Thank the gods for bathtubs

I like baths. A lot. When I’m sad, stressed or don’t feel good I head directly to the tub.

I’ve casually mentioned in past posts that I’m chronically ill. To clarify, I’m not saying that I get colds frequently; I have several chronic illnesses that cause things like migraines, pain, mobility issues, depression, anxiety, on and on, basically ad infinitum. If you want to talk about illnesses and compare notes I’d be happy to do it, but I’m not going to bore you all with the details of my various life-altering and scary sounding diseases.

Anyway, being chronically ill involves a lot of pain management, and for me one of the most effective methods of managing pain is baths. I don’t know what it is, but baths just make me feel good. There’s a comfort element to being in the hot water in a quiet bathroom, and I generally use bubble bath/bars or bath bombs to add some aromatherapy elements. I don’t have the ideal tub or water heater for baths (they’re both way too small), but I manage.

Because I love baths so much, I wanted to talk about some of my current favorite bath products.

Lush Unicorn Horn Bubble Bar

I literally just picked this up in my Boston Lush haul and it became an immediate must-have. It smells so, so good, and I find the lavender scent so relaxing. When I decide to take a bath right before bed this is the bubble bar that I use, and it makes the water purple and sparkly and makes my skin feel good. I know that it’s part of the Valentine’s Day collection and I’m going to cry a little bit when I can’t get it anymore.

Lush Brightside Bubble Bar

This is another item I picked up in Boston, and also became an immediate favorite. The citrus scent just makes me happy, and in the depths of winter in the frozen tundra (i.e. Western NY), cheer is something I desperately need. On the rare occasion that I take a bath in the morning this is the bubble bar I use, and it makes me feel like I can take on the day. This one is part of the regular collection (I think?) so I should be able to get it whenever I need it. And I’ll likely need it until May waiting for the sun to return.

Lush Twilight Bath Bomb

 

After I posted my Lush haul I was informed that we actually DO have a Lush store in one of our malls. I typically avoid the mall like the plague, especially the end where they put this store, so it’s not surprising that I didn’t know it was there, but part of me feels betrayed; why didn’t someone tell me?! Why didn’t the Lush website say “Hey Teresa, you don’t need to pay for shipping, just drive down the road”?

Anyway, the scent of this bath bomb is similar to the Unicorn Horn but it has the element of fun and surprise with the blue stuff in the middle. It wasn’t as active as I was expecting, but I liked it enough to buy another one.

Bath & Body Works Stress Relief – Eucalyptus & Spearmint Bath Soak

I’m currently out of these bath salts so I don’t have any to show you, but I’ve been using them for years. I’m not normally into bath salts because I don’t like the gritty texture when they don’t all dissolve, as they inevitably don’t, but these are just too good. They smell so amazing, and they last way longer than the bubble bath (for me). I feel like they really do help me de-stress and it smells a little bit like a clean man and I love that scent. The B & BW Aromatherapy collections can be really pricey but they frequently have really good sales, so the next time I can get it for relatively cheap I’m definitely replacing it.

Bath & Body Works Sleep – Lavender & Cedarwood

Again with the lavender. It’s one of my all-time favorite scents in general, so a lot of the bath products and candles in my house are some variation of lavender.

I’m out of this one too. For this scent, I prefer the bubble bath to the salts and I can’t really explain why, but I ran out of it right before Christmas and by then all of the good sales were over. Sad face. I’ll be buying it again as soon as I don’t have to spend $17 on it.

So these are the things I’ve been using in a (sometimes futile) attempt to relax, de-stress and get some sleep. What are your go-to bath products? Do you believe aromatherapy helps your mental or physical health?

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