Winter bath and body treats

Can I start by saying that I don’t generally remove my shower products from the bathroom and arrange them on my bed with a carefully positioned towel (usually found slung over something), a bunch of flowers (£3.30 in the reduced section of Tesco), and, inexplicably, a chopping board (lives in the kitchen, been used to chop things on once)…but it looks pretty that way so that’s what I’ve done.

Completely staged photos aside, this post comes to you courtesy of a tiny change I’ve made recently. Time has been limited of late and the opportunity for chilling, doing nothing, or having a bath (one of my favourite things) has just not been there.

In lieu of a good long soak in the tub or indeed a spare couple of hours to fit one in (our bath takes ages to run) here’s what I’ve started doing; making shower time the time that I completely calm my mind, rather than just something I need to do before rushing to get on with my day because…well, because hygiene. It’s the easiest way i’ve found to slot self-care into jam packed days; obviously I would be showering anyway, so it doesn’t become another thing on my to do list, and few extra minutes allowing myself just to stand under running water and stop my thoughts racing around in circles have been pretty wonderful on particularly frazzled days.

To really get into the spirit, I thought I’d start using some new bath and body products. For the colder months I love comforting scents – this is obviously different for different people, but for me that means anything nutty, creamy, spicy or rich. I’m currently using a few things I hadn’t tried before now, so I thought i’d stick them in a blog post.

As usual, everything is cruelty-free and vegan, so they’re animal friendly too.

Superdrug Naturals Cherry and Macadamia Body Scrub

While I usually use fruity fragrances in summer, cherry is more of a deep scent than the fresh flavours I mean when I say that – combined with the macadamia the smell is nothing short of delicious, and it smells like a particularly good dessert. It’s pretty sweet, but also rich and wintery. The product itself is quite gentle with tiny granules of apricot kernel; I usually opt for a salt/sugar scrub, because this isn’t too harsh I can use it for all of my newly-chilled showers. Plus, it’s super affordable at just £4.99 for a 200ml tub ,and seems to be on offer nearly all the time.

Organii Shea Butter Shower Gel*

I’d never heard of Organii before, but I was sent a bottle of this to try a while ago and added it my routine recently when on my quest for nuttier, more warming smells. Shea butter is one of my favourite scents anyway and one I use throughout the year, but I find the earthiness especially lovely for the colder months. This lathers like a dream (is there anything more disappointing than body washes that produce no foam? The answer is definitely yes, but it’s still up there) and is surprisingly moisturising for a shower gel. Also, kind of unimportant point, but I really like the milk bottle shape packaging. One to look out for if you’re into discovering natural or cruelty-free brands like I am!

The Body Shop Vanilla Chai Body Butter

This may well be my favourite bodycare scent in years. Honestly, you have to go into The Body Shop and have a good sniff of it, particularly if you’re generally a chai fan. I’m sure TBS’s body butters need no introduction; I’ve had several over the years and always love them. The smell is warming and delicious – vanilla extract, cardamom, and an array of other spices – and and lasts on the skin for a while too. Big love to the lady in The Body Shop who hinted that I should have a quick look online for a discount code that could be used in store too – got 40% off, making this a very respectable £9. In all honesty I don’t have time to use it much, but I’m trying to give myself a little time for a post-shower moisturise every so often.

Lush Christmas Sweater Bath Bomb

As I imagine you can tell, I haven’t used this. Time might have been lacking for a bath, but I went into Lush to buy a present for someone else, picked this up at the same time, and couldn’t resist including it. It smells gorgeous – a spicy, warming scent including cloves and ginger, and supposedly the colours that emerge from the pretty pink exterior are all rich and gorgeous. Making a date with this thing asap.

Do you have any bath and body favourites for winter?

*Denotes a product which has been gifted to me. All opinions, imagery and words are my own.

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