What bath oils can do for you

There is nothing quite like a bath with bath oil

All the interest in the Waitrose Baby Bottom Butter lately has reminded me just how big a benefit you can get for dry skin simply by coating it with a thin layer of oil.  This works very simply.  It seals the surface of the skin to hold the moisture in.

The idea behind a bath oil is to simply add the oil to your bath. This doesn’t take any extra work or effort.  You can sit back, relax and enjoy some me time. Take a glass of wine, a candle and some soothing music if you like. It works best if you use the kind of bath oil that disperses, not the ones that float on the surface. As you get out of the bath and dry yourself the oil is left coating the surface of the skin holding in the moisture.

There are some therapeutic bath oils intended to treat people with eczema and other clinically dry conditions. I have done research into them and I can confirm that the best oil for a bath oil is mineral oil. Nothing else works as well. The beauty of mineral oil is that it doesn’t sink into the skin so it stays for longer on the skin keeping it moisturised.

That doesn’t mean to say you can’t get good results from more natural oils.  They might not work as well, but they still work quite well.  Lighter oils like sesame and grapeseed are likely to give the best results, though I don’t think anyone has done any comparative studies.

A lot of people rarely bath nowadays given how quick and easy it is to have a shower, but this is a good reason to give the tub a chance.



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