August was filled with incredible sex and amazing pornography. Although the month started slowly, things heated up quickly with powerful pornographies dropping midway through the month.

We saw two big gangbangs from Elegant Angel and Vixen/Blacked, starring Kenna James and Eve Sweet, respectively; both were a dream-come-true for serious connoisseurs of the art, and definite contenders come next award season.

Bellesa and Shawn Alff launched the second season of Zero to Hero: a reality porn documentary showcasing newcomer Blake Bullet’s journey into porn stardom.

Blake Blossom and Anna Claire Clouds put in some work with appearances across the pornoverse, and Violet Voss had some big moments with NubileFilms and Spizoo’s FirstClassPOV!. And a late entry–two of the finest artists in high-end porn, Kenna James and Octavia Red, are together again from Laurent Sky’s latest all-sexer.

The state of porn is alive and well, and August serves as yet another reminder of how precious and magical this art form can be.

Fan anticipation was bubbling as the Gonzo masters at JulesJordan teased Chloe Amour’s return. Featuring Chloe Amour and Hollywood Cash, this hot all-sex piece features a short striptease and a perfect back and forth with epic anal and vaginal sex.

This marks Amour’s tenth appearance at JulesJordan and serves as a sexual sequel to her three-man gangbang last May. Rocking a similar reddish outfit, her flagship performance is a continuation of the extra-dirty sex that she’s been bringing to the Jules Jordan brand.

Amour blends dirty talk with sloppy blowjobs and delicious fucking in a refreshingly fun and casual way. She’s easygoing and natural with big smiles and deep eye contact with Hollywood Cash and even brings you into the action, staring straight into the lens.

It’s a friendly fuck–unfolding spontaneously with a lot in common with the great Angela White. Something about her performance puts the viewer right at home, almost as if we’re hanging out with Amour on a perfectly normal day full of sex and beauty. A perfect way to kick off August.

X-Art’s aptly named The Time Machine is an erotic blast from the past. Featuring a trio of X-Art’s hottest models of all time, this 4K time capsule shot in 2014 is indicative of the high-end and industry-changing porn that X-Art consistently produced.

The Time Machine was previously unreleased at X-Art. Instead, it debuted at the art-porn project’s more hardcore sister-site, Colette: a project that was more directly focused on pornography and sex.

Opening with a kiss and moving straight into blissful cunnilingus, The Time Machine focuses on what made X-Art great: tasteful and artistically filmed sex. It features Caprice just before she exploded into mainstream fame. We see Caprice and her real-life husband Marcello painting orgasmic masterpieces on the canvas of The Red Fox and using only the tools of raw sexuality and pure imagination.

Fox makes the perfect canvas for their brand of sex art. Her porcelain skin and ample breasts glow with delight, with her auburn hair amplifying her heat. And Caprice cums just like you remember her, with electricity and a soulful gaze deep into her fellow artist’s eyes. A fantastic reminder of pornos past.

Miami stuns in a classic throwback to the carefree porn of yesteryear. Yanick Shaft plays the classic doctor trope, checking Miami over for her overly voracious sexual appetite–a point of contention with boyfriend Lorenzo Viota. Predictably, she’s hot for the doctor, and he’s no match for her nude body and hot pussy.

You’ve got great sex featuring awesome blowjobs, a spit roast, plenty of anal, and a DP. But it all starts with incredible fingering. Lubed up, Miami’s pussy glistens in the light as Yanick feels her insides. And then there’s intense oral, with Miami dominating in both POV blowjobs and crazy double-blowies once Viota enters the scene.

Miami rocks a big pair of glasses, and works her long black hair along with tall white heels to accessorize her fashionably and fully nude look. It’s a style elevated by a thin figure, toned abs, and a cleanly shaved pussy. She embodies sexual hunger and fucks with vigor.

It’s thrilling to see Miami return to Private, and amazing to see her continue to explore and perform her full range of sexuality. Miami continues to grow as a budding artist in her craft.

New to porn, Isabella Jules is one performer set to skyrocket to the top. Dark skinned, perfect hair, alluring tattoos, and a body that will make you cry, Jules is something special. She blends sensuality with coyness and innocence in a way that speaks to a deep underlying sexuality.

Featuring an authentic and realistic buildup to sex, NubileFilms brings you into the bedroom and shows precisely what casual sex is all about. It’s incredible to see Ms.Jules tease Romero’s cock and scoot closer, spooning next to him in those semi-transparent panties.

Before you know it, the pants are down and you can see Romero’s rock-hard cock inching closer and closer, until he slowly and satisfyingly slides in. Her breathy sighs and deep smiles feel like love; a welcome reminder of just how beautiful pornography can be.

Something about the slow pace and the subtlety in Isabella’s performance works. It’s a scene that takes its time in all the right ways: all about the journey and not the destination. And what a journey as Nubiles cameras linger and fawn over the elegant beauty of pussy and the breast.

A magical trip through love, sex, and art.

LetsDoeIt’s beloved artporn project gets a fresh take as they blend kink and lighthearted fun in the traditional white-on-white setting. Adarah pops against the screen with her black clothing and dark hair, and subtle backlighting casts a sharp halo around her increasingly exposed skin.

Adarah flirts with bondage with a blindfolded and cuffed Kristoff Cale. It’s incredible to see him bound to the floor and teased as only Amirah Adarah can. Fashionable and bottomless, she force feeds those pink pussy lips to him, and eventually sits atop his helpless cock, fucking until she squirts.

She’s a master of the tease, and you can see her joy at getting the best of Kristoff. At times, she lowers her pussy to his lips, pulling away just as he lunges into the air for a kiss. Then there’s this endless edging, complete with hand jobs, ball sucking, and more. The poor guy is oozing, his body begging to cum.

But Adarah is a merciful woman. She eventually unties Cale and allows him to fuck her to completion, and does he ever! Free, he lets loose the most fantastic smile and turns the handcuffs on her, all while thrusting powerfully from the bed.

Eventually, he rolls her over, lapping up her pussy and desperately fucking. Adarah experiences intense orgasms and squirts before he finally cums, covering her pussy with that white nectar and then fucking it deep inside.

Elegant Angel showcases Kenna James in the long-running and highly acclaimed Slutwoman series. Frustrated by her loser boyfriend, Slutwoman Kenna James takes a new job at a strip club, a career that leads to personal fulfillment and happiness through sexual exploration. It features breathtaking sex performances by legends like Anna Claire Cloud, Octavia Red, Ryan Keely, as well as top-tier male stars like Charles Dera, Nathan Bronson, and more.

Best experienced in one sitting, Slutwoman is a journey into sexual mastery. There’s a cadence and rhythm to Ms. James’ performance as she flows from gentle girl-girl to cum-rich gloryholes, and progresses into rich DP’s and her very first gangbang.

Kenna’s gangbang is glorious. Artfully filmed and passionately performed, it’s the perfect blend of hardcore sex and elegant cinema, evoking a sense of high-brow late ‘90s porn. Then there’s her magnificent DP featuring Dante Cole and Nathan Bronson. A more traditionally filmed porn scene, it features bright lighting and a clear view of her stupendous sexual skills.

HardX returns to the harsh concrete warehouse in an all-anal showcase starring Anna Claire Clouds and Zac Wild. It’s a film rooted in an almost Taoist sense of balance and contradictions, walking the line between hard and soft. From the coldness of the concrete to the warmth of nude bodies, and the tenderness of a kiss, to the intensity of anal fucking, it’s heady stuff, and deeply beautiful.

Clouds’ insatiable thirst for cock sets this film apart. Between each bout of anal sex and after every orgasm, she slams her face into Wild’s cock, fiercely choking it down with insane deep throats. Her line, "I don’t need to breathe when I have a dick this good," sums it up. She is thirsty.

It’s not all about the oral. If there’s one thing Anna Claire Clouds fans know, it’s this: Anna Claire Clouds knows how to fuck. Watch as she expertly rocks Wild’s cock. Note the way she engages her core and tightens her ass through each thrust. Then there’s her expressive performance, whipping her hair back to reveal a smile that lights up the room as she cums.

Zac Wild is brilliant as always. He’s rock hard and ever-ready to fuck at a moment’s notice. This is a film that’s all about Anna, and he works seamlessly with the director to realize that vision, showcasing her beauty and practically disappearing from the scene. It’s a performance that bespeaks his professionalism and humility, admirable traits in an A-lister. But Wild gets his time to shine when he paints a beautiful side-cheek facial on Clouds, and even stripes her breast and shoulder with extra shots of cum after the main event.

Her blowjob was blissful. Topless, eyes closed, and on her knees, Mia espouses ecstasy as she makes love to her partner’s erect cock. She blends luscious licks with sultry suction. Be sure to keep the sound cranked, and you can hear and almost feel the pull of her lips. Just when you can’t take any more, she pulls her panties off and slides on for a nice and easy fuck.

With Mia on top, the intensity builds slowly until Sam Bourne is fucking at full speed. Just then, the camera cuts to a second angle, a close-up, highlighting her wetness along Bourne’s shaft. Looking behind, you can just make out the edge of her clit shaking to his rhythm–truly remarkable.

In reverse cowgirl, you can’t help but notice her perfect breasts. Shapely and perky, they jiggle and bounce satisfyingly with each powerful thrust from below. And her nipples are something special too, soft and kissable, astute fans may see a resemblance to Jill Kassidy’s sensuous bosom.

With Mia on her back, Bourne puts in some nice fucking. He angles off and lifts her leg to showcase the magic of penetration and thrusts with enough intensity to rock her body to and fro. He takes it all the way to a loving creampie, which is showcased in an ultra-clear close-up.

It all ends with romantic kissing, and feels very much like the classic X-Art art-porn of yesteryear.

Always a ray of light, Melissa Stratton returns to Brazzers for “Perfect Housewife’s Grimy Threeway.” The film adopts a less campy tone than the usual Brazzers fare, featuring engaging dialogue that sets the stage for Stratton as an underappreciated and undersexed wife. Mick Blue and Victor Ray are the embodiment of sexual tension, both turned on and sympathetic to Stratton’s needs.

With her husband out of the house, Ray and Blue both get a chance to feel her perfect breasts until she’s ready for a little play. What follows is twenty minutes of professional and perfectly performed sex.

Stratton’s blow jobs are dynamic and thrilling. She wraps those thick lips around each shaft and varies her technique to encompass plenty of stroking, ball play, and lots of eye contact. She even manages an inverted Spiderman blowjob as she’s supported midair by both studs, with Blue eagerly fucking all the while.

Stratton’s fucking is smooth and powerful. It’s incredible to see the way her pussy hungers for cock, and if you pay attention, you can see her abs tighten as she grabs and squeezes Ray’s rod.

Brazzers’ camerawork is incredible too, swooping in and out in a choreographed dance. You’ve got great angles paying homage to her flawless face, swaying breasts, and loving close-ups on her eager pussy.

Blue and Ray pace themselves masterfully. It starts slow and easy, romantic in a way. As the scene progresses, Stratton becomes sex personified. The only way for the guys to keep up is to fuck with a desperate sense of urgency. Extraordinary.

Zero to Hero returns to Bellesa for its second season. The best reality concept in porn, Zero to Hero follows the journey of a completely new talent, Blake Bullet, as he learns the ins and outs of pornographic performance through his first series of scenes.

Bullet is young and entirely new to the industry–a stark difference from Shawn Alff’s experience as a behind-the-scenes porn tech back in season one. It’s incredible to see his growth and confidence as he learns and develops his pornographic skills.

Zero to Hero is the perfect series for real students of porn. Whether you’re considering entering the industry, curious about how it works, or an up-and-coming performer, there’s plenty to learn from.

Each scene features pre-shoot interviews and porn coaching from Shawn Alff and from scene partners. Viewers are along for the ride with Bullet as he learns about angles, transitions, orgasm management, and more. And by leaving the camera running through scene breaks, Bellesa allows fans to appreciate the unique challenges and struggles that pornstars face.

So far, Ameena Green’s performance has stood out above the rest. Naturally, the sex is phenomenal – this is Ameena we’re talking about. But the thing that stands out is her overwhelming kindness and professionalism. Green is overwhelmingly supportive of Bullet, creating a fun, low-pressure environment that allows for excellent pornography to unfold.

A natural coach, she’s become the ideal choice to break in new talent. If you weren’t a fan of Green before, then this scene will do this trick. She’s a treasure.

Hungarian model Sandra Shine is one of the top girl-girl performers of the early 2000s, a three-time AVN-nominated director, and my crush of the month.

Sandra Shine first came to my attention through the artful photography of Ron Harris, who called her "one of the few women I’ve met who is a true perfect ten." She made a significant impact among porn fans in the Viv Thomas forums and had a dedicated following at AdultDVDTalk. She generated such a buzz that hers was the first porn site that I ever subscribed to.

Famous for her delectable cunnilingus and greedy orgasms, Sandra Shine’s authentic brand of girl-girl performance set the stage for legends like Caprice and Nancy Ace in years to come. She was also an artist with toys, constantly finding creative new ways to fuck pussies while making it look superb.

A regular muse of famed director Viv Thomas, she eventually transitioned into directing, becoming one of Sex-Art’s most esteemed filmmakers.

Sandra Shine’s extraordinary pornography, lifelong love of the art, and eye for cinema from behind the director’s chair make her my crush of the month.