I can't get over how soft and stylish the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels are – but there is one pitfall

The Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels look and feel luxurious. Woven from long-staple Turkish cotton and finished with a neat hemstitch, these are the sort of towels I'd expect to find in a luxury spa or high-end hotel.

Weighing in at a whopping 820 GSM, the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels feel nice and heavy in your hands. Each towel comes in a wide range of colors and patterns, from cool neutral shades to sleek stripes. I went for the Striped Botanical Green, which pops against the white walls of my bathroom without overwhelming the space.

I cover all things textiles for H&G. I can spot the difference between Turkish cotton and Egyptian cotton and I know what I'm looking for in a bath towel: chic design, high absorbency, and a quick dry time. The Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels excel in almost every area and that's enough to earn them a place in our best bath towels buying guide.

Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels: tried and trusted

I tested the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels for two weeks at home. I used the towels to dry my hair and body and to mop up the odd spill or splash from the shower. I tended to use my heated towel rail to dry the Brooklinen Super Plush Bath Towels, though I also experimented with air drying to see how that impacted the dry time.

Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels Specifications

Who would the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels suit?

• Anyone who likes Turkish towels: the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels are woven from long-staple Turkish cotton threads, which require fewer joins to come together. That means there are fewer gaps between the fibers. When you run your hand over Turkish towels, the fibers should feel soft yet strong against your skin. Plus, they're a lot less likely to pucker or pill than shorter-staple weaves.
• Anyone who wants to dry larger areas: if your body is particularly tall or broad, or you've got a lot of hair to dry, you need a highly absorbent towel to soak up all that water. Turkish cotton is very porous, which means that the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels can drink up lots of water, fast.

• Anyone who wants low-maintenance towels: like a lot of Turkish cotton toweling, the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels are easy to clean. All you need to do is throw them in the washing machine on a cold cycle before tumble drying on low. To cut down on dry time, you could toss a few Wool Dryer Balls into the drum alongside your towels.
• Anyone who wants to play with color: toweling is a quick and easy way to experiment with colorful bathroom ideas. If you don't like the look, you can just pop the towels back in the linen closet until further notice. Brooklinen offers 15 colorways to suit every space, from classic white and smoke gray to eucalyptus green and blue mist. If you'd like to incorporate prints and patterns into your bathroom, you could start with a striped set.

What's it like to use the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels?

The Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels mark a serious upgrade for me. In my time as a product tester, I've sampled lots of different towels, but I tend to use the same old set. They're plain white cotton and I've had them forever: I must have picked them up from my local home retailer, rather than a specialist store. 

Immediately, I could tell the difference between my towels and Brooklinen's. The Super-Plush Bath Towels are so much thicker and weightier, with plenty of tufts for touchable texture. These tufts dramatically increase the surface area of the towel. That means there's more material to absorb water at a higher rate. I've got long, thick hair that tends to take an age to dry. With the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels, I cut down my hair drying time from 20 minutes to more like 10.

The Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels should dry your body and your hair quickly, but it takes a lot longer for the towels to dry themselves. I like to hang my towels to air dry from a hook on the back of the bathroom door. When I came back to monitor progress a half hour later, the towels were still damp to the touch.

I put that down to the tightness of the weave. Turkish cotton towels feature few interlacings, so there isn't much space for air to flow in and out. If you're looking for something that still feels soft, but doesn't take as long to dry, I recommend Egyptian cotton towels. I like the Pure Parima Egyptian Cotton Towel Set: each piece is sumptuously soft and quick to dry. 

How do the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels rate online?

The Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels boast hundreds of five-star ratings on the Brooklinen site, with customers praising the softness of the fabric and the absorbency of the toweling. Several reviewers write that they're such big fans of the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels that they're shopping for extra sets to bulk out the guest bathroom or the linen closet.

There is a smattering of more mixed reviews. A few customers wish that the color range could be extended to incorporate brighter colors and pastel hues. There are a couple of complaints about the quality of the towels: one reviewer claims that the Turkish cotton began to pill after the first wash, while another believes that the color of the towels bled onto other textiles in the washing machine and recommends washing them separately. It's worth noting that these reviews detail isolated experiences: I didn't face any of these problems with my Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels and nor did the vast majority of other reviewers.

Should I buy the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels?

The Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels retail for around $95 for a set of 2, though they're often listed for less: right now, you could save 15% across all colors and pick up select shades for less than half-price. Honestly, I'd be happy to pay full price for these bath towels. I love the look of the limited edition toweling, with its neat, narrow stripes, and I'm pleased with their performance. 

When it comes to towels, I think that high absorbency is more important than a quick dry time. You can always leave your towels to dry a little longer, but you can't make them mop up more water. I recommend the Brooklinen Super-Plush Bath Towels to anyone who wants to add a bit of interest to their bath linen collection.

How we test bath towels

We put a lot of thought into how we test bath towels. It takes a lot more than a long, hot soak. We test bath towels for a few weeks, if not months, to monitor their performance over time and gauge how their texture changes with successive wash cycles. 

We use bath towels on our bodies to assess their softness and on our hair to evaluate their absorbency. A top-quality towel should feel soft on your skin and soak up water in a matter of seconds, rather than minutes. We try a few different drying techniques to see how the towel reacts to air drying, as well as heated towel rails. And you don't have to take our word for it: we draw from a range of customer reviews to show diverse experiences with the same products. Finally, we list the prices of the bath towels to evaluate whether they're worth the spend.