If you love memory foam but don’t love toxic chemicals, consider an Essentia mattress. Essentia latex mattresses are organic, eco-friendly, vegan, and non-toxic and offer exceptional support for spinal alignment and restorative sleep. Here’s our review of Essentia’s five all-latex mattress options and how to choose between them.
Table of Contents
Essentia Organic Mattresses
Highlights: All-latex, all vegan, organic mattresses to suit all kinds of sleepers. Made in Canada in GOTS factory, with custom size mattresses available!
At a glance:
- Pricing: from $2,448 – $14,750+ ($3,272 for a Queen Tatami)
- Materials: Organic cotton, organic Dunlop latex, Kevlar fire safety sleeve, water-based glues
- Certifications: GOTS, GOLS, GreenGuard Gold, Oeko-Tex, EuroLatex Eco Standard, Green America Gold
- Sleep Trial: 120-night sleep trial
- Firmness: Varies
- Sizes: Twin, Twin XL, Double/Full, Queen, King, Cali King, custom sizes and oversized mattresses available
- Best for: Everyone (including vegans!)
- Eco-friendly, non-toxic, organic, and vegan
- Helps lower body temperature for better sleep
- Customized support options
- More sustainably made using rubber tree sap
- Made in Canadian GOLS/GOTS certified factory
- Carries most important green mattress certifications
- 20-year warranty
- 120-night sleep trial on most designs
- Free shipping across North America
- Range of mattresses up to 14-inch deep
- Suits different sleep styles and body types
- Removable, washable cover
- High cost compared to similar quality mattresses
- Pseudoscience and fearmongering used to increase price
- Not transparent about mattress builds
- Some models are only 8-inch – too shallow for heavier adults
- Not Made Safe certified non-toxic
- Some designs aren’t returnable
- Return fee of 9%
Essentia offers three all-latex mattress collections. The Lifestyle Collection is Essentia’s base model, with extra features in the Performance and ProCor P1 collections to better suit hot sleepers, heavier adults, and anyone with specific health needs. Every mattress is vegan, free of toxic chemicals, and made in Canada in Essentia’s GOTS/GOLS certified factory.
Before we dig into the specifics of Essentia’s mattresses, a caveat: While all three collections are eco-friendly and non-toxic, we only offer a robust 5-leaf recommendation for the Lifestyle collection. This is because Essentia engages in some pseudoscience for its (much higher price) Performance and ProCor P1 mattresses. The cost of these mattresses rises to nearly $15k, which isn’t accessible and strikes me as unethical, preying on people’s fears to create an incredibly high mark-up.
What’s in an Essentia Mattress?
Essentia’s mattresses are all-latex designs, with the exception of the Tatami Hybrid which contains organic latex and pocket coils.
Before we get to what’s in each mattress, here’s what’s not in an Essentia mattress. Essentia’s Lifestyle, Performance, and ProCor P1 mattresses don’t contain any:
- Metal coils
- Polyfoam
- Fiber batting
- Wool
- Chemical flame retardants
- Other toxic chemical treatments.
Because Essentia makes its mattresses in its own GOTS/GOLS certified factory, the company can be certain no chemical flame retardants or other toxic chemicals come into contact with the raw materials or finished product.
Essentia mattresses are more eco-friendly than most all-latex mattresses sold in the U.S. and Canada. This is because the company imports rubber tree sap rather than finished foam products. Essentia makes its proprietary latex foam on-site in Canada, which dramatically cuts down on transport costs and reduces carbon emissions.
Essentia claims that importing the sap requires 80% less space than importing finished latex foam. And because the mattresses are manufactured and distributed from a single common location, just outside Montreal in Quebec, Canada, this further reduces fuel consumption in transportation.
Essentia Lifestyle Collection
The Essentia Lifestyle collection comprises two 8-inch mattresses: the Tatami and the Stratami.
Essentia Tatami Mattress
Highlights: Essentia’s most affordable, vegan, organic, non-toxic mattress. Has an 8-inch depth and is made with GOTS cotton and GOLS latex, plus a Kevlar fire sleeve (optional).
The Tatami is an 8-inch fully vegan mattress made with the following layers:
- GOTS certified organic cotton cover – removable for easy cleaning
- Kevlar fabric sleeve – for fire safety without wool or toxic chemicals
- Beyond Latex™ organic memory foam – Essentia’s patented natural, organic latex foam
- GOLS certified organic Dunlop latex core – for spinal support.
The Tatami is best for lighter adults who sleep on their back or stomach. Side-sleepers and average weight to heavier adults may find this 8-inch mattress bottoms out and doesn’t provide enough postural support.
Essentia Stratami Mattress
Highlights: Affordable, vegan, organic, non-toxic mattress with domed latex comfort layer for more pressure relief and airflow.
The Stratami differs slightly from the Tatami in that the Beyond Latex™ layer features dome-shaped organic latex foam to increase airflow and provide greater relief on pressure points.
This is still an 8-inch profile mattress, though, with the same GOTS cotton and GOLS latex layers and the same wool-free Kevlar fire sleeve.
Performance Collection
The Performance mattress collection includes the Classic REM5 and the Dormeuse REM9 Organic Mattress. The numbers pertain to the temperature reduction Essentia claims each mattress can provide, i.e., 5-degrees cooler for the REM5 and 9-degrees cooler for the REM9.
Essentia can make all of its mattresses without the Kevlar sleeve. You just need a doctor’s note. Contact Essentia for more information.
Essentia makes Performance mattresses with mostly the same materials as its Lifestyle collection. The difference being that the Beyond Latex™ layer is modified to provide a more similar feel to conventional memory foam. You can also choose between two levels of support: Mid Contour and Fior Contour, the latter being deeper support.
The Performance mattresses also feature ‘activated quartz organic foam’ for the upper latex layer and an option to upgrade to include ‘EMF protection’. It isn’t clear what either of these ‘upgrades’ actually mean. The EMF protection costs some $700 more for a Queen size.
Performance mattresses are 8-inches deep, unless you upgrade to the EMF barrier, which adds two inches for an overall 10-inch profile.
Essentia Classic REM5 Mattress
Highlights: Fully vegan 8-inch or 10-inch organic mattress with two firmness levels, active cooling, and optional EMF barrier. Made in Canada. Very expensive.
The Essentia Classsic REM5 vegan mattress claims to help lower body temperature by around 5 degrees for a better night’s sleep. It is a well made mattress with two options for firmness and support, but it costs much more than similar (and better!) mattresses from Naturepedic, Obasan, PlushBeds and others.
This mattress is best for lighter to average weight adults as it is just 8 inches deep. If you upgrade to the 10-inch model with EMF barrier, this provides greater depth to prevent bottoming out if you’re a side-sleeper or larger adult.
Essentia Dormeuse REM9 Mattress
Highlights: Vegan, non-toxic, organic mattress with active cooling and optional EMF barrier. Available in two firmness levels. Made in Canada and very expensive.
The Dormeuse REM9 is very similar to the Classic REM5 but claims to offer even greater cooling potential. Indeed, Essentia claims this mattress can induce a state of micro-hibernation by lowering body temperature by 9 degrees.
The Dormeuse is available in two contour levels, one providing sufficient cushioning and support for most adults (the Mid Contour) and one providing deeper support (Fior Contour). The latter is best for side-sleepers, heavier adults, and anyone with wider hips or shoulders.
We’ve docked a leaf for the Classic REM5 and REM9, not because they’re less eco-friendly but because of price and the pseudioscientific claims made by Essentia to promote these mattresses.
ProCor P1 Mattress
Essentia’s ProCor P1 mattress is as luxury (and, frankly, strange) as it gets for organic mattresses. This custom mattress design starts with the Dormeuse REM9 build but fine-tunes the latex to offer tailored support for each customer. The accuracy of that tailoring is… questionable.
Essentia ProCor P1 Mattress
Highlights: Fully vegan, customized, all-latex organic mattress with active cooling, contoured support, EMF barrier, and a unique customization process. No returns or refunds. Very expensive.
Like the Dormeuse REM9, the ProCor P1 has cooling quartz foam to support deeper sleep. It also has the built-in EMF barrier as standard.
The ProCor P1 is only available in Twin XL, Queen, King, and Cali King as standard, but you can request a custom size for any Essentia mattresses.
The ProCor P1 is a standard 10-inch build but can be upgraded to a 12- or 14-inch depth. This makes it a good choice for heavier adults, especially side-sleepers. That said, there are much less costly options for deeper mattresses with similar, if not better, eco-credentials.
If you’re not sold on the EMF barrier and cooling quartz and are suspicious of the Essentia customization process, consider the 13-inch Obasan Deluxe, 12-inch Naturepedic EOS, or 12-inch PlushBeds Botanical Bliss, for instance. If you’re looking for a vegan mattress, here are some other options, including the Vegan EOS and Natural Bliss.
How does Essentia customize your ProCor P1 mattress?
Essentia uses a custom questionnaire that helps the company “match you to a personality type which in turn tells [Essentia] how you hold your tension & stresses, this then results in a mattress that supports your body and muscle needs.”
I took the questionnaire, which asks no questions about body measurements, sleep style, or health conditions. Instead, questions focus on whether you’re more reserved or sociable, reactive or a planner, objective or emotional. Somehow, my responses led the algorithm to diagnose me with hyperlordosis (also known as Swayback), which I don’t have, and which would require a physical assessment.
To its credit, the ID Questionnaire does suggest options for the Classic REM5 and Dormeuse REM9, rather than just funneling customers to the much pricier ProCor P1 custom mattress. A customer service representative told me that the ProCor P1 has a very high satisfaction rate and is mostly purchased by professional athletes (presumably ones with well-paying sponsorship deals!).
Overall, we’re not sure the ProCor P1 is worth the extra expense for most adults. With no returns and a peculiar approach to assessing sleep needs, this mattress is an expensive gamble that costs nearly $10k more than a similar Obasan mattress!
How to Choose the Right Essentia Mattress for Your Needs
Essentia offers five all-latex mattress designs, two ‘off-the-rack’ builds (Tatami and Stratami), two of which are customizable to some degree (REM5 and REM9), and one with superior customizability (ProCor P1).
The most affordable Essentia all-latex build, the Tatami, is a firmer model best suited for average weight adults who sleep on their stomach or back.
The Stratami offers contoured cushioning and extra breathability, making it a good choice for lighter side-sleepers and average weight adults who need more pressure point relief.
Note: For side-sleepers or anyone who weighs more than 230 lb., the 8-inch build of the Tatami and Stratami is likely too shallow.
Larger adults and side-sleepers, especially those with more pronounced spinal curvature will likely do best with a 10-inch or deeper Performance mattress in Fior Contour. This provides deeper support, letting you sink a little more into the mattress to relieve pressure, especially at the shoulders and hips.
For anyone with a flat back, smaller shoulders and hips, or an overall more petite build, as well as stomach-sleepers and many back-sleepers, the Mid Contour Performance is a better choice. This design prevents too much sinkage, providing pressure relief and comfort without the feeling of being trapped in the mattress.
Essentia can make custom sizes of all its latex mattresses with no customization fee for a split Queen, King, or Cali King.
Need an organic mattress for your yacht, lighthouse, RV, truck, loft, or antique bedframe? Are you unusually tall or large? Essentia can help you out!
What’s it like to sleep on an Essentia Mattress?
With so many mattress options, including a fully custom-made ProCor P1 available, it’s hard to say how an Essentia mattress performs.
That said, customer reviews of the Essentia mattresses tend to be positive. The Stratami mattress has also consistently won awards and is Consumer Reports Recommended. What’s more, Essentia has stuck with the same high-performing designs for its Lifestyle and Performance collections for several years (albeit with new marketing copy).
The Essentia mattresses support restful sleep in a variety of ways, as per…
Essentia’s ‘7 Key Elements’
Essentia proudly proclaims success in seven key areas for healthy sleep. Its mattresses support and are:
- Certified organic
- Allergy friendly
- Posture support
- Accelerated recovery
- Active cooling
- EMF protection
- Optimized oxygen.
Certified organic:
All Essentia mattresses are certified organic and made in the company’s GOTS/GOLS certified factory in Canada.
Allergy friendly:
The layered latex design without coils or polyfoam means Essentia mattresses don’t harbor dust mites, mildew, or mold. The latex is also washed and baked to remove proteins that trigger latex allergy symptoms.
Active cooling and EMF protection:
Active cooling is only a feature of the Performance mattresses and ProCor P1. As for EMF protection, the barrier is an optional add-on for its Performance mattresses and comes as standard for the ProCor P1.
Posture support and accelerated recovery:
Essentia mattresses help support posture and accelerated recovery by providing a sleep surface that cradles but doesn’t entrap you. The natural latex relieves pressure on joints, promotes healthy circulation, and helps to prevent nerve compression that can lead to numbness and soreness.
Less motion transfer and sleep disruption:
Essentia’s high-density organic latex foam comfort layers also react quickly to natural movements. This means fewer sleep interruptions and a deeper, more restorative sleep. And, if you’re sleeping beside someone else, this also helps reduce motion transfer and any associated disruption to sleep.
What customers say about Essentia mattresses
The tatami is an amazing bed. A work of science and art. I am sleeping comfortably finally after many years. Essentia also has the best customer service. So helpful with getting the right sizes. Thank you Essentia. I’m a lifetime customer.
Jovian R., 2022
I don’t even have words. I love this mattress so much, the best investment I’ve made for my health. I never used to be able to sleep on my back, and now I can. It’s comfortable in every position. Since we got our Essentia REM9, my recovery from workouts is incredible. I’m deeply grateful for the mindfulness and love that went into designing this product. LOVE yourself and buy one.
JoLee S., 2023
Downsides to Essentia mattresses
The main downside to an Essentia mattress is the cost. While the Tatami and Stratami Lifestyle mattresses aren’t that much more expensive than competitors’ prices, the Performance is quite a bit pricier and the ProCor P1 is the most expensive organic latex mattress we’ve seen.
Whether the higher specification mattresses offer value for money is questionable. Does anyone really need a mattress infused with quartz or with a built-in EMF barrier? Probably not. Is the mark-up on these mattresses very high indeed. We suspect so.
If you have the budget and like the look of Essentia and its ethics, go for it. But if you’re on the fence and want to save a few thousand dollars, consider the Botanical Bliss instead, or an Obasan, Naturepedic EOS (also available vegan), or Spindle mattress.
Other downsides of the Essentia mattresses include no returns on the customizable ProCor P1 and a return fee on other mattresses.
Essentia mattresses are also made with Kevlar flame barriers. This means they are not entirely natural, unlike mattresses made with organic latex, wool, and cotton.
Essentia’s warranty, sleep trial, and returns
Essentia’s mattresses all comes with a 20-year warranty, providing robust coverage should your mattress develop a defect years after purchase. The first 10 years includes full replacement, after that you get prorated coverage for another 10 years.
Essentia also offers a 120-night sleep trial for most mattresses, with the exception of custom made ProCor P1 mattresses (these are final sale). You can start the return process within the 120 days by calling Essentia, though you have to wait 30 nights after your mattress arrives.
If you decide not to keep your Essentia mattress, the company will arrange to pick it up for recycling or donation. You won’t have to pack or ship the mattress.
Note that Essentia charges a return fee of 9% of the listed retail price of the mattress, plus any applicable taxes. If you bought your mattress on sale, you’ll still be charged 9% of the listed price at the time of the return.
For mattresses returned in great condition, Essentia replaces the covers with new GOTS certified organic cotton covers and donates the refurbished products to charities through its Betterhood program.
Final Thoughts on Essentia Mattresses
If you’re ready to take the plunge and upgrade to an Essentia mattress, there’s sure to be one that suits your needs. All in all, Essentia mattresses are eco-friendly, sustainably and durably made, and support a variety of sleep needs. Our recommendation, though, is to stick to the more affordable Tatami or Stratami builds, or upgrade to a deeper Performance mattress if you’re a heavier adult or side-sleeper.
FAQs
Memory foam mattresses are basically petroleum products mixed with blowing agents to create a spongy, springy ‘cake’ of foam that conforms to your body. Most memory foam mattresses are an environmental nightmare, essentially made of gasoline and doused in chemical flame retardants to get through fire safety tests. All of these chemicals off-gas from the mattresses, causing indoor air pollution and a range of health effects.
In contrast, Essentia’s mattresses are genuinely green. Essentia uses natural, organic materials (plus Kevlar for fire safety), with 95% of the foam made from organic Hevea milk, i.e., the sap of rubber trees. Essentia adds essential oils and other plant-based ingredients such as hydrolyzed corn (and quartz, apparently) to tailor its proprietary foam mix. The mattresses are free of chemical flame retardants and other toxic chemicals.
Essentia mattresses are made with continuous layers of latex, meaning they are impervious to dust mites. The company also claims that the mattresses don’t contain latex proteins that may trigger allergies, and the mattresses are also free from fiber batting that could house dust mites.
Essentia is up front about its certifications, with links on its website to all current certificates held by the company. Not sure which certifications you should be on the watch for? Check out our list of mattress certifications here. Essentia’s certifications include:
· GOTS 6.0 factory certification
· GOLS (for latex and factory)
· Oeko-Tex 100 (for latex)
· Green America Gold
· EuroLatex ECO-Standards (for all Dunlop latex)
· ISO Certified (for a quality management system specific to the medical devices industry)
· GREENGUARD Certified adhesives (solvent-free, GREENGUARD Gold Certified® water-based adhesives only).
Essentia mattresses feature organic latex that is certified to the EuroLatex ECO-Standard. The TFI (Deutsches Teppich-Forschungs Institut in Aachen) in Germany, tests the Dunlop foam for a variety of substances that are considered harmful to health, including heavy metals, nitrosamines, pesticides, solvents, and volatile organic components (VOCs).
Essentia’s mattresses are also made in a GOLS, GOTS, and ISO certified factory in Canada, which means you can be confident these mattresses are genuinely eco-friendly and free from undesirable chemicals. This also offers the reassurance of decent workers’ rights and adherence to robust manufacturing and environmental safety standards.
Yes! Essentia uses Kevlar fabric as a protective sleeve under the organic cotton cover to meet federal fire safety standards. This is more expensive than chemical treatments and Kevlar is synthetic, but it’s a non-toxic material and is permitted under GOTS regulations.
Using Kevlar means Essentia can make all of its mattresses vegan as standard. There’s no wool or other animal-derived materials in Essentia mattresses.
If you don’t want the Kevlar sleeve, contact Essentia for assistance. The company may be able to make a mattress without the synthetic fabric, though you’ll need a valid doctor’s note.
Essentia uses more eco-friendly shipping than most mattress companies. It uses special machinery to compress, roll, and pack the dense, heavy all-latex mattresses.
Because of the compression, most Essentia mattresses take up 75% less space in a truck and require 75% less packaging than conventional mattresses. They also ship via UPS or FedEx, which saves on shipping costs and associated emissions.
Essential uses packing boxes made from 100% recycled paper (99% post-consumer, 1% post-industrial) too.
Essentia only ships the Classic REM5 and Dormeuse REM9 in King and California king size via complimentary In-Home Delivery. This is because these larger mattresses require some assembly.
You can also choose In-Home Delivery for other mattresses for $249 per mattress or foundation. The team can also remove your old mattress.
Essentia’s mattresses have been robustly tested by Consumer Reports and other outlets and by the company itself. Tests include passing a 250 lb. hexagonal shape roller over the mattress 200,000 times to simulate 10 years of use. Under such conditions, the Essentia mattresses lost less than a quarter inch of original height, so expect your mattress to last a long time!
No! Essentia only uses natural materials (and Kevlar) in its mattresses, so there’s no risk of harmful off-gassing. It has also had its mattresses independently tested by at least two labs. This includes testing for VOC emissions in 2013 by Exova Labs, which confirmed that Essentia mattresses met the standards for highest Indoor Air Quality Product Certifications for OEM Materials and Bedding.
Essentia Organic Mattresses
Highlights: All-latex, all vegan, organic mattresses to suit all kinds of sleepers. Made in Canada in GOTS factory, with custom size mattresses available!
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