Top 10 Things You Need For a Relaxing Bath

It’s been another long day and you need a break. On days like this — inevitable in a busy life — taking time out for a relaxing bath can work wonders.

Too often we settle for standing in a moldy, cramped shower for five or ten minutes a day in a quick, joyless attempt to get clean before rushing off to do whatever it is that’s next on our docket. It’s amazing the difference that blocking out an extra ten or twenty minutes for a bath can make. Granted, we might not always have time for a bath, but when we do, we get a chance to clear our heads and ease sore muscles while we relax, sprawled back in the tub. It’s like having a day spa brought to our bathrooms.

A tub of steaming hot water and a bar of soap is a decent start for bathtime and could at least suffice for getting a person clean. But for a truly relaxing bath, the kind that makes a person want to retire and devote themselves fully to this pursuit, there are many bath products which can help.

Here are 10 bath essentials:

1. Something to massage your skin: Options include loofahs, sponges and scrubbers. These help remove things like dirt and dead skin, while providing a soothing massage.

2. Fizzers: They turn a placid tub of water into a sizzling cauldron, the fizz bubbles tickling your skin.

3. Salts: Have you ever swam in the ocean and noticed how relaxed you felt afterward? Low cost bath salts like Epsom Salt, Pacific Salt and Mediterranean Salt can help you bring an ocean to your bathroom.

4. Lavender: Its uses go back to antiquity. The Romans used lavender to scent their baths and restore their skin. Prior to this, Greeks discovered lavender offered a relaxing scent.

5. Gels and oils: They can be made of lavender, lemon and vanilla, or any number of other substances and add an extra dimension to the water and relax your body.

6. Body lotion: This can do more than ordinary soap to rejuvenate cracked or worn skin.

7. Body butter: This goes a step beyond lotion for soothing skin, offering more hydration and a bathing solution free of preservatives or additives.

8. A bath caddy: This will keep everything listed above and more close at hand. In addition, the caddy makes it so the bather doesn’t have to leave the water to grab what they need

9. A citrus fruit: Sounds like an odd choice for the bathroom right? However, its juices can be squeezed into the water, gently touching skin and providing a relaxing aroma.

10. Great music: Another non-standard choice, but a good one. Besides regular bath products a CD of your favorite tunes, be it arena rock or a piano concerto or New Age dolphin sounds — whatever your preference — can provide the perfect backdrop for the perfect relaxing bath.

Many of the items listed here can be found online in low-cost bath and spa gift sets.