bath junkie

I love this store!
I am always the last person on the planet to hear about anything, but I stumbled on this Nolita store all on my own. The only Bath Junkie franchise store to open its doors in New York City; it’s been named Best Bath Store 2009 by New York Magazine. When I walked in I was looking for some time to kill and I really had no intention of buying a thing. I’d never heard of it (I don’t read NY Mag regularly) and I’m already super stocked with bath products due to my recent Lush addiction. Plus my sister was there to remind me that I don’t need more shampoo and my boyfriend’s dog doesn’t care if she has fancy custom bath products.
My store experience was pretty good. When I walked in I had a few moments to putter around the little store with my sister before a sales associate offered to show us a few things and give us a hand treatment. They had sinks where we could demo their salt scrub in a choice of 3 different fragrances. We followed the scrub with a lotion in the same scent. Feeling good and pampered now, we headed over to the fragrance station where the SA had us test some of her favorite blends. It can be quite overwhelming with over 200 fragrances available (plus combinations!) They have a blend menu which was awesome for getting ideas for what goes together. I never would have picked Spring Fling if it wasn’t listed with another blend. After picking a fragrance blend, a product and a size I got to choose a color. They actually mixed up something custom for me because I wanted orange, which isn’t in their regular line. It took a few minutes for the SA to blend up my lotion. Then at check out I got to custom name my product, which was printed on a clear plastic label along with the 3 fragrances that went into the mix. This would be super handy for refills!
What I loved about this experience at Bath Junkie was it was all as easy or as complicated as I wanted it to be. The lotions are $ 11.75 for 4 oz. and $ 22 for 8 oz. Most of the products are unscented and uncolored so you can play with your own scents and colors. I decided to create a custom lotion for a friend and we went with a mix of 2 parts Spring Fling, 2 parts Mango and 1 part Melonball for the perfect balance. I found that the drydown of the scent changes on my skin so be aware that this might happen (it’s still lovely but a little less sweet and more earthy.)I went with the Sparkly Lotion for my friend who doesn’t have dry skin but might enjoy the teeny flecks of sparkle over her tanned shoulders this summer. No glitter in this stuff! The sparkles are the right amount to show up on skin without the discoball likeness. It’s a silver or colorless mineral or mica shimmer. The lotion itself is decently moisturizing and leaves the skin feeling supple and not greasy. Perfect for summer.
My second trip in I picked up a scrub and body dessert combo. The scrub has an awesome, completely emulsified texture. No oil floats on top and the salt crystals are mixed with crushed nut shells so you can get really scrubby without it completely dissolving. The texture is really fun– sort of like floam when you push down on it. The body dessert is really rich but the texture is soft and easy to apply.
This isn’t a place I would visit super regularly because I would be broke but it’s definitely a treat. I think it’s a great place to pick up a customized gift. I made the sparkle lotion for my best friend and she loves it! I would love to take my mom there to treat her but it’s not really her thing.

i am a guy and i went in here with my sister, but it was pretty cool
the nice lady washed my hands with the salt/​soap stuff and it felt good afterwards… and smelled nice
in this place you completely design your products. you start out with the base (salts, etc), pick scents, pick colors and then they mix it up for you. there are hundreds of scents to choose from, which was my favorite part. smelling all the scents
the huge bars of soap look really cool and some of them smell pretty good too. they had wonton shaped soap with fortunes inside them that looked really cool and smelled good too
note, it is not inexpensive, but i wouldnt say its not worth the money

Stopped here by chance on my walk back uptown after a brunch in Chinatown.
I really am a bath products junkie, so this store was really love almost at first site. The staff was very friendly and salesy in a good way (ie suggesting products that were likely of interest and leaving us to play on our own when it was appropriate.)
The shop offers several different types of bath products (salt body scrub, different types of lotions, bath bars etc.) What I love is that you can pick a product and custom create a color and scent combination. I ended up getting the salt scrub as a gift and mixed in a tangerine color and «aloe vera» and «juicy pomegranate» scents. It was a lot of fun choosing the scent, as they have probably 100 different ones to choose to mix and match.
I also got a little sample of one of the lotions which turned out to be a green colored french vanilla. I haven’t tried out the salt, beyond sampling it in the store (it left my hands nice and soft), but I really like the lotion so far and am excited to go back and get myself some more after Xmas.
I also love the yummy smelling and pretty soaps. They even have fortune cookie shaped soaps! How cute is that!
While I was in the store I ran into a couple of loyal customers that mentioned that they love the products and were just coming back for a refill.
Something else that is great is that they also do private events which I think is a great idea!

The New York flagship store!