BATH TIME

Baby, It’s Cold Inside! Hot Salt Scrub by Bliss Saves the Day

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Or, it will save the day, later, after I’m back from horseriding volunteering. I refuse to heat my wee apartment like it is winter — it is not winter — so I’ve got the hot water bottle on full rotation, and I am going to luxuriate in a bath this evening.

A key element in the luxuriousness will be Hot Salt Scrub via the always by name/be nature Bliss.

I have gone on record as not being a fan of salty scrubby things, as half the salt always seems to roll right off the bod and onto the floor. This drawback is only slightly mitigated if one gets into the tub and applies — it still rolls off, but at least the excess goes down the drain, saving you a sweep up after the shower.

Now this: this has a gel base, so if you go slow, the product adheres nicely to the skin, and the scrub is thorough and satisfying. The hot water of the shower activates the cleansing powers of the rosemary and eucalyptus, the latter a scent that has not been among my faves, but I am happy enough with it in this incarnation.

So, the big exciting plan is: scrub with this all over, rinse off, and then run a tub, in which my open, scrubbed pores can fully receive the lovely heat. And maybe also throw some more salts in, like those Dermalogica ones I am newly in love with, the Hydro-active Mineral Salts.

The shivery in-between potential is high, now that I look at it in writing. May rethink this. It would be best to just plunge right into the bath, but I don’t know, dead skin cells floating all around me seems a little gross.

Big question: does it get hot? Well, sort of. Like, not so hot that you’re hopping around, which would be dangerous in the bath. It definitely warms you up, and naturally, the more briskly you scrub, you warmer you get. Science!

***

€30.59/£28.60/$36

OMG The Darkkkkkkkkkness. Go Have a Bath.

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I never post on Bank Holiday Mondays, and I never post past 5pm, in order to respect some class of business hours which I expect the internet has already rendered artificial/obsolete, but lads: it feels like a million o’clock, and this day, despite being so short, feels like it has been gonig on forever, and even though episodes of the superlative Forbrydelsen are whispering at me, through the ether, I have to say the following.

When it is newly dark out because of the shaggin’ clocks, and it feels like a million o’clock, and you just don’t know what to do, go have a bath with Dermalogica Hydro-active Mineral Salts {€30.20}.

Is bliss.

They put it best, themselves:

The advanced complex of mineral-rich Sea Salts, natural Kelp, aromatic essential oils, spices and skin-smoothing enzymes gently exfoliates the entire body, leaving it ultra-smooth. Soothing essential oils of Sandalwood, Lavender, Orange and Clary Sage, balanced with purifying oils of Lemon, and Tea Tree, help deliver soft, silky, revitalized skin. The warming and fragrant spices of Coriander, Cinnamon and Ginger relax the body and uplift the senses for a soothing, stress-reducing muscle soak.

Plus! You can scrub it all over yourself like a… like a scrub. You know what I mean! An exfoliation/spa-type thing! Here’s a Pro Tip™: Stand in the tub and dampen yourself, and then commence scrubbing. Even then, the stuff will get all over the place, but at least in this case, that place will be the water.

You do not want to waste a single grain of it.

It smells better dissolved in the water; on the bod, there’s a bit of an odd pong. Even still, it is gorgeous, relaxing, soothing, and cleansing.

If only my water heater wasn’t so crap! I’ve almost got it figured out, the perfect ratio of cold-to-hot water, one that gets the best use out of the measly amount of hot on tap {LOL}. I may shake some of this into a baggie and bring back to Amerikay for The Christmas: land of the free and the home of an endless supply of hot water. Wow, now I’ve got even more to look forward to!

Seriously, get this, turn on the water, take a bath. It will make these dark hours melt away.

***

kudosbeauty.ie do a great line in Dermalogica products.

♥Day: If I Was Your Mum, I Would Be Delighted to Receive This Prezzie

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This is fannnn-cy, and like a little spa in a box. It’s a bit pricey, so maybe get a sibling in on it? A brother would be perfect, thereby sparing them the panic and fear of having to nip into a chemist’s at the eleventh hour.

Yon Ka are a French company whose products are made from ingredients of natural origin — and they are happy enough to advertise the exact percentage on their packaging. In this case, the Masque No 1 has 90%, and the Phyto Bain comes in at 85%.

Both are extremely gentle, and the bath oil is especially super fantastic — one capful is enough to make the whole bath smell gorgeous. And if you — I mean, your mum — gives herself the masque, which is a light gel-based affair, and then gets into the tub? Bliss.

Hmmm… I think your mum will be delighted to receive this prezzie, because she will have, in fact, received it, and you didn’t keep it for yourself, greedy guts.

The set is €69.50, which is a savings of €15.50 were you to buy them individually. Grab that sib, pony up, and be the world’s best children ever.

(Also: Mother’s Day, but that’s a post for another month…)

It’s Leap Year, and You All Know What That Means.

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Right? You know what that means? If not, get this:

On the British isles, it is a tradition that women may propose marriage only on leap years. While it has been claimed that the tradition was initiated by Saint Patrick or Brigid of Kildare in 5th century Ireland, this is dubious, as the tradition has not been attested before the 19th century.

Wha’? I don’t even — it’s an Irish thing? This is from Wikipedia; naturally, I took that with a grain of salt and went off a’googling. Now, it occurs to me that the internet is just a massive self-fulfilling prophecy, in that information is taken from one place and put in another, because where else are we going to get our information, and everything you see on a screen is true. Right? I don’t know, it just hit me, that this is so, and made me wonder about the things we think we know… I’ve always been easily led, but today is the day I question everything.

From about.com:

St. Bridget’s Complaint
It is believed this tradition was started in 5th century Ireland when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose. According to legend, St. Patrick said the yearning females could propose on this one day in February during the leap year.

Plus the whole Sadie Hawkins thing started in a comic strip? Really?

I didn’t really get Lush’s Leap Frog Bath Ballistic. I mean, he smelled fantastic, and was made of all of my fave essential oils: jasmine, neroli, ylang ylang, sandalwood and rose. < Seriously, all of them in one place, I couldn’t believe it. He looked to be a good size, one that would keep fizzing until he melted, rather than fizzling out. LOL.

The Leap Frog’s particular thing is that he comes with a special message inside. Now, let me tell ya, there is nothing like the promise of a secret thing inside another thing to get me going. Or a prize of some sort! Lucky Dip, Cracker Jacks, piñatas — holy wow, watch me go for it.

The special, secret message, though, has to do with being a female and popping the question to the male? I have no use for such a message at this stage, but: I HAD TO KNOW WHAT WAS IN THE FROG. And if I got the special, secret message that’s supposed to help you go about proposing {???} then I would put it aside for future use. Maybe. I already been married, sistuhs, so, you know, no big deal.

BUT I HAD TO KNOW WHAT WAS IN THE FROG. I needed a bath, anyway. Are you the kind of person who needs baths? I prefer showering for cleanliness, but need baths for relaxing and unwinding. So, into the bath I went, with the Frog, who was as fizzy and fragrant as promised and although this was a scenario designed to create the relaxing and the unwinding, I was completely focused on the disintegrating Frog, waiting for the SPECIAL MESSAGE.

When it appeared, I couldn’t read it anyway because I had the candles going and I didn’t have my glasses. Did not relax or unwind much because I COULDN’T READ the special message that I HAD BEEN WAITING FOR.

<This is what I got!

Okay! I am down with this! I actually had a dream a couple weeks ago about a dude called Robert! WILL THIS SPECIAL MESSAGE COME TRUE?!?!?!

€3.50/£2.95/No sign of this in the US

Are you superstitious? Don’t go here.