Turn your bathroom into a spa oasis. Here’s our DIY guide to bathing beautifully at home.
Scents appeal
Your senses influence how we receive and respond to things day to day – your sense of smell being the biggest culprit. Create a bathroom haven by dimming the lights, lighting an aromatherapy candle, listening to some chill-out music and sinking into a sudsy tub.
Baths are the Holy Grail of relaxation. Indulge in scents such as lavender, honey, vanilla, rose or jasmine to soothe the senses after a long day at work. Use a bath oil to indulge in a night of aromatherapy, a bubble bath for mid-week decadence or bath milk for the royal treatment.
Milk has been a body beautifier for centuries, even used by kings and queens to keep them looking young. Bath milk lightly moisturises the whole body and blankets the skin with nutrients. Best enjoyed with a glass of wine.
A creamy body wash with a nostalgic scent such as lavender or honey can also send you into a deeply relaxed state, and a fresh citrus scent paired with a foamy texture invigorates the senses. Trick yourself into holiday-mode with fruity scents like mango, strawberry or coconut for a tropical escape away from the daily grind.
Skin therapy
Body scrubs should be included in your beauty arsenal. They are a great way to get rid of dry skin and get the blood circulating around the body. Body scrubs prime the skin for products such as moisturisers to be applied afterwards by removing dead skin cells and dirt particles, ensuring the active ingredients of the product penetrate into the layers of the skin.
No time for a total body scrub session? Chemical exfoliators contain mild acids that remove dead skin cells, creating a slight tingling sensation on application that only lasts a few minutes.
Skin post-shower or bath is soft and has enlarged pores, which is the best time for skin to be moisturised. The steam from a warm shower relaxes the surface of the skin and allows the moisturiser to penetrate and infiltrate the deeper layers of the skin.
Using a quality moisturiser daily is essential – try using it to take off your makeup instead of a harsh makeup remover that will dry out your skin even more. Bonus points for using a body wash with an in-built moisturiser.
The easiest way to choose a moisturiser is to check your skin type – dry, oily, combination or sensitive. Dry skin feels tight and often builds up dead skin on the surface, oily skin is prone to breakouts and has larger pores, combination skin is both dry and oily on different areas, and sensitive skin is prone to rashes or skin conditions such as eczema.
Everyone’s skin behaves differently from season to season, so you might find that you’ll use a moisturiser for dry skin in winter and a lighter one in summer.
On the run?
Instead of hitting the snooze button give yourself a hit of energy and try lathering up with a freshly scented shower gel. Citrus oil is said to have anti-anxiety and anti-depressive effects in aromatherapy, so a fresh citrus-smelling shower gel will invigorate the senses to give you some pep!
Other scents such as mint, lime, peppermint, eucalyptus, tea tree, grapefruit and orange are zesty and invigorating scents to liven you up for the day ahead. The soft textures of body foams and mousses lather easily and lend themselves to being applied energetically – don’t be surprised if you end up lathering along to the morning radio. Opt for a wash-off moisturiser if you’re looking for something that will soothe your dry post-summer skin.
