Right off the bat, I’m letting you know this bed is made of neither silk nor snow. I would argue that it’s made with something even better—latex. The feel of latex can be hard to pinpoint, as I’ve heard it compared to everything from a thicker yoga mat or trampoline to even a waterbed. The fact of the matter is that latex has cushioning, pressure relief, and a bouncy feel. It’s also pretty good at keeping out heat and allergens, which is a win for hot sleepers and those with allergies. With the S&S Organic mattress, I wanted to see if this bed really was the intersection of these performance aspects, paired with an eco-friendly build. After a week of testing, I have a few people in mind who would be prime candidates for this bed.
Layer Cake
Photograph: Julia Forbes
The S&S Organic mattress’s construction is eco-friendly from top to bottom, with certifications to show for it. The bed contains GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard), GOLS (Global Organic Latex Standard), and Eco-Institut materials. As a professional mattress tester, I can verify that these are some of the best certifications you can get to back your product’s organic claims. The latex used is from Sri Lanka, the cotton from India, and even the coils come from Toronto, Canada, in an effort to limit shipping pollution by keeping this material on the continent. The Eco-Institut certification ensures the materials don’t contain harmful substances or emit anything of the like that would be counterintuitive to its “organic” status.
Based on the firmness you go with, whether that’s the firm, medium-firm, or plush, the construction will slightly vary. I went with a medium-firm, which features a Euro pillow top. Silk & Snow states on its website that this particular firmness is meant for “side, back, and combo sleepers all around,” to which I said, “Let’s see about that.”
The medium-firm’s construction comprises an organic cotton cover, organic quilted wool, organic quilted latex, a thicker organic latex layer, and pocketed coils. Now that you have the recipe, what does all of this mean? Starting with the top layers, the pillow top has a GOTS-certified organic cotton cover, with a wool layer underneath that’s also—shocker—GOTS-certified. Both of these materials are breathable and porous, so they’re meant to stay room temperature. Wool’s also fire resistant, which means no man-made fire barriers are used here.
The latex layers are perforated for airflow and pressure relief, and are of a particular firmer variety called Dunlop. This refers to how the latex was developed to feel, and there’s a top 0.8-inch layer, a material barrier, and then a 1.5-inch layer for advanced cushion. You’ve got a material barrier to protect the latex, and the coils at the base are pocketed for customized support. They’re reinforced right in the middle and around the edges, so the extra-firm feel helps with lumbar support and keeping you from tipping over the edge while lying or sitting on the sides. To round out the protection, the bottom is another wool layer to make the bed fireproof.
Soft As …
The first night of testing the S&S Organic, I tucked myself in and was out cold, which doesn’t normally happen for me with mattresses. I felt the surface of the bed give gentle pushback, but not in a way that counteracted the pressure relief around my hips and shoulders. As the week went on, I began to notice some other perks of the bed. It was very easy to move around on, giving me a little extra “oomph” if I switched sides. It wasn’t a slingshot, but the latex and coil construction of the bed makes the surface very responsive. So far, I agreed with the evaluation on Silk & Snow’s end of this being a side- and combo-sleeper-friendly mattress.