One of the quickest and simplest ways to boost your mood is by taking a bath. But in today’s fast-paced life, how often do you take the time to wind down and relax in warm water?
Taking a bath might sound like a simple routine activity, but it can improve your heart health, reduce muscle pain, improve breathing, and cleanse your hair and skin. As if that list wasn’t impressive enough, you can secure additional health benefits by enriching your bathwater with natural ingredients.
Regardless of how busy your schedule is, or how much of a shower person you are, it’s well worth upping your bath game. This guide features a handy list of ingredients to add to your bath water to boost the quality of your sessions and maximize health benefits.
Here are 10 ingredients you’ll need to experience the finest bath of your life!
If you’re dealing with frequent headaches or need a detox bath, ginger is exactly what you’re looking for. You might remember your mom handing out ginger biscuits when you and your siblings got sick. This is because of ginger’s ability to help clear up your chest or nasal congestion, and remedy aches from flu or cold. Even if you’re perfectly fine, ginger is still a great ingredient for your bath water as it helps your body release toxins with sweat.
Note: If you have sensitive skin, keep in mind that it may react negatively to ginger. It’s advisable to test it out on a patch of your skin before you add it to your bathwater. If all goes well, cut off a portion of ginger, grate it and toss it into your bath for the benefits described above.
Oatmeal is fairly popular for its wide range of benefits as a healthy breakfast. But it can also provide a host of unique health benefits in your bath. As a natural bathwater ingredient, it can provide immediate soothing relief to rashes, dry skin, and skin irritation. This comes from oatmeal’s rich content of healthy fats. It’s an all-weather solution for your skin issues, treating dry skin in the winter and sunburn in summer.
Thanks to their healthy fats, oats are a great source of natural cleansers that the skin needs to keep impurities away from your pores. Oatmeal also has proteins that can help your skin maintain its natural moisture barrier. A cup full of oats is sufficient for a bath.
Pro tip: As you fill up your bath, place the oats under running water for best results.
We get it, all of this stuff belongs in the kitchen, but baking soda happens to be an excellent ingredient to add to your baths. You’ve probably never thought of bathing in it, but it’s proven to be great for your skin. There’s a reason why baking soda is a key ingredient in many bath products: studies have found that it’s a natural exfoliating agent that keeps dry skin build-up at bay. This helps to make patchy areas like the knees, elbows, and heels soft and smooth after your bath.
With baking soda, less is more — just like it is with cooking. Three to four teaspoons of baking soda should be enough for a full bath. For best effect, let the powder dissolve fully before you enter.
Rose oil offers much more than a soothing scent and a pretty name. According to experts, it has natural antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties that make it the perfect ingredient to add to bathwater. Thanks to its moisturizing properties, ose oil is great for your hair and skin. Moreover, it can help keep redness and acne away.
You can buy rose-oil based products all you want, but the simplest and cheapest way to take advantage of this ingredient is to make your own DIY milk rose bath. It’s really easy to do this – simply mix about 5 to 6 drops of rose oil with half a cup of milk and add it to your bathwater. You could also throw in a handful of rose petals for an extra luxurious effect. YOU CAN PURCHASE ROSE HERE
By now, we’ve all heard of Epsom salt’s benefits on the internet—and rightly so. This bath ingredient’s name is a tad misleading, as it’s not really a salt, but a mineral compound. It combines sulphate and magnesium, both of which are highly beneficial for the body.
According to scientific research, dissolving Epsom in warm bath water can help replenish magnesium levels in the body. This ultimately improves a number of internal processes of the body and reduces the risk of many serious health conditions that can occur due to magnesium deficiency. Additionally, it can help relieve inflammation, muscle soreness, and pain.
Nowadays, it’s fairly easy to find Epsom salt in the market. You can shop around No products found. for it and find plenty of products with lots of positive reviews. When you’re ready to finally take a bath with this ingredient, add one full cup of Epsom salt into warm water. Let it sit for a few minutes before you get in. Stay in and soak for at least 15 to 20 minutes to fully take advantage of Epsom’s healing benefits.
Many people swear by the skincare and haircare-enhancing properties of coconut oil. It’s widely used in masks, moisturizers, conditioners, and all number of beauty products. It makes sense that coconut oil is one of the best ingredients you can add to your bath, especially when considering its massive skincare potential. Thanks to its soothing and moisturizing properties, soaking in coconut oil has shown to improve skin suppleness and softness. It also has strong anti-inflammatory, antifungal, and antibacterial benefits.
Apart from healthy saturated fats that keep the skin healthy and moisturized, coconut oil is also rich in vitamin E. Vitamin E is an antioxidant that keeps the skin looking youthful, firm, and healthy. You can make a DIY scrub out of coconut oil by mixing it with a cup of sugar and applying it to your skin or hair as needed. If you like the coconut aroma, chose a scented oil to add to your bathwater.
Speaking of oils, peppermint oil definitely deserves a mention. It’s one of the most rejuvenating and uplifting aromatherapy oils out there. Working as a natural soothing mood booster, peppermint oil brings a range of benefits to the brain. Moreover, it can help relieve PMS symptoms, headache pain, and indigestion symptoms through its strong anti-inflammatory properties. You can purchase peppermint oil here.
Many studies have linked peppermint oil with improved concentration and alertness. It’s even useful in naturally treating skin problems like allergic rashes and acne. Just like rose oil, you only need about 5 to 6 drops in your bathwater. Adding too much of it can be problematic, especially if you have sensitive skin. To make the most out of peppermint oil, soak in a bath containing this ingredient for at least 15 minutes.
Thanks to its delicious taste and sweet scent, honey is amongst the most enjoyable natural remedies out there. For hundreds of years, it has been used as a healing agent all over the world. When added to your bath, honey’s unique antibacterial properties can heal minor wounds and prevent infections. It’s an excellent source of polyphenols—a naturally occurring antioxidant that boosts the immune system. It also has an anti-ageing impact on your skin.
Adding honey to your bath may paint a sticky picture in your head, but that’s not going to happen. You’ll only need about two tablespoons of honey into your bathwater, which isn’t nearly enough to alter the bathwater’s consistency. Stir it in well, and soak for at least 15 minutes. For bonus points, use it in combination with baking soda. It’ll rid the skin of dead cells while the honey prevents irritation.
Milk is a common ingredient in most bath products out there. That’s because of the lactic acid in milk, which is filled with skin-softening properties. Lactic acid is the ultimate dead skin shedder, leaving you with smoother skin after the bath.
In summer months, if you’re dealing with sunburn, a milk bath is exactly what your skin needs to recover and heal up quickly. For bathwater, powdered milk is the way to go. Stir about one to two cups into your bath with the water running. Soak in the water until it runs cool, and gently pat dry with a towel when you’re out.
If you’ve already tried coconut oil in your bathwater, feel free to switch things up to enjoy a wider range of benefits. Olive oil cleanses and rejuvenates the skin by passing through your skin barrier into the tissues. It also maintains collagen levels in the skin, preventing common ageing signs like wrinkles and sagging.
Skin health aside, olive oil is linked to stronger immunity against viral infections. It also has a specific use for new mothers. Studies have found that olive oil’s minerals can help the uterus restore to its original size much quicker after delivery.
For best results, add about three tablespoons of olive oil to your bath as it’s filling up. Relax in the water as long as you’d like. For smoother legs, you can also olive oil it as a natural shaving cream substitute.
Before this article, you’d probably only enjoyed bubbles in your bath. It’s now time to experiment further by adding the best bathwater ingredients for maximum health benefits.
The best thing about the list is that most of the items mentioned are probably already lying around in your kitchen cabinets. Even if you don’t, they’ll be super cheap to get. Most natural bathwater companions are budget-friendly.
With non-natural bath products, you run the risk of harming your skin due to chemical ingredients. That’s not the case with natural ingredients. However, you should use them responsibly in the quantities suggested. Try different ingredients out with every bath you take, and you’ll soon have a selection of your favourites.
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