Squishy, soft, spongyfoamy texture. It does retains some heat, but it’s not awful. I don’t notice the gel beads keeping us cooler at all.  It it is very comfortable to sleep on, and I don’t wake up stuff and sore like before. I’m also sleeping much better, so I recommend it! Only took two hours or so to fluff up and we had it on our bed. I noticed a minty smell coming from it for about a week, and it went away.