Plush is a feeling people shop for by name, and Sealy is where a lot of them start. This one is Sealy's answer for anyone who wants to sink in a little. It's a 36cm British-made hybrid that Mattress Online sells from double size up to super king, and it's the plush bed in Sealy's Exquisite tier, a rung above the Elevate range. Your shoulder sinks into a deep quilted top and thin graphite foam, settles on tiny pocket springs, and the coil unit beneath stops you at the hip.
Its closest sibling is the Sealy Exquisite Entice, the cheaper of the two in the same shop. They share the RestSupport coil unit, the double layer of ClimaLux foam, the ComfortCore pad and the reinforced border. Most of what the Radiance adds is a second layer of 2,000 mini springs, 2cm of depth and a softer grade. It's a gorgeous bed, but most of the extra money over the Entice goes on those minis, and minis are the part of a spring count I'd pay least for. If you've been browsing Sealy's own range, the closest Sealy model we can find is the Exquisite Indulgence Plush, built from the same layers to the same depth.
It's made for a lighter side sleeper whose shoulder needs somewhere to go, and for couples who perch on the side of the mattress to pull their shoes on, because Sealy reinforces the border all the way round the springs. Heavier back and front sleepers should skip it, since a plush grade lets your hips drop below your shoulders. So should anyone who wants a mattress they can turn, because this one has a single sleeping face.
Before I go on, a confession: I'm lukewarm on Sealy as a maker, and that says more about my taste than about this bed. Its build deserves credit all the same. It's beautifully finished, with a deep quilted surface and a soft knitted cover, and its depth is springs and fibre rather than foam. I'd still send most people elsewhere in the same shop. If you can take Medium, the Entice is the better buy, and if it's the sink you want, similar comfort costs a lot less in the Sealy Arden Elevate Ultra.
How soft is the Sealy Exquisite Radiance Plush?
Soft on top and steady underneath, which is what a Soft to Medium grade should feel like. The quilted top and a layer of fibre take the first touch, and that quilting is a lovely thing to settle into on a cold night. Like any deep quilted top it softens a little as it beds in, so expect it a shade softer after a few months than the day it arrives. Below it come two 2cm sheets of graphite foam and a 1cm pad of ComfortCore foam across the middle third, under your hips. The two layers of minis sit below those and push back gently, so you won't feel stuck the way you can on deep memory foam.
If you've always slept best on a soft bed and find most mattresses sold as medium too hard, this one takes you seriously. It's properly plush rather than a firm bed with a soft name. Under about nine stone and on your side, your shoulder and hip get proper room to settle, which is exactly what a side sleeper needs. On your back the same give is a problem. Your hips settle a little lower than your shoulders, the dip at the hip I steer back sleepers away from, and back sleepers of average weight or more will be better off on the Entice's Medium.
Four thousand minis, and a question about the coils beneath them
Sealy's RestSupport unit is its own design. Each coil is twice tempered with titanium in the steel, and Sealy builds it to work in stages, with the top of the coil giving first and the core taking your weight after. On a plush bed that's a sensible idea, because the surface can stay soft while the coil does the supporting lower down. The UniCased XT border wraps the whole unit, and I rate it: plush beds usually go soft at the sides, and a reinforced edge here means you can sleep right up to it without feeling you'll roll off.
My doubt is about what sits under the minis. Beneath them is an uncounted Sealy coil unit, and the only springs Sealy describes as pocketed are the 4,000 minis themselves. The support comes from the unit below, so that's the count I want to know. Before you spend this much, ask Mattress Online how many coils the RestSupport unit has and whether each one sits in its own pocket. If a partner turning over tends to wake you, you'll want that answer first.
36cm deep, and only 5cm of that is foam
At 36cm, about 14 inches, it's deeper than most fitted sheets reach. I go to bed on a 1,000 thread count every night, and for a mattress this deep I'd buy the deep-pocket version from the start, since a standard sheet will ping off one corner by morning. Check your bed height too, because 36cm on a tall frame turns getting into bed into a climb.
The depth is to the build's credit, though. Only 5cm of it is foam, the two graphite layers and that thin pad, and the rest is springs and fibre, over the BasePlank layer Sealy puts at the bottom for stability. Over 30cm I expect cheap foam making up the height, and here the height comes from springs and fibre, which is the better way to be deep.
It's heavy with it. A double weighs 45kg, a king 52kg and a super king 62kg, close to ten stone, so rotating it takes two people. Sealy wants slats about 10cm (4 inches) wide with gaps no wider than 7.5cm, roughly three inches. Measure yours before it arrives, because a wide gap between slats is the first thing I'd suspect if a dip appeared.
Anything shallower than 32mm is normal settlement to Sealy
Read the settlement line before you buy any Sealy. The maker's care guide calls settlement under 32mm normal, about an inch and a quarter, so a hollow that deep where you sleep isn't a fault under Sealy's terms. Plenty of makers won't treat a dip shallower than two or three centimetres as a fault, so Sealy is no outlier, and I'd rather you knew the figure before your first night on it. Its terms also make rotation part of the deal: head to toe at least twice a month in its first year, monthly after that, and never onto the underside, which Sealy forbids. Mark the dates on a calendar from the first week.
Should plush turn out to be too much, you can swap it under the 100-Night Comfort Trial for another mattress, though not inside the first month, and only with a Mattress Online protector bought alongside it. It swaps the bed, never refunds it. Ask about trying one in a Mattress Online store first: ten minutes lying on it in your usual position will tell you whether plush is too plush, which is about all a shop floor is good for.
What to buy instead
Buy the Sealy Exquisite Entice if you can sleep on Medium. It's the cheaper of the pair, and its firmer grade suits back sleepers far better than this one does, without giving up the coil unit or the border. You lose the second layer of minis and a little softness, and that's the trade I'd make.
For the sink-in feel, buy the Sealy Arden Elevate Ultra. It's memory foam over Sealy's AlignSupport coils at 30cm, which is easier on your sheets, and it carries Allergy UK approval, a named scheme I take seriously and a real reason to pick it if anyone in your house has allergies. Memory foam does hold more heat, so if you run hot, the Entice is the safer of the two.
