Hi Vic,
No … all the blended Talalay you will find is made by either Radium or Latex International and both of them use a 30% natural / 70% synthetic blend. I don’t think anyone knows the actual cut off point or at least I haven’t seen any comparative research but I would guess they would equal out somewhere in the mid 20’s. If you are in the range of mid to high 20’s as your preference for a comfort layer then the natural would be fine IMO.
Synthetic latex is made primarily from a combination of Styrene and Butadiene which have a very similar chemical structure to natural rubber (which is mainly Isoprene rubber) and become very stable when they are polymerized together. There are many sources for both Styrene and Butadiene but the most common source is from petrochemicals.
All Talalay latex in North America (natural and blended) is tested and certified by Oeko-Tex standard 100 class 1 (safe for babies) as being free from harmful compounds and VOCs. The smell of Talalay has often been described as being “sweet” or similar to sugar cookies or vanilla with perhaps a hint of cinnamon or butter (depending on the sample or the blend). The smell of dunlop is much more “rubbery” and in most cases stronger although most of the Dunlop latex has also been certified either by Oeko-Tex or other similar certifying agencies.
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ILD can be very misleading because there are many factors that combine together that determine how soft or firm a layer (or a mattress) feels such as compression modulus, layer thickness, and “point elasticity” and ILD is only one of them. There are also different ways that ILD is tested (see post #6 here) so the same ILD may not be comparable if you are comparing different materials or using different layer thicknesses. In all cases though … ILD applies only to a single layer that comes from a core that has been tested and there is no measurement that would apply to the ILD of a mattress as a unit … only the foam layers that are in it. It can be somewhat misleading to compare ILD between different materials because of differences in the response curve of different types of foam and differences in how ILD is tested with different materials or in different areas of the world. ILD is only a measurement of how much weight it takes to compress a layer by 25% of its thickness and in real life layers are compressed more or less than 25% and have other layers either above or below them that affect their compression.
The only time that ILD may be useful is if you test a local mattress that seems to be suitable for your needs and preferences and you are looking to match all the layers (in terms of type of material, the thickness of each layer, and the ILD of each layer) with an online purchase. it can sometimes be very difficult to get accurate ILD information about local mattresses and it’s much more common that you would be given more subjective firmness ratings like soft, medium, or firm.
Latex International calls their blended latex “natural” and their 100% natural talalay “all natural”. You can see an example of this with Pure Latex Bliss mattresses here (which they own) where their “all natural” line uses 100% natural Talalay and their “natural” line uses blended Talalay. The “all natural” doesn’t have specific ILD’s (it only comes in a range of ILD’s which are rated from N1 to N5) and 19 ILD is a firmness rating for their Talatech blended Talalay. You can see the different types of latex they make and their firmness ratings here.
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I agree that latex terminology can be very misleading which is why it’s a good idea to deal with retailers or manufacturers that are completely transparent about what is in their mattresses and will readily give you accurate information.
The Miami list is up to date (as far as manufacturers or retailers I’m aware of) and was last edited on May 13 of this year.
I’m glad the site could help and I’m looking forward to your feedback and any questions you may have along the way.
Phoenix