserted and therefore easily comes into contact with lubricant and bodily fluids.

What can be determined, then, is that the hygiene of Icicles No. 38 is not determined by the glass—which is almost perfect—but by the leather, which cannot be washed. Anyone who primarily wants a glass dildo gets a better hygiene result with a clean glass model without a leather part. Anyone who wants both functions has to accept that the leather is treated like a textile you can’t wash, and plan the use accordingly.

Measurements: 67.5 centimeters overall, 17.0 centimeters insertable, and 3.8 centimeters wide.

Pipedream lists three measurements. Total length: 67.5 centimeters; product width: 3.8 centimeters; insertable length: 17.0 centimeters. The overall measurement is therefore, for the most part, leather: if you remove the 17 centimeters of glass that are insertable, there remain about fifty centimeters of tress plus the cuff. It’s that figure that determines how the fl ogger behaves when it’s swung, and it places the product in the middle length class among floggers.

Here, there’s a deviation worth knowing about. Blush Me states a total length of about 63 centimeters for the same article number, while the manufacturer states 67.5 centimeters. That’s a difference of four and a half centimeters, and it’s the store’s job to deviate from the manufacturer’s—not the other way around. The store, however, lists the same maximum diameter, 3.8 centimeters, as Pipedream. Most likely, the store measured it or rounded it differently, for example without the cuff or with the tresses hanging rather than extended. Base it on the manufacturer’s 67.5 centimeters, but expect that a fl ogger with soft leather straps never has an exact overall measurement in practice.

The measurements 17.0 centimeters insertable and 3.8 centimeters wide are not beginner measurements. For comparison, Pipedream lists 3.0 centimeters for Icicles No. 29, which otherwise has exactly the same insertable length. Eight millimeters in diameter sounds negligible, but it corresponds to roughly a two and a half centimeter difference in circumference, and within this particular size range it’s enough to determine whether the product feels comfortable or not. What’s also missing from the specification is insertable diameter—Pipedream has its own field for that information, but it doesn’t fill it in for this model, which means that 3.8 centimeters is the product’s largest width somewhere and not necessarily the shaft’s diameter.

The shape is worth a line on its own. The glass part has a round ball at the bottom and a shaft section with a swirl-patterned design above. The ball is the widest point and works both as a clear depth limit in the hand and as a larger area to work with. The swirls are cast into the glass itself, not applied on, which means the structure can’t come loose or wear down—it’s the same material all the way through and is therefore just as non-porous as the rest of the shaft.

Two uses in the same product

There is no manual to learn here. The product has no buttons, no modes, no app, and no charging. That means that the entire user experience is determined by two things: how it sits in your hand and how you choose to use it. The manufacturer explicitly describes both use cases, and they make different demands.

Floggerside: leather straps and a weighted glass handle

Pipedream describes the leather part as a Cat-O-Nine Tails in genuine ox leather—soft enough for beginners, but heavy enough to deliver a proper smack. In practice, it’s a description of where the product sits on the flogger spectrum: softer, suede-like leather provides more of a stroking-and-weight feel than the sharp sting that stiffer leather or rubber gives.

What’s unusual about this particular floggler is the handle. A typical floggler handle is made of wood, leather-wrapped metal, or plastic, and it’s made only for grip. Here, the handle is made of glass, which has two consequences. The first is weight: the manufacturer emphasizes that the handle is weight-loaded, and a heavier handle end changes how the implement balances in the swing—more weight at the back makes the strike easier to control, but requires more from the wrist. The second is brittleness. Glass is hard but not flexible, and a glass handle shouldn’t be handled like a wooden haft. If you drop the product on a hard floor, it’s the glass handle part that breaks, not the leather.

A practical thing that follows from the construction: since the handle is also the part that gets inserted during other use, it’s worth deciding in what order you do things. Using the glass first and then swinging with the same glass in your hand means your hand comes into contact with that surface. It isn’t a hygiene problem as long as the glass has been rinsed, but it’s a practical argument for handling cleaning between the two use cases instead of afterwards.

Dildo side: 17 centimeters of glass with a swirl texture

The manufacturer states that the glass handle doubles as a glass dildo for vaginal or anal use, and that the insertable length is 17.0 centimeters. It’s a full-size shaft—seventeen centimeters is more than most people use—and the bulb at the bottom provides a natural point to brace against. The swirl pattern is described by the manufacturer as something that provides extra stimulation, which is the usual function of structured glass: a smooth surface glides, and a structured surface creates a noticeable variation as it moves.

Anal use deserves a special note, because the manufacturer itself mentions it. The basic rule for all anal use is that the product should have a base or a stop that is wider than the shaft, so that it cannot slide in completely. That function is fulfilled here by the leather cuff and the tresses, which make up the absolutely widest part of the product and make it physically impossible to lose it. In practice, it’s one of the safest stop constructions that exist, and an advantage that is completely unintentional — it comes from there being a flogger on the other end.

The downside of the same thing is that the widest part is leather, which must not get wet. So if you want to use the product in the shower or in a bathtub, it’s not possible, even though the glass itself is completely unaffected by water. It’s the most concrete limitation compared with a pure glass dildo, which can be lowered into water however you want.

How do you heat or cool the glass handle?

Temperature play is one of the manufacturer’s stated selling points. Pipedream writes that the glass handle can be warmed or cooled for temperature play, and it’s one of the features that only glass and metal have — soft materials conduct heat too poorly for the effect to be anything.

However, it needs to be said plainly: Pipedream does not publish any method, any temperature limit, and any time specification for how the warming or cooling should be done. The description says that it’s possible, but not how. The only thing the manufacturer writes about temperature otherwise is the ban on microwaving and using a dishwasher. Setting a number for how hot the water the glass can tolerate would therefore be making it up, and we don’t do that.

What can be established generally about glass is that it’s the rapid temperature changes that break it, not the temperature itself — and the risk is greater the less you know about the type of glass. Since Pipedream does not state whether the glass is borosilicate or soda-lime, there’s no basis to assume that the product can handle boiling water or freezing. The cautious route is the only defensible one: let the handle stand in a container with lukewarm or cool water, feel on the inside of your wrist before using the product, and avoid any form of rapid change between hot and cold. Never let the leather end up in the water.

Safety: What applies specifically for glass

A product without electronics has no electrical risks. There’s no battery that can overheat, no charging contact that can corrode, and no IP rating to worry about. The risks with a glass product are instead mechanical, and they’re few but serious enough to deserve their own routine.

Cracks, chips, and when the product should be disposed of

The manufacturer writes that the glass is designed to last a lifetime when handled correctly. The wording “when handled correctly” is the important part. Glass doesn’t age and doesn’t wear down—but it can get chipped on the edge or develop a crack from a single impact against a hard surface, and a damaged glass surface is no longer smooth.

The routine that follows from this is simple and takes five seconds: feel with your fingertips over the entire glass surface before each use, especially over the ball and over the transition between the ball and the shaft. Also hold the wand up against a light source and look for internal cracks. If you find a chip, a crack, or a sharp edge, the product should be discarded, not sanded. There’s no repair of a glass wand that’s reliably safe to do at home. Also store it in a way that it can’t hit other hard items—the soft leather part is an advantage in this regard, because it works as a sort of protection if the product is lying loose.

Which lubricant works with glass?

Glass is chemically inert and the only product category where the lubrication question, in practice, isn’t really a question. Silicone-based lubricant breaks down silicone products over time and makes them porous; oil-based products leave a film on porous materials and break down latex. Neither affects glass. So all common types of lubricants are compatible with the glass part—water-based, silicone-based, and hybrid.

The exception, again, is the leather. Oil-based products soak into leather and can darken it and make it stiff, and silicone-based lubricants are difficult to remove from a surface that’s like suede. The practical advice therefore is to choose a water-based lubricant, even though the glass can handle anything—not because of the glass, but to minimize damage if something ends up hitting the tresserna. The manufacturer doesn’t publish its own lubricant recommendation for this model.

Cleaning: the hardest question on the entire product

Cleaning is the point where Icicles No. 38 differs the most from both a clean glass dildo and a clean flogger, and it’s also the point where the manufacturer is most specific. It’s worth reading the instructions word for word before you buy.

The manufacturer’s own instructions, word for word

Pipedream writes on the product page: use an antibacterial cleaning agent for intimate products and rinse the glass handle under warm water, and make sure the leather areas don’t get wet. Do not use the product in a microwave or a dishwasher.

There are three separate instructions in a single sentence, and all three have consequences. The first says the glass should be actively cleaned, not just rinsed. The second says that cleaning must be done with the product held so that the water runs away from the leather—in practice with the glass facing down under a tap, never by putting the entire product into a sink. The third rules out the two methods that are otherwise standard for cleaning glass products.

So the practical approach is: hold the product in the leather sleeve with the tips pointing up and away from the water jet, rinse the glass with warm water, work in the cleaning agent, rinse off, and dry the glass by wiping it dry with a clean hand towel before you put the product away. Never wipe the leather with a wet cloth. If the tips still get damp, let them air-dry at room temperature, hanging, and never with heat.

Why doesn’t it tolerate the dishwasher, even though the glass can do it?

This is one of the most common misconceptions about the Icicles series, and it arises for a reasonable reason: several clean glass models in the same series are labeled as dishwasher-safe. The reason that No. 38 isn’t is not because of the glass but because of the leather. A dishwasher combines soaking, hot water, an alkaline dishwashing detergent, and a high-temperature drying phase, and every part of that process is destructive to a tanned natural material — the leather shrinks, stiffens, and can crack.

The same logic applies to the microwave oven, but there’s also an added direct danger there: heating in a microwave oven is uneven, and uneven heating of glass is precisely the kind of stress that makes glass crack. The manufacturer’s ban therefore applies to both halves of the product, for two different reasons.

The consequence is that Icicles No. 38 requires more care in maintenance than a comparable clean glass sex toy dildo, even though it contains exactly the same glass. It should be included in the purchase decision. Anyone who wants an item that can be thrown into the dishwasher and then forgotten should choose a glass model without a leather part.

Icicles No. 38 compared with the alternatives

Three comparisons are relevant here, and they go in different directions: against a clean glass wand in the same series, against a clean glass dildo with the same width, and against a real flogger without a glass part. All the specifications below come from the respective manufacturers’ own product pages, and all Swedish prices come from the shops’ product feeds on 29 July 2026.

Against Icicles No. 29 — same insertable length, but narrower

Icicles No. 29 is the pure glass massage wand in the series. Pipedream states a total length of 17.8 centimeters, a width of 3.0 centimeters, and an insertable length of 17.0 centimeters — in other words exactly the same insertable length as No. 38, but 8 millimeters less in width. The material is listed as glass, without a leather part, and the warranty period is the same.

In practice, that means that if someone only wants the glass wand, they don’t lose any length by choosing No. 29. They lose the width, the flogger, and the weight from the leather — and they gain that the entire product can be rinsed, submerged in water, and handled without regard for a material that can’t tolerate moisture. In Swedish stores, No. 29 costs between 379 and 659 SEK at three stores, meaning it’s in the same price range as No. 38 but with fewer stores to choose from.

The conclusion is straightforward: if you only want the glass rod, No. 29 is the easier product to own. If you want both functions, there’s no price argument against No. 38, since the one that costs the least is less than what No. 29 costs at all three stores that sell this model.

Against Icicles No. 8 — same width, same price, no flogger

Icicles No. 8 is the most direct comparison specifically for the glass part. Pipedream states a total length of 17.8 centimeters and a width of 3.8 centimeters—identical width to No. 38. The material is glass, with no leather. The manufacturer, however, does not publish an insertable length for No. 8, while No. 38 is listed at 17.0 centimeters, which means that one of the models is actually better documented than the other.

The price picture makes the comparison sharp. Icicles No. 8 is sold in Swedish stores from 336 SEK—exactly the same lowest price as No. 38. For the same money, you can therefore either get a pure glass dildo with the same width, or the same glass dildo plus a leather flogger. In pure numbers, No. 38 is the better deal, assuming you actually want the flogger. If you don’t want it, you pay nothing extra for it—but you get a product that can’t handle a dishwasher, while the plain glass models in the series can.

That trade-off is what decides it: same price, same glass, but one of them can go in the dishwasher and the other can’t. If you have no use for the leather straps, the care disadvantage is purely a minus with no corresponding plus.

Against Strict Leather Leather Flogger with Stainless Steel Handle — what a real flogger is

To put the flogger side into perspective, a dedicated flogger with a heavy handle is the reasonable comparison. XR Brands lists for Strict Leather Leather Flogger with Stainless Steel Handle a total length of 31 inches, i.e. 78.7 centimeters, with tresses of either 22 inches or 55.9 centimeters. The materials are leather and steel, the weight is 680 grams, and the list price is 154.98 dollars. The item number is AG355.

The differences are clear when you line up the numbers. The dedicated flogger is 11 centimeters longer overall, and its tresses at 55.9 centimeters are longer than the entire leather part on Icicles No. 38, which measures about 50.5 centimeters. It weighs 680 grams—a published figure, unlike Icicles No. 38, where the weight is not stated at all. And it’s made with steel in the handle, a material that can’t crack if it’s dropped.

On the other hand: the Strict Leather flogger is only a flogger. The handle isn’t constructed to be inserted, and the product isn’t sold by any of the eight Swedish stores that list Icicles No. 38—moreover, the list price of 154.98 dollars is far above what No. 38 costs in Sweden. The conclusion is that the person who’s primarily looking for a flogger gets more flogger for the money somewhere else, and that the person who’s looking for a glass dildo that can also be swung has very few options at all.

Does it pay to buy a dildo and a flogger separately?

The question is reasonable and can be calculated using the figures that are available. Icicles No. 38 costs from 336 SEK. A pure glass dildo in the same series with the same width, Icicles No. 8, also costs from 336 SEK. So buying No. 8 and, in addition, a separate flogger will be, without a doubt, more expensive than buying No. 38 alone, no matter what the flogger costs.

So the economic argument speaks unambiguously in favor of the two-in-one solution. The argument against it is not money but practicality: two separate items can be handled separately, stored separately and replaced separately. If the glass breaks on No. 38, the entire product is used up, including the leather part. If the leather is ruined, it is still a usable glass rod, but with an unusable and difficult-to-clean part attached to the top. That is the risk you take with every integrated product, and it is worth factoring in when the price difference is still zero.

Price range: 336 to 659 SEK at eight stores

Eight Swedish stores sell the item under EAN 603912314656. The cheapest is Joyland at 336 SEK, and the most expensive is Joyme at 659 SEK. That is 323 SEK, or a 96 percent difference, for exactly the same item number, the same packaging and the same product. So the price spread is close to double between the cheapest and the most expensive, which is a lot even by the standards of this category.

The inventory situation is relatively good. Six of eight stores had the product in stock at the price check: Joyland at 336 SEK, Blush Me at 395 SEK, Vuxen at 479 SEK, Taboo at 599 SEK, Mshop at 629 SEK and Joyme at 659 SEK. The two that lacked stock, Sexonic at 501 SEK and Vuxenkul at 599 SEK, are both in the middle of the range — so there is no cheap option that happened to be out of stock. The difference between the cheapest and the second-cheapest available store is 59 SEK.

Shipping is worth a mention when the base price is so low. Joyland lists 69 SEK in shipping for this item, which corresponds to a little over twenty percent of the product price. In this price bracket, the shipping fee can thus move the ranking between the closest stores, and the final price at checkout is the only number that actually matters. Check it before you pay.

That the price spread is so large is not because any store sells a different variant. Icicles No. 38 is made in only one configuration, and all eight stores list the same EAN. So it comes down exclusively to the stores’ own margin-setting for a product that is narrow enough not to be squeezed by volume competition — and it is precisely that kind of situation where comparison pays off the most.

Who is Icicles No. 38 for—and who is it not for?

It fits you if you want a non-porous material and at the same time are curious about impact play, and who sees the value in having those two things sit together in a single object. It fits you if you want a full-size glass rod — 17.0 centimeters insertable is not a compromise size — and who appreciates that the widest part is at the top, which makes anal use safe without any separate base being needed. It fits you if you want a product without a battery, without a charging cable, and without electronics that can stop working after three years.

It does not fit you if you want a product that can be submerged in water or used in the dishwasher. It does not fit you if you’re new to the size: 3.8 centimeters in width and 17.0 centimeters insertable is more than an entry-level product. It does not fit you if you’re looking for a serious flogger first and foremost, because a dedicated flogger gives both longer tresses and a published weight. And it does not fit you if you want a complete data sheet before purchase — the manufacturer does not state any weight, insertable diameter, or glass type.

One more thing belongs in the decision. A glass product with leather on it is an object that sets requirements for how it is stored. It should be placed so that the glass doesn’t hit anything hard, and so that the leather isn’t pinched or lying damp. Anyone who already has a drawer where items lie loose on top of each other should expect to buy a bag or a box for it — and anyone who buys it as a one-time curiosity should choose a clean glass model, which is easier to own and can be cared for sloppily and still hold up.

Warranty, claims, and right of withdrawal

Pipedream’s warranty period for this product is 90 days. This is shown both in the product page’s own warranty section and in the manufacturer’s FAQ, where the breakdown is printed: one year of warranty on rechargeable products and 90 days of warranty on non-vibrating and battery-powered products. Icicles No. 38 has neither a motor nor a battery and therefore falls into the shorter category.

The terms are also worth reading. According to the manufacturer’s warranty form, the warranty applies from the date of purchase against mechanical defects or manufacturing defects, and the claim requires both that the product is registered in advance and that proof of purchase from an authorized retailer is included. The manufacturer also states that returns of defective goods are accepted within 90 days for U.S. orders and within six months for international orders. For a product without moving parts, manufacturing defects in practice are equivalent to a defect in the glass casting or a poorly attached sleeve — and precisely glass defects are the kind of defect that shows up right away, not after a year.

What always applies, however, are your statutory rights, and they’re significantly stronger than the manufacturer’s 90 days. Under the Swedish Sale of Goods Act (konsumentköplagen), you have a three-year right to complain about defects in the item, regardless of what the manufacturer states, and it applies to the store you bought it from — not to Pipedream. For distance purchases, you also have a right of withdrawal for fourteen days under the Act on distance contracts and contracts outside business premises (lagen om distansavtal och avtal utanför affärslokaler). Note that, in practice, the right of withdrawal is limited for hygiene products that have been taken out of a sealed package; the right to complain about defects, however, always applies. If you have questions about what applies in your case, Konsumentverket guides you via Hallå konsument.