Vegan natural pillows
Natural bedding and vegan bedding overlap far less than the labels suggest, because wool and down are both natural and neither is vegan. Here is exactly which of ours qualifies and which does not.
Four qualify: Wild-Harvested Kapok, Buckwheat, Organic Cotton and Tree-Tapped Latex. All four are plant material in an organic cotton cover with nothing animal-derived anywhere in them. Two do not: the Organic Wool pillow and the Buckwool Hybrid both contain sheep's wool. If you are moving away from down, kapok is the closest replacement, because the hollow fiber gives you the same lightness and sink-in feel from a seed pod.
They cover the full range from the softest thing we make to the firmest, so being vegan does not narrow your choice of feel much at all.
Hollow plant fiber that is 80 to 90 percent air, collected by hand from seed pods. It gives you the lightness and the sink-in feel of down from a tree.
Best for anyone replacing down
Pre-polished USA-grown hulls that flex into the shape of your neck and lock there. Nothing plant-based comes close to it for firm holding.
Best for neck pain and hot sleepers
Texas-grown organic cotton inside and out, certified as a finished product. Silent, medium firm, and the shape holds for years.
Best for a steady pillow with no upkeep
Slow-pour Dunlop tapped from rubber trees through a cut that leaves the tree growing. Buoyant, cool, and the longest-lived pillow we make.
Best for people leaving memory foam
Available with cotton, kapok or latex inside. Read the option before you order, because wool is also one of the four choices.
Best for side sleepers and pregnancy
Why this is hard to shop for
Bedding marketing leans hard on natural, which covers wool, down, feather and silk as comfortably as it covers cotton. Working out what is in a pillow often means emailing the seller.
1
Wool, down, feather, silk and cashmere are all natural, all common in bedding, and none of them is vegan.
2
A pillow named after its cover can hold anything, and blends rarely list proportions.
3
The phrase usually means polyester microfiber, which is vegan and is also a petrochemical.
4
Plenty of pillows contain no animal material and almost none of them say so on the front.
So we will say it plainly. Four of our six pillows are plant material end to end, two contain wool, and the body pillow depends on which fill you choose. Nothing here is tested on animals.
The one that replaces down
What makes down work is structure rather than material: tiny, mostly-air clusters that trap warmth and let your head sink in. Kapok arrives at the same result from a plant, because each fiber is a hollow microtube with a wall one to two microns thick and 80 to 90 percent of its volume as air.
It also handles moisture better than down does. The fiber wall carries a natural waxy coating that repels water, so it resists mold and mildew where down absorbs your skin's moisture and slowly mats.
How the latex is taken
Latex is a question people ask about, and reasonably so, because it comes from a living thing. It is tapped through a shallow downward cut in the bark that opens the vessel network without harming the tree. The cut heals and the same trunk can be tapped for decades.
No animal is involved at any stage, and a rubber tree that is producing is worth far more standing than felled, which is the same economic logic that keeps kapok trees in the ground.
Being straight about the other two
The Organic Wool pillow is wool. The Buckwool Hybrid has a buckwheat chamber on one side and an organic wool chamber on the other, so half of it is an animal product. Neither belongs on this page and we would rather point that out than let a natural label do the work.
If you came for the wool pillow's moisture handling and cannot take wool, buckwheat is the closest plant substitute for staying cool, because air moving between the hulls addresses temperature even though nothing plant-based moves moisture the way wool does.
The whole catalogue, so you do not have to write to us to find out.
| Product | Vegan | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| Wild-Harvested Kapok Pillow | Yes | Kapok seed fiber, organic cotton cover |
| Buckwheat Pillow | Yes | USA-grown hulls, organic cotton cover |
| Organic Cotton Pillow | Yes | Texas-grown organic cotton, inside and out |
| Tree-Tapped Latex Pillow | Yes | Tapped Dunlop latex, organic cotton cover |
| Organic Wool Pillow | No | New Zealand sheep's wool |
| Buckwool Hybrid Pillow | No | Half wool, half buckwheat hulls |
| Body Pillow | Depends on the fill | Cotton, kapok and latex qualify. Wool does not |
| Bedding and covers | Yes | Organic cotton sateen, no silk and no wool |
Kapok. Hollow fiber, the same lightness and sink-in feel, and it repels moisture where down absorbs it.
Wild-Harvested Kapok Pillow ›Buckwheat. Nothing plant-based comes close for a firm, locking hold, and it runs cooler than anything else we make.
Buckwheat Pillow ›Organic cotton, certified organic as a finished product under licence GOTS-10229. The cotton inside as well as the cover.
Organic Cotton Pillow ›Latex. It keeps the conforming cradle and loses the heat, and it lasts up to a decade.
Tree-Tapped Latex Pillow ›Four of six. Wild-Harvested Kapok, Buckwheat, Organic Cotton and Tree-Tapped Latex are all plant material in an organic cotton cover. The Organic Wool pillow and the Buckwool Hybrid both contain sheep's wool and are not.
Yes. It is a seed fiber from the Ceiba pentandra tree, collected by hand from pods that grow on the tree, with no animal material at any point and nothing tested on animals.
Yes. It is sap tapped from rubber trees through a shallow cut in the bark that the tree heals over. No animal is involved at any stage of tapping, pouring or sewing.
Kapok, by a wide margin. It is the only widely available plant fiber with a hollow structure, which is the property that makes down feel the way it does. Polyester microfiber is the usual vegan down alternative and it is a petrochemical that clumps and holds heat.
That depends on which fill you order, since three of the four qualify. Cotton, kapok and latex are all plant material, and wool is the fourth option and is not. The choice is shown before checkout, and write to us if you would like us to double-check an order.
No, nothing we make is tested on animals, and there would be nothing to test. Our products are fiber and cloth sewn in a workshop in New Jersey.
No. The thread is cotton-wrapped polyester and there are no dyes at all, because everything we make is in the natural undyed colour of its material. That is also why new cotton has a faint plant smell when it arrives.
Because wool does something no plant fiber does, which is move moisture off your skin into the fiber, and for people with night sweats it is the thing that works. We would rather offer it and be completely clear about which products contain it than quietly drop the word natural over everything.
Silk is not, since it comes from silkworms. Bamboo viscose is plant-derived and heavily chemically processed to get there, which is why we do not use it. We make our bedding from organic cotton instead.
Yes. It is organic cotton on both faces with a bio-based TPU film between them, so it contains no wool, down or animal-derived laminate anywhere.
Everything on this page is plant material end to end. Sixty nights to be sure, handmade in our New Jersey workshop.
See the vegan pillows183 verified reviews
If you've sent more pillows back than you've kept, you're our customer.
“I have owned more pillows than I have owned houses and I have owned 12 houses.” This is by far the only pillow to use if you don’t want to wake up with sore shoulders or neck. I have replaced all the pillows in my house with this pillow.
I have compressed discs in my neck, and I have spent hundreds of dollars over the past 6 months trying to find one that will help me sleep. Every pillow I bought caused me to wake up in even more pain than the night before!! The buckwheat pillow is life-changing!! I have slept through the night and wake up with no pain!!
I was leery to try another expensive pillow without some sort of trial period after being very let down by a different company's natural fiber pillow… I don't hear anything at all with the buckwheat! It does stay fresh and cool as well, but most importantly it actually holds my head/neck up and in place. Which allows me to actually get rest instead of always adjusting.
I've been a buckwheat pillow customer for the last 7 years and I can say that Circadian has the highest standards of quality paired with incredible customer service. Very very impressed and would not hesitate to send anyone their way.
I have spent years searching for a pillow that feels supportive and comfortable all night. I have finally found it. I absolutely love the Buckwool pillow. I removed a bit of the material to get it to exactly how I want it… I rarely wake up with neck pain now.
I find myself switching between the two and loving the feel of both. I haven't woken up with a sweaty head with either and that's an amazing feeling especially in the AZ summer. The buckwheat side is a lot quieter and more comfy/soft than others I've tried in the past.
I have tried at least 10 different pillows in the last 3 years. Nothing has worked out except for this wool pillow. I have chronic neck pain which has been greatly reduced. I am very happy with my new pillow.
I have pretty bad chemical sensitivity (housebound most of the time)… I try to only buy totally safe, non-toxic products. I found this pillow to be very safe and non-toxic, and the packaging was fragrance free which is always a huge plus.
I ordered this pillow to replace my very old (but beloved) down pillow and I'm so glad I did. It is heavenly!… I advise you to heed the recommendation given by the quiz. I ordered cotton initially despite the quiz giving me kapok as a result… the quiz was right.
The quality craftsmanship and materials is evident… when I asked if extra stuffing were available for the second one I'm using as a knee pillow, they not only pointed me to the right place on their site, but also created a new, smaller 1-lb. refill size based on my request.
The three-star ones are in there too. Read all of them
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