Consider hair masks (put one on before the gym!) and supplements (pre-pack! and! take with food!): certain beauty practices just require a bit of foresight. Call it a ritual, call it whatever you want, but I’ll probably forget to call it anything, as I forget most things. A new person’s name? Gone as soon as it’s spoken. A bag I’m supposed to bring back to the office? Left overflowing with product by my front door. Maybe it’s due to all my pot smoking back to back meetings and deadlines, but if I can’t remember half of the things I’m actually supposed to do, how am I supposed to have the brain power to mask my whole body, time it so that no one will be home and I can do some upright activity, and get back in the shower to rinse it off? My forgetfulness culminated when recently, I was asked what I do for self-care and… my mind went completely blank. I, uh, work out? It didn’t even sound true as I said it, but really, I couldn’t remember a damn thing else to say.

It’s been a few days and I’ve since (thankfully) thought of a bunch of things I like to do for self-care. Instead of working out, I love sitting in a steam room for 15 minutes, feeling the humidity ball up on my arms and my face dripping with sweat. I love chopping vegetables, which is a new and weird pleasure for me personally. I love spending an entire Saturday curled up on the couch with my boyfriend, binging Love Island or Dexter or literally anything else, with no idea what the weather is like outside. And I also love baths. I love baths so much! The bubbles, the salts and oils, the way, after I turn the faucet off, everything sounds so quiet.

I know that lots of people burn a candle while they take a bath—it’s a thing I’ve been told twenty times over on Top Shelf interviews. Though, honestly, the whole thing sounds like just another thing I have to remember to do. Does scent elevate the bathing process that much? When my bath products are scented anyway, does it even matter?

And then I got one of Kiki de Montparnasse’s new massage oil candles. Massage oil candles aren’t a new innovation—I actually have another, less chic one that I got at an artisan market in Colorado over the summer. But this one is elevated, for sure. At $45, it’s probably the cheapest thing on the site (for reference, Kiki de Montparnasse’s thongs venture around $200 each). It’s got a little spout on one side of the jar, for easy pouring. It comes in two scents, my favorite of which (Santal No. 2) smells nothing like the Le Labo scent of similar moniker and everything like a clean, citrusy spa fragrance. It melts just above body temperature, so you never have to worry about burning yourself on the “wax.” And while massage oil would be great for some sexytime with your romantically-inclined anthropomorphic space heater this week, what really sold me on the candle is this: If you burn it before a bath, you can dump all that gorgeous, buttery oil right into your tub.

All you have to do is remember one thing—light the candle!—and your bath experience is instantly elevated to a real-as-ever self-care moment. Valentine’s Day or not.

—Ali Oshinsky

Photo via ITG