Ritual

Bathe

A handful scattered on the surface, and the room changes. The least efficient thing you will do all week.

The water comes first

The botanicals are the last decision, not the first. Water run too hot flattens scent almost immediately — the room fills, the tub does not, and ten minutes later you are sitting in something that smells of nothing. Run it warm enough to stay in for twenty minutes without topping it up. That is most of the craft.

Salt, and how much

More than feels reasonable. A scant handful does nothing you can perceive; two generous cupfuls change how the water feels against skin. Dissolve it while the tap is still running, before anything else goes in, or it settles into a drift at the bottom and you find it with your heel.

Scatter, do not steep

Petals go on the surface, whole, at the very end. They are not being extracted. They are being looked at, and smelled, and moved around by your hand.

If you want the scent in the water rather than the air, tie the botanicals in muslin and drop them in early — but you lose the part where the surface of the bath looks like something worth getting into. Most weeks that is the part worth keeping.