Bath Time Essentials

My must have products for the ultimate bath time experience...

When it comes to it nothing is quite as relaxing as a hot bath especially one filled with fragrant luxurious bubbles, I love the Lush bubble bars as they not only fill the bath with a mountain of bubbles but they leave the skin feeling super soft and moisturised afterwards. Two new bubble bars I have been trying are from the Lush Christmas collection, first up is Holy Golightly - shaped like a Christmas pudding and covered in silver glitter this is perfect for a festive pamper evening, this bubble bar is packed with spicy Christmas scents like clove leaf oil, cinnamon leaf oil and sweet orange oil. Another Lush bar I love is Candy Mountain, this sweet bath treat is packed with comforting vanilla scent and turns the bath water a beautiful shade of pink. 

The Body Shop's Honeymania Bubble Bath Melt is also another bath time favourite, the perfect mixture of honey and wildflower give this bath melt a gorgeous fragrance, the creamy bubbles leave a rich layer of moisture on the skin. My final bath time must have is The Body Shop's Early Harvest Raspberry Body Scrub, this stuff smells incredible and the seed like texture lifts away dead skin helping to improve the body's circulation.

What are your favourite bathtime products? Have you tried anthing from the Lush Christmas range yet?

Disclaimer: Although I work for The Body Shop, this is no way effects my opinion.

Skin Prep - The Edit

Disclaimer: Although I work for The Body Shop this in no way effects my opinion

Once a week I like to treat my skin to a good scrub, exfoliating helps to improve circulation and remove dead skin cells as well as the remnants of the weeks fake tan, here are a few of my favourite products I use to prep my skin...

Pulp Friction by Soap and Glory is an in the shower exfoliator, it is incredibly foamy so lathers up really well, this is packed with fruity ingredients like frozen yuzu, orange oil, green fig and jungle pomelo essence which combine to give a gorgeous zesty fragrance, it also contains peppermint oil and lemonade tree liquid which give a fresh feel, I like to use this with exfoliating gloves to get the most out of the product. After applying this to damp skin I rinse off to reveal baby soft tan free limbs!

Another Soap and Glory product I like to treat my skin to is the Smoothie Star Breakfast Scrub, now the smell of this is literally good enough to eat, the ingredients list which contains a combination of oats, shea butter, sugar, bananas, almond and honey extracts sounds like a recipe for a cake, and all combined give this scrub a heavenly maple syrup scent. The sugar gives the scrub an abrasive texture which gently lifts away dead skin cells, like Pulp Friction I use this scrub in the shower on wet skin and scoop the product out of the tub and apply in circular motions and then rinse.

After all that exfoliating my skin is in need of a little hydration, lately I have been loving The Body Shop's Wild Argan Oil range, the body butter provides 24 hour hydration so is perfect for applying before bedtime, the texture is rich and the smell is luxurious. I apply this all over the body paying particular attention to dry areas such as elbows, knees and heels.

What is your skin prep routine? I would love to know your go to products.

Lush Wonder Woohoo

Lush is one of those shops that you just cannot help but be tempted into, you can smell it from a mile away! I love their fresh handmade products and the brands ethics are very admirable. I hadn't made a Lush purchase in quite some time so I couldn't resist one of their limited edition Mother's Day Bubble Bars, I went for Wonder Woohoo, inspired by Wonder Woman this bar smells incredible, it is full of Brazilian Orange oil and Sandalwood, the overall scent is warm and fruity. The bar is covered in a gold glimmer lustre that sends shimmers running through the bath water. I got two uses out of this bar and I crumbled it under the running water, it created yellow bubbly water that was really moisturising on my skin leaving it so soft.

At £3.95 these are great value for money, a bubble bar can last up to three baths depending on how big the bar is! I cant wait to try more of their products out!

Salts and Soaps

Every now and then I get the idea to do something a little more creative with my spare time, and a while ago after thinking just that I decided to get a tad thrifty and make some homemade bathroom essentials, as you may have noticed bath salts and soaps can get a little pricey. So why not make some of your own?

Here is a quick how to for Lavender and Chamomile Relaxing Bath Salts:

In a bowl combine 500grms of Epsom salts, a few handfuls of the dried lavender and chamomile, a tablespoon full of almond oil, several drops of both the lemon and lavender pure essential oils. If you don't like too much floating in your bath use less dried flowers. Once everything is stirred together put into a pretty jar or even a cheap Kilner jar like I did and your done!

These can be used as great gifts so don't forget your little 'handmade' tag. I decorated my jar with some pretty lace and it looks beautiful in my bathroom. The product itself is great for relaxing, the salts help with muscle tension and all the smells combined really help you to calm down after a stressful day.

Here are a few more things I have made recently to get you inspired, let me know if you try this D.I.Y out.

The Soap Box

A while ago I decided to get my creative hat on and make a few bath time delights for family and friends, after looking for inspiration on Not on the High Street and Pinterest I came up with a few ideas. I thought I would start with something nice and easy so I looked for recipes for bath salts. Bath Salts are great for pampering yourself and the magnesium sulphate helps to relax your muscles.
On the high street you can pay a ridiculous amount for such a simple to make product! I bought all my ingredients from eBay and each little jar works out very cheap! The one pictured is Lavender and Chamomile, Perfect for a bath before bed time! Once I made these I decided to move onto something else... Soap!! Making soap is so fun, you can play around with colours, scents and decorations, I made Rose, Lavender and Chamomile. These make lovely little gifts, its always nice to have something handmade.
Love Danielle