Looking for a Valentine’s Day Gift? Try These Shower Gels
Splash on some luxury.
As we all know, the greatest luxury is time. But unless someone pops another couple of hours in the day (or removes a few obligations), we won’t be getting more of that any time soon. Instead, we’re investing the time we have in making what we do nicer and more luxurious—think fancy pyjamas and bed linen, the coolest eyewear, and most of all, shower gel.
Consider this: while baths get the glory for their relaxing bubbly goodness, they’re not actually that great for your skin as they can dry it out. Great shower gels gently cleanse and nourish skin, leaving it smelling divine throughout the day. And you can often get one to match the scent of your favourite perfumes and lotions for an even longer lasting effect. These days, some brands also take things up a notch by making shower gels with added skin-care benefits that target conditions such as dullness, unevenness, or body acne.
Looking for recommendations to splash on some luxury? Here are seven shower gels we recommend, with scents that run the gamut from uplifting green and citrusy to warm and sweet almond. And since it’s almost Valentine’s Day, there’s even one that smells like chocolate.
Aesop Citrus Melange Body Cleanser
This is one of the brand’s bestsellers, with a refreshing combination of petitgrain (bitter orange essential oil), lemon rind, and grapefruit rind in a low-foaming formulation that won’t irritate skin. It comes in 100-millilitre and 500-millilitre sizes (the larger one has a pump dispenser), plus a 500-millilitre refill. If citrus isn’t your thing, you can also get this in geranium, rose, and coriander seed versions.
___
Chanel Coco Mademoiselle Foaming Shower Gel
The maison’s famous scent has notes of rose, patchouli, vanilla, and citrus, and it smells like elegance. Use the body wash, eau de parfum, and lotion or oil, and it’ll last you through to your next shower.
___
Hermès Eau de Rhubarbe Écarlate Hair and Body Shower Gel
At once tangy and warm, this joyful shower gel is our favourite way to wear our favourite Hermès product, the fruity colognes, which are the French brand’s best-kept secret (the range started back in 1979 with Eau d’Orange Verte). It comes in a glass bottle, and when you run out, you can buy a refill in a better-for-the environment pouch.
___
This oil cleanser changes to a milky cleanser on contact with water and has a sweet, comforting scent. It leaves skin feeling moisturized enough to skip lotion, but if you need, you can follow it with the Almond Milk Concentrate Body Cream. L’Occitane celebrated the oil’s 20th anniversary last year with a duo of a 250-millilitre bottle and a 500-millilitre refill in recycled plastic.
___
Lush Posh Chocolate Shower Gel
The chocolate isn’t just for show: cocoa powder is said to soften skin. To complete the sweet picture, there’s hazelnut milk and vanilla absolute in this vegan gel, plus hydrating glycerine.
___
Moroccanoil Soleil de Tanger Shower Gel
Summer vacations feel very far away, so thank goodness for this sunshine-in-a-bottle gel, which contains clementine, ginger, and neroli. The formula also has the brand’s signature argan oil to moisturize—it has antioxidant properties that can counteract the effect of free radicals.
___
Necessaire The Body Wash in Eucalyptus
The fresh and green scent reminds us of spas (as well as eucalyptus, there’s fir, lavender, and ginger), and the formula is packed with skin-care ingredients in niacinamide to support the barrier layer and antioxidant-rich oils. You can also get the body wash in a hinoki (cedar) version if you’re concerned about unevenness such as keratosis pilaris or olibanum (frankincense) if you’re worried about dull skin.
