Your First Sex Toy Kit: Start With What You're Dying to Try

The box contains six toys, two mysterious accessories and something you can't identify without tilting your phone sideways. Very generous, but you only wanted something that'd make you come.

A great first kit starts with the one thing you've been lying awake thinking about, then adds whatever makes it better. That might just be lube and a pouch. It doesn't need to look like you panic-bought the whole shop before someone caught you browsing.

What have you been imagining?

Close your eyes for a second. What's happening? If someone's working your clit, an external vibrator makes more sense than a huge insertable toy. If you're imagining something tight and wet around your cock, get a stroker. Want to be filled? Pick a dildo in a size you'd like inside you. Want your hands tied? Then start with cuffs.

"Beginner" doesn't mean everyone has to buy the same little purple bullet and move through the grades. A mini wand like the Maia Indi, with 3 speeds, 9 patterns and a textured bulb, makes a great first toy for plenty of people, and our first vibrator guide covers the rest. Spend your money on the toy you're excited about, not the cheapest thing in a very full box.

Add lube, for fuck's sake

You unpack your new toy, get comfortable and realise the only slippery thing nearby is your hand cream. Save yourself that bit of improvisation, and buy lube at the same time.

A plain water-based lube is great with silicone toys and most strokers, and it washes off easily. Skip the warming and tingling ones for now, so you can learn how the toy itself feels. A small bottle will do until you know what you like.

Shopping for two?

A couples kit looks terribly romantic until someone points out that nothing in it interests them. So choosing together is half the fun. Send the link, say what caught your eye, and let your partner tell you what they'd like to do with it. Our couples toy guide has more ideas.

If it's bondage you've both got your eye on, a kit really can make sense. The Sportsheets Beginner's Bondage Fantasy Kit has what you need to tie each other up and blindfold each other, all in one box. If you both love one item and feel lukewarm about the other seven in some other kit, believe yourselves. A discount won't make unwanted nipple clamps look any better staring up at you from the drawer.

The boring things that save the night

Batteries, if your toy needs them and they aren't included. The right charging cable, kept where you can find it. A clean pouch or a spare corner of a drawer. A cleaner can be handy too, but it doesn't replace washing and drying. None of it's sexy, but a working vibrator is far sexier than a dash to the servo for AAAs.

Count what you'll use, not what's in the box

Look through our sex toy kits and try to say what you'd do with each item. If half of them are "I suppose we could try it", that bundle isn't doing you any favours. Our kits vs buying separately guide helps with the maths.

In the end, it comes down to one question: are you already picturing using it, or are you trying to talk yourself into a bargain? One toy you can't wait to unpack is a bloody good start. The drawer can fill up later, and it probably will.