Down Duvet Guide

Down and feathers come from the refinement of duck or goose feathers. The finer and more refined the feather, the higher the swelling power and the more interesting the thermal properties. We therefore have in increasing order of refinement:

• the feather
• the feather
• semi-down
• the down

Down is made up of tiny, very light feathers in contact with the animal's dermis and taken from its chest. It is then subject to successive sorting and therefore constitutes an exceptional filling. It is therefore much finer than feathers or plumettes. It is thermoregulatory and has the property of wicking away perspiration while insulating against heat and cold.

The higher the percentage of down, the higher the fill power and the higher the quality of the product. The proportion of down is generally between 30 and 90%, the rest being composed of feathers. Of course, the greater the proportion of down, the lighter and more thermoregulatory the duvet will be.

You will therefore find on our site:

• high-end duvets filled with 90% down in order to satisfy the most demanding,
• high quality duvets filled with at least 30% down new to allow all budgets to access our natural bedding.

Caution: if the proportion of down is not clearly indicated, it is because the proportion is lower and therefore the quality is poor!

In France, goose farms are rarer than duck farms. France therefore produces more duck down. If goose down is popular with connoisseurs because its loft is greater than that of duck down, it is often imported and is therefore a little more expensive because the import of the raw material has a cost.

In other words, quality duck down is better than recycled goose down!

Our collection Finland in new goose down simply offers the best CUIN on the market, that is to say the best swelling power! Produced in Europe by eliminating any intermediary, it also offers unbeatable value for money. Finally, labeled Oeko-Tex® Standard 100, RDS (Responsible Down Standard) and GOTS, it is also the only duvet to obtain triple certification.

Our collection Islande in new duck down is also certified Oeko-Tex® Standard 100, GOTS and RDS (Responsible Down Standard), ensuring the absence of products harmful to health and total respect for the animal during its production.

You therefore have the assurance of purchasing exceptional products at the best price.

Many duvets are filled with recycled down, some of our colleagues making it a specialty and trying to justify its use for pseudo environmental reasons, which actually have more to do with marketing than the desire to preserve the planet.

This down is actually cheaper to produce and therefore guarantees better margins. Above all, it is of less good quality! The recycling process causes the down to lose most of its fill power, in other words its ability to trap air and therefore keep warm. It is therefore imperative to check the presence of the mention new down (or virgin down) to be sure that it is not recycled waste.

Obviously, we refrain from offering products made from recycled down. Our duvet is guaranteed new!

In certain countries there is a practice rightly denounced as animal cruelty which consists of plucking birds alive to obtain a higher yield. We denounce this practice and undertake not to market this type of product unlike certain major brands.

Label Naturel is extremely attentive to animal welfare in its feather and down exploitation activity and expects formal commitments from its suppliers.

So:

• The down that fills our duvets, pillows and eiderdowns comes exclusively from ducks and geese which have led a healthy life, without stress or suffering and which have not been force-fed.

• The plucking of live animals is also strictly prohibited, no animal being plucked live.

Down is undoubtedly one of the warmest natural materials. Its significant covering power therefore means that you should not make a mistake with the weight otherwise you risk suffocation and sweating quickly. A good duvet can be recognized by its covering power, its flexibility and its lightness. Your choice depends on the quality of your nights and that of the day that follows... You might as well make no mistake!

On our site, duvets are classified into 4 heat indices (light, temperate, warm, very warm) each of which corresponds to a use and the adiathermal power of your duvet, i.e. its ability to retain heat. So, depending on whether the room is heated or not or whether you are cold or not, you will opt for the heat index that best corresponds to your situation.

Most Anglo-Saxon commercial sites formulate the heat index of their duvets in TOG, a measurement scale graduated from 1 to 15 according to the capacity of the duvet to store heat and release it evenly throughout the sleeper's body. You will therefore find on our product sheets a correspondence between our Heat Indices and the TOG reference.

For example, the weight of our duvet Islande in new duck down was determined by analyzing feedback from our customers during their previous purchases.

The weight we chose for our duvets Summer (150g/m²) and Mid-season (220g/m²) corresponds to the optimal covering power and ensures you nights without any excess heat unlike heavier duvets. As for our quilt Winter (370g/m²), it offers the highest weight in its category for truly cozy comfort in the cold season.

The fill power of a duvet is measured in cubic inches. It represents the capacity of a filling to trap air which plays the role of thermal insulation. Down is evaluated in the laboratory by placing a sample of down in a cylinder subjected to the standardized pressure of a piston. Low-end duvets are typically 250 to 400 cuin, with the best duvets on the market offering up to 800 cuin.

Our duck or goose down duvets all have a fill power of over 650 cuin, with our Finland goose down duvet even reaching 700 cuin.

Everyone remembers what happens during a duffel fight: the down escapes through the seams or through the mesh of the envelope if it is of poor quality.

We therefore recommend an envelope in cambric or at least satin, with a very tight weave (at least 100 threads/cm²).

Both soft, very resistant and silent, these fabrics are used in the manufacture of high-end bedding products. Because they are very tight, they prevent the down from escaping from the envelope while being much quieter than the cheap envelopes used on entry and mid-range products. More qualitative, they offer a really very silky touch and a beautiful, enhancing satin appearance and make absolutely no noise.

In order not to flatten the filling when over-stitching, our duvet covers have a spacer, a sort of small fabric partition which creates cells of uniform thickness within the duvet. These are small strips of fabric placed between the top and bottom of the cover keeping the down inside the tiles. These strips have a height of 2 to 10 cm, depending on the thickness of the duvet. Thus, the upper part is not directly sewn to the lower part of the envelope. This manufacturing method called "partitioned tile stitching" was created to prevent cold air from entering through the seams. This avoids the "thermal bridges" that may exist on topstitched down duvets without spacers.

The filling of down duvets, comforters and pillows Label Naturel Collection and Castex has undergone the different treatment operations imposed by European health standards in order to have a healthy, clean, ecological product, free of odors and retaining its swelling and thermoregulatory qualities.

We do not add more additional chemical products for anti-allergic purposes because down itself has these qualities and is recommended for this reason. The only detergents used are those necessary for disinfecting feathers and down when they arrive from the slaughterhouse.

The anti-mite treatment with which some manufacturers imbue their products is justified by the use of renovated and second-hand down and also proves to be ephemeral after a few cleanings.

Contrary to the preconceived idea that sleeping with a duvet or a down or feather pillow can cause allergies, the reality is quite different, since the presence of dust mites is much lower. Medical studies have also shown that down and feather breathe, thus reducing the risk of allergies, as dust mites do not find a favorable environment there.

The European Association of Feather and Bedding Industries (EDFA) published an article on this subject on its site which highlights the non-allergenic qualities of down, based on different studies cited in reference.

A specific anti-mite treatment is therefore completely unnecessary for our products. as long as the ventilation of your duvet, comforter or pillow and the maintenance of your household linen (duvet cover, pillowcase, etc.) are sufficient.

Our feather and down duvets all have several labels:

• Certification Oeko-Tex Standard 100 guaranteeing that the finished product does not contain any substances harmful or of concern to human health. The more intense the contact with the skin, the stricter the criteria to be met in terms of human ecology.
• Certification GOTS which guarantees the 100% organic nature of the cotton used for the envelopes we use,
• The label RDS (Responsible Down Standard) is an international quality label defined for down which pays very particular attention to animal welfare: • The down comes exclusively from ducks and geese which have led a healthy life, without stress or suffering and which have not been force-fed, • The plucking of live animals is also strictly prohibited, • The production chain is subject to regular and independent controls, • The down is fully traceable, from the breeding farm to the finished product.