Bath time

I have always loved baths. My mum is to blame – she is totally obsessed with bathing and has passed it on to me and both my sisters. During my childhood, I remember that mum would come home after a long day at work, get straight into the bath, and we would congregate in the bathroom and tell her about our days at school, gossip, share our worries, offload in the warmth and comfort of the bathroom. I think we probably spent more time in that bathroom than anywhere else in the house!

This is a ritual that I have carried on to some extent as an adult, except now it is me that comes home after work and gets into the bath. I like it when R comes up and sits with me and we have a chat – the perfect place to share the day’s news while dinner’s in the oven. If I don’t have a bath straight after work, I will always, pretty much without fail, have one before bed. I just don’t feel right if I don’t. I have even been known to come home at 2am and start the bath running, much to R’s bemusement.  And so, when you spend so much time bathing, you naturally have to have lots of options when it comes to bubble bath. I usually alternate between Waitrose own brand bath crème, L’Occitane or Molton Brown. But recently I decided that I would have a go at making some bath salts, inspired by nostalgic thoughts of the big bottles of heavily perfumed, luminous bath salts that my grandma used to have next to her bath, and which always fascinated me.

I used Epsom salts, wooed by all of the health benefits that the internet purported they offered, and then I added some essential oil to make them smell nice.

I added rose geranium oil because it's one of my favourite smells, like a garden in summer. It is sweet and lemony and fresh all at the same time. It is also meant to have healing and relaxing properties, and helps with anxiety and depression. I find it very comforting and uplifting. 

I also added some dried rose buds that I bought on our honeymoon in Morocco, mainly cos they look so pretty!

This was a seriously easy DIY – I did it one Monday night after work. The most taxing thing was having to lug 5kg of Epsom salts home from work on the train (I am very weak).

I made a little jar for my sister. I was thinking these would make good little pressies for people. 

Epsom salt baths are incredibly reviving after a day of DIY (or a shitty day at work). Just add one or two cups to a deep, hot bath, lie back and soak for at least 20 minutes. Ahhhh. 

And of course, a bath is even more wonderful with a glass of bubbly. 

Blissful. And now I'm off for a bath. x