Best hybrid mattress with natural materials? Comparing Avocado Green mattress, Nest Bedding, and more

Mattress Talk General Mattresses Questions
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Hi everyone,

I’m currently searching for a mattress with specific criteria, and I’m wondering if folks have specific recommendations I might consider.

Here’s the situation: As I recently posted, my wife and I currently have the Charles P Rogers Estate SE. It’s nearing the end of the 100-day trial period, and we’re leaning toward returning it.

I’m 170 lbs, 5’8", and mostly sleep on my back and side. She’s 125 lbs, 5’7", and mostly sleeps on her side. We both find that the mattress is somewhat too firm.

For me, it seems like the Estate SE promotes good alignment (I don’t usually wake up with backaches), but has poor pressure point relief. It often feels like the upper layers are “bottoming out” under my hips and shoulders. I feel “heavy” on this mattress. For reference, this mattress’s comfort layer is 2" of 24 ILD Talalay latex.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

  • Hybrid
  • Natural materials. It doesn’t have to be organic. I’d prefer to avoid polyfoam if I can achieve the same level of comfort without it. My concern here is less about durability and more about indoor air quality/VOCs and impact on the planet.
  • Medium firmness with good pressure relief
  • Decent motion isolation
  • Neutral or cooling temperature properties. I tend to sleep hot.
  • Moderate price. The Charles P Rogers was ~$2,500 and I’d rather not go past $3k, which puts some of the typical natural options out of reach.

And here’s what we’re considering:

Avocado Green with pillow top: I love this mattress’s natural materials and environmental certifications, but I suspect it will be too firm for us. Consensus seems to be that the version with the pillow top is approximately medium-firm, and that’s how it felt to us in the showroom. I suspect I’d be looking at adding a topper with this mattress.

Nest Owl Hybrid in medium: This mattress seems like a promising contender, but I’m not wild about the use of polyfoam, especially in the quilting. It’s also a bit galling that Nest calls this foam “eco-friendly” with no justification for that description. I know it’s not a huge durability concern because it’s only 1.5 inches in an upper layer, though. There’s a Nest store in my city (Seattle, WA), and we’re going to check out this mattress tonight.

Nest Dove Hybrid in medium or plush: This might check most boxes, but it sure is expensive.

Keeping the Estate SE and adding a topper: If I do this, I’m looking to add maximum pressure relief with minimal height, since this mattress is already 13 inches thick. Is a 2" layer of soft Talalay latex my best option? I’m wondering if wool or the Cozypure LaNoodle Cuddle Top might be worth considering instead.

What else should I consider? I’d welcome any recommendations.

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Hi Bort Datsun.

Sorry to hear the current mattress you have isn’t quite offering the pressure relief you need.

As you mentioned the mattress is 13" already, I definitely agree that 2" would be the max topper to add. You would probably do well with soft, although I worry about your alignment as a back sleeper with such thick comfort layers. That said, everyone is different and can benefit from various layer thickness even when it seems ‘abnormal.’

If you can pop a topper on within the return window and see if that makes a difference, it’s worth a try.

You have 3 great contenders for replacements. Obviously, the benefit of Nest is that you can do in person testing in their showroom.

As for the Avocado Green, it is a quality product. I will say that when one is mattress shopping (at least in my opinion), you should aim to buy the bed that works best for you in all aspects and not for a mattress you have to ‘fix’ from the beginning.

Were you able to do the in person visit to Nest? If so, how did that go?

NikkiTMU

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Hi NikkTMU,

Thank you for your response! I tried out the Nest and thought it was nice — about the right firmness, great pressure relief. But I’d really like to avoid polyfoam because of concern about VOCs, and unfortunately it’s quilted rather thickly into the top layer. I’m now thinking I’d like to try a mattress that doesn’t have such a thick top layer above the latex, and add a wool topper for surface softness.

Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time within the return window to try a topper on the Charles P Rogers bed. It’s already so thick that I’ve been resisting this option, and now this is what I get for waffling.

At this point I’m considering just trying the Avocado or perhaps the MyGreenMattress Natural Escape, which should be somewhat less firm than the Avocado (it has 3" of 24 ILD Dunlop, vs 2"). Am I correct in thinking that a 1 or 2-inch layer of soft Talalay over 2 or 3 inches of 24 ILD Dunlop could be comfortable? Is there reason to think that one of these options would be better than the other, if I’m anticipating needing to add a topper?

I’m also considering the Flexus QuadraFlex, which would give me the benefit of split Talalay layers that can be exchanged for a different firmness.

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Update: never mind, I ordered a Vzone!