Ever since I started A Beauty Edit, I knew that I wanted to write this post. It was many years ago, but back in 2005, I opened a bath and body boutique, Bathologie, near my hometown in Pennsylvania. I sold not only bath and body products but also skincare, fragrances, men’s products, baby care products, bathrobes, candles, and other home items.
I loved Bathologie. Unfortunately, it did not withstand the economic crisis in 2008-2009 and as a result, I closed my doors in June 2009.
I miss my time as a self-employed business owner, mostly because I miss spending my days only a few feet away from my dear friend Joanna. Bathologie was connected by a door to Joanna’s gorgeous contemporary clothing boutique, buka, which is still open today. We started our businesses from scratch together. What a fun time and an incredible learning experience!
Joanna’s shop is amazing, and let me tell you, there is no other clothing store like it! If you live near or are visiting the Northeastern, PA region, you should stop by. You can find more information on Joanna’s store (and some clothing inspiration) on buka’s Facebook page.
And then there were my customers. I met so many lovely people during my time as a shop owner, and I miss their visits and our chats. I will always look back on this time in my life with such fond memories, and I can thank my customers for that!
Sometimes I think that I can still smell the shop! That wonderful mix of soap and bath products! For me, it was such a feel-good atmosphere and it was the perfect place to buy a gift! So today, in honor of Bathologie, I am compiling a list of customer favorite and best-selling items from the shop that are still being sold online today.
While there are a few best-sellers that are no longer being produced, such as Mediterranean Spa Body Butter, some companies changed their product formulas or packaging. Overall, I was surprised to see that most of the lines that I sold are still available today. They may look a little different and almost everything has increased in price, but they are still available, nonetheless!
This post contains affiliate links, and any purchases made through these links will result in a commission for me at no extra cost to you. Please read my Disclosure for additional information.
Here is my list of Bathologie best-sellers and customer favorites:
Fruits & Passion Cucina Hand Wash & Hand Cream Duo – Coriander & Olive Tree
Fruits & Passion Cucina products were probably the best-selling products in my entire shop. In particular, I couldn’t keep their Cucina Coriander and Olive Tree Hand Wash & Hand Cream Duo on the shelves. The same goes for the single jar of Cucina Coriander and Olive Tree Hand Cream.
The Coriander and Olive Tree scent is so light and inviting and is so refreshing in the kitchen. But keep in mind that while these are kitchen-inspired products, they don’t need to be used strictly in the kitchen. I used to keep a smaller tube of Cucina hand cream by my bedside.
Fruits & Passion is a Canadian company that produces some fantastic bath and body products as well. You can check out the entire line including other Cucina gift sets and Cucina hand cream and wash refills here.
Buttercream Frosting Body Butter
Buttercream Frosting Body Butter! You’ll either love it or you won’t! It smells insanely sweet, just like buttercream frosting. Most of my customers loved it, and this is a product that I re-ordered and re-ordered. This body butter sold especially well during the holidays, i.e. Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
Rich in shea butter, jojoba, and almond oils, this decadent moisturizer comes packaged in a box and is ready for gifting. While it may be tempting to taste, please refrain as this product is definitely not edible, it just smells that way!
Barefoot Dreams CozyChic Hoodies and Throw Blankets
I started selling Barefoot Dreams CozyChic bathrobes after seeing them in Oprah’s Favorite Things, and they became so popular that I expanded my offerings to hoodies, throw blankets and baby blankets.
Barefoot Dreams CozyChic is the absolute softest fabric! I still wear the hoodies (regular and lite versions) all year round and use their throws on my bed. I find that Nordstrom Rack is the best place to shop Barefoot Dreams because their products are significantly discounted from retail prices, which can get pretty expensive.
Stock varies all the time, so you can check out Barefoot Dreams product availability here!
Pre De Provence Artisanal French Bar Soap
I dedicated an entire wall of my shop to soaps, and Pre de Provence soaps took center stage on that wall. Pre de Provence French-milled Soaps were the best-selling soaps in Bathologie. These large bars are triple-milled to remove impurities and create a smooth hard bar that will last a long time!
Each bar is enriched with shea butter and you can purchase them in a few different sizes. Shop for the 250 grams (8.8 oz) size here or the smaller 150-gram (5.3 oz) size here. Some best-selling scents were Linden, Agrumes (Citrus), Lavender, Milk, and Verbena.
Related: 20 Holiday Gifts for the Beauty Lover on Your List
Korres Guava Body Butter
Korres is a Greek product line that produces skin and environmentally friendly products, and Korres Guava Body Butter (7.95 oz) quickly became a best seller. Although the packaging now looks different, the body butter still contains shea butter and quince extract for moisture and softening. It also contains sunflower, almond and avocado oils which seal in moisture and improve skin’s elasticity.
This formula works particularly well on dry and chapped skin such as elbows, knees, and feet. This tube appears to be an improvement from the pump bottle of years past. Their Guava shower gel was another favorite and the perfect complement to the body butter.
Korres also produces some fantastic skincare products. Their Wild Rose skincare products were another customer favorite.
Zum Bars by Indigo Wild
I kept Indigo Wild Zum bars on the checkout counter since they smelled so amazing! These all-natural handmade soaps are made with homogenized goat’s milk and essential oils. The 4-pack of Zum Bars above include their lavender-based scents: Lavender-Mint, Anise-Lavender, Oatmeal Lavender, and Lavender.
Their Frankincense & Myrrh scent was a best-seller. I still use that soap to this day! You can’t go wrong with any of their soaps since they are super creamy and moisturizing and made with 100% food-grade olive, coconut, palm & castor oils.
Get Fresh Relief for Tattered Tootsies Kit
Get Fresh’s foot care products are infused with an uplifting lemongrass scent and they were very popular gifts! I love that Get Fresh Relief for Tattered Tootsies Kit has your feet covered with products that are used in their 3-step foot treatment. The kit includes:
- Totally Soaked (1.75 oz) – a softening, dead skin-dissolving gel which preps your tootsies for exfoliation
- Down N Dirty (2 oz) – an exfoliating pumice foot scrub infused with pumice, walnut shells, moisturizing seaweed, and aloe vera
- Rescue Me (2 oz) – an intensive foot repair creme with shea butter, aloe vera, and alpha-hydroxy fruit acids
LaLicious Sugar Scrubs
LaLicious Sugar Scrubs smell exactly how the name implies: delicious and sweet! Sugar is the theme for these scrubs, as they contain sugar and smell like sugar! Coconut Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, and Vitamin E work with pure sugar cane crystals to exfoliate and leave skin smooth and soft. Plus natural glycolic acid leaves skin bright and glowing.
Brown Sugar Vanilla was a favorite, but today they have several new varieties. I have a feeling that the Birthday Cake sugar scrub in its cute celebratory container would have been a hit! The scrubs are not cheap, but they weigh in at a whopping 16 oz!
Peter Thomas Roth Anti-Aging Cleansing Gel
One of the few skincare lines that I offered at my store, Peter Thomas Roth has products that address many different skin concerns. Peter Thomas Roth Anti-Aging Cleansing Gel was and still is a favorite.
This cleansing gel helps to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles with glycolic acid, salicylic acid, extracts of peach, white oak bark, lemon, lime, linden, grapefruit, and arginine.
It is brightening and clarifying and a little goes a long way due to its potency. It works wells with all skin types except sensitive due to the AHAs in the formula.
Marvis Italian Toothpaste
Once I sampled Marvis toothpaste, I was hooked and I immediately ordered the line for the shop. Designer toothpaste may seem like an indulgence but it is so unique and some of the wackier flavors are just fun to use!
The Marvis Toothpaste Flavor Collection Gift Set is a complete set of seven mini Marvis toothpaste varieties at 1.3 oz each (from left to right): Whitening Mint, Amarelli Licorice, Jasmine Mint, Ginger Mint, Classic Strong Mint, Cinnamon Mint, and Aquatic Mint.
While Aquatic Mint was my favorite, there was something about Jasmine Mint that was so interesting. I suppose it was the fact that a floral flavor was incorporated into a toothpaste. Somehow the flavor works and makes you want to brush your teeth!
Jack Black Skin Care and Shaving Products for Men
Out of all of the Jack Black men’s skincare and beard care products that I sold at my shop, the number one seller was the Beard Lube Conditioning Shave, a pre-shave oil, shave cream and facial skin treatment in one easy-to-use product. They’ve expanded their shaving collection and now offer this 4-piece Beard Grooming Kit.
The kit includes Beard Wash (1.5 oz) which removes dirt and oil while conditioning the skin, Beard Lube (1.5 oz), a transparent formula that acts as a 3-in-1: a pre-shave oil, shave cream, and aftershave conditioner for a super smooth shave, and Beard Oil (1 oz), which treats dry and itchy skin and ingrown hairs with it’s certified organic natural oils for a healthy beard.
Jack Black has some fantastic products that women love too, like their Natural Mint and Shea Butter SPF 25 lip balm. You can check out the entire line of Jack Black products here.
Mustela for Babies and Children
Ah, Mustela! I saved an entire corner of my shop for baby products and gifts and Mustela was THE product line for babies. Their products are so gentle yet effective. While all of their products sold well, their gift sets and collections were always the ones that sold the best.
Mustela Newborn Arrival Gift Set was not available when I sold Mustela, but this set would have flown off the shelves since it includes five of Bathologie’s best-selling Mustela products for baby’s bath time, skincare, diaper change, diaper rash, and quick cleanups.
Included in the set: Foam Shampoo for Newborns (helps prevent Cradle Cap) Gentle Cleansing Gel (cleansing while protecting baby’s delicate skin), No-Rinse Cleansing Water (ideal for in-between bathtime), Hydra Bébé Body Lotion (a daily moisturizing and skin-strengthening body lotion) and Diaper Rash Cream 1 2 3 (protects, relieves, and restores baby’s delicate diaper area).
You can view the entire Mustela line here.
Deep Steep Bubble Bath
Deep Steep was one of the first product lines that I picked up for the store and their scents were heavenly. These bubble baths are perfect for a relaxing bath after a long day.
Deep Steep Bubble Bath is made with coconut oil, argan oil, cocoa butter essential oils and plant extracts. These bubble baths are very fragrant and come in a variety of scents: Lavender Chamomile, Vanilla Coconut, Brown Sugar – Vanilla, Grapefruit Bergamot, and my favorite, Rosemary Mint.
Dresdner Essenz Bath Salts
The packaging has changed on these bath salts, but Dresdner Essenz still offers these wonderful bath salt packets (here in a set of 4) containing natural and raw herbal ingredients. Made with natural sea salt, pure vegetable oils, and natural essential oils, these German-made salts are a recipe for relaxation. Customers loved the affordability of these packets!
This Set of 4 Bath Salts contains Breathe Easy (eucalyptus, fennel, and honey), Deep Relaxation (melissa lavender – lavender blossom and Indian Melissa oil), Soothe and Unwind (lavender and hop to support sleep), and Muscle Therapy (juniper and wintergreen oil). A quick and easy pampering gift!
Yu-Be Moisturizing Skin Cream
I think I stumbled upon Yu-Be (shown above at 2.2 oz) at the NYC Gift Show and once my customers discovered it, they were hooked! This cream has the magical ability to treat severely dry and chapped hands, face, lips elbows, knees, and feet.
It was created in 1957 and is still one of the best-selling skincare products in Japan today. It’s glycerin-based and enriched with Vitamin E, vitamin B2, and camphor. It has a somewhat medicinal smell due to the camphor, but once you see the results the smell won’t matter!
Related: Drugstore Skincare Treatments for Dry Winter Skin
Rosebud Salve Tin
Rosebud Salve was one of the first products that I purchased for my store from a family-owned company in Maryland. It is a cult-favorite product with not only friends, family, and customers, but you’ll also read about it as a celebrity favorite in beauty and women’s magazines.
Rosebud Salve has a multitude of uses. Apply it to chapped lips, tame your brows or treat fly-away or frizzy hair with this salve. It’s also good for diaper rash!
Primal Elements Handmade Glycerin Soap
Primal Elements soaps were some of the most fun products that I sold in Bathologie. I had logs of Primal Elements soaps and I would cut them by the slice for customers. Today you can still buy these soaps (precut) and most of the same varieties that I sold are still available.
Some customer favorites were Birthday Cake (shown above), Tahitian Vanilla, and Paradise Sunset. The vegan bars (5.8 oz) contain 25% vegetable glycerin and produce a rich lather.
Related: Recent Beauty Favorites: Retinol, Hair Oil, Lip Balm & Bar Soap
Zents Fragrances and Body Products
Zents spa-quality products are very aromatic and beautifully presented. They are designed to be worn alone or layered together for a unique scent profile.
Zents Ore was easily the best-selling scent in the product line. Zents Ore Eau de Toilette, shown above, is presented on a beautiful stone tray. Customers loved the scent so much that they often picked up all Ore scented products in the collection.
The Ore scent profile is the combination of orris (floral) and sensual ylang-ylang. Also in the formula are notes of bay laurel, black pepper, and clove for a spicy finish. The combination of notes is quite unique and quite unisex.
Zents also offers bar soap, body wash, body oil, body lotion, and roll-on fragrance concentrates. If you want to sample scents from the entire line you can try their Zents Eau De Toilette Sample Set, Signature Collection, which includes 10 – 1.5ml vials of all their scents: Sun, Earth, Fresh, Ore, Fig, Water, Petal, Anjou, Mandarin, and Oolong. Fresh and Petal were a few other customer favorite scents.
95 & Sunny Glass Nail Files
Glass nail files are nothing new, but this brand is a good one. 95 & Sunny Glass Nail Files seem to work better than others I’ve tried. I wanted to be sure that the Czech Republic produced tempered glass nail files that I link to here are the same as the ones that I used to sell, so I ordered them from Amazon. I am happy to report that they are the same nail files that I sold!
Included in the set is a large pedicure file (7.5″), a medium nail file (5.5″) and small nail file (3.5″).
They literally never wear out and are easy to wash. They also reduce nail chipping and splitting that you often get from those cheap emory boards. Each nail file comes with a protective sheath. I love these files!
Related: Stocking Stuffers for the Beauty Lover
T.S. Pink Soap Rocks
These Soap Rocks were a very unique product and an exquisite gift. They really do look like rocks and you may be tempted to simply keep them as a display in your bathroom instead of using them!
The soaps are glycerin-based and not only lather really beautifully but their designs are fun to study since they look so real! There are many colorful Soap Rock varieties available. The variety shown above is the Fire Opal Soap Rock bar soap. You can check out more Soap Rock varieties here.
Paddywax Candles
Paddywax has extended its offering greatly since I sold the line, but all of their collections are visually stunning and smell so good! Their candles are made from a clean-burning soy wax blend and fragrance oils. All of their wicks are made of 100% U.S. cotton.
One Paddywax collection of candles that I sold that is still available today is their Paddywax Eco Green Candle (shown in Mandarin Lavender above).
They are made from recycled vessels that you can then recycle. You can repurpose after burning as a pencil cup, planter or however you want!
Check out the entire line of Paddywax candles on Amazon.
Votivo Red Currant Candle
Votivo Red Currant was one of the best-selling candles in my bath and body shop! Here they have added gold to the glass and box to add a holiday spin to it. Votivo Red Currant Holiday Candle includes notes of galbanum, cassis, citrus, geranium, rose, black currant, sugar, and fruity musk.
If red currants aren’t your thing, you can try Votivo holiday candles in Christmas Sage (sage and basil, juniper, hemlock, red cedar boughs, moss, patchouli, and leather), Icy Blue Pine (fir balsam, camphor, cedar leaf, eucalyptus, moss, cedar, and patchouli) or Joie De Noel (lavender, cinnamon, clove, patchouli, and cedar).
These candles burn for 65-75 hours and are strongly fragranced.
For those who don’t burn candles but still want to add some holiday fragrance to your home, Votivo 4 oz Holiday Reed Diffuser is available in Red Currant, Christmas Sage, Icy Blue Pine, and Joie De Noel.
Well, there it is! It took quite a while to compile, but these are truly the best-selling products from my bath and body shop owner days.
I really enjoyed writing this post. This post is very close to my heart, as it reminds me of such a special time in my life.
I loved my little bath shop and I hope you’ll love these products too!