When it comes to luxurious, relaxing bath products, there’s no need to spend $50+ for a bath oil or soak when you want to shut out the world and take refuge in a bath tub filled with silky bubbles. Also, there are cosy, high-end smelling products that don’t smell like either pine needles or sugar cookies.
What I’m saying is, there’re a lot of options between Susanne Kaufmann and Lush. Here they are. (Also, no worries if you don’t have a tub! I’ve got you covered with some amazingly relaxing shower products!)
Best bath soaks, oils and bubble baths
Relaxing bath products: Lush
Let’s get it out of the way: yes, I do love some of Lush’s bath products. Twilight (here), the caramel lavender fragrance, comes as a bath bomb and a shower gel (and many other products as well), and is one of the most comforting fragrances I’ve ever come across. It’s caramel, it’s lavender, and I feel soothed right away.
If your skin doesn’t like heavily fragranced products, cocoa butter rich Butterball that gets a makeover every Christmas and becomes super cute bath oil Butterbear (here) is great. Snowman Dreaming bath bomb (here) smells like cedarwood and lavender and isn’t as cloyingly sweet as Lush can be sometimes (and makes those pretty rainbow swirls you see above).
Bath product for sensitive skin: Ahava Bath Salts
Let’s pivot: here’s an affordable bath treat that isn’t fragranced at all and doesn’t foam, form bubbles or turn into an oil. It’s Ahava’s Bath Salt straight from the Dead Sea (here). And yup, basically you’re just chucking a pound of salt into your tub. If you bathe with Sea Salt (it’s not an Epsom salt, fyi!), take care not to stay in the water for too long and that the water isn’t too hot – it’ll make you dizzy. Your skin will feel very soft afterwards – and you WILL be relaxed. (If you desperately need a bit of fragrance, try to add a few drops of essential oils – that’ll give you a much more affordable option than all those fancy brands that’re called French something something or L.A. something.)
Best vegan bubble bath: Dresdner Essenz Bubble Bath Bio-Apricot & Mint
A German vegan, certified wellness brand from the drugstore at very reasonable prices. What I love about them is that – unusual for drugstore products – their fragrance combos are never simple, nor cheaply smelling: instead they’re coming up with my fave bubble bath products again and again. Apricot & Mint (here) is like summer in a bottle (to me, it smells like orange candy) and adds a burst of sunshine in my bathroom. And this is exactly what I need from time to time.
Shower products for self-care
Shower product you need: L’Occitane Almond Shower Oil
This one has so much going for it that it tops my personal best list all the time: Because we have a wonderful, moisturising texture, a gentle, cosy smell and all that from a brand that takes sustainability seriously. You can get L’Occitane’s Almond Shower Oil in a refill bag that minimises plastic packaging. Given that I love to slather myself in the stuff, that’s a definite plus.
L’Occitane says “this shower staple softens and helps nourish the skin” and indeed it does (here). The warm almond, not too sweet scent is also great for the cooler season and the reason it’s in this list. Only in deepets winter my skin needs an additional moisturiser after using it.
Innovative in-shower product: Rituals Tulip & Japanese Yuzu foaming shower gel
I love the sensory experience of Ritual’s foaming shower gels (here), even if they don’t have a lot speaking for them when it comes to sustainability. This is the reason I only treat myself to them once in a while. Lately, they’ve been doing a coop with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, celebrating the influences of Asia. The result is a very unique fragrance naming Yuzu and Tulip as the main ingredients.
So, tulips have a fragrance (who knew?) and apparently, it’s rather tart. What I get when using the velvety foam is a burst of vetiver and old-fashioned cologne that quickly turns to citrusy, soft, musky yuzu. It’s definitely floral, and will take you out of the most miserable, bleak day. I find the formula rather drying and definitely will need to moisturise after showering.
Shower product for sensitive skin: Foamie 2 in 1 body bar with peppermint oil and green tea
I was so intrigued by the concept of using a body bar for the shower that I couldn’t not get the Foamie bar (here). Soaps on a string aren’t exactly new (you can find them in France quite often), but am I really down to showering with soap? Well, this is a surprise: It’s not stripping (in fact, it’s close to skin’s natural pH), and the little bumps on one side give it a massage-bar kind of feeling. The whole thing is very spa-like, especially the scent, which is very green, but not overpoweringly so: it’s a very herbal fresh peppermint and green tea steaming in a cup.
Relaxing bath products: Extra tip
Do you have any hotel amenities from past vacations lying around? Now’s the time to use them up: it’ll bring back some vacation feeling, and you’ll finally finish those tiny bottles that clog up your drawers. Honestly, a no-brainer: just dream about that time in Portugal or Singapore while luxuriating in a warm shower or bath – what could be better when it’s dark and gloomy outside?
Please note that this post is not sponsored in any way. We buy products ourselves, with our own money, and don’t accept exchanging goods or money for reviews. We are completely independent, and our reviews reflect that.
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