Review: Cumpanion and Cuddlebean Sex Towels

EDIT (10/02/2019): The Cuddlebean Sex Towel has been renamed the PlayMate.

The Cumpanion aftercare towel from AnnaRae was probably the best sex related item I’ve ever bought. Maybe the fact I now own multiple sex towels is the final piece of proof that I am frivolous and overthink my sex life, but even if that’s true, I don’t care. I loved my first Cumpanion so much that I bought a second Cumpanion, and a mini towel (called the Cuddle Bean). I adore these products.

The Cumpanion and Cuddle Bean towels from AnnaRae are plush, purpose made alternatives to whatever you’ve been using until now to clean up after sex or masturbation. I’ve historically used tissues (and I would like to apologise to my parents now for the huge amount they spent on household tissues during my teenage years), but I’ve known people to use hand towels, rags, or in one case, a flannel shirt that he then wore outside (shudder). These work, but they’re not ideal. Tissue gets stuck in places, and fabrics unintended for genital contact can be rough and irritating.

The Cumpanion is a super simple product, but it fulfils its purpose wonderfully. The fabric is super plush and soft. It’s vegan (yay!) and handmade in the US. The oval shape is around 24 inches by 15 inches, and trimmed in satin. There are a few different colour options for the trim- of the two Cumpanions I have, one has a black trim, while the other has a rainbow trim. One end of the Cumpanion has a ‘pocket’, which can be flipped. The Cuddle Bean is made of the same materials, but smaller, at 8 x 13 inches, and lacks a pocket. While it doesn’t have the same trim colour options that the Cumpanion has, it does offer more choice in the actual towel colour, with grey, green, red, and purple all available.

The Cumpanion is available for $16.99, while the Cuddle Bean is available for $12.99. Annarae also offer a bundle option of two Cuddle Beans and a Cumpanion for $30.00.

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Both the Cumpanion and Cuddle Bean work well as cleanup towels. I’m not sure how much can be said about this. They’re very absorbent. While I don’t often use the two products for cleaning up ejaculate, I do find them useful for cleaning up excess lube, as well as natural vaginal lubrication, especially on hands and thighs. One thing I find notable is that because the fabric is super soft, the Cumpanion and Cuddle Bean make post-sex cleanup feel intimate in a way that other methods of cleanup don’t. It’s softer, friendly, more familiar. It’s just quite lovely.

I found the Cumpanion especially useful because of its size, and the fact it has a ‘pocket’. This is the perfect size for rolling toys up in, and I’ve used the Cumpanion both as a way to transport toys to the bathroom for washing without my flatmates seeing, and as a handy way to roll up toys neatly and cleanly when I take them out for a hookup or date. The ‘pocket’ could also work as a mess minimiser for people with penises that ejaculate. While I can’t speak to this myself (the people I’ve used the Cumpanion with who have penises are either trans women on estrogen, who have dry orgasms, or post-bottom surgery trans men, who don’t ejaculate in the same way as cis men), it’s something I have heard other people speak about.

The size of the Cumpanion means it works well as something to lie on when I masturbate or have sex, to avoid ruining the sheets. While I’m not a squirter, I tend to self lubricate a lot, which has resulted in a lot of late night sheet changes. I’m not quite at the point of having a blanket specifically for sex (much as I would like to be), but the Cumpanion fits almost perfectly under and between my legs, and works just as well absorbancy wise. This is definitely an advantage the Cumpanion has over the Cuddle Bean, which doesn’t cover as large a surface area.

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I do generally take a little box based sex kit on dates with me though, and it’s here where the Cuddle Bean is useful. While it lacks the pocket, the smaller size means it fits into my travel kit a lot easier, and without me having to sacrifice any other box contents (because yes, I do need two dildos and four flavours of dental dams, actually). While I definitely think the Cumpanion is the superior product of the two, if portability and size are priorities for you and the pocket isn’t something you need, it’s probably the better option. Either way, both products are fantastic.

The only real scenario in which I think the Cumpanion or Cuddle Bean wouldn’t be useful to somebody is if another person does your washing. Stains on these are still very obviously stains from sex or masturbation, and while your flatmates won’t notice if you carry it to the washing machine, if somebody else is closely handling them, they will probably realise what they are.

Despite all my praise, there were a few genuine issues I had with my Cumpanion and Cuddlebean. The parcel that they arrived in had a big sticker of the name of the company that produces both products on the outside. While AnnaRae isn’t have a name that screams ‘Here Be Sex Products!’ to whoever is handling your post, if somebody Googles it they’ll be able to find out what your parcel is. I really would prefer more discrete packaging, and I’m pretty sure this is something many consumers would value.

I also did find that the towels did become a little less soft with washing. Other bloggers I’ve seen review the Cumpanion said it had remained just as soft after a wash, so this was a little disappointing. They were still soft for sure, but the super soft pillowy plushness of the new product didn’t remain. While it’s possible this is due to my washing technique (although I did follow care instructions), it’s something that did disappoint me.

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Despite these faults however, I really love both the Cumpanion and Cuddle Bean. They’re products I absolutely recommend, and definitely the best sex products I’ve bought.

If you’d like to buy your own Cumpanion, you can buy one for $16.99 from Annarae. You can also buy a Cuddle Bean for $12.99, or two Cuddle Beans and a Cumpanion for $30.00.


These products were purchased of my own free will, and I was not compensated in the form of cash or a free product in return for a review. No affiliate links were used in this post.

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