Jade Voyager vs Hugger Mugger Earth Elements: Which One Should You Buy?

The Jade Voyager is 1.6 mm of natural rubber, 68″ × 24″, and Jade says it folds down to roughly yoga-block size. Jade calls it just over 1.5 pounds; GearLab’s scale read 1.8, the lightest reading among the 19 mats it scored in 2026. It costs $49.95.

The Hugger Mugger Earth Elements weighed 2.2 pounds on the same scale, under half a pound more for a mat about three times as thick. It is 5 mm of TPE, 72″ × 24″, at $83. Weight hardly separates them. Grip and cushion do, and GearLab scored both mats on each.

GearLab placed the Earth Elements 9th at 70 and the Voyager 18th at 51. The Voyager won one category, grip, 8 to 6. It lost comfort and support 2 to 7, materials 4 to 7, and care and cleaning 8 to 9. Its comfort score tied the eKO Superlite for the lowest in the test.

GearLab’s verdict is that the Voyager should work more like a mat topper, because there is no cushion and the flimsy material wrinkles during use. The Earth Elements gets a budget-mat verdict built around softer cushion, textured dry grip and portability.

The Voyager’s marks in GearLab’s wet and dry table are 9 with dry hands and 7 wet, the same pair GearLab gave the Manduka PRO, and only two mats in the table did better wet. Excellent dry and wet hand grip leads its short pros list. Jade’s rubber is open-cell, so a little sweat is absorbed rather than left sitting on top.

GearLab gave the Earth Elements no wet or dry numbers. Its grip category score of 6 comes with mediocre wet grip among the cons, and closed-cell TPE leaves sweat on the surface. One owner who practices yoga and Pilates most days found it slick even two weeks in.

Too thin to provide comfort is the first con GearLab lists for the Voyager. At 1/16″ a kneecap on tile has almost nothing between it and the floor. For the 1 to 2 mm class, GearLab suggests doubling the mat over or reaching for a folded blanket.

Plush comfort heads the Earth Elements’ pros, and GearLab’s testers enjoyed it most for seated work, yin and sound baths. One Amazon owner sums it up as soft, squishy and sticky. That squish is its main weakness too, since GearLab lists squishy for balance postures among the cons.

The Voyager’s standing problem is movement. Its GearLab cons include shifts and wrinkles during practice, and GearLab found that a mat this thin, used alone, wrinkles on smooth floors. Part of the lightness is construction: to save weight, Jade leaves the reinforcing scrim exposed on the Voyager’s bottom, where its other mats hide it inside.

GearLab didn’t flag the Earth Elements for shifting. Its issue is that the foam gives under a single loaded foot, and GearLab rates its balance stability as moderate. The Voyager is at its best on top of carpet or a studio mat, the way GearLab has seen travelers use thin mats as toppers.

Folded, the Voyager fits a suitcase or a backpack, per Jade. Jade compares the fold lines to the creases clothes pick up in a suitcase, and says keeping the mat rolled at home minimizes them. GearLab lists creases easily among its cons.

The Earth Elements only rolls. Hugger Mugger markets it on Amazon as a lightweight travel mat, but a 5 mm roll goes on your shoulder, not in a daypack. The brand’s own folding option is the $30 Tapas Travel, the same 1/16″ thickness as the Voyager, which wasn’t in GearLab’s roundup.

Jade makes the Voyager from tapped tree rubber and says none of its mats contain PVC or EVA. Its own figure is 99% latex free, which isn’t enough for anyone with a latex allergy. Hugger Mugger’s TPE has no latex in it.

GearLab suggests a travel mat as a protective base under your regular mat for yoga in the park. Jade rules that out for the Voyager, asking owners to keep its natural rubber mats indoors and out of the sun, and its warranty excludes sun damage.

GearLab found the Earth Elements easy to wipe down even after yoga outdoors. Hugger Mugger, for its part, warns that light degrades its TPE and asks owners not to store the mat in sun, heat or cold for long.

Open-cell rubber holds sweat, so let a Voyager dry out completely before folding it. GearLab still scored its care 8, a point below the Earth Elements, which Hugger Mugger wants washed before first use and then cleaned with mat wash or diluted dish soap.

Materials is where the Voyager loses most ground: a 4, near the bottom of the field, with not very durable on its cons list. Jade’s warranty lasts a year and doesn’t cover sun damage or harsh cleaners.

The Earth Elements did better on materials, a 7, though durability concerns still made its cons. Hugger Mugger offers no warranty and accepts returns only on unused mats bought from it within 30 days.

The Voyager is $49.95 from jadeyoga.com in five colorways at last count; Jade doesn’t sell it on Amazon. The Earth Elements is $83 at huggermugger.com, and you can look up its Amazon price, where it holds 4.5 stars from roughly 100 ratings.

That is a $33.05 gap. For the other thin rubber travel mat GearLab scored, see Superlite vs Earth Elements; for a thicker folding Jade, see Jade Travel vs Earth Elements.

Pick the Voyager when you already own a mat and want the smallest possible thing in your bag. It is the lightest mat GearLab weighed, its grip matched the Manduka PRO in GearLab’s table, and it costs $33.05 less. Use it on top of carpet or a studio mat, keep it indoors, and skip it with a latex allergy.

Choose the Earth Elements if you need a mat you can use on a bare hard floor, particularly for seated or restorative practice. It scored 19 points higher, is latex-free and weighs less than half a pound more. Expect a roll instead of a fold, softness on one leg, and slipping in a sweaty class.