Fun Fact: Towels are one of the top spreaders of contaminants in your household.
You may be washing your hands and wiping surfaces in hopes of killing bad bacteria and viruses, only to dry your hands on something saturated with live cultures, and not the good kind.
The Mizu Towel aims to combat the problem of towels spreading germs with their “smart towel”.
Keep reading if you would like to know how the Mizu Towel can improve your household cleanliness, and ultimately, your health.
About Mizu
Like most innovative companies, Mizu started out as an indiegogo & kickstarter campaign. They quickly met their goal and took off into the market making their “smart towel”. Mizu is not just limited to towels, as recently they added a line of silver embedded linens/sheets.
Based in Japan, Mizu Towel’s dedicated team of engineers and innovators combined both ancient and new technology to create Mizu Towel. This combined technology makes the towel more resilient to bacteria and viruses, and helps us distinguish when the towel needs a wash.
All manufacturing is done out of China where there are factories specializing in towel making, this also keeps the price more comparable to other towels.
How Does Mizu Towel Work?
Mizu Towel uses a high quality silver embedded bamboo cotton. Their towel also incorporates solvatochromic strips which react to the bacteria, sweat, and other contaminants, this changes the color from blue, to purple, to red.
These strips are able to convey when the towel needs a wash, so you don’t have to guess! Also, when your Mizu towel does need a wash, it is able to withstand much higher temperatures without impairing the integrity when compared to standard towels.
Silver has long been known for its antibacterial & antimicrobial properties. Most metals are useful for disinfecting to some degree, but silver is the most effective for this purpose, as well as the safest for both humans and animals (metals can be very toxic if consumed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin)
Silver was extremely prevalent in the medical field for centuries, although it was mostly abandoned as an oral/topical treatment once antibiotics were discovered (antibiotics are much more effective at killing off all bacteria than silver).
Although, silver is still used in treatment against antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, lining in surgical masks, lining of ventilator tubes, dressing wounds, purification of water, and much more. So, silver isn’t completely obsolete as a treatment, in fact it is still very necessary in keeping things clean in our day to day lives.
With these features aside, the towel has highly absorbent and specialized ultra soft cotton making the towel feel extra luxurious. Currently using a proprietary bamboo cotton, this specialized cotton is hand harvested, machine woven, and colored with low chemical dyes. All this together helps the towels softness, as well as durability to the elements.
My Experience With Mizu Towel
As stated before, silver has long been used throughout history as a disinfectant. I personally have used silver-embedded products and tinctures before in my life, and can attest to their effectiveness.
The Mizu towel has been no different, it certainly stays clean longer. Also, the color changing strips have been a lifesaver for my family. I have two little kids, so I never truly know where a towel has been in my house.
I feel like I am playing a game of Russian roulette with my other towels. I don’t know where it’s been, and I can never remember what it had been used for.
This leaves me with two options: put it in the dirty laundry and find a new towel that is confirmed clean, or take the chance of using a gross old towel to dry myself off with. I don’t know about you but neither option here is that appealing.
So, having a towel with these features gave me much needed peace of mind when I entered my bathroom. All I have to do is look over, confirm the strips are blue, and I know that my towel is okay to use. My other towels, not so much.
With all these great things Mizu has going for it, one of our review items did start to fray at the seams, although all the other items sent held up great, and are still going strong after a year.
This one could have been a manufacturing error, or something originating in my house. Either way it was just one of the many review items sent, so overall they held up well.
Is Mizu Towel Worth It?
In short, yes—the Mizu smart towel lives up to the hype.
My first impression was that it is one of the softest bath towels I had ever used. And so not only is it gentle on your skin, but it just so happens to fight bacteria as well. The bamboo cotton is infused with silver which gives it the antimicrobial properties which makes this towel unique.
Even after dozens of washes, the towel still remains soft. If I’m being honest, I don’t really use the strips as an indicator when it’s time to wash my towel, sometimes an old fashioned smell test is all you need. But it’s nice that the technology exists and it does work, but I feel like it’s more of a gimmick if anything.
Moreover, it’s lighter than many other bath towels I’ve used in the past and it also dries exceptionally fast (due to the twisted yarn weave) which is always a plus if you use it as a gym towel for example.
Not Everything Is Perfect
A criticism that I have is that even after the first few washes, the towel fibers would stick to my skin, noticeably on my face. Since I always moisturize after my showers, I noticed small fabric particles that were sticking to my face as I applied my moisturizer and facial creams.
It’s no longer and issue, but it is worth noting that you might experience the same. Another thing that I take issue with is the fact that the towels are manufactured in China, while their advertising and PR pushes the Japanese made narrative. And one last thing is that the towel isn’t all that big and so if you’re a larger guy, it might not be the best towel for you. Check out an alternative towel that’s larger and comes highly recommended.
How to Care for Your Mizu Towel
- After purchase, wash the towels before use
- Use the proper amount of detergent with vinegar
- Replace fabric softener and bleaching agent with vinegar
- Wash your towels in warm or hot water not very hot water
- Use baking soda when washing
- Don’t wash your towel with other cloths
- Choose the perfect washing machine and right cycle setting
- Wash your towel at least once per week
- Give your towels a shake
- Wash many towels at once? No!
- Rinse the towel properly
- Fold your towels to make them last longer
- Store your towels in an organized way
- Do not iron your towels
- Avoid using your bath and hand towels to remove makeup
How to Wash Your Mizu Towel
Mizu recommends machine washing your towel in a cold and gentle cycle to maintain the quality of the towel over time, however you can also wash in hot water and high tumble dry and shouldn’t have any problem either.
Where are Mizu Towels Made?
The crafting process of Mizu begins in Japan and is completed in a specialist factory in China. This factory’s expertise is towel making for the Japanese market and for Japanese companies.
Mizu does this to ensure that the towel is high quality and follows Japanese craftsmanship principles while remaining affordable.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Stylish
- Self cleaning
- Microbe detection strips
- Soft, comfortable fabric
- Extremely absorbent
- Can be washed on higher temperatures
- Stays clean for longer
- Comes in 3 colors of charcoal grey, polar white & royal blue
- Comes in a smart towel set of bath towel & hand towel
Cons
- More expensive than most towels on the market
- Limited color selection (Grey, White & Blue)
- Manufactured in China
Conclusion
The Mizu Bath Towel feels, looks and works much better when compared to my organic cotton towels that I use in my home. The technology also makes use and cleaning of the towel much easier, and greatly reduces the amount of times I need to wash the towel.
The only real complaint I can come up with is that the manufacturing is done in China, rather than everything being done in Japan.
My opinion is that I would buy more from Mizu if they were on sale (which they often are). Other than that if they transitioned to being fully designed & manufactured in Japan, I would be much more open to paying the premium for their product.
Take a look at what else we recommend.
A note: This review is not sponsored, and I wasn’t told to say anything positive or negative about Mizu Towel — however, they sent me a towel to provide an in-depth honest review. Gentleman Within holds all control over editorial content.
About Christopher
After getting married and having a child, Chris’ life was put in perspective. He learned that if he wanted to become the person he wanted to be, he needed to continually improve. From self development, he entered the realm of men’s fashion and found that improving his style gives him the confidence he needs to be his best self.
What are your thoughts on the Mizu Towel?
Let’s continue the discussion over in the Gentlemen Within Private Facebook Community.
Looking forward to seeing you in there.
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