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Bath Time With... is a new series from 39BC. We visit the bathrooms of our muses and friends — and find that a private space has a way of unlocking a uniquely intimate conversation about routines, rituals, and the objects they can't live without.

This week: Nieve Tierney, Modern Energy Healer, Reiki Master, and the leader of Energy Tank – a monthly energy activation designed to detox and raise your frequency.

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MY EARLIEST MEMORY OF WATER IS THE SEA.

There’s a photograph of me, completely naked, standing on a beach at maybe two or three years old, just staring out at it in total awe. I remember my parents showing me that photo and laughing, but what it really captured was that feeling of vastness — the shock of how enormous the world is when you first encounter it. I think that moment stayed with me. Water has always felt like something bigger than me. Something intelligent. Something that can hold emotion, memory, and wonder all at once.

I also remember being in the bath with my little brother, making hairstyles out of bubbles and laughing hysterically at what we thought were our masterpieces. Bath time felt playful and imaginative. It wasn’t just about getting clean.

I grew up in London, but my mum is from Madagascar and my dad is Irish, so our home never felt culturally straightforward. There were things in our house that I slowly realised other people didn’t have in theirs. Crystals everywhere. Music playing late into the night. Dancing, singing, adults talking and laughing while you drifted off to sleep somewhere nearby. Schedules weren’t rigid. Bedtimes weren’t particularly strict. There was a softness and looseness to the atmosphere that I didn’t see in all my friends’ homes.

My mum always described herself as spiritual rather than religious. She would speak to the ancestors. She had rituals. She moved through the world in relationship with unseen energies, and that was just normal to me. My dad, on the other hand, was completely atheist when I was growing up. He was open-minded about different cultures and belief systems, but when it came to spirits or ancestors or speaking to the land, that was very much my mother’s world, not his.

It’s funny, because now he’s in his seventies and doing ayahuasca and mushroom journeys and calling me to say, “This stuff is real.” So perhaps we all arrive in our own time.

For me, that journey didn’t really begin until adulthood.

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\nAS A CHILD, I WAS AROUND RITUALS, BUT I WASN’T YET CONNECTED TO THEM IN A WAY THAT FELT PERSONAL... THAT CHANGED IN 2016.
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I would go to ceremonies and observe. I would go to church. I would witness people speaking to ancestors, honouring the dead, connecting to something beyond the visible. But it wasn’t yet mine.

At the time, I was working in fashion and living what looked like a very normal, high-functioning, busy life. I was doing all the things people tell you to do to sustain yourself — trying to meditate, trying to stay healthy, trying not to burn out — but none of it was really reaching the root of what I was experiencing. I wanted balance, but not in a superficial way. I didn’t need another green juice. I needed something deeper.

So I started working with a Reiki healer, and over time, something began to open. I started seeing colour auras. I began learning how to meditate without an app. I started to understand that energy can be moved, changed, transmuted. In meditation, I would see symbols appearing clearly in front of me, but I didn’t know what they were. Then one day I was in a yoga class and saw a woman covered in tattoos. I asked her about them, and she explained that they were Egyptian symbols — the Ankh, the Eye of Horus. All these images I had been seeing internally, without context, suddenly had names.

From that point on, it was as though a whole hidden world was waking up around me.

Now, as an energy healer, my work is about helping people understand how to improve their energy, their frequency, and their relationship to what surrounds them. And I really believe beauty, bathing, wellness, and energy work are all connected by one thing: they offer us a moment to pause.

That pause is everything.

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BATHING, FOR ME, CAN BE ONE OF THE FASTEST WAYS BACK TO SELF.

We live in a world obsessed with speed. How do I optimise this? How do I hack that? How do I get there faster? But beauty rituals, baths, energy work — all of these practices ask a different question. They ask: how do I connect inward? How do I feel right now? What belongs to me, and what doesn’t?

That distinction is at the centre of my work. So many people are moving through life carrying energy that isn’t theirs. They’re overwhelmed, but they think the overwhelm is their identity. They’re exhausted, but they don’t realise they’re sitting in someone else’s emotional field. They’re numb, or chasing, or depleted, and they haven’t had a moment to ask what they actually need.

I’m generally a morning shower person. I like the feeling of waking up, getting the day started, water hitting the body and moving everything into motion. But baths, for me, serve a different purpose — and I tend to use them in two very distinct ways.

The first is what I think of as a functional bath.

If I’ve been holding space for people all day — running events, working with clients, helping people shift their energy — I need to come back into my own field. So I’ll have a salt bath at the end of the day, and it’s very intentional. No phone. No schedule-checking. No multitasking. I get in, and the whole purpose of that bath is release.

I consciously let go of any energy I’ve picked up that doesn’t belong to me. Then, when I’m done, I stay in the bath while the water drains. I watch it leave. I visualise everything that isn’t mine moving down the plughole like smoke. I let the water carry it away.

There’s something very powerful about staying until the end and witnessing the release. It becomes less symbolic and more physical. The bath becomes a container, and the water becomes a transporter.

The second bath is completely different. That one is slower, softer, more devotional. It’s what I think of as my mermaid bath.

This is when I bring in petals. And yes, I say the affirmations out loud in the bath., scents, candles, salt — all the goddess elements. I take more time. I let it become an actual ritual. The reason I connect this with mermaids is because, to me, mermaids are deeply attuned to emotion, to water, and to the power of frequency. They understand intention. They understand vibration. There’s something about the mythology of the siren — the precision of voice, the potency of sound, the power of calling something in through tone alone — that really speaks to me.

So in those baths, I work very intentionally with affirmations. Sometimes I go in knowing what I want to affirm. Sometimes the affirmation arrives while I’m already in the water. But I become very aware of every word I say, every ripple I make, every energetic choice. It’s about clarity. Precision. Frequency.

And yes, I say the affirmations out loud in the bath.

The flower I return to most is rose.

Rose is massive for me. It carries such a high frequency, but more than that, it has taught me so much about boundaries. A rose opens completely. It shows its most delicate inner petals. It lets the world enjoy its scent and its beauty. But it is also incredibly clear about how it expects to be treated. Its thorns are not hidden. It will protect itself.

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I think that’s such a profound lesson, especially for women. The rose doesn’t dim itself in order to stay safe. It shines fully, and it keeps its boundaries visible.

That, to me, is the energy of the bath as well. A place where you can soften without disappearing. A place where you can open without collapsing. A place where you can reconnect to your own frequency.

Lately I’ve also been thinking a lot about how easy it is to change your energy — and how few people believe that.

The first is what I think of as a functional bath.

When you change your energy, everything changes. You become more magnetic. More honest. More available to what is actually meant for you.

That’s really what I’m working on right now — helping people understand that energy maintenance is not indulgent, it’s essential. Just as you would care for your body, you have to care for the energy your body holds.

Photos: Suzannah Pettigrew

\nPEOPLE THINK TRANSFORMATION HAS TO BE DRAMATIC. THEY THINK YOU NEED A BREAKDOWN, A RETREAT, A COMPLETE LIFE OVERHAUL. BUT OFTEN IT BEGINS WITH SUBTLE SHIFTS. WITH NOTICING WHERE YOUR ENERGY LEAKS. WITH LEARNING WHAT YOU’VE ABSORBED. WITH ASKING YOURSELF WHETHER YOU’RE MAGNETISING WHAT YOU WANT, OR CHASING FROM DEPLETION.
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Cleopatra is often cast as a temptress in someone else’s story. But she was not the tragic seductress so often painted by Roman propaganda – she was the ruler of Egypt at just eighteen, a woman fluent in nine languages, who shifted the course of powerful empires. Cleopatra was sovereign, strategist, mother, and monarch – ruling Egypt at a time when women were expected to be silent. And this is the thread binding the hotels we’ve chosen. Each one is indulgent – designed for someone who knows that pleasure is a form of power. Step into rooms heavy with silk and scent – here candlelit baths exist not for excess, but for ceremony, and beauty is a form of intellect. What binds these properties is not geography but mood. If Cleopatra were here today, these are the keys she’d pocket.

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The Ritz, Paris

Cleopatra would not have resisted the Ritz. Neither did Coco Chanel, who lived here for 34 years. It’s Paris distilled: gilded salons, plus a bar where Hemingway apparently once drank 51 martinis in a row. The spa is legendary (the swimming pool sits beneath a trompe-l’oeil ceiling) and the library is full of rare editions. The ultimate romance in the heart of the French capital.

https://www.ritzparis.com/

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Steam Ship Sudan, Nile Boat

Built in 1885 for the Egyptian royal family, this is the last Belle Époque steamer still cruising the Nile. The boat served as inspiration for Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. Indeed, the dark wood-panelled cabins complete with copper bed frames and parquet floors are so cinematic that scenes for the film adaptation were shot on board too. Drift past temples Cleopatra herself once visited and sip cocktails on deck as the sun sets and the river swallows the light.

https://www.steam-ship-sudan.com/

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El Corazon, Mallorca

British fashion photographer Kate Bellm’s romantically grainy shots now feel like a lifetime’s moodboard for her hotel, a 16th-century finca in the wild, romantic North of Mallorca. Bedrooms painted shades of pink and ochre are filled with four-posters draped in linen and the standout suite comes with a bathtub on the private roof terrace. Guests head to the hilltop for immersive sound baths. A bohemian hideaway where meals linger late into the night.

https://www.hotelcorazon.com/

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Palazzo Daniele

In Salento, on Italy’s southern tip (where some locals still speak an ancient Greek dialect), is an under-the-radar hotel from art curator Francesco Petrucci. All of the monastic bedrooms show off ceiling frescoes but in the Royal Junior Suite the shower itself is an installation. Designed by Italian artist Andrea Sala, water falls from a six-metre-high ceiling into a large, circular basin.

https://www.palazzodaniele.com/

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Adrère Amellal, Siwa Oasis, Egypt

There’s no electricity at this desert retreat; just candlelight flickering and the crazy glow of the stars in the inky skies. The buildings are made from desert salt and stone – against a striking backdrop of the palm-lined Siwa oasis. Water is supplied from a natural spring and all the ingredients used in meals are locally-sourced and organic. The pool carved into rock is a showstopper at this dream desert escape.

https://www.adrereamellal.com/adrere/

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El Fenn, Marrakech, Morocco

Sunset in Marrakesh should be spent sipping mint cocktails at El Fenn’s famous red-and-white-striped rooftop bar. The vibe is that of a houseparty – complete with views of the Koutoubia minaret. Elsewhere, stained-glass windows, velvet sofas, zellige tiles and lush courtyards with plunge pools hidden between palms set the tone. Madonna may have hosted her 60th here, but the spa is down-to-earth with traditional hammam treatments using local ingredients. Marrakech’s maximalist bohemian pioneer.

https://el-fenn.com/

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Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita, Matera, Italy

This hotel is suspended over Matera’s dramatic Gravina canyon – an otherworldly setting. But the rooms are just as extraordinary – with guests sleeping in a complex of cave dwellings that date back to prehistoric times. The soft tufa stone grottos are kitted out with upcycled antiques, freestanding bathtubs and candles burning in alcoves. The mood is pared back, but sensual – one of the most memorable hotel experiences in Italy.

https://www.sextantio.it/legrottedellacivita/matera/

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Macakizi, Bodrum, Turkey

Once a bohemian retreat for the likes of Mick Jagger, who hung out in the sleepy village of Türkbükü on the west coast of Turkey in the 70s, Mackizi is now a glamorous institution. Days begin with breakfast of sesame pide and honeycomb overlooking the Aegean, then stretch into long swims from wooden decks. The nights here belong to bellinis and DJs.

https://www.macakizi.com/

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Al Moudira Hotel, Luxor, Egypt

Set on a private patch of farmland on the Nile's west bank (where Cleopatra’s barges once sailed past) are gardens draped in bougainvillea and palm trees bursting with dates. In the bedrooms, hand-painted domed ceilings, tiled floors and delicate stained-glass windows give each suite a palatial feel. But there’s so much more to explore – the library (full of Egyptian art books), holistic spa treatments, plus a pool that glitters at dusk.

https://www.moudira.com/

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Vermelho Hotel, Melides

This little hotel, the vision of Christian Louboutin, is both extravagant and curious. Here, traditional Portuguese design meets a powder blue exterior and cherry-red lacquer touches in the Alentejo. The pool is naturally heated, the bathrooms bedecked in traditional tiling and the crowd is chic and in-the-know. A flamboyant retreat that’s charmingly out of the way – surrounded by pine forests and marshland.

https://www.vermelhohotel.com/

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Bath Time With... is a new series from 39BC. We visit the bathrooms of our muses and friends — and find that a private space has a way of unlocking a uniquely intimate conversation about routines, rituals, and the objects they can't live without.

First up: Isabella Burley, London-based founder of Climax Books as well as her Substack of the same name.

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My first memory of the bath probably isn’t a fabulous one.

I remember my mum washing her hair over the back of the bath with a hose thing. It always looked so uncomfortable and awkward. It never felt luxurious. It felt utilitarian, cold, uncomfortable.

So my first memories of the bath were of it being this awkward object, rather than the joy that a bath is to me now.

I grew up in South London. I remember our bathroom always being warm because there was a boiler in there, and a towel cupboard. But it was small. There was always so much stuff out, and the cupboard under the sink was just full of stuff. Now bathing is one of the things I look forward to most.

Honestly, I feel like my entire personality is based on my bathtub.

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It takes a really long time to fill up, so there’s this whole ritual of running it and waiting. Then, as soon as I forget about it because I’m doing something else, it’s too hot or too cold or whatever. But getting in is amazing.

With Japanese tubs, you can sit upright and be immersed in water. In a traditional English bath, you’re sort of sunken backwards. But in a Japanese tub, you’re quite upright, even though there’s a backrest, which is so extra but so amazing.

My mind goes a thousand miles an hour, and being physically immersed in water switches my mindset.

Even if it’s only for a few seconds. Even if I then end up scrolling on my phone for the whole bath.

As a kid, we would go with my mum and my uncle to thermal baths.

Before I had this bath, bathing wasn’t really part of my life at home. But my mum is German — she’s from the Black Forest — and in Germany, and places like Sweden, there’s such a culture around wellness and bathing. It’s also very normalised. It’s not expensive. It’s for everyone.

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There would be steam, sauna, warm pools, cold pools. It almost felt medical in a weird way.

I have one really magical memory of being in warm water, and then you could swim through to the outside, and it was snowing. You’d go into the cold plunge pools or lie in the snow and then come back into the warm water. I remember the snow prickling your skin while you were in this warm thing.

That really stayed with me.

It was completely normal in Germany. Families would go to the thermal baths on the weekend, and then you’d eat there. There would be a canteen and I remember having hot dogs and French fries at the thermal spa. It wasn’t luxury. It was probably a ten-euro day pass.

So it does and doesn’t surprise me that bathing culture has become so popular now.

It makes sense because people really care about slowing down and taking care of themselves.

My boyfriend in New York goes every Sunday without fail to Great Jones Spa or Lore. Once it becomes part of someone’s ritual, it becomes this joyful thing.

And New York is exactly the place where bath culture would explode, because they need it the most. Everyone is so stressed, so overworked, and it gets freezing in the winter. You just want to warm up.

I also think bath culture is a thing in the UK. A lot of apartments in New York don’t have baths, or if they do, they’re so shallow you can barely have a proper bath. Whereas in the UK, baths feel more normal.

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I remember reading this Gwyneth Paltrow quote from when she was living in London with Chris Martin, where she said the only thing that would get the cold out of her bones was a bath. And it is literally true.

At home growing up, though, I don’t remember anyone having a bath as a ritual. We had a bath, but it was more of a vessel for us to wash her hair over. The thermal baths were the cultural thing.

As I got older, I’ve become more of a spa person.

I like massages, but I haven’t found my spa spot in London. But any time I stayed in a fancy hotel, maybe on a press trip when I was working at magazines, if there was a good bath, I would absolutely have one.

I remember being in New York in my early twenties and knowing I had a bath back at the hotel, so I’d go to the nearest CVS or supermarket to get bath salts. Magnesium, Epsom salts, anything. There is nothing sadder than having a bath with just hotel body wash that you’re trying to lather up. I would frantically go and find something to make the bath feel more fun.

I think my love of Japanese tubs came through visiting Japan.

I’ve been going for maybe eight years now, and I would visit onsens or stay in hotels with outdoor baths. I always wanted to enjoy that feeling.

There’s a brand that makes these hinoki wood bath salts. I didn’t realise you could get them in the UK, so I would bring huge 2 kilogram tubs of them back in my suitcase because I thought they were the best thing ever.

Japanese smells, incense, wood — they all feel so part of the bathing ritual. Even the idea of wood warming up, if it’s a real hinoki bath, and scenting the whole room. There’s something so beautiful about that.

When I was redesigning my house, the space where the bath is now was originally the main bathroom.

It had a bath with a shower over it. And I think maybe because of the trauma of my childhood bath, I didn’t want another utilitarian bath-shower situation just because it made the most sense spatially.

I wanted to open up the room and make the whole space feel peaceful. A place where you sleep and lounge. I also have a wood-burning fire in there, so in winter I’ll have a bath with the fire on, which you literally can’t get better than that.

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I searched for a really long time for someone in the UK who made Japanese ofuro baths.

A lot of options were things you could ship from Japan, which just seemed outrageous. Then I found this place in Devon. They’ve been making them for years. They’re handmade, and I think it took six months to make mine.

It’s the best thing ever. I love it so much. This house is quite stark and minimal, and the bath is the perfect thing in my eyes. Every time I turn the corner upstairs and see it, it makes me happy. It brings such a nice warmth.

My bath routine is usually: I run the bath, which takes ages.

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Sometimes I’ll light a candle. Sometimes incense, but it can get a bit too smoky upstairs. Sometimes I’ll shower first and then have a bath — true Japanese style. Washing my sins away.

The timing has to be right, because there’s nothing worse than being wet from the shower and the bath not being ready.

Then I’ll add magnesium salts, or some sort of flaky salts. I’ll use Susanne Kaufmann, or now 39BC, because they add the scent and softness. Everything else feels quite medical in a way.

In the bath, I mostly think about work. Honestly, work full stop.

I’m the founder of Climax Books, which is a concept bookstore and brand. My background is in publishing and fashion. When I’m in the bath, I normally put a book out and tell myself I’m going to read it. And then obviously I just end up on my phone.

I wish I was better, but there’s no shame in it.

Sometimes I’m like, I’ve got emails, I need to edit pictures for a project while I’m waiting. I do think you think better in the bath, so sometimes I want my phone near me. Sometimes I’ll put my laptop up and watch something.

I do love that business hotels in Japan often have these deep soaking tubs with a TV mounted nearby. It’s so fabulous.

Believe it or not, I never wear scent.

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When it comes to scent, my mum always smelled like Chanel No.19. It was very strong. I love scent on other people. My boyfriend is obsessed with scents. Each time I got to New York he has discovered a new one. He always smells so good. I think it’s such a powerful thing. I love when people have spent years perfecting their scent and how they mix things. I find that so endearing.

But whenever I try to wear a scent, it feels too strong on me. I want to wash it off. So I like the idea of scent coming in different ways including with scented body wash.

My shower routine now

is that I’ll use the Soft Services body bars and exfoliate everything off my skin. Then I’ll use Aesop, almost in a clinical washing way. And then I end with 39BC. It feels like the final seal. Then I’ll do body oil and body butter.

I use Osea oil, which is really light. I’ve also just been sent the Mount Sapo one, which looks nice. And I love Everyday Oil in New York.

What I like about oils is that when the fragrance is in the oil, it warms into your skin and becomes part of you. It feels less like something sitting on top.

My favourite 39BC scent is Fig Milk.

There’s only a tiny drip left in my shower. I need to order more. It melts into your skin in this way that feels very part of you.

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Yes, Fig Milk feels part of me.

I think in fashion, you can spend so much time trying to be someone or performing. As you get older and become more sure of yourself and your identity, it’s really nice to find products that work with your identity. Things that enhance you rather than making you feel like you’re wearing something.

It’s the same with clothing. I love dressing up and playing with the idea of being this girl or that girl, but there’s something about an everyday uniform that feels really luxurious and sexy. You get to put this oil on in the shower, but then you don’t get out and feel like someone else. You still feel like yourself.

That’s a big thing for me.

Sometimes you get gifted something amazing and you want to love it, but it’s so strong.

There’s a thoughtfulness in 39BC. It meets people where they are.

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Yes, Fig Milk feels part of me.

That’s a big thing for me.

Sometimes you get gifted something amazing and you want to love it, but it’s so strong.

There’s a thoughtfulness in 39BC. It meets people where they are.

$\"\"$

The packaging and branding are so smart. The website is sharp, but it still feels welcoming. It doesn’t feel like you’re not good enough. Some luxury brands make you feel like that, like you’re being judged at the counter.

And I don’t want to spend my hard-earned money to be made to feel like terrible by someone being snobby. It’s just not worth it.

What’s also smart is that the packaging is lightweight, usable and practical, but still elevated. Some luxury packaging looks beautiful but is heavy, clunky and annoying to use. In the shower, with wet hands, you don’t want a heavy lid flying off and cracking a tile.

Most of the time, I use the product in the shower quickly, but this cleansing oil adds this little thing. And then the time when I’m having a bath, it becomes a different experience.

If someone told me they didn’t like baths…

I’d say: come to my house. Come upstairs. The bathtub fits two people.

I have had baths with my boyfriend, but it’s never the romantic fantasy you imagine. It’s usually just us giggling in the bath in a really cute, sweet way.

And maybe that’s actually more romantic.

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\nMY EARLIEST MEMORY OF WATER IS THE SEA.

BATHING, FOR ME, CAN BE ONE OF THE FASTEST WAYS BACK TO SELF.

\n The Ritz, Paris

Steam Ship Sudan, Nile Boat

El Corazon, Mallorca

Palazzo Daniele

Adrère Amellal, Siwa Oasis, Egypt

El Fenn, Marrakech, Morocco

Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita, Matera, Italy

Macakizi, Bodrum, Turkey

Al Moudira Hotel, Luxor, Egypt

Vermelho Hotel, Melides

My first memory of the bath probably isn’t a fabulous one.

Honestly, I feel like my entire personality is based on my bathtub.

My mind goes a thousand miles an hour, and being physically immersed in water switches my mindset.

As a kid, we would go with my mum and my uncle to thermal baths.

So it does and doesn’t surprise me that bathing culture has become so popular now.

I think my love of Japanese tubs came through visiting Japan.

When I was redesigning my house, the space where the bath is now was originally the main bathroom.

I searched for a really long time for someone in the UK who made Japanese ofuro baths.

My bath routine is usually: I run the bath, which takes ages.

In the bath, I mostly think about work. Honestly, work full stop.

Believe it or not, I never wear scent.

My shower routine now

My favourite 39BC scent is Fig Milk.

Yes, Fig Milk feels part of me.

There’s a thoughtfulness in 39BC. It meets people where they are.

Yes, Fig Milk feels part of me.

There’s a thoughtfulness in 39BC. It meets people where they are.

If someone told me they didn’t like baths…

\n

MY EARLIEST MEMORY OF WATER IS THE SEA.

\n

The Ritz, Paris