INTERVIEW: Come One, Come All: Talking Pleasure with Delicto Founder Sarah Riccio
** This article originally appeared in our December 2025 print issue **
Photos by Elissa Ebersold
“A pleasure-positive ethos is essential. The more you remove shame, self doubt, or guilt from the equation, the more you can tap into your authentic pleasure.”
Everyone’s measure of success is different. For some, milestones are making a family, climbing the corporate ladder, or even breaking free of it. For one local woman, her milestone is a sex toy. And her measure of success? Ensuring everyone has orgasms—lots of them.
Amsterdam native Sarah Riccio is the co-founder of Delicto, an online retailer and educator for all things body-safe pleasure, offering toys for all anatomies, lubes, tips and tricks, and more. Sarah got her start, and met her co-founder Rose, working for a mattress company reviewing their sleep products. The two women stumbled upon a shared passion of pleasure and sexual wellness, and Delicto was born.
But selling vibrators and dildos in a puritanical society, on platforms with algorithms constantly in flux and actively discouraging such content? It’s not easy. It requires consistency, flexibility and creativity that not even the Kama Sutra can help with—unless the Kama Sutra can help you post three times a day.
Sarah has found a way. And it’s turned her into not only a pleasure peddler aiming to bridge the orgasm gap with toys, but a sexual wellness influencer in the digital space—a job title she’s still coming to grips with. Primarily posting on Instagram and TikTok, she explained that Instagram is more open as long as you adhere to the community guidelines, especially since she’s not selling her sexuality, or reviewing toys in lingerie.
“I’m reviewing these products with the same demeanor as I would a bar of soap. I’m giving you the facts, and I’m telling you what you need to know, and why you should or shouldn’t try [this product],” she tells me.
TikTok, where Sarah (and Delicto) have gained the most traction, has been the more nebulous entity.
“We’ve had to create a new language, so much so that we had to create a TikTok dictionary and put it on our website,” she explains with a chuckle. “We’re like Dr. Seuss over here. You have to make Olympic leaps around community guidelines to show even educational content.”
Each anatomical feature gets a code name, some familiar and some new. Clitoris becomes “bean,” penis becomes “pickle,” G-spot becomes “gorilla spot,” and so on and so forth. Sexual positions are crude (pun intended) drawings of stick figures on lined paper, and tips for oral might get showcased by eating apples.
Sarah’s innovative euphemisms, content, personality, and natural beauty have worked in garnering attention, amassing more than 500,000 followers and 10 million views across platforms. The video that got her noticed—and changed the course of her career—was her review of the toy called the Snail, by the company SVibe.
It went as follows: “I’m Sarah. I test spicy toys for a living, and this is me before testing the Snail.” A jump cut later, and Sarah is seated back in front of the camera—fully clothed, wiping away tears, her face painted red with a post-orgasmic flush, and bubbles of oxytocin giddiness slipping out. She’d clearly had a good time.
Her video did so well, it boosted worldwide sales for SVibe. The only logically appropriate next step for the manufacturer was to reach out to Delicto and find a way to collaborate. They began the process of a co-branded product, going back and forth, taking feedback from followers and modifying prototypes. When the refined toy—the Gizi Duo—launched, Sarah said she felt as accomplished as she would have if she’d given birth. If nothing else, it’s certainly an achievement that few people can claim.
The Gizi Duo is an important product to Sarah not just because of its career marker, but because of the components of its design. “To see Delicto’s name attached to a brand new product that was designed with intersectionally in mind—designed for all bodies and all genders—felt really good.” While Sarah is currently partnered with a man, her last serious relationship was with a woman, and she explained that a toy designed for lesbians was at the top of the design list.
Sarah is aware the Gizi Duo looks intimidating; she often says so in her content videos. But she wanted a toy that could be wedged between two bodies—specifically two vulvas (not just vaginas!)—and provide mutual stimulation, not just from the natural movement of bodies, but from the internal and clitoral stimulation. She assures it’s easy to use. The “shell” of the toy vibrates, as do both of its arms, and it’s remote controlled. She’s proud that she was able to provide “a massive [win] for the [women loving women] community.”
Sarah’s place in the sexual wellness industry goes beyond body-safe silicone, eccentric weights and electric motors. When I asked her what her top tenets of sexual wellness were, her first answer was immediate: accessible, intersectional education, demystification and removal of shame about sex.
“A pleasure-positive ethos is essential. The more you remove shame, self doubt, or guilt from the equation,” she assures, “the more you can tap into your authentic pleasure.”
Her second answer was almost as fast. “Pleasure is the purpose. It’s not just an orgasm that lasts 10 seconds.” An explosive eruption—and having as many as possible—is fabulous, but she advises people that the pleasure of connection is what should be the focus of a sexual encounter with a partner.
The third tenet was to understand that foreplay and sex are different from what people were taught (or perhaps, not taught at all). “Foreplay,” she begins passionately, “is not all the things you do with your mouth, hands, and toys. It’s not oral sex and fingering [...] It should never be neglected; it’s not an optional bonus act.” Lots of people grew up thinking that sex is “pickle-in-virginia,” but it’s not the only type of sex. “It’s diminishing and invalidating to people who have lots of fabulous sex without that [one particular act.]” She concludes, “If it can result in an orgasm, it’s not foreplay. It’s core play.”
Her final tenet was that it’s never too late to start exploring your body and self-pleasure. Sexual tastes change over time, so you might learn that you enjoy something new. “Allow yourself to change. Don’t be afraid of it. We get messages from people who are over 70 buying their first sex toy,” she says with pride. “They admit that they’ve had out-of-body orgasms for the first time.” Messages like that make her feel like what she’s doing is worthwhile.
Science doesn’t lie. Orgasms make you happier and improve your health. They’ve been shown to reduce pain, improve sleep, stress, heart health, and boost self confidence. They also… just feel good. In a puritanical society, pleasure is a rebellion. Some soldiers use swords and sheaths (not a euphemism), but Sarah Riccio has chosen to wield swords and sheaths (a euphemism). In doing so, she has become a beacon of intersectional and equitable sexual revolution, reminding us that pleasure is for everybody and for every body.
I’m not Sarah, but I’d call that a success too.
PS: Lube is your friend.
Sarah and Delicto can be found at Delicto.com, and @realdelicto on Instagram & TikTok. Metroland readers can take 10% off with the code METRO10.
