5 Best Tissues for Allergy and Cold Season, According to Product Experts
Soft tissues for raw, sore, runny noses.
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“April showers, bring May flowers,” but for many, it’s actually May allergies. Sneezing and runny noses are inevitable for those who suffer from seasonal allergies. Having a soft, strong, and absorbent facial tissue on hand will help quell allergy, flu, and cold symptoms – without drying out your skin with all the constant nose rubbing.
The Good Housekeeping Institute Textiles Lab regularly tests paper and home products like toilet paper to paper towels. We put popular facial tissues to the test to find the best facial tissue brands to buy in 2020. Fiber scientists tested the tissues’ total absorbency, wet and dry breaking strength, thickness and bursting strength. Then, a panel of consumers evaluated the tissues for softness in real life situations. From hundreds of data points and research, our experts found the strongest, softest tissues for your runny nose.
When shopping for tissues, be sure to consider:
Price per tissue: When determining which box of tissues is the best buy, make sure to look at the total count of tissues included. Some of the more affordable boxes we tested had substantially fewer tissues, which actually means they were more expensive per sheet. We recommend looking at the cost per tissue, as that’s the most accurate price.
Soothing additions: While ingredients like added lotion, aloe, or vitamin E can make tissues more soothing to sensitive skin, they can also have a greasy feel. Avoid lotion tissues for cleaning eyeglasses, mirrors, or other shiny surfaces where a filmy residue may be left behind.
There's a reason why people use the brand name "Kleenex" interchangeably for tissues. In our tests, Kleenex tissues were top performers across the board. Kleenex Lotion tissues had the highest overall score with excellent dry and wet strength. Testers were impressed by their soft hand feel too. Kleenex offers many styles of tissues including ones with lotion, aloe and vitamin E as well as an everyday style too. This popular brand is a household name and is widely available in stores.
For nearly one cent a tissue, Up & Up facial tissues exclusively available at Target are the most affordable tissues from our test. These tissues had a high performance score with a high softness score from testers and a near perfect Lab absorbency score. Although they were not as strong when dry, they had good wet and bursting strength. These tissues have no lotion, so they’re great for cleaning up quick messes too.
Puffs facial tissues were top performers in our lab evaluations for having high softness, wet strength, and thickness scores. Puffs Plus Lotion are popular tissues, advertising as America’s #1 selling lotion tissue. They have added lotion with no fragrance for a soothing feel on runny noses.
These tissues from Scotties aced our absorbency tests with a perfect score, holding onto over seven grams of fluid. They also had high dry strength and softness scores too, being a top performer overall. These 3-ply tissues have added aloe lotion to help soothe sensitive skin.
Seventh Generation
For more sustainable products, Seventh Generation is a game changer with popular, top tested dish soaps and paper towels too. These tissues are made of 100% recycled paper with no added fragrances, dyes, or lotions. Seventh Generation is also a B Corp company, meeting strict social and environmental criteria.
Emma Seymour (she/her) is the associate director of the Good Housekeeping Institute's Textiles, Paper and Apparel Lab, where she has led testing for luggage, pillows, towels, tampons and more since 2018. She graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor of science in fiber science and apparel design and a minor in gerontology, completing research in the Body Scanner Lab on optimizing activewear for athletic performance.
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