Today, we’re gonna talk about how to use a clit suction toy.
If you’ve been anywhere on sex toy social media, you’ve seen an air suction toy. The most “famous” looking is the Rose Vibrator, but it’s a generic version of the Pleasure Air Technology that the original Womanizer company developed a little over a decade ago. Some people also call this technology “Pressure Air” technology.
Essentially, instead of simply vibrating, an air suction toy features a small, hollow chamber. You place your clit into this hollow chamber, and the edges of this hollow chamber gently press into your flesh. Once it’s all in place, you’ve created a mini “suction” chamber. (Think of it a bit like a pair of lips puckered around your clitoris.)
Once your clit is successfully inside, you turn on the toy, and a small motor inside of the toy pulls air into (and pushes it back into) this chamber, mimicking the sensation of your clitoris being gently sucked on.
Fans of the clit suction toys love how it doesn’t “directly” touch the clitoral glans like a vibrator does. This can reduce overstimulation and make it easier to enjoy multiple orgasms.
Other people like to praise how it feels closer to oral sex, something they really enjoy the sensations of.
Depending on what sex toys you’ve previously used, air suction toys can also offer very targeted, intense stimulation at a sound level that’s much quieter than a comparable wand massager or other powerful vibrator.
Now that you know what a clit suction toy is, let’s talk about how to use a clit suction toy.
The Anatomy of the Clit
Before we go into step-by-step instructions about how to use a clit suction toy, I wanna make sure we’re all on the same page. Explaining how to do something while you don’t know what I’m talking about doesn’t help anybody here.
The most important things you need to know:
Clitoris: This small super-packed bundle of nerves is right at the top of your vulva, closest to your belly button, right where the “lips” meet one another. It has SO many nerves in it. It may be painful to touch it directly.
Clitoral Hood: This fold of skin is an extra layer of skin on top of the clitoris, on the side towards your belly button. Some people prefer to stimulate through this layer of skin as touching the clitoris directly can be painful.
Inner and Outer Labia: These are the “lips” of the vulva. Depending on your anatomy and how much squish your labia has, you may want to physically part your lips to get better access for a seal around your clitoris.
Be Prepared to Experiment
I’mma be honest here: learning how to use a clit suction toy takes time. This isn’t a “set it, forget it, collect $200” kinda toy like vibrators can be.
It’s a bit closer to a precision job. It requires getting to know your clitoris (and its preferences) a bit better to best place the air suction toy where it needs to go.
That means being prepared to experiment. Your first session with your air suction toy might end in thousands of orgasms, but it might also end in “Huh, this was pretty good” as you have a single orgasm. It might even end in “I guess we tried that” as you toss the air suction toy to the side and go back to the ol’ reliable vibrator.
If you’re short on time and masturbating in a hurry, it’s probably not the time to experiment with an air suction toy. Give yourself a bit of time the first couple of times you want to use your air suction toy.
(Recommended) Do It Solo
I also really recommend doing your experimentation solo. You can, 1000%, use an air suction toy with a partner.
But partners also tend to like watching and controlling things (not necessarily in a bad way!), and if they’re used to using a vibrating toy on you, they might attempt to use the air suction toy in the same way. As we’re going to get into, air suction toys work best when they’re left pretty still.
This means letting someone else control it for you (before you know how to control it yourself) may not lead to great results.
You can definitely use it on yourself while a partner watches, but I’ve heard multiple comments about how this led to feeling a bit rushed or uncomfortable as the partner kept expecting “something to happen”. Air suction toys can really require finding a good spot and leaving it there, and especially when you’re new, “finding” that spot is patience, trial, and error.
So, you do you, but I definitely recommend trying this one solo to really get the hang of it first. That lets you take all the time you need, not worry about being rushed, and really understand how these air suction toys are going to collaborate with your clitoris for some powerful orgasms!
Turn Yourself On
Direct stimulation to the clitoral glans before you’re turned on can be downright painful. There are over 8,000 nerve endings in the clitoris, and if the clitoris isn’t engorged with blood and ready for touching, any touch can feel bad instead of good.
Before you go placing a clit suction toy directly on the clitoris, I’d recommend being turned on.
This can look different for different people. You might consider:
- Looking or thinking about things that turn you on.
- Using your fingers around the area to touch other erogenous zones without direct clitoral stimulation.
- Using the air suction toy on nipples. It’s surprisingly effective and can feel fantastic.
- Using the air suction toy on its lowest settings on or through the clitoral hood, ensuring you don’t directly touch the glans.
I’d generally recommend against using a different sex toy first when you’re first experimenting. The most common clitoral toy is a vibrator, and if you vibrate for a long period of time, you might temporarily change how the nerves respond to air suction toys. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but when you’re really trying to figure out how to use a clit suction toy, having access to every ounce of sensory information possible can help.
Spread the Labia
Getting the most from your clit suction toy requires getting a good seal over the clit. If you’re sitting close-legged or have plushier labia, you may need to use your free hand to spread the labia apart before placing the air suction toy.
This exposes the clitoris and the skin around it, making it easier to “place” the toy where it needs to be to get that nice “seal”.
Gently Place the Clit Suction Toy Over the Clit
When you’re turned on and the clitoris is exposed, you just take that air suction toy’s hollow hole and gently place it over the clitoris. That’s it.
The toy can be on or off. It’s up to you. I usually have it turned on before I place it.
A bit of lubrication in the area can help “fill in the air holes” and help the air suction toy get a better seal. It’s not required. If you think that might help you, though, you can get a little bit of water-based sex lube and spread it along the toy tip’s edge with a finger. If you plan on doing a lot of dragging or sliding (as mentioned below), this also helps it move around more easily.
Find Where Feels Pleasurable
Does the initial spot where you placed it feel good? If so, move on to the next step.
If it doesn’t, pick up the sex toy and place it a different spot. For now, I recommend picking it up. Dragging and moving it is a different technique, and it’ll move flesh with it.
To start, we want to initially find a spot that feels good when you just “plop” the toy onto your bits.
When you find a spot that feels a bit promising, move on to the next step.
Do NOT Move the Clit Suction Toy
Now that you’ve placed the clit suction toy in a spot you like, do NOT move it.
The biggest difference between a clit suction toy and a vibrator is that clit suction toys work best when left in a single spot. If you move or wiggle the toy around a lot, you’ll accidentally release the “suction” within the chamber, reducing the sensations the toy can provide.
A vibrator can be moved around as much as you want. It doesn’t affect the resulting vibrations at all.
Instead, with a clit suction toy, stillness is generally the name of the game. Move it around until you find what feels good – and then hold the toy in that exact spot, allowing the sex toy itself to do the work while you lie back and enjoy the sensations.
Use that mentality for the next few tips, moving the toy only to try and find a “new” spot that you might like better than the current spot. The air suction magic that will push you to orgasm will eventually happen when you find a spot you love and hold it in place to let the toy work its magic.
Experiment with Pressure and Direction
This is a really unique aspect of air suction toys. They might feel better if you use them with a light level of pressure, barely holding them in place.
As you push the toy more firmly into your body, more of your flesh fills up the air suction hole. This leaves less room for the air movement.
This means that pushing an air suction toy into your clit (like you would a vibrator!) might actually feel less pleasurable than if you just gently held it there with the lightest featherlight touch.
If you experiment with extra-light pressure (and some drag, as below), it can actually create a level of “pull”, offering an intense pulling on the clitoris that feels ridiculously unique and impossible to recreate with other sex toys.
As you continue to use your clit suction toy, experiment with how much pressure you use to hold it up to your body. You might find that you love lots of pressure when using it on the clitoral hood, but you might like a featherlight touch for direct glans pressure. It’s entirely personal preference (and, sorry, something you have to figure out through trial and error!).
Direction matters too. Not only can you experiment with pressure, but you can change what angle you hold your air suction toy at too. You might, for example, prefer something that’s more parallel to the clit (as shown below) than the “scoop from underneath” angles shown throughout this article.
Experiment with Dragging
Is air suction still not your favorite sensation? There’s another trick we can try. “Drag” the sensations into a new or different angle.
Think about cupping above or underneath the clitoris instead of going directly on top of it.
To do this, you want to get the vibrator into a spot that feels good then angle your wrist, gently dragging the air suction toy, keeping contact with your skin, as you move it into a new spot or angle.
This will allow you to target the underside of your clit while still ensuring the toy stays full of your flesh.
This is one of my favorite movements to do when my clitoris is just feeling kinda overstimulated. Since I usually approach air suction and masturbation from the left and upper side of the clitoris, going underneath usually offers very-direct, completely-away-from-the-clitoral-hood sensations that I never provide myself.
How to Use a Clit Suction Toy: What If It Doesn’t Feel Good?
Even after all of these steps, your air suction toy just may not feel good. There are a couple of reasons why:
- You Might Have a Cheap Air Suction Toy: As air suction toys have become trendy, manufacturers want to make money selling them. Unfortunately, actual air suction tech is expensive and Womanizer holds a really strong patent on the tech. So some manufacturers get around this by simply making a vibrator that happens to have a hole in the tip, looking like an air suction toy. Since returning a sex toy because you don’t like it is virtually never allowed in retail spaces, manufacturers get to make their money, and you, the consumer, get stuck with a toy that actually doesn’t do anything it claims to do. Yaaaaay, capitalism. (You can help prevent this by buying from reputable brands and retailers.)
- You Might Have the Wrong Air Suction Toy for YOUR Body: In order to properly “suck” around the clitoris, the air suction toy needs to be able to fit around the clitoris. If you have particularly plushy labia with a toy that has a lot of extra material around the suction hole, the toy may not be able to comfortably “fit” into that spot – especially if your clitoris is located really close to your mons pubis and/or is very tucked into yoru body. That’s perfectly normal – but it just means that this particular toy may not be a good fit for you. A clear example of this is the Rose vibrator. The air suction hole is surrounded by a ton of silicone material to make up the “flower” design.
- The Hollow Chamber May Not Fit: Just like rabbit vibrators, air suction toys are not one-size-fits-all. Every clitoris is its own size with its own nearby labia size nestled in a unique spot within the vulva. Manufacturers kinda have to “guess” what size they should make their toy. If the air suction chamber is too large or too small, you might not be getting the full air suction experience.
- You Simply Don’t Like That Sensation: I’mma be honest. I’m not a huge fan of clitoral vibrations. There are a few toys I really like, but by and large, I’m not super into vibes on my clitoris. You might just be the same way with air suction toys. Your clit just may not like ’em – and that’s okay! Try using your air suction toy on your nipples (it’s surprisingly effective!) or a partner’s penis’s frenulum, and use your other favorite toys or fingers for clitoral stimulation.
History of the Clit Suction Toys
As knock-off clit suction toys and other brands flood the market, I think it’s relatively important to call out the original creator of this technology: Womanizer.
It was invented by a German man (which kinda explains the name, okay) who was inspired by a study that showed that about half of women experience issues in orgasming. His wife took the brunt of his experiments, as he worked with modified aquarium pumps and other designs to eventually settle on something that could be mass-produced as a sex toy.
WOW Tech (who also owns We-Vibe) bought Womanizer, and later, LoveHoney Group bought WOW Tech. Womanizer is now within the LoveHoney Group portfolio. That puts a lot “oomph” and money behind the products, and understandably, the group is very protective of their Womanizer “Pleasure Air Technology” patent. They’ve sued and settled with multiple companies over the years over other manufacturers infringing on their patent.
Womanizer still remains the “best” air suction manufacturer out there today. Their toys have the widest range of intensities and feature the “deepest” sensations out of all of the air suction toys I’ve tested. (The Lora DiCarlo Baci came REALLY close, but that is now discontinued.) For newbies, I generally recommend skipping the “portable/budget” versions and going for at least the Classic 2.
Womanizer also remains the most expensive of the air suction toys.
Pictured in this article is one of their toys, the Womanizer Next, available from both Babeland and Good Vibes.
(If you’re really on a budget, WOW Tech also owns the ROMP brand, and the ROMP Shine may also be a good fit. I’ve heard good things, but I haven’t tried it myself.)
