Love Not War Maya Review

The latest addition to the Love Not War line of sustainable sex toys, the Love Not War Maya is their “bullet vibrator” made primarily from non-virgin, recycled aluminum. Featuring an interchangeable battery base that can power the Maya (and any of the other Love Not War vibes you own!), the Love Not War Maya is part of a symbiotic sex toy line that lets you pick your pleasure with interchangeable tips for cost savings and a reduced drain on the planet.

Like all Love Not War vibrators, the Maya includes 4 vibration intensities and 7 vibration patterns to choose from – all simply controlled via the single button at the base. Fully rechargeable and waterproof, the Love Not War vibes mix together the high-end vibrator features you want with a design that’s more sustainable (and versatile) than most vibes.

So, when I say “sustainable”, what do I mean?

Love Not War: A Focus on Sustainability

I touched on this on my Love Not War Koi review, and I want to touch on it here – mostly because it’s so central to the Love Not War sex toy experience. Everything about the Love Not War Maya was crafted with sustainability in mind. From the materials that were selected to the packaging to the way it was manufactured from its lifespan: I mean everything.

“Everything” includes:

• Limited Plastic: Love Not War toys limit the amount of plastic they use within their toys. Instead, opting for aluminum as it’s a commonly recycled material. In fact, the Maya is entirely made of aluminum!
• Interchangeable Battery Base: Each one of the Love Not War sex toys is powered by the same battery design. This battery can unscrew from the tip of the sex toy – and be screwed on to the tip of another Love Not War toy. This simple battery powers their whole line! Simply replace your Love Not War battery if its lifespan comes to an end – and you’ll have a fully rejuvenated toy.
• Interchangeable Tips: An interchangeable battery means that all of the tips are interchangeable too. Love Not War sells all of their “tips” separately. This, essentially, means that you aren’t buying 8 Litihum batteries if you buy 8 Love Not War toys. You can buy 1 Lithium battery – and still buy 7 sex toy tips. As Lithium batteries are not particularly great for the environment, this is fantastic.
• Better Packaging: No plastic here! Instead of the gigantic, plastic-laden packaging you can get with a lot of toys (I remember grumping about the excess packaging on my Lora DiCarlo Baci), Love Not War keeps it to the absolute minimum. The Maya comes in a cardboard box that’s slightly larger than the toy itself with cardboard inserts to keep the toy safe. Everything in the packaging is recyclable – including the cardboard instructions that are printed with soy ink.
• Focus on Manufacturing: A manufacturing plant is a manufacturing plant – but Love Not War goes out of their way to try to make manufacturing as environmentally-friendly as they can. Their custom-built factory is primarily powered by hydroelectric sources – and uses timers for heating and AC to reduce consumption. They’ve been working with sustainability experts to find the best ways to improve.

As of right now, one of their main goals is net-zero carbon emissions. Even though they haven’t made it there yet, the fact that they’re cognizant and consistently working towards that goal makes them leagues better for sustainability than 95% of other sex toy manufacturers.

Love Not War’s goal is to ensure you can enjoy yourself (and have some great orgasms!) – but not at the detriment of the planet. I can get behind that.

Love Not War Maya Review: The Size

Like the Love Not War Koi was a bit small for a wand massager, the Love Not War Maya is a bit big for a bullet vibrator. (I find this juxtaposition kinda funny.) The Maya is almost five inches in length! (4.72″ to be exact)

This makes the Maya noticeably larger than any other “bullet” vibrator. At least on me, the Maya is the length from my pointer finger all the way down to the base of my thumb when laid along the palm. Most bullet vibrators are shorter than a single finger.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – but it’s something you should be aware of. I’ve never found much of a use for tiny bullet vibrators outside of pairing them with bullet-vibrator-compatible toys – like strap-on harnesses or dildo bases. That is, I rarely use most tiny bullet vibrators as vibrators all to themselves. They’re just too small, and honestly, I just lose them too easily. I lose my tubes of lipsticks; a vibrator even tinier than that never stood a chance.

That’s part of why the Maya’s larger size doesn’t bother me in the slightest. It’s large enough to be easy to find (and hard to lose) without being so large that it’s a full size toy. It’s still a smaller sex toy, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it “bullet vibrator” size.

The Maya’s larger size also makes for a larger thickness. This larger diameter covers more surface area while playing with the vibe, so the Maya doesn’t just pleasure one side of my clit – or require me to be really particular about where I use it. Its larger size allows it to hit more spots at once. I love the fact that it can lay, length-wise, along the entire vulva without really missing a spot.

Love Not War Maya Review: The Power

The Love Not War Maya isn’t going to be the most powerful vibrator you’ve ever picked up.

BUT – it will be one of the more powerful bullet vibrators you’ve probably picked up. The vibrations are well beyond the “standard” bullet vibrator intensity and rival most full-sized vibrators. Considering the Maya is inches smaller than most “standard” vibrators, this is an awesome benefit.

The Maya’s vibrations, at least for me, are most pleasurable at their lowest settings. They’re still decently strong – even on the first setting. I find that the vibrations start to feel buzzier and more surface-level as you progress through the vibration intensities.

Between the firm pressure of the aluminum and the vibrations of the Maya, the 2nd level of intensity is all I need for orgasm. We’ve also used it on my partner’s penis, and he’s able to orgasm on the first level of intensity. So, strong enough for orgasm if that’s what you’re after.

If your hands are sensitive to vibrations, it’s really important to note that vibrations can easily be felt throughout the Love Not War Maya’s length. The full aluminum design means that every ounce of vibration makes it through the length of the vibe. That can be awesome when attempting to target the vibrations where you want them, but since your hand holds the vibe too, you can feel all of those vibrations throughout your hand.

So, for people with hand sensitivity to vibrations, the Maya may not be a good fit. You might consider the Love Not War Amore or Koi – both of which mix silicone into the equation to reduce some of the vibration bleed on the “handle”.

Love Not War Maya Review: Keeping Hold of this Slippery Sucker

One of the bigger downsides of the aluminum-only design of the Maya is handling. Aluminum is surprisingly slippery – even without any lubricant involved. As soon as you add lube, though, the Maya becomes nearly impossible to keep within your hands. As the aluminum of the Maya has absolutely zero texture to it (it’s perfectly smooth from base to tip), this becomes an issue.

It reminds me, a bit, of the Big Teaze Toys B3 Onye Bullet (I haven’t thought about that vibrator in forever). The Big Teaze Toys had the same type of slippery material (theirs was plastic, though) as the Maya. But to combat the gripping issue, they added a band of silicone around the base.

Since adding that band of silicone to the base of the Maya would add it around the battery (which is interchangeable with their other toys), that’s probably a non-starter. Reducing your line’s sustainability in order to add gripping strength to one toy is probably not great.

However, Love Not War could sell or add in a loop of silicone which would easily be strapped onto the base of the Maya like a unique cock ring for your toy. A grippy piece of silicone would completely eliminate the handling issue – and could be removed from the battery base when you wanted to use the battery base with other Love Not War toys from the series.

I hope they consider that solution to the Maya because, as it stands, if I get any lube (or, y’know, bodily fluids from enjoying the vibrator) anywhere near one half of the vibrator or my hands, I am physically unable to keep ahold of the Maya in its current iteration. It’s currently a sex toy that requires I wash off my hands and the toy if some errant slickness gets on it.

LnW Maya Review: Noise Levels

The Love Not War Maya isn’t loud – and it isn’t quiet. It’s in that happy “medium” area for vibrators. You can hear the buzz while using it in the same room – but with music on and a door shut, you likely won’t be able to hear the buzz outside of the room.

More-so than some of my silicone vibes, the aluminum design of the Maya seems to transfer vibrations through materials (like furniture) really well. For example, if I sit on top of the Maya for clitoral pleasure, my partner can feel the couch “humming” all the way on the other side of the couch. This isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, but you should be aware that the Maya’s power and rigid material make it transfer vibrations really well – and that can transfer them right into the furniture too!

So, it’s nowhere near loud enough to be distracting during use, but unlike some bullet vibrators out there, you won’t be able to get away with using Maya in crowded areas either. With its additional power comes additional noise.

Love Not War Maya Review: Interchangeable Battery

One of the things I love the most about the Love Not War sex toy line is their interchangeable battery design. Essentially, every single vibe within the Love Not War line (at least at this point in time) uses the exact same battery. Each one of these batteries unscrews from the tip – so every single Love Not War toy decouples into “tip of sex toy” and “battery base of sex toy”.

This, essentially, means that you can go onto the Love Not War website and purchase any of the different tips at a discount price. It won’t come with the Lithium battery base; you can use the battery bases you already have at home from your other Love Not War toys.

This does a couple of different, awesome things:

Extends your toy’s lifespan. We all have had a cell phone (or other rechargeable devices) that slowly starts to lose its battery capacity over time. That cell phone that used to last you two days without a charge now only goes half a day. Lithium batteries decay; they just do. In the days of ol’, you used to be able to go into a cell phone store and get a new battery installed – and your cell phone’s capacity would be back to what it was when it was new. Think of the Love Not War’s interchangeable battery design just like that. If your favorite Love Not War toy starts lasting a bit less time as you’re three years in, you can simply pick up a new battery base. No need to repurchase the full toy again!

Reduces the Drain to Make Lithium Batteries: Making Lithium batteries is resource-intensive. It takes specialized parts that aren’t nearly as easy to get ahold of as, say, aluminum. This means that you don’t need to drain as many resources from the Earth in order to enjoy two (or more) vibrators. The vibrating tips provide unique sensations – while the ONE Lithium battery base supports it all.

Reduces Hard-to-Recycle Materials: At the same time, Lithium batteries are much harder to recycle than, again, plain aluminum. By reducing how many Lithium batteries make it out in the world, it reduces how many Lithium batteries need to be recycled.

The Battery Base Charges Without the “Sexual” Tip. Is discretion extremely important to you? Since the charging port for the battery base is within the internal part of the base, the sexual “tip” and the base need to be uncoupled to charge. This means that the only thing that “sits out” when the toy is charging is a boring-looking, aluminum base that looks like it could easily belong to some facial cleansing products. Just hide the sexual-looking tip, and charging the Love Not War vibrator is instantly more discreet than charging virtually any other sex toy out there.

Exchanging the batteries works really well – and in seconds too. Simply firmly grasp the two halves of the Maya and twist in opposite directions. It comes apart in seconds – and you can easily swap out the battery base and/or tip. I’ve swapped the base of my Maya and Koi so often that I have no idea what battery base each originally came with. They really are that interchangeable.

I will note: swapping the battery bases is possible during a “session”. Make sure to wipe off as much lube and bodily fluids as possible before unscrewing the tip from the base. Avoid getting any lube on the interior parts when you do this.

LnW Maya Review: The Packaging

For the most part, I’ve stopped talking about packaging as much in most of my sex toy reviews. Since Love Not War puts so much effort into their packaging, though, I feel like it’s worth touching on.

That is, everything about the Love Not War Maya is packaged beautifully in cardboard. From the box itself to the instruction manual to the stabilizing pieces: it’s all cardboard. All of this cardboard can easily be broken down and flattened for easy recycling that exists almost everywhere. The only non-cardboard thing about the packaging is the branded stickers that cover the packaging. Even those, however, are pretty simple in design, and they add to the overall minimalistic feel of the Love Not War toys. Oh! And everything printed on the cardboard is printed in soy ink.

Inside, the box also includes a cotton drawstring storage bag with the Love Not War logo as well as a charging cable to charge up the included, interchangeable battery.

The Love Not War Maya‘s instructions suffer from the same issue the Koi’s instructions did: they’re in very, very, very small font. As noted in my Koi review, I highly recommend Love Not War use a QR code to make an identical guide online that will respond to accessibility tools to increase the font size. I applaud their work to keep the guide as light as possible to consume the least material, but some people will definitely need the font larger to be able to actually access the info.

Love Not War Maya Review: Final Thoughts

Thanks for reading my Love Not War Maya review!