Its mission: to educate, please women

X&OH doesn’t sell sex.

The shop markets the tools and teaches the right attitude to have fulfilling sex, according to owner CJ Zucker.

Zucker, who opened X&OH last month, is adamant that it not be regarded as a sex shop but rather as a high-end “pleasure boutique,� a stylish shopping destination for adults. No one younger than 18 is allowed to even browse.

“The unique combination of sophistication, charm and open-mindedness is what drew us to Laguna,� she said. “It is why we strive only to enhance or enrich the community with a store that is representative of its surroundings and respectful to its residents in every way.�

Merchandise ranges from lubricants to lingerie to literature. Classes and parties on site provide guidance to enhance sexual pleasure, particularly for women.

“I am very interested in helping women,� Zucker said. “My passion is for women. Seventy percent of women have never had an orgasm. I have a huge problem with that.�

Zucker is a woman with a mission:

•To help women feel more comfortable in their own skin;

•To encourage confidence, well-being and positive attitudes;

•To support healthy relationships, connection and intimacy;

•To rekindle romances, rediscover powers of seduction and rouse inner sex goddesses;

•To make flirting fun and experimenting exciting; and

•To educate, facilitate and inspire.

Men are also welcome and even if just the woman shops, the men benefit.

“I think what happens in marriages is that women tend to put themselves aside and forget about the sexual well-being that made them fall in love in the first place,� Zucker said. “Women have so many things on their plate — children, husbands, homes, careers — they can be exhausted.�

That’s where the classes and parties come into play.

“Typically, husbands will give their wives a blank check,� Zucker said. “They know their relationship is not the same as it was before children or a career.�

Same-sex couples are also welcome.

Zucker, who lives in Ladera Ranch with her husband and two children, said she has been in the “pleasure business� since 2007. Her résumé includes three years as managing director of one of the largest home-based pleasure party businesses in the county.

The owner

has a staff of three women whose role is to get people to try something different and to get them talking, thinking and feeling.

Zucker and her business partners, Frank Wagenseller and entrepreneur Carlos Roque, think they have reached their manifesto: to promote healthy sexual relationships as well as love and romance.

Zucker describes the store as more boutique than discreet, more luxe than lust, a room with va-voom, a brand with bang, and art that conveys sensuality without being too literal or overt — it’s way beyond retail therapy.

The store is in a cozy white cottage trimmed in black. The front window features a clawfoot bathtub encased in rows of pink rhinestones and framed with silky, black draperies.

Inside is edgier, with wide black and turquoise stripes on one wall, black cabinets and a black floor.

One nearby business operator said he was surprised the city allowed the store to open.

However, Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman said the city does not get involved when one retail store replaces another, and merchandise is legal and permissible in a given zone.

“Through our retail location, website and other marketing efforts, we aim to become a trusted name and valuable resource for the community, sponsoring oodles of events, activities, classes, parties, partnerships and more,� Zucker said. “And we’re coming up with more ideas and dreaming up all sorts of possibilities every day.�

X&OH

Address: 1143 S. Coast Hwy.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays

Contact: Email [email protected] or call (949) 280-9040