Help, my mat smells!

Not for the faint-hearted: yoga mats can sometimes have a more or less strong rubber smell when they come straight from the factory. Pure natural rubber mats in particular have a very typical smell, but - and this is the good news - it almost completely disappears over time.

The reason for the smell of natural rubber mats is the complete lack of chemical odor binders in the natural material; the smell is therefore of completely natural origin and in no way indicates possible toxins or harmful substances in the mat. If you don't want to wait so long until the smell has disappeared naturally, you can speed up this process with a few little tricks.

Leave your new yoga mat outside in a dry place and protected from sunlight for at least 24 hours or more, ideally hanging over a clothes rack or the back of a chair. The smell would build up in a closed room, so if you don't have a balcony, you should at least use a well-ventilated room to hang your yoga mat. In the first 14 days after purchase, you should leave your mat rolled up as little as possible so that the smells cannot bind to the material. To ensure that your mat doesn't dry out while it's airing out, you should also rub it regularly with a damp cloth. Treating your mat with a special mat spray for natural rubber mats can also help to eliminate the smell. We recommend the Mat Wash Restore from Manduka, which is based on a vinegar-water mixture and has a pleasant scent thanks to a few drops of essential oils. You can find out how to care for your mat properly in our yoga mat care guide .

Since everyone has an individual, subjective sense of smell, the natural rubber smell of one and the same mat may be perceived to varying degrees by different people. If you consider yourself to be very sensitive to smells and find the smell of rubber unpleasant, you should perhaps refrain from a pure natural rubber mat and either opt for a mat made of a mix of materials (e.g. natural and synthetic rubber or natural rubber plus coating) or alternatively choose a more odorless PVC. The smell of the natural rubber - and this is a firm promise - will evaporate, but traces may still be noticeable for people who are sensitive to smells.