Hey, aren’t sex toys just the best? I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but I kind of believe that sex toys are the universe’s way of making up for all the shittiness of being a marginalized human on this planet. They are pure pleasure/experimentation/playfulness/discovery, and they are tools of mad genius in a lesbian’s hands.
But, as a lesbian, you can’t just walk into any old sex toy store for your gay sex needs. Okay, maybe you can, but you might be sorely disappointed—if not by the product selection, then perhaps by the staff or environment. That’s one of many good reasons to support lesbian-friendly sex toys and companies whenever possible. Another good reason is that there aren’t nearly enough women business owners in the adult industry, and we gotta support each other!
Here are 10 amazing lesbian-friendly sex toy companies, several of which are also lesbian-owned.
Babeland
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Babeland has been a beloved lesbian-owned sex toy store since 1993 when Claire Cavanah and Rachel Venning founded the first storefront in Seattle. There are now four Babeland stores in Seattle and New York, plus a robust online shop with all the WLW toys you can dream of.
Babeland was founded to address the lack of female-friendly sex toys and shops in the area, and they’ve never wavered in that mission.
“Making sure that queer voices are heard when it comes to pleasure helps us expand our understanding of what sex is and what sex can be past the (unfortunately) common heteronormative belief that ‘sex’ is defined by penetration,” Lisa Finn, Babeland Brand Manager and Sex Educator, tells GO Magazine. “For the companies producing sex toys, that helps with creating new concepts for toys that can be used on a variety of bodies, in a variety of ways, no matter the gender of the user or their partners.”
Finn recommended a few cult faves: the Magic Wand Plus, the NJoy Pure Wand, the Crave Vesper Pendant Vibrator, and the SpareParts Joque Harness.
Wet For Her
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Wet For Her is a sex toy company that sells toys specifically for WLW, and they do it very well because they’re lesbian-owned and lesbian-operated! Yay! Alice DeRock founded the company in 2009, and it’s now a go-to shop for lesbian women.
“I founded Wet For Her back in 2009 because I didn’t feel the lesbian community was being catered for and because there was a lack of non-phallic products available to our community,” DeRock tells GO Magazine. “This inspired me to design high-quality pleasure products specifically for women on women sex. It was important to me to create a sex toy company and retail space that understood the wants and needs of the lesbian customer, customers like me and my friends.”
Best-selling toys from Wet For Her include the RockHer Mini Vibrating Scissor Toy, the Vibrating Double Sided Union Dildo, and the Fusion Strap-On Sex Toy.
Unbound
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Unbound is a feminist sexual wellness company founded by Polly Rodriguez and Sarah Jayne. Their mission was simple: to make the sex toy shopping experience actually FUN for women and non-binary people and to make sexual health accessible for everyone.
“I can’t wait for the day when we don’t need permission to masturbate, have an orgasm, and enjoy our bodies, and I believe in the interim a brand like Unbound can be the catalyst for granting that permission,” Rodriguez told Openletr.
Two special products that were recommended from Unbound include the Squish (which vibrates more when you squeeze harder) and the Palma (a vibrating ring for your finger!).
Semenette
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Here’s one lesbian sex toy with a very specific purpose: havin’ a baby! The Semenette is a dildo that recreates the experience of traditional ejaculation. Stephanie Berman invented the Semenette based on her own firsthand experiences, and she’s a Semenette success story—she and her wife successfully used the product to conceive their daughter.
“POP was originally created to help me and my wife try and conceive our children in the privacy of our own home, rather than using the dreadful “turkey baster method,” or a needle-less syringe, for home insemination,” Berman tells GO.
Sugar
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Sugar is a lesbian-owned sex toy shop in Baltimore that “lives and breathes to help you celebrate your sexuality with shameless joy, passion and fun,” per their website. They cater to all bodies, genders, and sexualities; for example, their online shop features specific toy sections for people with G-spots, penises, and prostates. Their website and retail shop both also offer comprehensive sex education for both vanilla and kinky couples.
She Bop
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Evy Cowan and Jeneen Doumitt opened She Bop in Portland in 2009. This queer-friendly indie sex store is for people of all gender identities. They offer an incredibly wide range of toys for WLW, from harnesses to vibrators to butt plugs. Their mission goes beyond just selling toys, though; they also provide sex education classes and workshops every month, and they support the local LGBTQ community with various events and fundraisers.
Early to Bed
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Early to Bed is Chicago’s “first women-owned, women-oriented, boy-friendly, queer and trans-positive sex shop.” Founder Searah Deysach opened the shop in 2001, and it’s served as a reliable place for queer women in Chicago to shop for sex toys ever since.
“We have designed the shop to be welcoming to people of all genders, orientations and experience levels,” says the Early to Bed website.
There’s also one feature of the brick-and-mortar Early to Bed store that, frankly, all sex stores should learn from: TESTERS.
“There are testers of our carefully-select toy collection out for you to touch and explore. Lubricants and body treats have testers as well, so you can compare slipperiness, taste and scents.”
Le Wand
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Le Wand is a woman-owned sex toy company that is most famous for their flagship wand massager, which comes with various attachments for penetrative and non-penetrative sexy times. The company was founded by Alicia Sinclar, a certified sex expert. Her many years of sexpertise may be why this wand has actually managed to outdo the Hitachi Wand in many queer women’s toy chests! The Le Wand online shop also features a variety of women-friendly sex toys from other brands.
Smitten Kitten
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Smitten Kitten is a sex toy store based in Minneapolis. They’re queer-friendly, trans and non-binary-inclusive, and pro-sex worker. Founded in 2003, the company is also deeply involved in the broader sex positivity movement—they founded BadVibes.org, an organization that works to demystify the sex toy industry and improve hazardous sex toy manufacturing and sales practices.
Eve’s Toys
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Last but not least: Eve’s Toys! Eve’s Toys is a subdivision of Adam & Eve that sells toys specifically for women, lesbian couples, and queer-identified folks. Eve’s Toys is a great example of a major sex toy company getting on-board with the inclusion of LGBTQ people in their products. They sell a wide range of toys at all price points, including some that you won’t often find in your average sex toy store, like this Thigh Harness.
Bijoux Indiscrets
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Bijoux Indiscrets was founded in Barcelona in 2008 by Elsa Viegas and her business partner, Marta Aguiar. As a women-founded and women-run company, their product line prioritizes female pleasure above all else, especially where the clitoris is concerned.
“Our main concern is developing products that will empower women through pleasure, that will give them tools to explore and discover what makes them feel good in a journey of self-knowledge,” Elsa tells GO Magazine. “Our sex toys are developed having that in mind. We do not exclude anyone but it is true that we dedicate our products to that 80% of women who claim that they need clitoral stimulation to reach orgasms.”
LoveHoney
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There are over 400 LoveHoney products to choose from, so suffice to say that there is truly something for everyone, no matter what type of bodies and kinks you and your partner(s) have. Strap-ons! Rainbow dildos! Remote control vibrators! Pussy pumps (?!?!)! Seriously, the only problem that a lesbian is likely to have while browsing LoveHoney’s catalog is being overwhelmed by too many options.
Happy masturbating!
