January 1, 2001

Sssh

On the web: Subscription Site, Review by Rich Moreland

Sssh.com advertises itself as "A smart and sexy erotic destination for women, by women". Besides erotic videos, it also features stories and photographs, educational materials and sex advice, and a wealth of other material. Our focus here, of course, is on the videos and, specifically, on the videos which are original to Sssh. About half of the videos seem to be licensed from other sites, such as SexArt and Dane Jones. But that still leaves a good number of Sssh originals (which can easily be identified). As of this writing, there were 35 original heterosexual scenes, 16 original "kink" scenes, and 1 original scene on the "Man Channel".

There are some truly excellent scenes here, and the short film Gone is an amazing piece of work. What's most welcome about these videos is that they tend to highlight the relationship between the characters and so to worry less about the sexual mechanics than most porn does. What we didn't like so much is that there is little or no introduction to many of the scenes, so that the characters just start right off having sex. Even a little context always helps us to connect better with the characters.

Generally speaking, the porn here is on the softer and gentler side, though not always. As noted, however, there are several videos in the "Kink Cinema" section of the site. Mostly, these seem, at least by porn standards, to focus on a relatively mild form of BDSM. On the other hand, many of these seem to have been cut out of longer pieces, probably from Wasteland, which is also run by Angie Rowntree (with her husband Colin). That made it difficult for us to get into these scenes.

There are BDSM elements to some of the scenes from the "Couples TV" section, too. (Gay couples are couples, too, by the way.) Many of these forego the traditional "cumshot", much as Petra Joy and Candida Royale tend to do. By itself, of course, that is not a problem, but there are times these veer towards "couples porn", and not in a good way.

The real highlight of the site is the camera work, which is uniformly excellent in the Sssh originals, at least. The sex scenes tend to be shot in a way that is intimate without being intrusive, and with a great mix of wider and closer shots.

Overall, then, we find Sssh to be a bit inconsistent. The best of what it has to offer is truly outstanding. But, while there's nothing here that's just awful, there are some scenes that are mediocre. Fortunately, these have tended to be the older scenes, so there is every reason to believe that the ones to come will be of the excellent variety rather than of the mediocre sort.


One of the challenges of exploring a site like Sssh is the sheer number of videos that are available. It's great that there are are so many, but how do you find the ones that are actually good? Well, we've watched a lot of them, and we've rated them along several measures. How hot is the sex? How genuine is it? Does there seem to be a real connection between the performers? Does she, in particular, seem to enjoy herself? Is there good 'balance' in the camera work? Is she always the focus? Do we also see his body and face? Or is he just a disembodied cock?

We also list several 'features' that the different videos have, since some of us really like certain sorts of things---or, perhaps, don't like others. If (unlike us), for example, you don't want to see anal sex, then you'll know right away whether a particular video features it.


Movies

Heterosexual

★★★★★ Gone (Angie Rowntree)

Videos

Heterosexual

★★★★☆ Ada and Nikolas: Sweet Surrender
★★★★☆ Caroline and Sean: White Hot
★★★★★ Cat and Argus: Open Window
★★★★☆ Catania and Boris: Bliss
★★★★☆ Daisy Duxe and Rob Gadling: Interlude
★★★★☆ Haley and Nikolas: A Slice of Heaven
★★★★☆ Jeanie Marie and Ryan Driller: Ellington: An Erotic Fairy Tale
★★★½☆ Jemma and Rick: Urgent
★★★★½ A Lesson In Trust
★★★½☆ Love in the Afternoon
★★★★☆ Nika and Peter: Tease
★★★★☆ Rebecca and Drogo: La Feé Verte
★★★★★ Sadie and Lance: Only You
★★★★★ Sadie and Lance: Silver Lining
★★★★☆ Shauna and Gabe: The Story of Your Heart
★★★★½ Shelby and Ethan: Rites of Spring
★★★★☆ Vyxen and Richie: Vyxen and Richie

Videos

Heterosexual

Ada and Nikolas: Sweet Surrender

★★★★☆

Pleasure ✔+, Passion ✔+, Balance

Time: 14:12, Date: 2013

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Female Orgasm: Maybe

Features: Vibrator

She is straddling his back and massaging him, but also playing with her pussy. He rolls over onto his back and leans up to suck her tits. She then straddles his face and grabs a Hitachi, which she first uses on her nipples as he eats her. She lifts up and uses the vibe on her pussy as he fingers her, then turns her attention to his cock. She sucks him briefly, then gets astride him on her knees. He gets the vibe for her, and she use it on her pussy and tits while they fuck. They switch to spooning, and then she rolls onto her stomach. He gets the vibrator for her again, and she kneels up with him to use it. She rolls onto her back, and he lies over her, then pulls out and cums on her pussy.

The sex is very natural, and reasonably passionate, and there seems to be good chemistry between them. But she ends up seeming a little bit frustrated, and the end seems more than a little planned.

As usual with Sssh, though, the photography is great.

Caroline and Sean: White Hot

★★★★☆

Pleasure ✓, Passion ✓, Balance ✓

Time: 18:30

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Cumshot: Pussy

Couple make love on their bed. He kisses her body, then goes down on her, and she sucks him as he stands by the bed. They start fucking spooning, and work their way through a number of other positions.

The sex is reasonably natural, but it was not as passionate as we wanted. Everything was just a bit too 'soft and slow' for us. She also seemed a little 'overly expressive' to us at times (and a bit passive, actually). It's possible, of course, that that's just how she is, but we found it a bit distracting.

The camera work, as usual with these, is very good, but it is a bit more focused on her than in other of the Sssh videos we have seen, especially when she is sucking him. There are also more "medical" shots than we usually see here.

Cat and Argus: Open Window

★★★★★

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Time: 10:34, Date: 2015

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Female Orgasm: Yes, Cumshot: Internal

Features: Cunnilingus Orgasm

Couple have sex in front of an open window. And they very much get right to it. So it's ten minutes or so of serious sex. They start out with him fingering her, for a long time, as she strokes his cock. He then kneels down and eats her until she cums. She then sucks him as she sits on the window sill and he stands. They fuck, standing, by the window, in a few different positions, and he cums inside her.

The sex is very passionate, almost desperate, and natural and hot. And the camera work is just excellent. Intimate, without being intrusive. We don't see quite as much of him, but he is usually facing the window, so his back is to the camera a lot of the time.

Catania and Boris: Bliss

★★★★☆

Pleasure ♀, Passion ✓, Balance ♀

Time: 21:17, Date: 2015

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Female Orgasm: Yes, Cumshot: Internal

Features: 69, Cunnilingus Orgasm, Dildo

They are fooling around on a bed when she pulls out a dildo and starts to stimulate her tits with it. She gives him the dildo, and he rubs it over her body before putting it into her as he kisses her pussy. She straddles his chest for him to eat her, leanign over the suck him before squatting over his cock, reverse and leaning back. He goes down on her again until she cums, and they fuck in a few more positions, with her sucking the dildo. He eventaully takes the dildo from her and fucks her with it from behind before re-entering her himself and cumming inside her.

As that description indicates, there is no lead-in at all to the sex, which we usually prefer. And the sex, though reasonably natural, did not feel all that passionate to us. There also could have been more variety. The use of the dildo adds a little bit of kink, but it ends up feeling a bit predictable.

The camera work is very good, as usual with the Sssh originals. There may be a bit more focus on her than on him, but not much, and most of the shots are wide enough that we have a sense for both of them.

Daisy Duxe (34yo) and Rob Gadling: Interlude

★★★★☆

Pleasure ✓, Passion ✓, Balance ♀

Time: 16:24, Date: 2014

Director: Angie Rowntree

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Cumshot: Internal

The movie interlaces scenes of them having sex with the story of their meeting at an airport bar. It is strongly suggested, though, that they are married—since she is wearing a necklace with two wedding rings on it, and there are some remarks they make at the end that suggest that adventures are "people", not "places". It's a sweet story.

Unfortunately, the sex is fairly predictable and not terribly passionate. They do seem to enjoy themselves, but they are not very convincing in their roles. The music, which is a bit too loud, and maybe a bit too dramatic (Vivaldi?), doesn't help.

The camera work, though, is fantastic, with a great mix of shots. We see plenty of both of them, alone and together.

Haley and Nikolas: A Slice of Heaven

★★★★☆

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Time: 21:07, Date: 2015

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Female Orgasm: Yes, Cumshot: Pussy

He is making a fruit salad in the kitchen as she lies in bed and strokes her body. He puts a bunch of whipped cream on it and takes it to her, feeding her some of the cream from his fingers, then does the sort of thing you might expect, and she returns the favor. They start fuckign with her on the bed, rolled onto her side, and him standing. She then rides him to orgasm, and they move to a chair and continue playing with the whipped cream until he adds his own cream to what is already on her pussy.

As often with Sssh's videos, we would have liked a bit more of an introduction. But the sex is very natural, as one might expect it to be, and there is of course good chemistry between them. We liked how they held hands while they were fucking, and how he looked at her as she rode him. But, in the end, the sex didn't feel all that passionate to us. They certainly didn't seem to be performing. Maybe it's just that the whole whipped-cream thing started to seem a bit overdone.

The camera work, as usual with these, is excellent. There are more genital closeups in this video than in most of the others, but they are well balanced by wider shots, and we see plenty of both of them.

Jeanie Marie and Ryan Driller (31yo): Ellington: An Erotic Fairy Tale

★★★★☆

Pleasure ♀, Passion ✓, Balance ♀

Time: 25:03 (Sex: 8:00), Date: 2013

Director: Bethany Burke

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Female Orgasm: Yes, Cumshot: Stomach

Mr Ellington, the founder and owner of Ellington Industries, has died. Unfortunately, his will is for some reason invalid, and that has left his daughter Cindy (Jeanie Marie) and wife, her step-mother, Trudy, at odds. Cindy had been running the company, but Trudy wants to sell it. She cannot legally do so, since Cindy owns it, but Trudy forces Cindy to work as a janitor, rather than to run the company, as she had been doing. When Trudy tries to interest the Prince Corporation in the company, however, Joe Prince (Ryan Driller), who had known Cindy in college, becomes suspicious. So, it's a modern version of the Cinderella story.

The one sex scene occurs after Joe gets a job as a night janitor so he can find out what is going on at Ellington. He has long had a crush on Cindy, so they hook up. The sex is resaonably natural and convincing, though we would have preferred if they had talked to each other more than they do, or perhaps spent a bit more time kissing. The camera work during this scene is very good, with a mix of closer and wider shots.

But the sex scene is very short, accounting for just a third of the video, and the rest of the story is not all that great. It's not terrible, and the acting is for the most part all right. But dixteen minutes of mediocre story doesn't really justify eight minutes of pretty good sex.

Jemma and Rick: Urgent

★★★½☆

Pleasure ✓, Passion ✓, Balance ♀

Time: 10:25, Date: 2015

Cumshot: Ass

They have been out for a walk around the city, and when they return to their room they start making out already in the elevator. They never do make it to the bed. Just inside the door, he kneels down and eats her pussy. After a fair bit more kissing and stroking, she lies on a dresser and cotinues eating her. They start fucking standing, with him holding her as she leans back against a wall. He eventually cums on her ass, fucking her from behind as she leans over over the dresser.

There is pretty good chemistry between them, but the sex did not really seem that passionate to us. They do talk to each other, but her "You fuck me so well" sounded a bit formulaic. Some of the positions seemed a bit pornish, too, and she never really seems very aroused.

The camera work is about as is typical for these, in many ways, but toward the end there are several fast zooms that didn't really work for us.

So, overall, while this is not bad, it is not Sssh's best effort, either.

: A Lesson In Trust

★★★★½

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Time: 12:54, Date: 2012

Female Orgasm: Multiple

Features: Bondage, Cunnilingus Orgasm, Pussy Spanking, Spanking, Vibrator

He ties her over an antique chest, then flogs her ass and pussy, spanks her thighs and pussy with a paddle, and uses a long leather flogger to spank her pussy and tits. She begs him, "Please make me cum", and he gets between her legs and eats her pussy until she does.

There is excellent communication between them, and we appreciated how she expressed her nervousness, and he reassured her. Presumably, this is not their first time, as it gets pretty heavy—she ends up with several marks around her pussy—so her naïveté may be part of the game. But it is very sexy, either way, and she cums at least twice.

The camera work is excellent.

: Love in the Afternoon

★★★½☆

Pleasure ✓, Passion ✓, Balance ♀

Time: 11:23, Date: 2007

Features: Tit Fuck

In one of the earlier originals from Sssh.com, a couple have sex on their bed, with her wearing a long white nightgown and stockings. As often with these, there is no introductory story, and they even get right to the genital manipulation, without any kissing.

The sex is reasonably natural, but we did not have much sense of a real connection between them. Ultimately, it feels a lot like "couples porn", and not in a good way. Strangely, it just kind of ends, almost as if they cut out a cumshot. Did they buy the scene from elsewhere and edit it?

The camera work is quite good, though perhaps not as good as usual. It is mostly shot from a distance, but there are some closeups, as well, and there is not a lot of variety to the angles.

Nika and Peter: Tease

★★★★☆

Pleasure ✓, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Time: 10:53, Date: 2014

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Features: 69

Couple have sex on their bed. There is essentially no intro, so it's just ten minutes of sex. They kiss and caress and undress, and she sucks his cock, then kneels on the headboard over his face. She scoots down and envelops his dick to ride him, then gets atop him in a 69 before riding him again, this time reverse, grinding onto him. They disengage, and that is it....

The sex is natural, loving, and reasonably passionate. We did find the end a bit dissatifying, though, as it just kind of ends, for no particular reason.

The camera work, as usual, is very good. For the most part, it is shot from the side, so it is as if we are just watching them. As with many of these videos, however, we found the music too loud, though it does cut out after a few minutes.

Rebecca and Drogo: La Feé Verte

★★★★☆

Time: 15:47, Date: 2015

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Cumshot: Pussy

He is reclining on a couch when she appears in shorts and a loose tank and starts teasing him. He eventually goes over to her, kneels down, and eats her pussy as she stands. They then switch positions, and she sucks his cock. They start fucking standing, then move to a couch where she rides him, pausing for a bit of 69, before he pulls out and cums on her pussy.

It's sexy and romantic, and beautifully shot. But there was a problem with the sound in the video we saw. There was music at the beginning and the end, but it was completely silent. As a result, we found it hard to engage with the video, but that, as we said, is probably because of the technical problem.

Sadie and Lance: Only You

★★★★★

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Time: 10:30, Date: 2015

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Female Orgasm: Yes

Features: Cunnilingus Orgasm, Massage

This video highlights teasing, arousal, and connection, of which there is plenty before he finally goes down on her and brings her to a pair of orgasms.

He gives her a massage as she lies on her stomach, reaching between her legs to stroke her pussy as he passes. He massages her legs and feet, then kisses her back and strokes her pussy again as he squeezes her ass. He asks her to roll over, then kisses her neck and chest, sucking her tits as he strokes her pussy again. He moves to the end of the table and goes down on her. He pulls her to the edge of the table, fingering her now as he continues to eat her. She holds him to her and cums, and he then kisses her thighs as she quivers. He goes back to eating her, and she cums again.

Unusually, when she asks him if it is his turn, he tells her he is fine, that this night was all about her. Obviously, that makes this a very unusual video, and it is a very hot one.

Sadie and Lance: Silver Lining

★★★★★

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Time: 13:11, Date: 2015

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Female Orgasm: Yes, Cumshot: On Himself

Features: Mutual Masturbation, Penis Masturbation

They go out for a bike ride in the woods, and he takes a tumble and hits his head. As a result, he has to stay in bed and can't go to the gym with her, so instead he decides to masturbate. When she comes back into the bedroom looking for her keys, she catches him and decides to join him. Apparently, they can't fuck because his knee is messed up.

We have always wanted to see a video that featured a couple masturbating together, in part because it's one of our favorite things to do. And we were not disappointed by this one. It's very hot, and she in particular does a great job conveying the excitement of this "new way to be intimate", as the description on the website puts it.

The camera work is terrific, with the shots alternating between him and her, with what seemed to us an almost perfect balance.

Shauna and Gabe: The Story of Your Heart

★★★★☆

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Time: 22:42, Date: 2015

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Female Orgasm: Multiple, Cumshot: Stomach

Features: Cunnilingus Orgasm

She gets home, and he is making dinner for them, wearing just jeans. But she has other things in mind and reaches around to rub his cock through his pants. He carries her to a couch, sits her on the back of it, and eats her pussy until she cums. She then says she wants to "play with" him, so he comes around the couch, and she sucks him as he stands. They then fuck on and around the couch, and she says she is going to cum again and does. He eventually cums on her stomach.

The sex is natural and reasonably passionate, but it is perhaps a bit too soft and slow for our tastes, at least given how long the scene is. There really isn't much of an introductory story, so there is nearly 23 minutes of sex. We thought, then, that it was a bit long.

The music at the beginning is too loud, enough so that we found it distracting, especially since it is loudish rock, and it is sometimes quite loud. But the camera work is terrific, as usual with these videos.

Shelby and Ethan: Rites of Spring

★★★★½

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Time: 13:52, Date: 2016

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Female Orgasm: Yes, Cumshot: Pussy

Reclining together on a couch, then kiss and start to get naked. She sucks his cock as he sits on the sofa, and he eats her pussy from behind as she kneels on it. They start fucking with her riding him as he reclines. They work through a few more positions, and she masturbates to orgasm as they spoon. They finish with her astride him, reverse, and him pulling out to cum on her pussy.

The sex is natural and convincing. There are maybe too many changes of position, but there is such a good sense of connection between them. And her orgasm seems so right. There is a sweet moment, at the beginning, when she seems almost shy as he goes to pull down her top. But we would have appreciated some of the context in the movie that one gets on the website: They try to wait, and tease each other, but she usually gives in first.

The camera work is very good, as it usually is with these.

Vyxen and Richie: Vyxen and Richie

★★★★☆

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Time: 14:32, Date: 2013

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

Female Orgasm: Yes, Cumshot: Stomach

Features: Analingus

Real-life couple Richie and Vyxen kiss as he reclines in a big, overstuffed chair. She stands up and strips for him, down to her panties, then she sits on his lap. She takes off his clothes and sucks his cock, then leans over the chair, and he licks her pussy from behind. She asks him to lick her ass, then kneels up, and he fucks her from behind until she cums. She then lies on one of the arms of the chair, and he fingers her g-spot until she says she wants him inside her again. He pulls out and cums on her stomach.

As one would expect, the sex is very natural, and there is a good sense of connection between them. There are lots of smiles, and they talk to each other sweetly and sexily. But the sex is a bit routine. So it's a good scene, but not a great one.

The video is shot in black and white, and the photography is as good as it usually is with the Sssh originals.

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