In this part of the guide I will focus on how butt plugs are designed and how it impacts the fun we get from them. I hope I’ll help you to figure out at least a bit what you are looking for before you ran out for a shopping trip.

Let’s start: a run of the mill butt plug has a base, a neck and a body.

Base

this is the most important part when it comes to safety. It has to be wide enough and firm enough and the curve leading up to it steep enough to prevent the plug from fully entering the anus and getting stuck there. If it doesn’t do it’s job we risk a highly embarrassing and a bit painful trip to the ER, where they have muscle relaxants and forceps.

At the same time the base shouldn’t dig in our butt cheeks as it simply doesn’t feel good. Ellipses, tabs or rectangles (with rounded edges, please!) may prove much more comfortable than traditional round bases, especially when we are looking for long time wear. Please be careful of silicone plugs with loop bases - unless you put a vibe or finger through them, they can get squished and sucked in.

Neck

it connects the base with the body of the plug. If it’s too short, your muscles can’t close enough to grip the plug which causes discomfort. This, of course is not always a drawback - sometimes a bit of harmless discomfort is the goal. However, look above to the red plug - this neck/base ratio is looking for trouble.

On the other hand necks that are too long just stick out of our butts. It looks silly and may cause the base to dig in to our cheeks more. Wearing a tight butt plug harness or using them sitting up will fix those issues, but it won’t feel as good as a plug that is “juuust right”.

The thickness of the neck, compared to the body of the plug is also super important. Wider necks give more stimulation, sometimes to the point of distraction, but narrower ones provide more secure placement. Beginners often buy slim butt plugs, fearing they won’t take a bigger diameter and then get very surprised when their new toys shoot out of their butts like comets.

This is even more important when buying animal tail butt plugs. They are even harder to keep in place because of the weight of the tail, but even small ones can stay in place easily if properly designed. If we buy one with almost no dip we might end up playing “pin the tail on the donkey”. That doesn’t sound so hot… oh wait, is there a creative punishment for dropping it?  Well, I changed my mind.

A very big difference in diameter may make removing the butt plug tricky, particularly if narrowing is sudden. I personally prefer not to leave spades shaped plugs for longer periods of time, no matter how comfortable and non-bothersome they are for casual wear. There always comes the time when they need to be taken out and better to do that before the sphincter forgets how to let the large body through.

Body

In most butt plugs this part has drop or spindle shape. If your butt is stubborn like mine, you might want to take note of the next bit:

Let’s start with the top of the plug - for me this part dictates how easy it will be to get the plug in. The steeper the curve, the quicker the diameter grows, the harder is to convince my butt to stay relaxed.

If the plug has a gentle slope I can take quite a reasonable size. A bit of fingering and here we go! But give me a ball shaped plug and 1 1/4″ diameter feels like 2″, which is pretty much “nope” for me.

I can tolerate longer plugs just fine, but I know there are some people who hate them, so take that into account too. Do you like deeper anal penetration? Or are you more of “just the tip” kind of a person?

For me the moment when the thickest part of the plug slips through my muscles is the best part of using it. I usually time my orgasms so that I can come after that, especially if I’m using a bigger plug.

Another thing that needs to be watched for is the “exit” curve I’ve mentioned earlier. The more abrupt it is, the harder it can be to remove the plug - if you get stuck, I there’ll be a trouble shooting at the end of this guide.