Consumer Reports Reveals The 3 Highest Rated Towel Brands For Your Bathroom

You know that feeling when you use a towel at a nice hotel or fancy spa? They're usually soft and plush yet absorbent — and it turns out it doesn't cost a fortune to achieve a similar feeling of luxury at home. In July 2025, Consumer Reports tested 20 bath towels found across several stores, including IKEA and Target. To figure out which were best, they washed each towel multiple times, timed how fast they dried, and measured how much they shrunk to find the ones that remain fluffy and absorbent. In the end, the three highest-rated brands were Quince, West Elm, and Brooklinen.

At the top of the list, you'll find Quince Organic Turkish Waffle Towels. These towels score well on multiple review sites, and they hold a 4.8 star rating on Quince's own website. But we've all bought towels that felt amazing in the store, only for them to turn into scratchy rags after a few loads of laundry. Luckily, Quince's towels don't do that, and the quality manages to hold up wash after wash. They do shrink a bit, but they dry pretty fast, too. Typically, soft towels tend to hold moisture longer, but the waffle weave design on these allows them dry quickly.

While we're big fans of white towels in the bathroom, Quince's also come in other colors, including ivory and grey. They're sold in sets of two, and each towel costs about $25. And, interestingly, the second and third-place brands on Consumer Reports' test both have at least one thing in common with the winner.

If you're still trying to decide between waffle knit and terry cloth, well — there you go. Coming in at second place is the West Elm Waffle Bath Towel, a product that's almost as soft as the Quince towel. It performs just as well in every other category, although the West Elm option does cost more — at time of writing, these bath towels range between $34.50 and $36.50, depending on the color you choose. There are nine color options, so you can pick ones that best complements your bathroom's aesthetic.

For an extra $16, you can personalize your towel with your name or monogram; talk about recreating that fancy spa experience at home! These towels are also made from 100% cotton, and although the material feels substantial, they're also lightweight. Aside from being functional — you can dry off completely without the towel getting overly soaked or heavy – that waffle texture also adds a bit of decor value when the towels are folded or hanging. 

West Elm's towels are OEKO-TEX certified, which means they've been tested for harmful substances and found free of toxins. Online reviews suggest that the towel doesn't fade, even after months of washing, and it shouldn't snag or unravel either. To maintain the towel's quality, however, West Elm recommends ditching your usual fabric softener – you can simply toss them in the washing machine on warm without worry.

The third top-rated towel from Consumer Reports, yet certainly not the least impressive, is Brooklinen's Dreamweave Waffle Bath Towels. These are described as super light and delightfully soft — softer than the West Elm towels, in fact, though not quite as plush as Quince. Compared to the other two, Brooklinen's towels take a little longer to dry. It might seem like we're fixating on dry time, but this does matter: A towel that stays damp for too long is more likely to develop that musty, mildewy smell, especially if your bathroom doesn't have great ventilation.

Still, the difference here isn't a dealbreaker. The Brooklinen towels are also made from 100% Turkish cotton and are OEKO-TEX certified. They're sold in sets of two for $89, which works out to about $44.50 per towel, making them the priciest of the three. They also go one better than West Elm by offering 10 color options in total.

Brooklinen recommends machine washing these towels on a cold setting and tumble drying them on low to keep them in good shape. Nonetheless, most of the official website's reviews make it clear that customers have been most impressed by how soft, cozy, and absorbent these towels are, even with regular washing. That said, a few mentioned that the fabric tends to snag. So, if you bathe or dry off while wearing jewelry, that's something to be mindful of.