NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: The following article contains a lot of partial nudity and in-depth discussion of sex and porn.
UNICORN had the pleasure to catch up with duo Reed and Florence from sex empowerment platform Come Curious for the cover of Issue 3 of UNICORN.
We normally do this big proper photoshoot set up, with queer photographers and artists designing a great cover from scratch. However due to the lockdown we had to think on our feet.
We shot our first ever webcam photoshoot.
The article and photos you are about to see and read came from our lockdown virtual shoot. Led by UNICORN volunteers. Enjoy.
Q – Thanks for chatting with us. We are already big fans but for our readers who might not have come across you yet, can you tell us a bit about yourselves and what you do?
Reed: Florence and I met on a porn set and we ended up moving in together and all we ended up talking about was sex. That moved from our film knowledge to our sex passions.
We then started doing a YouTube channel where we could
talk about sex openly and honestly
and so help people.
We saw it a means to help other people feel less shameful, like we did, when all we did was chat to each other non stop about sex and a lot of the stuff we discussed was like ‘oh you felt like that too’ ‘OMG no way I felt this way aswell’ and it’ was really beautiful. We wanted to put it on the internet.
Florence: It’s because it made us feel more much confident in ourselves sexually and body confidence wise. We thought well if this is helping us, we better put this conversation out there, because opening the conversation around sex makes us feel more confident in the bedroom and with our own bodies.
So, what can’t we make other people feel this way?
We thought by opening the conversation to the rest of the world via YouTube, that would be our step in helping other people feel the same way.
Reed: On YouTube – we base ourselves around sex, body image, mental health and honesty. Since then we also have got our F**ks Given podcast, which has really helped us to learn more and open the conversation not just for us two cis white women, but to everyone of all genders, sexualities and backgrounds.
Every time we speak to a new person, a new guest we learn something new that we can bring back to our audience.
Q – Not many people can say they’ve met on a porn set, that’s pretty cool?!
Reed: Yeah! We do actually co-direct porn together as we’re trying to
destigmatize the horrible acts of porn
and what it means for many people, but also make it ethical and educational.
Through the means of porn, we are giving and teaching the right people, right opportunities and showing people real sex.
Florence: Yeah we weren’t allowed to be that explicit on YouTube so we decided to make porn to teach people how to give better head and better cullilingus so that everyone can enjoy good oral sex!
Q. The theme of our 3rd issue is ‘Wellness’. Now we know you’re avid fans of all things wellness and we enjoyed your recent YouTube video*. (we’re also big fans of tik tok)…
…but can you tell us how you’re keeping your sexual wellness healthy and staying kinky at home during these covid 19 times?
Florence: Mmmm it’s been a learning curve I think. Not being able to be involved with anyone sexually on my side. Reed lives with her partner but I’m single.
Reed: We’ve got both sides of the package. We’ve got the being single side and the being in a relationship side. Trying to make both sides relatable, because as much as we’d like to believe the grass is greener, it’s not.
If either of us were both single or both in relationships I think a lot of people would say ‘it’s easy for you to say that, it’s easy for you to feel comfortable here because you’re not dealing with what I am’, but because we’re both coming from two different points of view it
helps people understand there are struggles on both sides.
I think a lot of people are comparing and thinking ‘if this situation was different it would be better’ where in fact we’re all in a shit situation together. No matter who we live with, or what our relationship status is.
Florence: We’ve been suggesting to people that it’s a great time for us all to kind of learn about ourselves and our bodies again. So when it comes to solo sex and play, let’s take advantage of this time and start to learn our bodies again.
Let’s not just go for those quick orgasms, let’s use our hands again, let’s caress different parts of our body and find out what feels good. Maybe explore different sex toys that you’ve never thought of using before.
Now is the time to explore everything when it comes to solo play. Masturbation can be a great wellness thing. It’s great for stress, for calming you down and for sleep.
Reed: It’s exactly the same if you are living with your partner and in a relationship. Having that solo time for yourself, making sure you do have separate evenings and separate ‘me time’.
My partner and I have both been doing that. I’ll say I’m going to bed earlier than you and let me go back to solo masturbation and pleasure because
it is important to find yourself again whether you are single or in a relationship.
Florence: Also experimenting with different locations, mix it up a bit. Maybe try to have a nice bath, bring a vibrator into the bath (most of them are waterproof these days). Or even just playing with yourself in the bath. Or finding areas in the house where you can have that private ‘me time’.
Just because we’re alone now doesn’t mean we can’t keep in contact with people and that’s the same for dating. Instagram is a great place to meet people, dating apps are still going on. You can still chat to people on them, but let’s actually try to make these into virtual interactions.
I’ve started having virtual dates.
Going on a first date over facetime and I had a threesome date the other day on Zoom. Use virtual technology to carry on your dating and sex life – it will make you feel better that you’re still active and not feel like you’re having to put everything on hold still.
Reed: We have to be so grateful for technology. If this happened before computers and phones. We would have no idea what mental state we’d be in. But we can connect via video calls and actually see people’s faces. This can be really beneficial for when you’re feeling alone and isolated.
Florence: Other tips would just be to carry on your usual routines. Looking after yourself, moisturise, shower.
Reed:
Routines are important.
It’s so easy for your days to slip into one big day and your week goes by and you wonder what you’ve even done. But equally you don’t need to beat yourself up about it if you don’t stick to your routines.
A lot of people ‘yes do this exercise and do this walk every day and be productive’. But that’s really hard for us to do. Especially when we are dealing with quarantine.
It’s an important time to be kind to yourself and understanding and not beat yourself up if you don’t finish that thing on your to-do list.
Florence: The yoga 30 day challenge that me and Reed have been doing has really helped us. It’s quite an easy one. The sessions are only like 25 mins long. It’s called Yoga with Adrienne.
*We’re also doing this!
*by we, we mean Lucy is
Florence: It mixes in mediation and it really just helps you
get back in touch with your mind and body
in this process and that’s just so important. It’s helping me so much.
Reed: When do you the 1st one it kickstarts you. We haven’t done them everyday. It’s about appreciating the fact you have gone and done that and given it a try.
We’ve also been doing the 30 day nude challenge which has been really good for getting out of our minds. At the moment our minds are our worst enemy physically some people might be getting unwell, but our minds can often be the reason why we feel unwell.
So doing things like yoga or meditation or even the challenge, does really help us get out of that fuzzy, horrible anxiety and connects us back with what’s real and what’s present.
Florence: I think it’s an interesting time for self image. We’re seeing ourselves a lot more than we usually would. We’re sitting with our bodies by ourselves all day, then there are mirrors all around your room / home.
I think when you’re at home you generally see yourself a lot more than if you’re out and about doing stuff. It’s a good time to not focus on gaining weight, because that doesn’t mean anything when it comes down to it.
We should enjoy and learn to love your body no matter what it looks like.
Q – You’ve kinda already answered this one but…
…we don’t know if you’ve seen this in the news, but the sales of sex toys has rocketted because of Covid19. What’s your top tips on making the most of all this extra kinky time at home?
Reed: Showers & baths. Especially if you live in a house with family or flatmates.
Sometimes you just don’t wanna masturbate in your bedroom.
Florence: Oh yeah tell them your tip for testing how loud your vibrator is!
Reed: YES! When you buy a new toy, you always get inside your head thinking that people can hear you masturbating. Most of the time they cannot.
Even with your loudest toy the best tip is:
- Put your toy on either on top of your covers or under.
- Leave your bedroom
- Close the door
- See if you can hear it or not
If you can’t then you’re safe – even from your parents walking past. Or that housemate who always shames you for being too sexual, then you’re safe.
I’ve used that tip many a time!
Q – Talking of being naked and at one with our bodies…. We loved your #30daynudechallenge. Can you tell us a bit more about that and how your fans reacted?
Florence: We had Ben Hurst on the F**ks Given Podcast. He was talking in the first 10 mins of the podcast about his journey he had to go on to learn to accept his own body. He had to learn to love his own body and he had hangups about being too skinny and not gaining enough muscle.
He told us that he did this thing where he took a nude of himself every day for 30 days. Just for himself. By doing it, it taught him to love and accept his body for who he is and the sexiness and confidence in who he was.
During the podcast we thought
‘let’s make this into a challenge for people to do at home’
because we immediately saw how beneficial it could be. We wanted to share what he’d created himself with the rest of our audience.
So inspired by Ben, we created the 30 day nude challenge to help people learn to love their body in all sorts of positions. Selfies are hard when it comes to nudes, but it’s about learning to not just take sexy pics but real pics of yourself.
Learning to see yourself properly, look at your body and don’t necessarily see it in a negative way. I think the more you see yourself,
the more you can accept and love it for what it is.
Reed: Especially the parts of your body that you wouldn’t ever normally see. Like taking photos from different angles that you wouldn’t usually see yourself but maybe somebody else might see.
For example what your genitals might look like from behind, or really spreading yourself open wide. Even doing a funny pose, it doesn’t have to be sexy. It’s about allowing yourself to get silly with your body and almost make a point of being at your ultimate, comfortable self.
We suppose you have to get creative after a few days to make sure you don’t pose the same?
Reed: Yeah you do. You can’t just do the same pose in the same place every time.
It’s important to get creative and see yourself in different lights
bedrooms etc. We suggest doing it naked, but you don’t have to do it naked.
We only suggest doing it naked because we mainly see ourselves in clothes and most people don’t even really get naked. They go from pjs straight to clothes and barely look at themselves.
So, being naked was more about the parts that you never see yourself, or your partner. Every single part is valid. There might be parts you don’t find attractive, but it’s still worth taking a selfie of.
It helps your mind think about the situation much better.
Florence: I kinda put a post up the other day with tips at the end of it. Some people would find it hard to do some positions that really show their stomach rolls for example.
I suggested starting with positions that empower yourself and feel sexy. Once you’ve conquered that stage, you can move onto the more relaxed poses. Then you can get into the silly stage, smiling fun happy nudes.
We also understand that doing a 30 day challenge is really hard and doing a nude every single day, though it might sound easy it isn’t. I definitely slipped off the bandwagon when all this isolation stuff was happening.
It’s good to accept you might fall off
there’s nothing stopping you. There’s nothing saying it was a bad thing having a couple of days off.
Reed: We started it on the 1st of March, but it’s a challenge for anyone at any time. Even if you don’t complete the 30 days, evening if you take 5 pictures of yourself for 5 days you can really improve your self esteem.
Lucy- I can’t guarantee I’d be confident enough to do it but maybe.
Reed: Oh baby girl it’s almost like we can guarantee it! If you did it for 10 days and don’t show anyone, put it in your private folder. You will feel differently about your body after those 10 days.
Guarantee. No small print. Ding!
Florence: Plus it’s for all genders. Everyone can get involved with it.
Q – You gals are certainly busy given that you also run your F*cks Given podcast* which you touched on before. Have you had more listeners during our current isolation lock down and how are they reacting?
Florence: We’ve defo seen an increase. We’ve had a lot of personal messages on our DMs. They say things like ‘We’ve just come across your podcast you’re really helping me get through my isolation’.
Reed:
Our content seems to be quite binge worthy.
A lot of people have said ‘Oh my goodness I’ve just discovered your podcast and I’ve listened to the whole lot’. It’s amazing to hear.
Florence: We release one episode a week. If people are engaged fully with each episode or if it’s helping people just having it on in the background, that’s an amazing feeling. Where people couldn’t sit and listen like that at work, they can in their home office.
Q – We’re so glad we got some time with you to collab on an article. Who, post isolation, would you gals like to collab with next?
Reed: If we’re going dream celebrities… people like Amber Rose, Reece Witherspoon and the lady that made the production company that’s all about female power and they were sick of sexism in television.
Both Florence and I come from a TV & film background, we have qualifications in them. That would probably be like a defo dream of ours.
Florence: We were talking about Jameela Jamil, who does ‘iweigh’. I love her and her content. I think that would be a good collab as it’s a lot about body image and stuff.
I feel like sex is just the next chapter to that.
Reed: I feel like all our answers are all women though? Is that ok?
That’s ok. It’s who you want to collab with it’s totally fine.
Florence: Ooo you did mention magazines earlier and we really want to do a collab with Playboy at some point.
I think last year they had a whole millennial refresh and now their team behind it is diverse and inclusive now. They’re trying to get a new message out there so it’s a dream collab for us.
Q – Final question before we let you go. You’re top 3 kinky items needed for your self isolation desert islands, what would they be and why?
Reed: That’s such a good one! I’m guessing we can’t say phone?! But there’s so much good porn on there. I feel like the phone is cheating, no?
I know which one I wanna say immediately, but you say desert island right and I wanna take my Doxy, but it needs to be plugged in.
Florence: That’s what I was thinking!
Reed: That’s a pretty shit thing to take then.
Florence: All my sex toys are chargable. How would you charge them out there?
Reed: One use only. You’d have to try and make a solar panel and be like ‘c’mon!’.
Florence: One of my favourite toys I’ve just discovered is the Zoomio. It’s charge doesn’t last long at all. It lasts like one and half sessions.
Reed: NO WAY! Does it? Mine lasts like wayyyy longer.
You’ve burnt the battery out Florence.
Florence: But if we had power Reed.
Reed: Then I’d say the Doxy. It’s a big wand massager. You can use it for both solo and couple play. It’s good for orgies, foursomes and moresomes and forced orgasms and BDSM.
Plus it’s British made!
Trying to keep that environmental thing going.
Florence: That’s all you’d take Reed?
Reed: Oh no I thought we were going one by one to give me more time to think.
Florence: I won’t say my Doxy then. I’ll say my Zoomio. It’s weird it looks like an electric toothbrush, it has a really thin end with a small ball on it. All the power of a big vibrator is all in this small point at the end. It’s basically the most amazing sex toy for exploring yourself and figuring out all the pleasure points around your vulva and not just your clitoris.
It’s really cool and you have an amazing orgasm from it.
Reed: My next item would be Shibari Rope.
Florence: Really? What by yourself?
Reed: Yeah self tying and learning knotts. PLUS amazingly practical on a desert island! Why wouldn’t you? You can practise.
Florence: I would say lube. All solo play is better with lube but it has to be waterbased to use with toys. Also if you get the natural stuff and you run out of food and drink… you might be able to eat it.
Reed: My other one would be tissue or wipes. Shit gets messy. I don’t like going to bed messy. I like having it all cleaned. Although sometimes you forget your toy and you wake up the next morning like woah!
Florence: My next one would be My Sweet Vibrations Perfect Match. It’s the perfect rabbit vibrator. A little bit of penetration, a little bit of clitoris action. An all in one that you would need on a desert island or in isolation.
Reed: Oooo yeah!
That’s all our questions! Thanks so much for chatting with us.
Director | Lev Alexander
Interviewer | Lucy Everett
Photographer | Come Curious
Talent Manager | Phie McKenzie
UNICORN thanks Moxie for their support on the cover of Issue 3.
Moxie
Moxie is an award-winning talent agency that represents a small roster of visionary creatives from the social space. It was launched in 2019 by Studio71 with a clear vision to discover, support & empower interesting, diverse and creative people who reach under-served audiences with authentic, compelling and meaningful content.
@storyofmoxie
