I don't often review products unless they're books. If I do, it's because I'm either really happy with them or really unhappy. Luckily, this time it's the first one. It may in fact be the best thing I've purchased in the past year. Here's how it is. I have an old mattress, spring type, with spots where the springiness isn't as strong and so finding a comfortable sleeping position could be a bit of a trial. I probably should just get a whole new mattress, but I'm cheap, and worried about satisfaction... if I'm going to drop a lot of money on a mattress, I want to be sure I'll like it, and I've never really slept on a memory foam long term, and some research suggested that memory foam sometimes had a problem with smelling weird or being too hot--although gel-filled ones like these aren't supposed to be as bad--and what if I get one and get rid of my old mattress and wind up not liking it. Yadda yadda yadda, I was dithering for a long time. Then I decided to take a lesser risk and try a mattress pad, figuring it'd let me try out and see how that heat problem might be... if it turned out to be intolerable, I only spent a little money to find out, and in the meantime, it might help me sleep a little more comfortably. Boy did it help. The pad isn't super thick (the 2-inches is from bottom to the textured foam peaks I think, so at its thinnest points it's probably half that), but it's good enough to do the job for me and smooth out all the uncomfortable spots in my own mattress. I've had it for a little under a month now, and from the first day I put it on, I've slept loads more comfortably, and rarely wake up in pain like I used to, and am in generally a better mood. I guess I didn't realize just how uncomfortable it was with that old mattress, gotten used to suffering. Like having an egomaniacal sociopath reality TV star as US President, once you don't have to deal with it everyday, even if there are still tons of problems in the world, everything just looks better all around. My nose isn't particularly sensitive, but I noticed no particular smell (unpleasant or otherwise) and used it the evening I received it (after letting it bounce back from the tight packing for a few hours). No problems with it becoming uncomfortably hot, either, so I guess the gel did its job, although granted I haven't tried it out in the thick of summer yet. If it does become a problem, I'll update. Similarly if it somehow wears out quickly. A month's not a long time to judge a mattress by. But I'm giving it five stars anyway because right now I'm so pleased I bought it. If I have any complaint it's that it tends to, over a few days, slide off-center from the mattress (even when both are covered by a fitted sheet), but I'm not sure that's a problem a pad like this is responsible for solving, and it's easy enough to pull it back when noticed. If having to do that regularly is the price I pay for such good sleep, I'll happily pay it.