So much glitter
If bath bombs are an essential part of your self-care routine, it’s possible they’re not doing any favours for your vagina. Yes, they smell amazing, with colour hues totally worthy of your Instagram Stories, but the strong perfumes and colour dyes could be messing up your vagina’s pH balance, causing all sorts of nasty yeast infections. Ucck.
In fact, baths themselves aren’t great for your vagina, especially if you’re the kind of person who lies in the tub for ten hours with bubbles up to your nose. Although hygiene is obviously really important, the vagina has its own self-cleaning abilities, meaning your vulva is best kept dry and free from chemicals as much as poss.
But bath bombs will never not be a seriously covetable treat, and manufacturers use pretty potent perfume and dyes to make sure you wanna buy them. Even if the ingredients are 100% natural, you’re still not let off the hook. I mean, anything that’s hot pink, glittery and fizzes around the tub like it’s on a sugar high is likely to disrupt the balance of your vagina, unfortunately.
If you’re prone to UTIs or regular bouts of thrush, your bath bombs could be to blame. There are, of course, other reasons why you’re buying cranberry juice in bulk, but the ingredients in a bath bomb are still likely to disrupt the good bacteria that keeps it functioning normally. Another seemingly-innocent products that’ll totally give you thrush is aloe vera-scented loo roll, weirdly. Just remember: if it’s going near your vagina, it needs to be plain.
The best products for your vagina are unscented, unperfumed and pretty un-showy. If you want your V to smell like sweet-smelling roses, it probably never will, but that’s OK. Non-perfumed soaps are best, and when you think about just how strong the smell of bath bombs can hit you when you walk into a shop, imagine how that feels for your vagina.
Plus, loads of bath bombs have glitter in them (which might give your bush serious 70s glam rock vibes, but it’s not going to be great for your vulva). I mean, glitter can take literally years to budge, so maybe glitter bath bombs are a no-no. There are still loads of glittery products you can use to beautify yourself that are really far away from your vagina, though, so it doesn’t totally have to leave your life forever.
So bath bombs aren’t totally off the menu but are probably best kept to the occasional treat, and you should only really be having maximum one bath in between (while showering the other days of the week, obvs).
But if you’re a bit of a water baby, how can you fully relax in the bath knowing that you’re not adding to the stress that you went in to eliminate? Here are a few things to think about:
- Take a shower after having a bath (to get rid of all those perfumed nasties)
- Use a few drops of essential oil rather than synthetic bubble baths or fizzy-as-hell bath bombs. They’ll be more diluted and therefore won’t mess up your vag’s pH as much
- Know your body. Maybe you can get away with using bath bombs, but if it always ends in tears, steer clear
- One bath a week, max.
And if the tempation is still too much, remember that bath bombs go down the drain. A vagina is for life.
Related video: This video of bath bombs dissolving and fizzing is srsly ~hypnotizing~
