In a Stress Spiral, I Soaked in Lush Bath Bombs for 30 Days Straight. Here’s My Review

Rather than ruminating on world political strife and economic upheaval, I’ve been concerned with something discomfiting closer to home. Apparently, people are getting rid of their bathtubs, as part of a new home trend. “Most builders and architects follow the same basic playbook to produce tighter, more efficient living spaces. They are axing dining areas, bathtubs and separate living rooms,” the Wall Street Journal reports. I asked my friend Lindsay, a busy SoCal home designer, to give me some background—we’d been talking about how bathtubs in hotels rooms were also a bygone relic. “Why are most people wanting to do away with bathtubs?” I asked. [Full disclosure, we were chatting in her primary bath suite as she soaked in her vintage tub.] “Because most people are savages,” she replied matter-of-factly, rising up like Venus then wrapping a bath sheet around her. It was a depressing thought, since both Lindsay and I share a love of soaking tubs as a coping mechanism. So when I was facing a major upheaval recently—selling my longtime home and moving cross-country—I decided to turn not to drink, cannabis or even neural stimulation to soothe my nerves. I’d treat myself to a bath bomb every day for a month…which turned out to nicely reflect the 30^th anniversary this year of Lush, my favorite bath bomb maker.

Baking soda and citric acid are mixed dry and molded into shapes, with added scents, colors or decorative elements like bioglitter. Then, when the shape is tossed into water, the ingredients mix with water and  undergo a chemical reaction that produces fizzy bubbles, actually carbon dioxide gas, according to Scientific American. Today there are tons of shapes and scents of bath bombs available for purchase, but the OG is from British personal care manufacturer Lush. The founder of Lush, Mo Constantine, pressed the first bath bomb in her Dorset garden shed and patented it not long after. I bought my first bath bomb around that time on a trip to London; decades hence I remain enamored by the brand’s quality ingredients (which include citrus and botanical oils, natural moisturizing elements and bits of flowers) as well as their crazy creativity. The bath bombs are handmade and limited edition, often playing off popular pop culture references like Hello Kitty and Shaun the Sheep. (Holding my breath for a collab with Labubu, stat.)

Honestly, I’d use one every day if I could afford to, but with prices up to $10 for some of the iterations, I can’t justify a $300-a-month bath habit. Also, with my sensitive skin, I assumed that the wide variety of additives would cause irritation—or at the very least, make for an annoying residue in the tub. However, in the stressful run-up to staging, listing and selling my home, I decided to invest time and money where I know I’ll get a dependable ROI. Did I get a rash or UTI? No I did not. Did I enjoy looking forward to a new before-bed relaxation experience? Yes I did. And happily, over a while month of tossing these multicolored and layered little confections into my bathtub, I only once came away with any post-bath debris—rose petal detritus—that required swiping up and into the waste can. That was the Late Bloomer rose petal bomb ($8), a delightful experience of soaking among petals like Cleopatra and totally worth a minute of post-soak tidying.

After a workout, I really eased into the Salt Water Soother bomb ($7), since it is made of 50 percent muscle-easing magnesium as well as tingly peppermint, spearmint and eucalyptus oils. I loved the crazy colors of the Diversity bath bomb ($8), a real picker-upper with its purple, yellow and hot red color clusters and its stimulating smell of sweet orange oil and Buchu, a fruity and medicinal African herb. Sea salt, vanilla absolute and clary sage left my skin super-silky (maybe it was the strawberry powder and lavender oil) after soaking with the pink-star dotted Inclusion bomb ($8). I endorse the Black Rose bath bomb ($9) for getting in the mood for love—something about the powerful rose-and-Sicilian lemon oil interplay and the inky black water felt sexy. Also, it contains a hint of shimmer that stays on your skin even after you’ve dried. And for the best all-around "Wow this feels great!" Experience, I nominate the Intergalactic bomb, which is a blue minty-grapefruit ball that comes in the Intergalactic Set ($22) paired with a matching shower gel in a wrap that looks like the swirl of the dissolving bomb itself.

Be sure to save the little paper wrappers that each one comes in, because I learned in my month of bombing that often you can have a perfectly delightful bath by using only half the bomb. Just hold the little bomb under running water being careful to move it to a dry countertop when it is half-dissolved. Additionally, I found the fragrances and muscle soothing of the bombs was heightened by starting with water as hot as I could bear, then letting the bath cool around me. And especially with oily bombs, I needed to make extra sure to be all the way dry before getting into bed so that my sheets didn’t smell like yesterday’s bath. (I’d much rather they waft Bath & Body Works detergent, thank you very much.) Also, and this is the most important tip I can offer—just buy the bath bombs already. They perfume the bathroom from a drawer until you’re ready to use them, and they really do elevate the everyday bath experience.