Hello from 39BC. Somehow, it’s still January — and if your New Year’s early-morning gym resolve has quietly slipped away, you’re in good company. It’s cold, dark, and moody (here in London, at least). And, as you’ll know from last week’s Notes from the Bath, we’re not ones for battling the season. We’d much rather meet it where it is.
Which is why we’re talking about rituals, not resolutions. The kind that invite you to soften rather than self-chastise. A nightly bath is the obvious place to begin — generously laced with 39BC Oil Body Cleanser, naturally. From there, add whatever feels right: a private hour of reading in the morning, a slow winter walk at lunchtime, or dressing fabulously for the season — à la our eternal muse, Grace Jones. Something a little more indulgent, perhaps, like making an annual habit of escaping somewhere that understands how to do winter properly (we recently visited The Brecon in the Alps and, well… obsessed is an understatement).
On bleak January mornings, we’ve been reaching for Sage Water in the shower (consider this a quiet reminder that the 39BC Body Oil Cleanser isn’t reserved for the bath alone). Fresh, herbal and gently bracing, it’s our preferred way to wake the senses and get out the door when, frankly, nothing sounds less appealing.
A NOTE FROM SHAR
A few dispatches from the road (and the bath). This week I’m heading north for store training at Selfridges Manchester. Nothing beats being on the ground, talking scent, ritual and all things 39BC.
And then, further north still: Glasgow. We’re launching at Scented, an exquisite fragrance store known for its beautifully edited selection of rare, small-batch, and hard-to-find brands. They prioritise efficacy, sustainability, and ethics — but above all, they only stock what they truly believe in. We’re proud to be in such discerning company.
Meanwhile, I’ve been deep in R&D on bath salts. Inspiration struck recently at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where ancient alabaster jars (pictured above) stopped me in my tracks — timeless vessels for ritual, and a possible blueprint for how our bath salts might one day be housed. As always, I’m looking back to look forward.
It’s the final stretch to catch Peter Doig at Serpentine Galleries, and this one’s worth leaving your sofa cocoon for. House of Music transforms the gallery into a listening space, pairing recent paintings with sound for the first time — rare, restored 1950s cinema speakers fill the rooms with music drawn from Doig’s own vinyl and cassette archive. Many of the works were made during his years in Trinidad, shaped by sound-system culture, cinema, memory and movement; others are new, painted in London especially for the show. Music has always been part of Doig’s world — and it’s very much part of ours too.
If you’re in need of a mood-lift, our Vol I: Alexandria soundtrack (Annie Lennox, Donna Summer, Grace Jones — naturally) is forever on repeat.
If your winter rituals include planning your summer (smart), consider Hotel Corazón — a 16th-century finca in the wild north of Mallorca, founded by British photographer Kate Bellm. Expect pink-and-ochre bedrooms, linen-draped four-posters and hilltop sound baths. It’s a bohemian hideaway designed for slowing down and exactly the kind of place Cleopatra, devotee of pleasure and ritual, would have understood instantly — head to the Journal for more of our favourite Cleopatra-inspired hotels.
