The First Ten Minutes Decide Whether You Ever Use It Again
You bought it because you were curious. Now it's on the bed and you're reading the manual.
A first session that works in about 20 minutes: charge, lubricant, lowest setting, ten minutes, cleanup. Plus the two mistakes that end most first tries.
The Short Answer
Charge it fully before the first use, which takes roughly two hours. Put two or three drops of water-based lubricant on the head, not a puddle. Start at level 1 of 5, not level 3. Give it 10 minutes without expecting a result. If it feels like nothing, that's normal for the first 60 seconds. If it feels sharp or numb, stop and change the contact point rather than pushing through.
Charge It First, Even If You Want to Try It Now
A device that arrives with a partial charge will die at the worst possible moment, and a first session that ends in a blinking light teaches you the wrong lesson.
HOPSTAR takes about two hours to fill and runs roughly 90 minutes after that. Charge it in the afternoon, not at 11 p.m. when you've decided tonight is the night.
While it charges, read one thing: how to turn it on and how to change the level. Skip the rest of the manual. You can learn the modes later.
Start Lower Than Feels Useful
Level 1 of 5 is where the first session belongs. It will feel underwhelming for about a minute. That's the point.
Nerves adapt to steady input, and the jump from "barely anything" to "that's something" happens on its own. Starting at 4 skips that adjustment and lands you in oversensitivity, which reads as "I don't like this."
Move up one level at a time, and give each one 60 seconds before you judge it. Two levels in ten minutes is plenty.
Two Drops of Lubricant, Not Five
Velvet Touch is water-based, which matters because the device is silicone. Silicone lubricant on silicone turns tacky in under a minute, and tacky is the opposite of what a first session needs.
Two or three drops on the head, spread with a finger. Add more only if the device starts to drag. A puddle reduces the sensation you're trying to feel.
Water-based lubricant dries, so expect to reapply once in a 10-minute session. That's normal, not a defect.
Give Your Hands and Your Head a Job
The most common first-time mistake isn't technique. It's lying still and monitoring yourself like a lab technician. Picture this: a Sunday afternoon, the apartment is empty, and nothing is on the calendar for two hours.
Let your free hand do something: rest on your hip, hold the blanket, grip a pillow. Your attention follows your hand, and that's useful.
Breathe out longer than you breathe in. If your mind is running a checklist, give it one job instead: notice temperature, or texture, or the sound of the device. One sensory detail is enough to stop the commentary.
Cleanup in About 60 Seconds
Warm water, a drop of mild soap, 30 seconds of rinsing, then dry the port before you close it. That last step is the one people skip, and it's the one that ends devices. The whole routine takes less time than brushing your teeth.
Leave the cover open for an hour if you can. Water trapped behind a closed port is how corrosion starts.
Store it somewhere dry and unremarkable. A sock drawer beats a bathroom shelf, because bathrooms are humid.
If the First Time Is a Bust
Most first sessions are underwhelming, and that's an expected outcome rather than a verdict on you or the device.
Try again in a few days, on a night when you're not tired, and change exactly one variable: the setting, the angle, or the amount of lubricant. Changing all three at once tells you nothing.
If three tries all feel like nothing, the device may be the wrong shape for you, which is common and not a failure. That's what return windows are for.
When to Stop and Ask Someone
Stop immediately if you feel sharp pain, numbness, or a burning sensation that doesn't fade within a minute. Those aren't "getting used to it" signals.
If you have a condition that makes pressure painful, skip the internal approach entirely and stay external. That's not a compromise. It's the right call.
The honest limitation of any first-time guide is that it can't know your body. It can only remove the logistics problems, which are most of what goes wrong on night one.
Charge, Lube, Start Low
The two things that make a first session go sideways are a dead battery and no lubricant.
- HOPSTAR: five levels with a genuinely usable level 1, under 50 dB, about 90 minutes of runtime from roughly two hours of USB charging, and a compact suction-style head that's easy to place without a tutorial.
- Velvet Touch Lubricant: water-based, so it's safe on silicone, and thin enough that two drops spread across the head instead of pooling. The single item most first-time buyers skip and then wish they hadn't.
- Other starting points in the Customer Favorites collection.
- Read next: how to use a vibrator safely, what beginners should look for, and rechargeable versus battery.
Sources
- Cleveland Clinic — general patient education on sexual health and comfort.
- U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission — charging and storage guidance for lithium battery devices.
- International Electrotechnical Commission — IEC 60529 ratings for sealed housings.
This is general education about first-time product use, not medical advice. If something hurts, stop, and speak with a clinician about persistent pain or numbness.
