Read the label
How to read a towel label, and what it leaves out
You switched your pans and your skincare. Your towels touch more skin than both.
Home Notes
October 2026 · 4 min read
You switched your pans. You switched your skincare. Maybe your laundry detergent too. Then you step out of the shower and wrap yourself, head to toe, in something you've never read the label on.
Your towels touch more skin than your pans and your skincare combined. Every day, usually right after you've washed everything else off.
If your towel is a blend, part of it may be plastic. The tag will tell you.
Reading every tag in a linen closet takes about ten minutes. Most people never do it. If you're searching for non-toxic towels, the word on the front of the package won't tell you much. The tag will, along with a few questions the tag can't answer. Here's what to look for.
What's on the tag, and what it means
1“Cotton-rich” means it's a blend
“Cotton-rich” is not “cotton.” It means cotton plus something else. The front of the package leads with the cotton. The care tag tells you the rest.
So skip the front. Turn the towel over and find the fiber line. If a second fiber is listed, it's a blend. That's not a scandal. It's just not what most people think they bought.
2Polyester is plastic
Polyester is PET, the same family of plastic you know from drink bottles, spun into fiber. Nylon and acrylic are synthetics too.
There's also a practical problem. Polyester absorbs less water than cotton, and a towel has exactly one job: taking water off you.
One more label trick. “Microfiber” describes how fine a fiber is, not what it's made of. If you see it, read the next line.
3Soft on the shelf isn't the same as soft fiber
Many towels are finished with softeners or easy-care finishes. A towel can feel soft in the store because of how it was treated, not only because of what it's made of.
A fiber tag lists fibers. It isn't where a brand tells you how the fabric was finished. For that, you have to ask, or find a brand that writes it down.
4Pre-washed with what?
Plenty of towels are washed before they're packed. The useful question is what they were washed with. A brand that pre-washes with water only can say so in one sentence.
5Dyes and finishes don't show up on the tag
Color comes from dye. Wrinkle resistance and “easy care” come from finishes. Neither shows up on a fiber tag.
So ask two questions: which dyes, and which finishes? A brand that has the answers in writing will usually publish them on the product page.
6What a certification does and doesn't tell you
OEKO-TEX® is an independent certification for textiles. A certified product has been tested against a list of substances the standard restricts. It's a test of the finished textile.
What it isn't: a fiber claim. A blend can be certified. A polyester towel can be certified. Read it as one useful line on the label, next to the fiber line, not instead of it.
7What a clean label looks like
One fiber: 100% of something, with no second line on the tag.
A weight. GSM means grams per square meter. It tells you how much fabric you're getting.
A named cotton. Long-staple cotton is made of longer fibers. If a brand names the cotton, it has usually had to choose it.
The finish, in writing. What was it softened with, if anything? What was it washed with?
A towel has one job. It doesn't need a second ingredient to do it.
Three questions to ask any towel brand
Before you buy any towel, ask three things. Most of the answers should already be on the product page.
What is it made of, all of it? Not the headline fiber. The whole fiber line, percentages included.
What was it finished with? Softeners, easy-care finishes, coatings. If the answer is “nothing,” the brand should be happy to say so.
What was it washed with before it shipped? If it was pre-washed, with what.
If a brand can answer all three in one breath, it has read its own label. If it can't, you've learned something too. Either way, start by reading the tags in your own linen closet.
Where MIORA fits
MIORA started from that same checklist: one fiber, a named cotton, and the finish written down.
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®
Every MIORA towel, bath, hand and face, is 780 GSM, 100% long-staple Aegean Turkish cotton. No polyester, nylon or acrylic. No silicone or synthetic softeners, no synthetic coatings. No AZO dyes, no formaldehyde finish. Pre-washed with water only. OEKO-TEX® certified.
If you're replacing your everyday towels, The Switch is 2 bath, 2 hand and 4 face towels for $149.95. To try the bath towel first, The Essential Pair is $99.95. Shipping is free over $75.
Published by MIORA. The checklist above works for any towel you buy.
Ingredients: cotton.
780 GSM Aegean Turkish cotton