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- Fully adjustable
- Lofty support
- Comfortable in a range of sleeping positions
- Adjusting filling can be messy and there’s no storage for loose pieces
- Double-sided cover isn’t very effective
At the time of writing, the Dutch-based sleep brand Cloudpillo has just one product under its belt: the Cloudpillo Original. It’s a substantially lofty memory foam pillow that can be adjusted to suit your preferences.
In today’s market, an adjustable pillow isn’t quite the innovative invention it once was. Many brands including Simba, Emma, Nectar and Otty have their own adjustable offerings, so Cloudpillo has its work cut out for it. So how does the Original pillow fare against these rivals?
Cloudpillo Original review: What do you get for the money?
The Cloudpillo Original will cost you £70: an investment, but not dissimilar to a lot of other pillows like it. The Otty Adjustable Pillow (our favourite memory foam pillow in Expert Reviews’ Sleep Awards 2025) costs the same, while Nectar’s Adjustable Memory Foam pillow is £75 and Simba’s Hybrid Pillow is even more expensive at £109. Underneath the outer and inner polyester covers the Cloudpillo Original is filled with lots of small shredded memory foam pieces. These can be removed or stuffed into the pillow in order to adjust its height.
The first thing that struck me about the Cloudpillo Original was the size. While it does fit into my standard pillowcases without issue, it feels like quite a substantial pillow (around 72 x 45cm). And at ‘full fill’, with none of the foam pieces removed, it’s very plump and lofty.
The pillow’s outer cover is double-sided, with one side designed to provide “warmth and cosiness”, while the other is made from a cooling “ice silk” material. I’ll go into more detail on the effectiveness of this design further down.
The Cloudpillo Original comes with a 100-night trial period, during which you can return the pillow for a full refund if you don’t get on with it. It’s not uncommon for an online mattress or bedding brand to offer a sleep trial with its products, but I’m used to seeing trials of 100 or more nights reserved for the more substantial products such as mattresses or toppers. You can read more about Cloudpillo’s sleep trial and returns policy on its website, though it doesn’t specify here whether or not you will need to foot the return delivery cost yourself.
Cloudpillo Original review: What does it do well?
I found the Cloudpillo Original to be a comfortable pillow while sleeping on my side or my back, and it offers a plush yet medium-firm support level that I enjoyed – though some may prefer something a bit softer.
As I mentioned, the pillow’s adjustable USP isn’t quite so unique, but it works well. The minute size of the foam pieces, while being a bit messy when taking them out, does mean that the pillow can be adjusted to the nth degree while still retaining a decent shape (providing you’re happy to fluff it up a bit). I tested the Cloudpillo Original first at full fill and then later with some of the filling taken out, and found that it still retained its support. With even more filling removed, the pillow might be more suitable for those who prefer a softer feel.
Again, the pillow is an investment at £70, but it really does feel like you’re getting a lot of pillow here for your money. And the generous 100-night trial is a very nice thing to fall back on if you find that it’s not for you.
Cloudpillo Original review: What could be improved?
I found that the outer cover’s double-sided feature, designed to offer sleepers contrasting cool and warm sides, was not quite so effective. While testing the pillow during a rather changeable spring season, I found that both sides felt largely the same, especially once the pillow was in a case (out of the case, the blue side does feel cooler to the touch). I must confess that I didn’t initially realise that this was even a feature until I had been testing the pillow for about a week. This isn’t necessarily a huge drawback, and I still found the pillow very comfortable, but it’s an underwhelming feature and I wouldn’t make it a defining reason to buy the Cloudpillo Original if you are considering doing so.
What I found more irritating was Cloudpillo’s oversight when it comes to providing somewhere to store any foam pieces you remove from the pillow. Luckily, I had kept the plastic packaging and the box so I could put them in there. To the brand’s credit, this is actually Cloudpillo’s suggested solution, but it doesn’t feel like an ideal one – particularly if you want to get rid of the packaging to save space. Considering how small and numerous these foam pieces are, removing them from (or stuffing them back into) the pillow can be a messy ordeal: I’ve found myself picking tiny bits of foam off the floor and my bed in the process. Some pillows, such as the Otty Adjustable Pillow and the Simba Hybrid, come with a small bag for storing any excess foam: an addition that certainly wouldn’t go amiss here.
Lastly, I should mention that the pillow takes a little while to expand when taken out of its vacuum-sealed packaging. When I first opened it, the individual foam pieces had also been compressed into one big lump. In time, the pillow will expand fully and you can break these pieces up with a little fluffing, but I recommend giving it at least an hour before you plan to sleep on the pillow.
Cloudpillo Original review: Should I buy it?
The Cloudpillo Original is comfortable, versatile and feels like a very substantial pillow. I’d comfortably recommend it to those looking for a supportive memory foam pillow that they can adjust to suit their needs.
However, it’s difficult to ignore how irritating it is to adjust the pillow. Of course, in theory this isn’t something you’ll be doing regularly: once you’ve found your ideal loft, you may never adjust it again. However, I found the process annoying and messy and it put me off experimenting with different fill levels to begin with. Recommending the Original over some of its close rivals isn’t the easiest thing to do either. One of our favourite memory foam pillows, the Otty Adjustable, offers similar benefits at the same price point – as well as the additional perk of a zippable bag in which to store the foam pieces, the lack of which was my major gripe with the Cloudpillo Original.
This, combined with the relatively ineffective cooling/cosy sides of the pillow, lead me to conclude that, while this is a perfectly comfortable and well made pillow, it doesn’t outdo the competition.
