I first mentioned Quince’s Turkish Spa Towels in a roundup of favorite household buys after moving into my new apartment. Now that I’ve used them for about five months, I thought I’d write a more thorough review.

** This post contains affiliate links, but was not produced in partnership with any brand. I bought these towels myself. If you shop through my links, I may earn a commission. As always, all opinions are my own and I only write about items that interest me. **

Quince makes three types of towels: Turkish Spa Towels, Turkish Quick-Dry Bath Towels, and Organic Turkish Waffle Bath Towels. There seems to be organic cotton and regular cotton versions of at least some of these. Currently, the waffle towels are organic, but not the other two. But back when I shopped for my towels in the fall, the spa towels came in both organic cotton and conventionally-grown cotton.

UPDATE 1/26/24 – Quince has expanded their towels offering. Now there’s even more types, plus bath sheets (which are larger than towels): Turkish Waffle Bath Sheets, Ultra Plush Bath Towels, Ultra Plush Bath Sheets, Waffle Terry Bath Towels,  Waffle Terry Bath Sheets, Ribbed Quick Dry Bath Towels, Ribbed Quick Dry Bath Sheets. Please note that the towels I reviewed here (which are 700 gsm) are not offered anymore. Instead, there have been replaced by Turkish Classic Bath Towels, which are a thinner at 550 gsm. The Ultra Plush Bath Towels are 800 gsm, so the towels I bought in 2022 were in between.

Fibers & Feel

Made of long-staple Turkish cotton, they feel luxuriously thick and soft. When I say luxurious, I mean that they rival any fancy hotel towel I’ve encountered.

The Turkish Spa Towels are the thickest of the bunch at 700 grams per square meter. (By comparison, the quick-dry version is 500 gsm.) Made of long-staple Turkish cotton, they feel luxuriously thick and soft. When I say luxurious, I mean that they rival any fancy hotel towel I’ve encountered. And even though they’re plush, they don’t take too long to dry. (Though in humid weather I’m learning they they take longer, so I think I’ll switch to something thinner for summer.) In my experience, they don’t get linty either.

At 27 x 54 inches these bath towels are a bit smaller than other brands. I have some Hotel Collection towels from Macy’s that are 30 x 56 inches. But I don’t really notice the difference in size when I’m using them.

After five months of use, these towels remain soft and plush. Some towels actually feel rougher as you use them. Why? Because manufacturers typically treat towels with fabric softener to make them feel fluffy in the store. The softener wears off after successive washings. In this case, I noticed no drop-off in softness with the Quince towels.

The only issue is that sometimes after washing them, a long string or two may appear. Is this because the washing machine is battering the towels, causing the loops of the towels to come undone? Or is it a sign of not-the-best quality? I’m not sure. I guess I’ll see how these continue to wear over time.

They also take longer to dry in the dryer than other towels. When I take them to the laundromat, they are always the last item to dry since they need more time. And that’s with me defying the care instructions, which say tumble dry low, and using the high heat setting instead.

Pricing

Quince sells their Turkish Spa Towels in sets of two for $39.90. The organic ones cost me $5 more for the set. (Though perhaps the price would have gone up if they had them in stock? The organic waffle bath towels are $49.90 for the set.)

That makes them a pretty good deal. The Hotel Collection towels retail for $36 each — though you can probably snag them for less on sale or with a coupon. But this is not an apples-to-apples comparison because it’s unclear what kind of cotton the Hotel Collection towels are made from. It just says “ultimate micro cotton,” which makes me think they are a lesser, short-staple cotton.

Like the Quince towels, the Wirecutter’s top pick, Frontgate Resort Collection towels, are also long-staple Turkish cotton woven to 700 gsm. One towel costs $40, though they are larger at 30 x 58 inches. But you can get twice as many towels at the same price with Quince!

However, one thing that Frontage towels have over the Quince ones is that they’re OEKO-TEX certified, meaning meaning they’re free of harmful substances. Though Quince has a OEKO-TEX logo on their sustainability page, there’s nothing on the listing for each bath or bedding product that indicates they’re certified free of toxins.

I wrote to Quince’s customer service to ask about certification for its bedding and bath items. A rep replied that “as a new company, we have not received [certification] yet — but I can guarantee our bedding meets the standard 100 by OEKO-TEX organic!” The rep said they were working with their suppliers. “When our vendor partners update their certification, we update ours accordingly.”

Choices (not a lot of them)

I have no complaints about the towels themselves, but the offerings could be better.

For one, their towels come in only two colors: white and gray. This works for me, as I happen to have a white, gray, and black color scheme going on with my shower curtain. But if you’re wanting another color, you’re out of luck.

UPDATE 3/19/23 – Browsing the Quince site today and noticed that Quince expanded the color offerings. In addition to white and gray, they now come in ivory, silver, and mineral (a dark blue).

Also, there’s not a lot of flexibility when it comes to obtaining exactly how many towels you might want. You can buy a set of two bath towels. Or, for $35 more, you can buy a bundle that also includes two hand towels and two face towels. But you can’t buy the hand towels or face towels on their own. Want to buy two bath towels and eight face towels? You can’t.

In my case, after I used the gray spa towels for a while, I decided that I wanted the matching hand towels. But there was no way I could get them without buying the whole bundle. And I didn’t need the whole bundle. I just wanted the hand towels. I ended up finding some hand towels at TJ Maxx that were close enough in color and feel. But I would have preferred getting the perfectly matched hand towels.

Lastly, they seem to have a problem with keeping stock. Many times, things are sold out. At present moment the spa towel two packs are sold out, though you can still buy the bundle. When I bought my towels, it was the other way around.

Ordering Experience

Quince ships directly from the factory, so things might take a little longer to arrive depending on where they’re coming from. These towels shipped from Turkey. My shipment was delayed by a week, too, though not through any fault of Quince’s. I had put down my first initial and last name on my mailing address, and apparently Turkish customs did not like that. Quince had to contact me to get my full first name to add to the address.

Even if we disregard the fact that I ran afoul of customs, shipping did take noticeably longer to arrive since these towels were traveling internationally. But they were well worth the wait. I stand by my statement in my prior post that these are the best towels I’ve ever owned.

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If you’re interested in trying Quince, here’s my referral code, which will take $20 off your first order. It will also generate a credit for me, so thank you! This helps me keep trying out products for review.