de Mamiel Soothe Bath Soak was designed to showcase the stress- and anxiety-relieving Soothe formula in the form of a calming salt bath — one that feels as though you’re wrapping yourself in a warm, cozy blanket with magically soothing powers.

Read on for the story behind it directly from its creator — and learn how to choose among the three equally excellent de Mamiel Bath Soaks — in Dara’s interview with Annee below.

Dara: What prompted you to create Soothe Bath Soak?

ANNEE DE MAMIEL: Do you want the real story? (Dara: Of course I do!) OK. Literally, at our house, I’m like the cobbler that has no shoes. We have lots of product at the farm, but here at home, there’s rarely any product: I’ll have it, but then somebody will come to the house and I’ll give it away…so there’s just not much product here.

And one day I came home, and I was stressed about something or other. I use Soothe as a scent during the day — when I’m going into London, for example — to keep me grounded. So I went into the kitchen, grabbed a handful of Himalayan salt, opened my Soothe bottle, and poured some in the bath along with the salt. So that’s why Soothe became a bath soak: it was created out of necessity. 

Dara: And you have three Bath Soaks now, which is exciting. Can you give us a quick guide to your three baths? When would you choose each one?

ANNEE:

• Altitude is the one to use for revival and for a run-down immune system. All of its antibacterial and antiviral oils are excellent when you’re feeling a bit under the weather — and also when you’re just spent and physically exhausted. I like it post-workout: it’s really reviving and great for muscle soreness after a long run.
  And it’s my new trick for jet lag: I discovered this the last time I visited you in San Francisco! I take an Altitude Soak the night I get back, one the next morning, and I’m good to go. Fragonia is really good for resetting circadian rhythms.
• Anchor really helps you unwind and rest, and it deeply grounds you: it allows you that really deep, long sleep we need. I’ve never been a great sleeper, and I wanted to create a bath in the sleep range. Anchor was the first one I made because we have so many people who tell us it saved their sleep — and in the beginning, I made Anchor for me. I wake in the night and can’t go back to sleep; from a TCM perspective, it’s my Liver energy. I felt it was also the scent that’s most unisex: some of my male patients wanted something for the bath, and they tend to use Anchor.
• And Soothe, I find, is the one that really eases my stress and anxiety. Working from home sometimes, I’ll come home in the middle of the day with my dog, Willow — and if I’m feeling a bit stressed or anxious, I’ll have a bath with Soothe and I’m ready to rock and roll. It really warms and just washes it all away. We’ve also heard from many women coming into menopause and perimenopause that the scent is really calming and it’s been a particularly good tool for them.

Dara: The Soothe Bath Soak has some fun bonus goodies, too, like the sound bath on the OPO app — tell us about that!

ANNEE: We worked with OPO to create a sound bath to go with it — there’s a QR code on the Soothe Bath Soak box that you scan for access to it. I’ve known Chris Connors at OPO forever: he’s a real pioneer in the sense of creating space through meditation and breathwork. Layering that in with the Soothe scent just brings it all together and adds another dimension to it. The sound and breathwork is another tool that works with your brain to ease stress and anxiety without you even having to think about it.

And I think this is really important, focusing on the internal changes that stress creates and activating parts of the brain where we’re reducing cortisol. Sometimes stress is thought of as an emotional thing that we simply have to power through. But because of the way we live in this modern-day world, the physiology of the body hasn’t caught up with the process. We have these constant hormonal changes that are created as a result. And how can it not have an impact on the skin? It’s important to find tools to help us move through it.

Dara: Speaking of tools, you’ve mentioned to me before that Soothe, in general, is something you’ve begun to use more often.

ANNEE: Yes, I’ve started to use Soothe more and more, over time, during the day; the Sleep Series, for me, isn’t just about sleep. It’s about rebalancing the entire system so we can get everything working properly. Soothe was never made as a sedation product – it’s about rebalancing, so we can have better sleep quality. Many people don’t understand that you can use it during the day, but to me, it just makes sense.

So Soothe is the scent to use anytime you feel stress and anxiety in your gut and your solar plexus. These are those moments when you can’t digest your thoughts — in particular, it tends to be one thought that goes around and around and is all-consuming, which leads to anxiety.

Soothe is also the scent that mothers use most often for their kids. There’s lots of orange and petitgrain and neroli in it: the effect is really soft and gentle and warming and familiar. Little ones have an affinity to Soothe. (Settle, on the other hand, is the one to use when you can’t get away from your running to-do list — you can’t stop and focus on one thing because there are a million things running through your head. That scent has a lot of cape chamomile and rose: it’s quite grown up.)

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Looking for more ideas to help you unwind? Follow this easy breath exercise from Annee de Mamiel for another way to move through everyday stress.