- Three speeds provide a good range of sensation, and pressure allows you to vary the speed.
- Unique sensation may appeal to those who don't like vibration (and also those who do).
- Smart design makes for easy cleaning.
- Phthalate and latex free.
- Noticeable whirring noise is probably inevitable, but may be distracting and/or a problem to use.
- The cap is difficult to get on and off.
- The marketing materials do a disservice to the toy, and to customers.
- A vibrator that doesn’t buzz but instead touches the user via consecutive stimulators on a rotating wheel.
- The wheel has ten soft rubber tongues.
- A switch on the bottom controls the three-speed motor.
- Requires 3 AAA batteries.
- At present, only available through UK retailer, cost is roughly $60 USD before shipping.
Other sex shops have held design-your-own-sex-toy contests, but I’m not aware of any that have run with the winning designs as much as the industrious folks at LoveHoney have. Sqweel is a vibrator like no other, and the winner of their first design contest. As an initial offering Sqweel is an exciting sign of things to come from LoveHoney.
Sqweel is vibrator (in that it has a motor and is designed for sexual stimulation), but instead of offering a whirring, thumping, or buzzing stimulation, the motor turns a wheel with ten soft tongues, which can be applied, to any part of the body. The resulting sensation is luscious and can produce a kind of rumbling slow building stimulation to climax. The toy is marketed as an oral sex simulator, but I recommend ignoring that particular ploy focusing on what is unique and wonderful about the Sqweel.
What is most unique and most surprising when you first use the Sqweel is that it touches you. Traditional vibrators and dildos stimulate and produce a sexual response, but you or your partner do all the holding and touching. The Sqweel is a toy that you hold, but as the tongues gently tap against your body the touch seems independent, and that’s part of what is such a turn on.
Also unique is the feeling produced by the wheel of tongues. The Sqweel produces a feeling one can’t imitate, and even if one could, it wouldn’t be nearly as pleasurable as it is coming from the Sqweel, which is completely under your control.
I also love the funny look of the toy. It’s impossible not to pick it up and laugh, and that’s actually a good thing. Sex toys should remind us that sex is play, and meant to be fun and funny, not always serious business.
I only have two critiques of the Sqweel. I wish LoveHoney would move past their nudge-nudge, wink-wink style of marketing toys. Focusing on how the Sqweel mimics oral sex (and therefore makes men obsolete) is an obvious marketing hook, but does a disservice to customers and the toy. I understand it’s tongue in cheek (or in this case ten tongues in cheek) but I think we can expect more from sex shops like LoveHoney than to feed into our ignorance, fear, and insecurities about sex.
Marketing like that is also a bit of a design trap. Making the stimulators tongues may have been a smart marketing move but it isn’t actually the best design from a sensation perspective. Making sex toys that are supposed to be like human sex will always be limiting. A great sex toy can evoke solo or partner sex, but will never be a replacement for it. Sex toys do things no human can, and great design will capitalize on this while also making the sex toy fit into a users intimate life.
But this critique is minor and both the designer and LoveHoney should be immensely proud of this first effort. It’s an ingenious idea that was translated into a thoughtful and functional design, and far surpassed my expectations for delivering a lot of pleasure in a little package.
