Neal's Yard Remedies Seaweed and Arnica Foaming Bath |

 

I strongly dislike baths. I grew up with showers, and was never introduced to how to set up a bath nicely. My experience of bath bombs is that they slightly colour your water, and sometimes deposit bits of herbal plant parts all over your bathtub, which is a real hassle to clean up. As an adult, I don’t fit into a standard shower tub, and I really do not enjoy the experience of parts of my body being warm while other parts are cold. Also, I have always felt that humans their best with clothing on, and I simply don’t find it relaxing being sprawled out in a position where I feel like I’m staring at my naked anatomy. Feels too much like I’m waiting for a medical exam to be relaxing (because when else in life are you lying naked on a hard surface??).

So all of that said, I recently had an aha moment that a complete lack of foam was probably killing my chances of ever liking a bath. But to be useful, the foam had to be dense enough to stop the “here I am in the nude” being the dominant thought while trying to relax. As a self-taught herbalist, I’m also very aware that our skin is like a big sponge, so I’m really not keen to saturate myself in a bunch of nasty chemicals. Looking for good herbal ingredients and dense foam is what led me to this product. And on both fronts, it definitely delivered.

If foam is what you’re after, look no further. This foam is so hearty that HOURS after the bath water had drained, we still had chunks of foam sitting defiantly in the corner of our tub. Hubby finally grabbed handfuls of it and started kicking it around the hall for a giggle–that’s how dense it was. So this is FANTASTIC foam.

To get the foamiest experience, pour the liquid right where your water is pounding into the tub. If you have two taps, like I do, then when you cool down the water with a blast of cold, you’ll get double foam creating action. As the foam blanket is created, you can gently move rafts of foam down toward the head of the bath so more can pile up by the taps.

As another reviewer mentioned, the density of this foam really does trap the heat of the water in. I ended up with hot water and cold foam. The foam was being cooled by the air, but it was insulating the water. More importantly, the dense foam covers the parts of you that would normally be freezing from being above the hot water line, and you don’t end up as cold.

Visually, foam is very pretty to look at and much nicer than a naked body (in my opinion). So having foam everywhere you look certainly does help your mind feel more chilled.

This herbal blend is supposed to relax you and ease pain. Most blends do not affect me the way they claim they will. When I used this one, I was ready to take a nap right there in the tub, so I think it does indeed relax. I also had sore feet from a very long hike. I do think a good soak in this formula helped my feet, because they recovered faster than they normally would. I could see it being very beneficial for sore muscles. Hubby tried this blend the next day and he liked it as well.

The smell is nice and also different. The green, piney note stuck out to me first, followed by other notes. A nice change from the usual blast of a single, strong, sweet smell. Being more green than sweet, I think this aroma is more universal. I could understand a man not wanting to smell like roses after taking a bath. But this scent appeals to both and doesn’t seem “girly.”

Now the bottle does seem small–close to the size of rice vinegar or a bottle of sweet and sour sauce. It’s glass and dark blue, which immediately got my respect, because herbs should generally be protected from light, and a company using coloured glass comes across as caring more about their product’s quality.

I LOVE the bottle delivery system with a secure twist on cap. NO SMELLS when the thing is closed. I’ve had bath bombs before which reeked, and they were a nightmare to store because they transferred their smells onto every container I put them in. This bottle can easily be put away in a cupboard and would take up less space than a mouthwash.

As for quantity, it says to “pour liberally” under running water. I thought the whole bottle would be emptied in two seconds, so I was quite surprised when I tilted it and a tiny stream of syrup came out. This liquid is VERY thick–like raw honey kind of thick. It doesn’t just rush out of the bottle, and you don’t need very much, so it will last longer than you expect. I’m very pleased with the thickness, and I suspect the thickness of the liquid has a lot to do with why the foam is so great. Add the attractive list of beneficial ingredients, and Neal’s Yard is going to be getting a lot more attention from me in the future. I still don’t love the whole bath experience (I expect I need a tub that’s twice as large to ever really understand the attraction), but I when I want a hot soak to relax, deal with pain, or help my immune system overcome an illness, I’ll definitely be reaching for this bottle. Ten stars from a bath hater. Good job, Neal’s Yard! 🙂