Luxury bathrooms have become a way to pamper yourself at home. Your bath towels play an influential role in that pampering. If you’ve never used Egyptian cotton before, you don’t know what you’re missing. Extra-long staple cotton fibers give Egyptian cotton a softness, durability, and absorbency that’s earned a world-renowned reputation. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the Calla Angel Luxe Chain Egyptian Cotton Bath Towels to see if the material and texture lived up to the hype and was worth the somewhat high price tag. Let’s start with the material. Egyptian cotton or Gossypium barbadense comes from the Nile River banks in Egypt, where the soil composition naturally supports cotton growth. Today, a variety is also grown in Peru, South America. This cotton species has extra-long staples or individual cotton fibers. The staple length determines the cotton’s strength, softness, and durability. Longer staples wrinkle less, pill less, and fray less than short-staple cotton. Consequently, a towel, like the Calla Angel, that’s made of 100 percent Egyptian cotton, offers some of the most impressive absorbency and durability you can find. Each towel arrived in its own rather sizable box, making me think, “Could this really be for a single towel?” I was thoroughly impressed by the sheer weight and size of each box. Upon first taking them out, I could feel the softness in the thick, long shaggy terry cloth. The Calla Angel towels feel like the towel equivalent of a thick shag rug as you run your fingers through the twisted fibers. (Nice, soft fluffy shag, and not gross, matted old shag.) I’ve experienced this plushness only once before— an upscale hotel in New York City. It was fantastic to use these towels in my own home. The Calla Angel towels border on a bath sheet. Bath sheets tend to start around 60 inches by 35 inches. These towels are 63 inches by 31 inches. They’re beyond a sheet in length but a little on the narrow side. The Calla Angel towels are big enough to swallow children and small adults. The size combined with the 1,000-gram Egyptian cotton gives these towels some serious heft. They’re not lightweight even when dry. All that cotton and thickness do their job. These towels absorb beautifully. Their sheer size and plushness don’t leave behind any moisture. You find yourself bone dry when you’re done with the Calla Angel towels. The thickness and weight give them a blanket-like feel. Regular towels don’t necessarily offer warmth and comfort. You dry yourself and move on because otherwise, you’ll get cold. However, with the Calla Angel towels, I wrapped up and stayed warm. I almost wished they were a robe because then I could have worn one around the house. There were a couple of drawbacks. First, if you like to wrap your hair in a towel turban-style, you better have a strong neck. That weight and size aren’t conducive to a head wrap. I did it a few times, but it usually ended with the towel slowly falling off my head and pulling my hair with it. That’s not a dealbreaker for me, but if you like to keep your hair up in a towel while shaving, washing your face, or putting on makeup, you either need a second, smaller towel. My second issue is the size. On the one hand, I loved it. As I said, it was like wrapping up in a plush blanket. On the other hand, it’s a lot of towel. One of my kids grabbed one out of the linen closet, held it up, realized it was like the size of a beach towel, and put it back. He couldn’t manage a towel that size. For children and smaller adults, the towel’s length and weight could be a bit unwieldy. The final and probably most problematic issue I had with the Calla Angel towels was drying. I live in the Pacific Northwest near the coast, where it’s humid for much of the year. Towels that don’t dry relatively quickly can develop a stink and sour within a day or two; it’s not pleasant. The Calla Angel towels only completely dried about half the time. If the humidity was high or it was cold, sometimes they stayed wet all day. When stored in the linen closet, they sometimes came out feeling a bit damp.
Do the towels shed lint?
The Calla Angel towels shed lint right out of the package and a little after the first couple of washings but not so much that I considered it to be a problem. Shedding was the worst right out of the package. However, that first trip through the washing machine and dryer got rid of most of it. Make sure to clean out your lint trap before the first washing. The sheer size and volume of these towels put lint traps to the test.
Did the towels hold up well in the wash?
I washed these towels three times during the testing process. They didn’t snag, nor did any of the decorative embroidery snag or tear. I washed them according to the instructions and only included them in loads with other towels.
Are there any decorative options with the Calla Angel towels?
The Calla Angel towels feature an embroidered chain across one end. The chain comes in three colors—blue, mint, silver, and white. I chose silver to go with the gray accents in my home. The embroidery looks upscale, elevating the towels beyond basic white.
Are the Calla Angel Luxe Chain Egyptian Cotton Bath Towels worth the money?
These towels come with a high price tag. If you like a large, heavy, plush towel, you really can’t go wrong with the Calla Angel towels. They are well worth the price. You won’t regret the purchase and will get a bit of pampering with every shower. The only caution with this towel is that in humid conditions, they don’t dry out well.
Competition
The size, weight, and Egyptian cotton put the Calla Angel towels at the luxury end of the towel spectrum. They absorb well for towels of their kind, resist snags, and feel plush against the skin. The thickness and plush cotton loops make them look high-quality as if you swiped the towels from a swanky hotel. The downside is they are heavy and may not dry out in humid climates. If you prefer a lightweight towel that’s more likely to dry even when it’s humid, check out the Pottery Barn Organic Sculpted Towels. They’re made of organic cotton for great absorbency, but you’re not dealing with quite the weight or size of the Calla Angel towels. They’re also designed to keep air flowing between the fibers, so they dry quickly. If you like a towel with some weight behind it, a Calla Angel towel will fit the bill. Wrap up and get comfortable right out of the shower. The thick, plushness sucked almost all the water off my body. Overall, they’re a great towel splurge if you’d like to invest in some spa-like bath comfort.
