The Vogue guide to old-world bath gems to bring back from your next holiday

Long before meticulously scheduled spa days, whole regions built their beauty around bath rituals. In tiled hammams and courtyard bathrooms, getting clean meant steam, conversation and an unhurried sequence of soaps, scrubs, clays and oils that people still swear by. In Morocco, hammams doubled as sanctuaries. In the Emirates, the majlis offered warmth. Persia perfumed its cleansing routines with rose, while Egypt leaned into milk and honey.

These bath rituals grew out of the landscape and daily life revolving around olives, clay, gourds, seeds, flowers. You see it when you travel; squat jars of black soap in a Marrakech souk, stacks of Aleppo bars in a Levantine grocery, loofahs drying in the Egyptian sun. These are some of those classics that slip into your suitcase almost as an afterthought, but end up being your best desicions. Simple, elemental and worth hunting down locally when you’re there.

Aleppo soap

A centuries-old Syrian staple, this is the blueprint for many of today’s gentle cleansers. It’s made from olive oil and laurel (bay) oil, then air-dried for months until it turns a mottled green-and-gold. It’s suitable for face, body and sometimes hair. If your routine leans minimalist, Aleppo soap is as good as it gets.

Traveller’s tip: When you’re in Lebanon or Turkey, look for dense, stamped cubes in neighbourhood groceries and herb shops. Traditional makers like Najel or Tadé still follow the original recipes.

Moroccan black soap

In a traditional hammam, everything starts with this thick, olive-based paste (savon noir or beldi). Applied on warm, damp skin, it softens and loosens dead skin cells so they slide off easily when you scrub, but without the froth of a typical cleanser.

Traveller’s tip: The best versions are often sold by the hammams themselves in Marrakech and Fez or scooped out of tubs in tiny herboriste shops.

Kese glove

No hammam ritual is complete without the kese. Attendants use this textured exfoliating mitt to scrub in long, rhythmic strokes. Rolls of greyish skin lift off, circulation kicks up and you’re left with flushed, polished, baby-smooth limbs. It’s not gentle in the moment, but it’s hard to go back to a polite body scrub after you’ve experienced it once.

Traveller’s tip: In Istanbul or Antalya, buy your kese from historic bathhouses or the stalls clustered around them, where the mitts are tightly woven.

Rhassoul clay

Mined from Morocco’s Atlas mountains, rhassoul (or ghassoul) is a fine, mineral-rich clay that has been a go-to for face, body and scalp for centuries. Mixed with water or rose water, it turns into a silky mud that pulls out excess oil and impurities without leaving that stiff, overly taut feeling.

Traveller’s tip: In Marrakech and Fez, you’ll usually find it sold loose in herboriste shops as earthy flakes or powder, sometimes in simple paper cones labelled ‘ghassoul.’

Milk & honey baths

The Cleopatra bath isn’t just a legend. Milk, rich in lactic acid, paired with honey’s humectant and antimicrobial benefits, exfoliates gently when mixed into your warm bath water, while drenching skin in moisture.