The beauty of bubbles
Despite the ever growing trend for rainforest showers and wet rooms, baths remain stubbornly popular with Brits – a 2016 YouGov survey revealed that one third us still bathe a few times a week – and that 60% of people add bubble bath to the water before they soak. It goes without saying that these are our kind of people, but what is it about baths – and bubble baths especially – that remains so irresistible to us in our otherwise fast-paced world?
The Ancient Greeks and Romans famously invented the art of bathing. However, bubble (or foam) baths only started to become popular in the 1960s when the mass marketing of supermarket soap products began.
This was at a time when many British homes still had no plumbed in water and water had to be heated in pans – hardly surprising that many people only tended to bathe once a week. Bubble baths, it goes without saying, were something of an indulgence.
As baths became more common in people’s homes, the number of bath products started to increase, along with clever advertising from recognisable brands that triggered a change in the perception that baths were purely for getting clean. Or that bubbles were special occasion only.
Colourful branding and playful connotations of a foaming bathtub made it easier to entice reluctant children to bathe and added excitement to the bath and bed routine. Much-publicised health benefits of bathing in relation to relieving congestion, easing sore muscles and reducing tension helped to make bath time even more popular across an ever-wider demographic.
Just as bubble baths became part of the routine at home, they also started to appear on the big screen in films and in the theatre. Actresses could be seen relaxing in beautiful bathrooms sipping champagne and relaxing. These stars were the perfect inspiration for a good night of pampering and self-care that persists to this day.
Today, the industry has expanded to effervescent salts, bath bombs, body scrubs and aromatherapy oils to give people the feeling of an in-home spa experience, with consumers more widely seeking out herbal, organic and natural ingredients in their product choices.
Baby care bath products have also become more popular in recent years as more research is published about the benefits for and sensitivities of children’s delicate skin – something that was very much a consideration in the development of Love Ocean’s children’s bath products, which are at least 97% natural ingredients and carefully tested to be skin kind.
Baths – and bubble baths in particular – are different things to different people. They are a chance to connect with your children at every stage of those precious early years. They are relaxing, indulgent, fun. No wonder, then, that no matter how busy and full our lives might be, there’s always time for bubbles.