Deep Sea Mineral Soakfor a very long bath

In late April, out in Kachemak Bay, the long lines come up heavy and dripping with sugar kelp, which is then dried, and combined with organic botanicals. At the end of an ordinary day, with the water already warm, you pour in the magnesium, drop in the tea bag, and add a few drops of oil. Then you sink in and stay much longer than you meant to.

Cold-water kelp, sustainably farmed in Kachemak Bay, Homer, Alaska.

Magnesium flakes · kelp & botanical tea bag · Deep Drift vetiver oil

Seavita Deep Sea Mineral Soak kraft clamshell, seen from above

Cold-water kelp✦Zechstein magnesium✦Small-batch in Homer, Alaska✦Deep Drift vetiver✦One bath, three steps✦Cold-water kelp✦Zechstein magnesium✦Small-batch in Homer, Alaska✦Deep Drift vetiver✦One bath, three steps✦Cold-water kelp✦Zechstein magnesium✦Small-batch in Homer, Alaska✦Deep Drift vetiver✦One bath, three steps✦Cold-water kelp✦Zechstein magnesium✦Small-batch in Homer, Alaska✦Deep Drift vetiver✦One bath, three steps✦

Inside the clamshell

What’s inside.Everything you need. Nothing you don’t.

Magnesium flakes

Zechstein magnesium, from an ancient seabed sealed deep under northern Europe long before anyone thought to bathe in it. Pour them in first. Watch them vanish.

ii.

Kelp & botanical tea bag

Sugar kelp from cold Alaskan water, folded in with organic botanicals. Steep it like the world’s largest cup of tea. The water turns the faint gold of late afternoon.

iii.

Deep Drift vetiver oil

Smoky, rooty, a little mysterious. A cabin after the stove has gone quiet. Two or three drops. More is not better; more is just more.

The ritual

Three acts.No intermission.

Magnesium first.

Run the bath hot. Pour in the flakes while the tap is still going, and let them dissolve into nothing.

II.

Then the tea bag.

Drop it in. Let it steep while you go and find a towel worth the occasion.

III.

Then 2–3 drops of oil.

Last, just before you step in. Lights low, phone in another room. Twenty minutes, minimum.

Zechsteinmagnesium

Cold-waterAlaskan kelp

Small-batchin Homer

Organicbotanicals

Sugar kelp rising on a longline in the cold, clear water of Kachemak Bay — Field photo — Kachemak Bay

Homer, Alaska

From the end of the road.

Sugar kelp, grown slowly in the cold, turquoise-blue water of Kachemak Bay. In the bath it softens the water, and your skin.

Cold-water kelp, sustainably farmed in Kachemak Bay, Homer, Alaska.

The whole story →

Ribbons of sugar kelp swaying underwater, textured and translucent

Specimen No. 1 — Saccharina latissima

Crinkled, golden,absurdlyold-fashioned.

Sugar kelp has looked like this for a very long time: ruffled at the edges, glossy as a wet leather glove. It has never once been in a hurry. Your bath shouldn’t be either.

Last call

Go on. Run the bath.

Deep Sea Mineral Soak: magnesium flakes, a kelp & botanical tea bag, and Deep Drift vetiver oil. One clamshell. One very long bath.