While there is no joy or beauty in wasting money on useless body products, the pleasure of a wonderful luxurious bath offers many emotional benefits that should not be ignored. There is no denying the amazing amount of relaxation you can derive from a quiet interlude in a serene, carefully prepared bath. By adding a few aesthetic touches to your bathroom and locking the door you can create a tranquil refuge right in your own home. And none of these products have to be expensive or contain irritants. In fact, the less-expensive ones (like pure almond, olive, or sunflower oil, Epsom salts, or nonfragranced body moisturizers) all work beautifully.
Where the body is concerned, fragrance can be a serious skin irritant. If you use fra- granced oils and salts in the bath, the perfume component can be especially sensitizing for the vaginal area as well as other parts of the body. But you can still gain the comforting, tranquil benefit of fragrance by lighting scented candles or spraying the room with a special scent. Keeping the fragrance out of the tub and off your skin is the ideal way to have your cake and eat it too, figuratively speaking.
But back to indulgence. Simply feeling beautiful and tranquil is the main goal of a leisurely bath. Steamy water, drizzled with nonfragranced plant oils and foaming bubbles, accompanied by scented candles flickering in the mirror (that way you don’t need to put fragrance in the bathwater, and your olfactory sense can still participate), and at least a half hour of spare time is all it takes.
Later, when you’re done soaking, after gently exfoliating your skin, shaving unwanted hair from your legs and underarms, and applying an unscented moisturizer, your body will feel silky in a way it doesn’t after your usual morning ritual of shower and moisturizer.
Without trying to burst anyone’s bubble, and because my job is to tell you what I know to be true from current research, I must mention that, as blissful as all this can be, the only benefits are psychological. Regularly soaking for long periods, especially in hot water—and that includes Jacuzzis—is actually not the best for the long-term health of the skin. Oversaturating the skin with water can break down its immune and healing responses and even actually make it drier. (Source: Contact Dermatitis, December 1999, pages 311-314.)
The best approach is to bathe infrequently—or, if you bathe regularly, to soak for no more than five to ten minutes. Occasionally it is fine to soak for longer periods, but make that the exception instead of the rule. Whether it’s for five or ten minutes, or the infrequent twenty – to thirty-minute soak, the repose and quiet serenity of a bath can give you the time to feel the texture changes in your skin and to calm stressed-out, responsibility-weary nerves.
What is the best way to go about this indulgent ritual? It is definitely easier and far less expensive if you use something other than the products lined up at the cosmetics counters and specialty salons, that’s for sure.
Here is one scenario for how to enjoy a relaxing bath.
• Start running the bath using water that’s only slightly hotter than normal, but only slightly; water that is too hot can be hard on the skin and may cause problems over the long haul. It shouldn’t hurt to get in the tub.
• Turn on relaxing music.
• If you have normal to dry skin, drizzle in some almond, olive, or sunflower oil, or mineral oil (but use only a teaspoon or two or you’ll feel like you’re soaking in an oil spill). If you have oily, blemish-prone skin from the neck down, oils of any kind are not the best idea.
• You can use bubble bath, but dish detergent from your kitchen can work just as well. Both bubble bath and dish detergent can be drying, but the teeny amount used for either to produce copious suds in a bath negates any negative effect on skin.
• If you are keen to add bath salts to your bath experience consider adding Epsom salts instead. They are far more soothing and helpful for the body than fragranced bath salts. These are a great and incredibly inexpensive addition to any bath.
• Rather than pouring fragrance into the bath, which can be irritating for the skin, you can light a scented candle or two and place them in strategic locations so the light can flicker on the water and in the mirror. You can also buy tiny oil lamps that help radiate fragrance throughout the room.
• If you plan to give yourself a manicure or pedicure after your bath, take the time now to file your nails into the shape you want. Filing nails when they are wet can damage them and cause splitting. If you plan to cut your nails, wait until after you are done soaking, when they are softer and less likely to be damaged.
• Turn down the lights or turn them off altogether and bathe by candlelight.
• Enter the bath slowly, even gracefully; the experience is everything, try seeing if you can do this without disturbing the water or bubbles.
• Prop a towel or bath pillow behind your head, and stretch out.
• While you’re soaking, take the time to gently, and I mean gently, buff a washcloth over your body. (Be careful with loofahs—they can be hard on most skin types and if they are not cleaned regularly or replaced can be a source of bacteria.)
• Use a body cleanser or body wash, alone or with a gentle washcloth. Soap can be too drying on skin.
• If you want to shave your legs, do not scrub your legs. Shaving will provide enough exfoliation. Save shaving your legs till the end when the water is going down the drain and not sitting in the tub with you. Use unscented shave cream or your hair conditioner for the smoothest results. (Shaving the legs is much easier and causes far less irritation and fewer bumps if the legs have been soaked for a period of time. Also, sitting in water filled with used shaving cream is hardly luxurious.)
• You may want to shower off as your final step. If you don’t like the feeling of bath oils left on your feet, underarms, or genitals, this is the time to wash those areas again to remove the oil or bath salts from your skin.
• When you’re done, exit as slowly as you entered. This is still part of the ritual, so keep the candles lit.
• Dry your skin with a fresh towel, dabbing your skin lightly. There is no benefit to further scrubbing or buffing skin with a towel, especially not if you’ve used a washcloth or loofah in the bath.
• If you haven’t used a body exfoliant in the bath, you can use your towel to give your legs and arms a good but gentle rubdown. But take it easy; hard rubbing can irritate the skin.
• If you haven’t shaved, you can apply an AHA or BHA moisturizer over your legs and arms, especially on your knees, elbows, and heels. The exfoliation prevents dead skin cells from building up, which can cause rough texture and dry flaky skin and also allows the moisturizer you apply to absorb and be more effective. Exfoliation with an AHA or BHA provides the same benefit for the body as it does for the face.
• Next apply a moisturizer. (Do not apply moisturizer to areas of the body that tend to break out.) A richer, emollient balm or pure shea or cocoa butter can be used on heels, knees, and elbows.
• If you bathe in the morning it is essential to apply an effective sunscreen over those parts of the body that will be exposed to daylight.
• Finally, if this has been an evening ritual, slip on something very soft, like cotton leggings and a cotton top, or a silky robe, and enter the world slowly, refreshed and renewed. Don’t forget to blow out the candles.
• If you have extra time, this is the perfect opportunity to give yourself a pedicure and manicure.