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The Bath To Enlightenment

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August 19, 2001, Section 6, Page 110Buy Reprints
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It was available only in Europe, so chances are you discovered it on your first trip -- maybe junior year abroad -- and brought home several cartons; and traveling friends would bring it back to you in their luggage. Sometimes, feeling generous, you would wrap the neat rectangular box, knowing your gift would mark you as a sophisticated and worldly, yet caring, person of impeccable taste.

It was at this point that Vitabath should have been awarded protected-fetish status. But that which capitalism creates, it also destroys. Vitabath began appearing in prestige drugstores in the United States, and owning it no longer meant that you had been to Europe. (Besides, at about that same time, everyone had been to Europe, so it no longer mattered.)

Although the original formula remained, other colors and scents came in under the Vitabath name, scents that were sweeter and lacked the punch of the pine. Body lotions and bar soaps were added. It was during this period that the Vitabath company was being bought and sold, lumped in with other lines and shuffled among huge bureaucracies. The venerable luxury name slipped into mass market.

In 1998, the rescuing white hats arrived in the form of Belae Brands, a new company out of Phoenix looking to get into the expanding home spa business, and according to Belae's chief executive and founder, Andrew Patti, although Vitabath had strong name recognition, in the process of being bought and sold many times, its lotion and bar soap had undergone degradations, and the ingredients were not up to the high quality of the original. Belae has improved that.

Vitabath had also suffered the indignity of being sold in chain drug and food stores, making it less attractive to more upscale gift stores and pharmacies. Belae is attempting to solve this problem by providing humbler venues with Vitabath Essentials -- a lower-cost line headed by original-formula Vitabath in a six-ounce size -- and reserving the larger sizes of gel, as well as the lotion, bar soap and new oil mist for prestige locations.

Vitabath, Patti says, is in tune with the inclination of the nation right now, which is to draw back into our nests and take care of ourselves. (Like our president, we are into naps.) The bath gel has ''super ingredients,'' including vitamins and horse chestnut extract. Belae's mission is to recover the original luxe image and counter an impression that it is for an older consumer, possibly those women who first brought it home from Europe many years ago.

Perhaps in an attempt to reach the younger consumer -- or maybe just in an effort to cut costs, and not thinking anyone would notice -- Belae has redesigned the Vitabath carton. The embossed waves are gone, replaced by a few token lines printed on the bottom. The thin gold stripe around the top of the box has disappeared entirely. The almost subliminal cues that told the person opening the carton that she was in for a special, expensive treat are no more. Not only that, the original bubble font logo is now taller, slimmer and more feminine. It lacks the European authority of the original. It could be the name of just any bath product on the shelf; and today, unlike when Vitabath first appeared, the shelves are groaning with a surfeit of choices.

Patti and his cohorts at Belae Brands could not have raised the money to buy Vitabath if they had promised to just keep making the bath gel for its loyal but dwindling number of fans. Investors want growth, which is why even more fragrances and forms will be appearing under the Vitabath name. But for all the industry and inventiveness poured into expanding the brand so far, last year the original bath gel still accounted for 85 percent of sales. Belae is taking a chance in tampering with the look of this fiercely loved product.

Vitabath fetishists are now faced with a dilemma: Is it the stuff inside the bottle that we love, or is it the box, the logo, the memories, the whole -- to use a ''European'' word -- gestalt?

SOAPY SALES

Relax, the beauty biz will run you a bath.

How simple those early days of Vitabath seem now that spa lines proliferate. There's no end to oils and lotions, potions and procedures to occupy us in the tub. The goal is not only to smooth the skin, but also to soothe the psyche by transforming the bath into a mind-altering experience. So choose your bath experience to enhance, coddle or dissipate whatever humor seems to be holding you in its sway.

Agoraphobic? Do you long to go to the Estée Lauder spa but can't seem to get out the door, let alone to Bloomingdale's? Private Spa Collection by Estée Lauder consists of eight products used in treatments at Estée Lauder day spas. So you can stay home and exfoliate with Crystal Glow Sugar Rub, a paste of sugar, glycerin and oils, $35. Follow with Sea Plunge Calming Soak for either bath or shower, $30. Healing Essence for Mind and Body, $35, is a blend of oils and essences to use on the hands, cuticles, elbows, heels and scalp. Massage on the temples and ear lobes to relieve stress, and remember to inhale deeply three times. Baby your extremities with Smoothing Feat Manicure/Pedicure Treatment, a soft blue cream with addictive paraffin texture, $22. And don't deny yourself that Calming Aura Scented Candle, $18, whose subtle perfume puts you in the mood.

Does existential angst leave you longing for a Zen experience? Qiora, a new offshoot from Shiseido, has a system for treating the complexion from within by inducing relaxation and a sort of spiritual renewal. Qiora wants you to come into its airy blue-and-white spa on Madison Avenue at 54th Street to get advice on which products and methods are best for you. (Too bad you can't take home a tape of the ambient nature sounds that play in the background.) Moisture Balance comes in six formulas matched to skin type; $70 each. The Inner Serum, to be massaged on wrists and inhaled, has three fragrances: A, C and R -- just think of them as Arise, Comfort and Restore -- $30 each. You could drop some in the bath while you press Qiora's Eye Wrapping Spa (Mask) over your eyes and leave for 10 minutes. Eight sheets, $30.

If you despair from being hopelessly out of it, transform your mundane existence with the oh-so-hip Bliss Spa home six-pack, in lemon and sage scent. You get Soapy Sap, Soft Oil Spray, Large Lemon Soap Slab, a tube of Lemon Peel, a scrubbing tool and Body Butter, all for $109. And why stop there? Get the ''Rhythm and Bliss'' CD, $9.50, with the kind of slow, soulful tunes they play at the actual spa.

Do you have pangs of deprivation because the chauffeur can't drive you to the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Salon and Spa? Now you can take home everything but the red door. It's all in the Spa 7/52 collection. Eleven shea butter products come in Tangerine Amber, Eucalyptus Lemon and Honeysuckle Melon. Try the Hydrating Face Mask, $22, which combines aloe, shea butter, cucumber and Vitamin E, while soaking in Earth Bath Crystals, a mineral bath salt to alleviate swelling and muscle soreness, $16.50. Follow with Shea & Aloe Body Cream, $25. Then give extra attention to dry elbows and cracked heels with minty Heel It, $14.

Simply catatonic? Then you need DKNY. Every product name is preceded by the word ''energizing.'' Fragrance Oil is a blend of citrus and urban florals based in jojoba oil, for bath and body, even drawer liners, wherever you need energizing. Alcohol-free, it's $42. Body Lotion with Vitamin E and rapeseed oil, $28. Body Scrub, $25. Shower Gel, $25.

If you're frustrated by a lack of funds to outfit your bath in towels and robes from Hermès, get effervescent bath pebbles in Eau d'Orange Verte and soak in the relaxing, yet stimulating scent of lemon, mandarin and oak moss that encourages joie de vivre and sharing. Let greedy desires melt away in the green-tinted water. Nine pebbles, $30.

To give a boost to your sensuality, or luxuriate in that which you already have, try the new emollient shower gels from L'Artisan Parfumeur, $35 each. Mûre et Musc features blackberries and musk. (Don't use in bear country.) Premier Figuier has the green woodiness of fig.

Suffering from consumer overload? Go back to tried-and-true Vitabath. If you're not afraid of commitment, go for the $99 gallon-size Moisturizing Bath and Shower Gelée. You get more gel for your buck. After the bath, spritz on Moisturizing Dry Oil Spray, six ounces, $15, and the scent will remind you of how relaxed you are.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section 6, Page 110 of the National edition with the headline: The Bath To Enlightenment. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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