Everything You Need to Seek Refuge in Your Bathtub for the Next 4 Months
A hot bath taken without regard for time is lovely any time of year, but when it’s cold outside, it becomes as necessary as food, water, and air. But a long soak is incomplete without the right accoutrements to go with it—think scrubs, hair masks, and a candle you can’t afford but buy anyway. Like Sylvia Plath said, “There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.”
A body scrub that is not messing around
Think Turkish hammam, not a traditional spa with Enya playing in the background. Frank Body Coconut Body Scrub ($17.95) is composed almost entirely of coffee grounds, along with nourishing oils of coconut and grapeseed. A serious scrubdown will leave skin ridiculously soft, and the coffee-and-coconut scent is pretty wonderful too. The graininess means business (read: It’s not gentle), but the more hydrating ingredients mean it won’t irritate even very sensitive skin.
A silky bath oil
Skip a bubble bath and opt instead for a soak infused with a bath and body oil: It’ll leave skin soft, smooth, and so well-moisturized you may even be able to skip body lotion. Fresh Sake Bath ($48) combines a sake-centric formula (it’s at the top of the ingredients list, so you know it’s legit) to hydrate and smooth skin with a sweet yet inoffensive peachy scent. As far as at-home spa experiences go, this one’s actually formidable—the ginger and pine extracts warm the body and increase circulation to induce a light sweat that claims to detoxify and eliminate toxins. We’ll take it.
A does-it-all face mask you can linger in
Tata Harper Honey Blossom Resurfacing Mask ($65) does everything you might want from a mask: It works sort of like a nonirritating peel that hydrates, minimizes the appearance of pores, and refines the skin’s texture, leaving it super smooth and glowing. The other added benefit is that you can leave it on for 30 minutes, so it’s one less thing you have to worry about for the ensuing half hour.
And a hair mask too
Winter weather can be way drying to the hair, so it’s probably a good idea to slather on a majorly moisturizing hair mask too. Intended for very damaged, highly processed hair (but just as nourishing for other hair types), Davines Nounou Hair Mask ($32) uses rich, creamy olive butter to soften hair and turn it into a silkier, more voluminous version of itself. Leave it on for as long as you please (at least five minutes), then comb through and rinse well.
Bath salts to relieve achiness
Bath salts are glorious for easing muscle tension, hydrating the skin, and promoting relaxation. In other words, your soak is incomplete without them. Ahava Calming Lavender Mineral Bath Salt ($22) is the good stuff—made with 100 percent natural salts from the Dead Sea, it’s packed with minerals like magnesium, calcium, and potassium. The subtle lavender scent makes it that much more soothing. Also, the label recommends that you rest for half an hour after your salty bath, which is totally fine with us.
A very, very nice candle
No matter how janky or cramped your bathroom might be (we know what it’s like), turning off the lights and lighting up a candle will turn it into a veritable oasis. Well, close enough. Cire Trudon Bartolomé ($95) is a real splurge, but the gorgeous packaging and lush, woodsy scent make it … worth it? Sure, why not.
A good towel for when you’re forced to get out
A time will come wherein you must remove yourself from the warm, enveloping comfort of your tub and rejoin the living world. It will be fine, provided you have a luxurious towel to wrap yourself in immediately. (Ideally, you will also have someone at your beck and call to wrap you in it, but that’s not necessary.) It doesn’t get much better than Frette Superb Bath Towel ($75). It’s big, it’s soft, and it just looks and feels expensive, because it is.
