Clean Up Your Act

I decided it was only fair to give baths a real shot, and let me be the first to admit I did not know what I was missing. Baths are the best.  

Confession time: up until about a year ago, I hated baths. While I’d been lucky enough to live in a variety of apartments that all had tubs (a luxury, I’m told), I almost never took advantage of the bathroom feature. Instead of using my bathtubs as they were intended to be used — for baths — I employed them for a variety of other things: soaking laundry, tie-dying a sheet set, storing clothes when the hanging bar of my closet broke.

You see, I hated taking baths. They took forever to fill up, the water was always too hot or too cold and when it finally did get to the right temperature it rarely lasted for more than a few minutes, I always ended up with prune-y skin, whatever I was trying to “relax and read” inevitably got soaked, and the idea of sitting in a tub of water that was the same water I’d just used to wash my body was…not enticing.

But then I was gifted a particularly luxurious set: bath oil, lavender Epsom salts, bubbles and a waterproof pillow that suctioned to the wall. (GENIUS! EVERY BATH-TAKER NEEDS ONE OF THESE!) Rather than let this all go to waste, I decided it was only fair to give baths another shot and let me be the first to admit that I had been wrong all along, I did not know what I was missing. Baths are the best.  

Clearly I’d been doing it wrong for years by using my standard shower products in the bath but no…a bath requires it’s own set of accessories. It needs products that say, “Hey, we’re special. We’re not everyday items. Luxuriate in our uniqueness. Take a bath.” (Said by flattering candlelight in a low, soothing voice, naturally.)

If you’re ready to give baths the second chance they deserve or you’re a bath diehard looking to add something new to the mix, let some of these products speak to you. They all deserve prime real estate in your bathtub.

One of the best parts of a good bath is its ability to relax both mind and body. So basically, it’s the bathroom equivalent of a restorative yoga class. If you can find an add-on that ups the relaxation level, grab on and never let go. Case in point: Mary’s Nutritionals Bath Bomb. With ingredients like Epsom salts, essential oils and hemp extract, it’s a masseuse in a bottle.

Now that you’re in a state of relaxed bliss, take advantage of the fact that you’ve just primed all the skin on your body for an epic exfoliation. (A quick soak in warm water is the optimal precursor to sloughing off dead skin.) The Black Gold Coffee Scrub from Céla is exactly what you need to emerge from the bath looking like Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus.” The salt buffs away dead cells and you’re left with dewy, fresh skin that’s also been moisturized with cupuaçu butter and Abyssinian oil. Heavenly.

If your bath endeavors are more about detox than relaxation, you’ll want to choose your products with a different filter. One of the best detoxifiers out there is natural clay, thanks to its ability to bind to and draw impurities out of the skin. Clay masks are great for your face but it’s near-impossible to mask your whole body without making one hell of a mess, which is why Moon River Naturals’ Clay Detox Bar Soap is such a revelation. It’s a body bar that cleanses, clarifies and refines via bentonite and Moroccan red clays and activated charcoal, so you don’t have to stand in a frozen jumping jack position for 15 minutes to reap the benefits of clay masks on your whole body.

Now that you’ve gotten yourself nice and clean, keep the freshness going with a deodorant that not only won’t quit but that will leave you smelling like fresh coconut milk. Kopari Beauty’s Coconut Deodorant is powerful enough to combat underarm odor the day after your bath while still being gentle on skin (no baking soda means no irritation and coconut oil keeps things smooth and moisturized).

And of course, no bath would be complete without a post-bath, full-body moisturizing session. (Seriously, what’s better than standing stark naked in a draining tub, slathering oil on every inch of your skin without worrying about smearing it on something?) While any old body oil would do the trick, you could also keep the relaxation/state of utter bliss/nirvana thing going with one that’s infused with CBD.

Bonus item: If you find yourself at the end of a long day and just can’t deal with waiting for the tub to fill up or you know, you just want to get clean and go to sleep, consider these single-use Fur Washcloths. They’re like makeup-removing wipes, but for your whole body. Just promise me you’ll go back to the bath the next day — your tub is lonely.