Julie Schott Has Some Thoughts About Showering

If you happen to be one of her 100,000 followers on Instagram, then you already know that Julie Schott, the former ELLE Beauty Director and current Co-Founder of Starface, isn’t really one to hold back. So when ITG got word that she was working on a new brand—a body brand called Plus—we did what any blog equipped with an email address might do. ITG asked Julie to over explain her take on the ultimate gettin’ clean experience. Because everyone’s got one, whether it’s a stance on baths versus showers, morning versus night, or even bar soap versus liquid (and actually Julie’s preference for the latter is neither, given that Plus is a waterless, bottless, single-serve square that dissolves into soft soap and suds when splashed with water). Here’s what Julie so graciously advised:

Mornings are for baths, evenings are for showers

Everyone starts the day by scrolling through their phone (uh…right?), and Julie’s no different, aside from that her morning scroll takes place in the bath so she can get her “Rev Run scene on,” she explains. The bath itself is never completely filled (“just over the leg”), so as to use less water, and the lighting is dim and serene—a hell of a way to start the day. And if the morning bath doesn’t happen (and they often don’t, Julie is busy), then a 5-minute shower before bed is good enough.

Consider the bathroom burner phone

Let’s revisit that Rev Run scene for a second. Julie’s not equipped with Rev’s signature Blackberry these days, but the phone she does use is special in that it’s specifically for shower and bath use. It’s loaded with a finsta that “only follows beauty accounts, so I scroll through that and get my news. And then I send that to other people, who usually respond with, ‘why are you sending this to me right now and what is this number?’ [Laughs] I get a lot of ideas there.” And if you’re wondering, yes, this burner phone is waterproof and yes, she makes sure a towel is always hanging in the bath’s interior because “you can’t text with wet hands,” duh.

Add some friction

You know that uniquely vigorous scrubbing you can only get when the person doing the scrubbing isn’t you? Julie’s answer to that is her Goshi exfoliating towel, which she uses to get that “intense exfoliation until my skin is practically pilling off.” She puts her Plus body wash square inside the towel, and then runs the water over it to create “more lather than you could possibly need.” Just don’t do this every day—even Julie doesn’t. She only exfoliates this way every once in a while, “when I want to feel brand new and come out feeling silky.”

Get a big boy bath mat

This needs to be said: Bath mats are too small. You need at least five consecutive steps to dry off your feet, and a typical bath mat has room for maybe two baby steps? Julie’s got this figured out with her extra long bath mat, which creates a kind of runway from her shower to the sink. Hers is from Quiet Town, which “also has really great shower curtains.”

Towel off with a twofer

A big plush towel is nice, but a big plush towel that keeps you warm and doesn’t easily fall off is even better—we call it a bathrobe. Julie highly recommends the one she’s got from Tekla. “It’s heavy and substantial and a real treat. I remember wishing it was okay to wear bathrobes on Zoom. I’ll sometimes just use that instead of a towel at all.”

Photo via ITG.