The last step
The last step of your skincare routine is a towel. Make it a clean one.
Stop drying your face with yesterday's towel.
Home Notes
October 2026 · 4 min read
Think about your evening routine. A cleanser you chose carefully. Maybe a second cleanser. A serum you read three reviews about. Then you reach for whatever's hanging by the sink and press your whole face into it.
That towel has been there since yesterday. You dried your hands on it this morning. Someone else might have, too.
The last step of your skincare routine is a towel. Make it a clean one.
For most people, the face towel is just the hand towel by the sink. It's the one step of the routine nobody shops for.
Why a fresh one every night
Not because of a study. Because it's obvious once you see it. You wouldn't reuse yesterday's cotton pad. A face towel is the same idea in a bigger square.
A towel that's been hanging damp since yesterday is not what you want against a freshly cleansed face. A clean, dry face towel each night, into the wash in the morning, fixes that.
It's a small habit, and the easiest one in the whole routine, as long as the clean towel is the closest one to hand.
You wouldn't reuse yesterday's cotton pad. A face towel is the same idea, in a bigger square.
A simple nightly routine
1Take a fresh face towel from the stack
Not the hand towel. A small face towel, about 13″ × 13″, so it's obviously only for your face and nobody uses it for anything else.
2Cleanse like you normally do
This isn't about your cleanser. Use whatever you already use.
3Press, don't scrub
Hold the towel flat and press it to your face. Lift it, move it, press again. It's a towel, not an exfoliator.
4Then the rest of your routine
Whatever comes next goes onto skin you just patted dry with something clean. That's the whole point of the order.
5Hang it to dry, or straight in the hamper
If you're using it again in the morning, hang it open, not bunched on a hook. If not, it goes straight in the laundry.
6Tomorrow, a new one
That's the rule. One face towel, one night. On wash day they go in with the rest of the towels. No fabric softener.
Face towel, washcloth, wipes: what's the difference
A washcloth is usually for washing: you put cleanser on it and scrub. A face towel used this way is only for drying. Clean face, clean towel, press, done.
Disposable face cloths do the job once and go in the bin. A stack of face towels does it once and goes in the wash. That's all “reusable” means here. It's not a lifestyle. It's laundry.
Mornings can work the same way. Some people use a fresh one morning and night; others use one a night. Pick the version you'll actually keep doing.
What to look for in a face towel
A size that's only for your face. Around 13″ × 13″: big enough to press over your whole face, small enough that nobody mistakes it for a hand towel.
One fiber. If the tag lists a blend, it isn't all cotton.
No softener on it. Not from the factory, and not from your wash. The point is to know what you're pressing to your skin.
Enough of them. One face towel isn't a routine. It's yesterday's towel again by Wednesday.
How many face towels you actually need
One a night, so it depends on how often you do laundry. Wash twice a week and four covers you. Wash once a week and you want eight. Share a bathroom and everyone needs their own stack.
Keep them folded in the drawer nearest the sink, so the clean one is always the easiest one to grab. Do that, and the habit takes care of itself.
Where MIORA fits
MIORA face towels are 13″ × 13″ and made the same way as the bath towels.
Ingredients
100% cotton
CottonLong-staple Aegean Turkish
Weight780 GSM
Polyester · nylon · acrylicNone
SoftenersNo silicone or synthetic
FinishPre-washed with water only
DyesNo AZO dyes
CertificationOEKO-TEX®
780 GSM, 100% long-staple Aegean Turkish cotton. No polyester, nylon or acrylic. No silicone or synthetic softeners, no synthetic coatings. Pre-washed with water only. No AZO dyes, no formaldehyde finish. OEKO-TEX® certified.
The Skin Set is four face towels for $49.95. The Vanity Set adds four hand towels for the sink, eight pieces for $89.95. Shipping is free over $75.
Published by MIORA. The checklist above works for any towel you buy.
Ingredients: cotton.
780 GSM Aegean Turkish cotton