I rented a bath

But also let's get less precious about taking baths

Swatch Report: Westman Atelier’s “Le Rouge”

Welcome to the first edition of Soft Power, a newsletter about the wide and expansive world of beauty by Marisa Meltzer!

I spent $100 on a bath and I would do it again.

Some people treat baths as a whole thing. Maybe the way going to restaurants is reserved for “date night” for some people? I wouldn’t know about either lifestyle because I view bath taking as a totally normal, everyday thing. My parents are daily bath people. I think my father only showers out of duress and my mother has, to my knowledge, never used a shower in her life. 

I take them maybe 3 times a week. In the summer, I love a lukewarm bath. Sometimes I add bath salts or bath oils. I recently bought Ober Tertia’s Regenerative Bath from the Air Mail News Stand (SUCH a good place for gifts–also bought a River Cafe Panettone and a Marvis sampler) in the West Village because it looked pleasingly medieval. But I like any product that you can get either in a very 1970’s vibed health food store in Northern California or seems vaguely Germanic: Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath; Ancient Minerals Magnesium Bath Flakes; anything from the brand Kneipp, but especially their Good Night Bath Salts with Pine from the Alps and Amyris or Valerian & Hops Sweet Dreams Bath Salts; Susanne Kauffman’s Oil Bath For The Senses with the sprig of rosemary in it.

Having a “good bathtub” is something I have vaguely desired but never had in my life. Mine is kind of shallow and short. I don’t think it’s necessary to have a soaking tub but it would probably improve my life. My friends Todd and Gabe just moved into a loft and their vision is to have a freestanding clawfoot bath–literally nothing is more chic–and I’ve been extremely bossy about where they should put it because I plan to invite myself over and use it.

So I booked a bath. Lush Spa, which is near Bloomingdale’s on Lexington, has a 30-minute bath treatment for $75 (please tip, obviously). 

What I didn’t really notice was that it was Wicked themed. I have seen the musical but not the movie and don’t intend to. I have watched all the memes around the press tour and that felt like more than enough. But I was getting more, including a Drop Pink Fizzes Good With Green Bath Bomb and a green soap shaped like a castle that smelled exactly like Coca-Cola (they say it’s cinnamon, lime, and labdanum). 

For 30 minutes you get full use of a private bathtub suite complete with clawfoot tub, tray of bath products, bath mitts, cleanser, moisturizer, a robe, slippers. Was it wallpapered in a steampunk hot air balloon pattern? Yes. Is there an instrumental Wicked soundtrack piped in that they are unwilling to turn off? Also yes. I put in a hair mask from Briogeo I brought from home, popped in noise-cancelling headphones, and dropped the bath bomb in. 

It was New Year’s Eve, a time of reflection, and I did not participate in any of that. For half an hour I proceeded to engage in the only activity that truly brings me peace, which is drinking Diet Coke while watching women do Hinge dating recaps on TikTok. (“It’s 10 in the morning, dinner is tonight, and he still didn’t text to confirm. Besties, what should I do?”) 

When my time was up a voice comes on the soundtrack to gently tell you to wrap it up. I switched to the shower and rinsed off my hair mask, exfoliated my skin, shaved my legs and lathered myself in lotion. After I was out, they brought me water and a ginger-cucumber lime shot in a room that had “Slow down to speed up” painted on the wall in script. 

I think renting a bath might be more effective in regulating my mental health than therapy and a lot cheaper. At the very least it was more enjoyable than dinner at the new Armani Ristorante which I have extremely mixed feelings about. 

But also: we don’t need to be so precious about baths. Just take one for 5 minutes with a Gatorade Zero on a Sunday and you’ll feel revived.

JOMT (Just One More Thing, where I get to share anything that’s not beauty oriented)

7Up Shirley Temple in a can

Brazen soda love will be huge in 2025 the way smoking was huge in 2024. Also the can is bold but pretty, it’s delicious, and is limited edition so get it while it lasts (RIP Chicken Big Mac, what we had together was beautiful).