Aldi is launching an Emma pillow in store today, and at just £14.99, I think it's a brilliant buy.
Not only is the Aldi Emma Essentials Pillow the cheapest Emma pillow on the market – this pillow is £40 cheaper than the most affordable Emma pillow on the brand's own website – but it's also the best value adjustable pillow I've come across.
As Ideal Home's Sleep Editor, I've spent the past four years putting the best pillows on the market to the test – from the best pillows for side sleepers to the best memory foam pillows – and the one thing I've discovered is that when it comes to pillows, one size doesn't fit all.
That's why I think the fact that you can unzip this pillow and add or remove its fluffy microfibre filling is such a genius idea. This means you can adjust the height of the pillow to suit your sleep position and create a personalized resting place for your head.
Available in Aldi's Specialbuys section from Thursday, 6th November, the Emma Essentials Pillow is a part of the retailer's 'Luxury Homeware' launch.
This range sees the brand reintroduce its sell-out £9.99 Cashmere Touch Blankets, and offer £12.99 Teddy Mattress Toppers and Feels Like Down Duvets, starting from just £16.99 for a double.
However, it's the super-affordable Emma Essentials Pillow that immediately caught my eye.
I've slept on most of Emma's bestselling pillows, including the Emma Premium Cloud Pillow and the Emma Original Hybrid Pillow, and the one thing they all have in common is that they're fairly expensive. Prices start from £55 for the brand's most affordable pillow, and go up to £82 for the Emma Premium pillow range.
In contrast, this £14.99 Emma Essentials pillow is by far the cheapest way to get your hands on some of the brand's bedding.
That said, Emma has just launched its Black Friday sale, and as Black Friday deals go, there are some great savings on some of the brand's bestsellers, such as the Emma Hybrid Thermosync Mattress (in our opinion, Emma's best mattress), which is reduced from £799 to £599.25 for a double.
The discounts also apply to Emma's pillow collection, with up to 25% off selected designs. However, even with Black Friday deals in full effect, the prices still don't compare to this Aldi bargain.
The Aldi Emma Essentials pillow isn't the only adjustable pillow on the market – I've rounded up three of my tried-and-tested alternatives below – but at just £14.99, it's most definitely the most affordable way to get your hands on a bespoke pillow.
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After testing, this is my favourite of Emma's standard pillow range, and it's currently reduced from £80 to £60. However, unlike the £14.99 Emma Essentials pillow it isn't fully customisable. Instead, it has two inserts inside which you can play around adding or removing to alter the height to your preference. This is less messy than dealing with handfuls of microfibre fluff, but means less height adjustability.
The downside of synthetic pillow fillings, such as the microfibre polyester in the Emma Essentials Pillow, is that this pillow filling tends to get very warm during the night. Unless you opt for recycled polyester, microfibre can also be bad news for the environment. Woolroom's wool-filled adjustable pillow is a natural alternative that offers a cooler sleep, plus biodegradability, which is kinder to the planet.
Perhaps the original adjustable pillow, the popular Simba Hybrid Pillow contains small memory foam cubes that can be added or subtracted from its inner to adjust the pillow height. The use of memory foam makes for a slightly denser pillow that moulds to the head, but its price tag is certainly on the premium end of the scale.
