The importance of “me time” in the bath or shower rises with personal stress levels, as does the importance of the products consumers use when indulging themselves. To uncover shoppers’ bath and body care habits, the brands they love, scents they crave, and after-bath skin care essentials, The Benchmarking Company (TBC) conducted an in-depth 56-question study in March 2023 with 3,800 U.S. women ages 18-plus.
The Luxury of Bathing
Taking a bath is a vital part of a well-rounded self-care routine, according to female beauty buyers who regularly take to the tub. Ninety-three percent of women who bathe in a bathtub do so to relax, 83% do so to pamper themselves, 67% do so for alone-time (make that 77% if she has one or more children under 18 years old in her household) and only 31% saying they bathe in a tub to get clean.
Of the 95% of women surveyed who have working bathtubs in their home, 21% say they take a bath once a week, while 15% do so daily. Fifty-three percent of bathers spend between 21 minutes and 45 minutes in the tub on average, with 17% spending 46 minutes to an hour each bath. The importance of their time in the bathtub was rated at 8.2, when asked to rate the activity’s important on a 1-10 scale, with 1 being not important and 10 being very important.
Bath Product Preferences
The scent of the products respondents use when in the tub is critical to the experience. When asked the importance of scent in a product used in the bathtub, that rating jumped to 9.3 using the previously mentioned 10-point scale. Seventy-eight percent of the products they use in the bathtub now have a fragrance. Respondents’ top 10 scents used in the tub today are featured in T-1.
For the full article, check out Global Cosmetic Industry's May 2023 digital magazine
