At-Home Spa Day: Bath Soaks, Face Masks and Body Oils for a Slow Afternoon

In 1618, as the story goes, a farmer named Henry Wicker noticed that his cows refused to drink from a slow spring on Epsom Common in Surrey. The water was bitter. Through the 17th and early 18th centuries the spring was believed to have healing qualities, and its minerals were later identified as magnesium sulfate, the salt that still carries the town's name. Charles II regularly took the waters there, and Samuel Pepys recorded his visits. By the 1720s the crowds had moved on to Bath and Tunbridge Wells, but Epsom salt never left the bathroom.

That is the spirit of an at-home spa day: an old, simple ritual done slowly in your own tub. It needs no schedule, just an afternoon with the phone in another room and everything set out before you run the water.

Picture her kneeling beside a clawfoot tub in a waffle robe, hair twisted up in a tortoiseshell claw clip, pouring a ribbon of pine oil into the running water while a candle burns on the ledge. That oil is the Susanne Kaufmann Mountain Pine Bath Oil, made with spruce and pine oils from the Austrian Alps. The de Mamiel Anchor Bath Soak mixes Himalayan, Epsom and Dead Sea salts with lavender, frankincense and jasmine, and the Saint Jane Deep Sleep Magnesium Bath Salts are a two-scoop soak with jasmine and bergamot. The goop Beauty Martini Emotional Detox Bath Soak is named after the film-set term for the last take of the day and is built on Epsom salts. For sore legs, the Surya Muscle Relief soak keeps its arnica and calendula flowers in a tea bag, so nothing sticks to the tub.

Keep the water warm rather than hot, stay in for fifteen or twenty minutes and drink a glass of water before you get out.

A mask is the excuse to sit still for fifteen minutes. In our spa daydream, she is curled into a sage velvet armchair in a white robe, a terry headband holding back her curls, a creamy white mask on and a tall glass of cucumber water in her hand, eyes closed while the light shifts across the window.

Her white jar is the Dr. Barbara Sturm Face Mask, a clay mask with aloe, chamomile and purslane meant to calm stressed skin, which makes it the gentle choice for a first mask. Chanel's Le Masque combines clay with a scrub texture and camellia, and the Tata Harper Resurfacing Mask uses alpha and beta hydroxy acids that work like a mild peel. For dry skin, the KORA Organics Milky Mushroom Mask is a hydrating gel with silver ear mushroom and coconut milk, and the Augustinus Bader Face Cream Mask floods skin with moisture. The Activist Manuka Honey Mask, made with wildcrafted honey from New Zealand, doubles as a face wash and a spot treatment, and the Le Prunier Plumtox is a purple enzyme mask built on plum acids.

Choose one: an exfoliating mask or a hydrating one, not both in a single afternoon. After an acid mask, follow with a plain moisturizer.

What I would skip: leaving a clay mask on until it cracks. Rinse it while it is still a little damp, and your skin will feel calm instead of tight.

After the bath is when skin takes oil best, while it is still warm and a little damp. The woman I picture is perched on the edge of the bed wrapped in a white towel, copper hair falling forward, one foot up on a tufted bench, smoothing oil down her shin with both hands.

On the bench beside her are the Tata Harper Revitalizing Body Oil, a blend of natural oils that can also go straight into the bath, the AMAN Grounding Body Oil in its black teardrop bottle, meant for busy minds that need a pause, and the MUTHA Body Butter Glow, a whipped soufflé with a golden sheen. The goop Beauty Afterglow Body Oil smells of ginger, violet, cedar and vetiver and sinks in quickly, and the goop Beauty Nourishing Repair Body Butter is a rich whip of bacuri, cupuaçu and shea. The Surya Cooling Abhyanga Massage Body Oil, from an Ayurvedic spa, is made for self-massage, and the Augustinus Bader Geranium Body Oil is scented with geranium and rose.

Pat yourself mostly dry, then smooth the oil on in long strokes, starting at the ankles and working up. A butter on top is worth it only for elbows, knees and heels.

What I would skip: getting dressed right away. Give the oil five minutes in a robe so it ends up on your skin, not your clothes.

A hair mask is the step that turns a bath into a spa day, because it asks you to wait. Imagine her cross-legged on a round, fluffy bathroom rug in an oversized gray t-shirt, hair coated and twisted up into a knot, flipping through a magazine while the mask does its work, three jars and a wooden comb on the rug beside her.

The black jar is the Oribe Signature Moisture Masque, a rich mask for freshly washed hair that can be used weekly on fine hair and more often on thick or damaged hair. The cream jar is the goop Beauty Nutrient Shinebath Hair Mask, made for frizz-free shine, and the white bottle is the Rahua Omega 9 Hair Mask, which needs ten to fifteen minutes and suits dry, colored or heat-styled hair. The Ranavat Glossing Hair Masque has a jasmine and hibiscus scent and comes in an aluminum tube.

For the scalp, the Act + Acre Cold Processed Scalp Detox is a once-a-week tonic that dissolves buildup, the Virtue Exfoliating Scalp Treatment uses rice beads and fruit enzymes, and the Augustinus Bader Scalp Treatment is a serum for thinning or weak hair.

Comb the mask through with a wide-tooth comb so it reaches the ends, then clip it up and cover it with a warm towel while you wait.

What I would skip: masking on unwashed hair. Shampoo first so the mask reaches your hair instead of the oil sitting on it.

Tools make the ritual last a little longer, and they are the part of an at-home spa day you keep using all week. The Pietro Simone Obsidian Gua Sha is hand-carved from black obsidian and comes from a facialist who works in New York and London; glide it outward along the jaw and cheekbones over a face oil. The Walden Facial Ice Roller goes in the freezer for fifteen minutes and feels wonderful after a mask. The Act + Acre Scalp Gua Sha Comb is hand-cut jade, made for a scalp massage after the detox tonic, and the May Lindstrom Facial Treatment Brush is an angled brush for painting on masks without messy fingers.

For the body, the goop Beauty Ultimate Dry Brush has sisal bristles and is meant to be used right before the shower. The Dr. Barbara Sturm Body Brush comes in a soft version for sensitive skin, the Tronque Body Gua Sha is a larger stainless steel blade for legs and arms, and the Altesse Studios Beauté Vitalis Body Brush was designed with the lymphatic drainage method Méthode Trévalinet.

Use every tool except the dry brush over a little oil or serum, never on bare dry skin.

What I would skip: pressing hard. Light, slow strokes feel better and are kinder to your skin.

If I were planning an at-home spa day this weekend, it would run in this order: a dry brush, a warm bath with a scoop of magnesium salts, a face mask while the hair mask sets, a rinse, then body oil and a few minutes in a robe with the gua sha. It takes about two hours and asks almost nothing of you. Henry Wicker's cows turned away from the bitter spring four centuries ago, and a warm bath with those same salts still feels like the best part of the week. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Coco and Eve Self Tanners, Hair Masks And Body Oils For A Bali Glow and Face Masks Skincare Fans Keep Coming Back To.