Your Own Bathing Sanctuary Bath Oils Bath Salts and Bath Bombs Bubble Bath Candles and other finishing touches

It's no wonder that Cleopatra managed to seduce Mark Antony with her charm and sensuality. The last of the Egyptian Queens, Cleopatra was famous for her daily milk baths laced with aromatherapy oils. The oils helped fragrance and condition her skin, while the lactic acid in the milk kept her skin soft and youthful.

While being a queen must certainly have given Cleopatra a sense of her own importance, believing that she deserved that daily luxury was a testament to her self-confidence, the secret of her charm. When we value ourselves, others will too.

For a bath a la Cleopatra, add 2 cups of milk powder to a bath along with a couple of drops of rose oil (renowned for its legendary healing and anti-ageing qualities), and you will have the most luxurious beauty bath ever.

Show yourself that you care - give yourself a little luxury - make your own bathroom a sanctuary.

Bath Oils

If you have dry or mature skin, adding some kind of frangrant oil to your bath can give your skin a real treat. It can also be good if your skin has been dried out by stress, air-conditioning or being outside in wind, cold or heat.
Bath oils come in either bottles or pearls. Coloured and ornamented bottles of bath oil can be gorgeous decorations for your bathroom, making it feel more like a special place set apart for you. They are often themed 'relaxing', 'reviving', 'romantic' etc., but the best way to choose one is just to undo the lid and smell it! Choose the one you like the best, or have a 'wardrobe' of scented oils to suit your different moods.
If you're feeling adventurous and creative, you can make your own bath oils. Bath pearls can be a good way to add oil to your bath, as it's easier to make sure you do not use too much! 2 bath pearls at a time is a recommended maximum. A collection of different coloured bath pearls inside a large shell or a special jar can look beautiful by the side of your bath, too.

If you are an active person, bath salts are an answer to prayer for tired and aching muscles. Some brands do a special muscle-relaxing blend but once again just choose the one that smells the best to you. Bath salts can be drying to the skin - this does't mean you can't use them if you have dry skin, but have the body milk on hand for when you come out.
Salts are also good for when you have the flu as they draw toxins and impurities out of the body. A hot salted bath and then straight to bed wrapped up tight and with a hot water bottle is a great way to sweat out the flu.
Bath Bombs come under the category of bath salts as they are usually a blend of fragrance and salts, and often have added ingredients like milk powder which softens the skin. If you've never tried a bath bomb, they are fun, whizzing and fizzing in your bath as you soak, like a giant aspirin!

Bath Bubbles

Bath bubbles are generally a blend of scent, colour based on sodium/ammonium lauryl sulphate which creates the lather. Their main perk is they're great fun, and a bath full of bubbles like a soapy meringue can really give you that Hollywood Starlet feel! Check the label because not all of them are moisturising, although most of them do get you clean!

Candles and other Finishing Touches

To really give your bathroom that air of mystique and sensuality, choose a candle-holder to suit the mood, light some candles and turn off the lights. The golden glow of candle-light is the most flattering light to any woman's skin, giving it a warmth and a sheen no other light can reproduce. Anyone that should just happen to walk in will be stunned at how beautiful you look, and if you're home alone or the bathroom door is locked, you can lie there and enjoy feeling smug. (Although it has to be said that under these conditions, the author is usually too busy drifting off to sleep to feel smug...!)
To scent the air while you bathe, try choosing a scented candle, or incense, that complements whatever you have put in your bath. Scents can clash, so avoid putting a lemon candle with a musk bath oil, for instance. Try matching floral scents together (eg rose bath oil with geranium candle), or herbal scents together for instance, and after you have had a bit of practise you may feel confortable to experiment a bit more. Putting Basil in your bath, and burning lemon oil in an oil burner can be an unbeatable Pick-Me-Up, but you can invent your own combinations based on scents you like.

Once you have the ambience just right, you can add your choice of chocolates, wine, champagne, (coffee or tea are not recommended as the body can overheat) a good book, a magazine, a CD to suit your mood, and there you have it - cheaper than a health spa and less hassle - your own private sanctuary where you can be Queen.