HER STORY: Love Letters and Face Masks
“What I learned from this experience is, women want to naturally support other women.”
Finding Poetry in Care
By Nicolle Nugent, CEO and Founder of Bath Poetry
My sister loved bath and body products. She collected them like precious stones or artworks, lining them up on her closet shelf and standing there, wondering, “What should I treat myself to tonight? What smells do I need after a long day? How can I care for my skin and calm my spirit?” So many bottles. Bottles of all sizes and shapes, filled with scented shampoos, lotions, perfumes, and skincare.
Eight years ago, I bought an assortment of essential oils and began experimenting with diffusing them in my living room. I combined my favorite scents into blends that made me feel light, happy, and at ease. I began to wonder, what else could these oils do?
I researched the emotional and physical effects of essential oils and natural ingredients. I taught myself to make body butter and felt a quiet thrill of pride. I set a personal goal: to replace every bath and body product on my shelf with something I had made myself. One morning, as I applied my body butter after a shower, a clear thought came to me: “The only thing that can make this better is if I could read a tiny piece of poetry while doing it. My day will be complete.”
From that moment, the poetry began. I wrote little poems on jars and bottles, sharing them as gifts. When my first wholesale inquiry came after posting on social media and adding professional photography by my friend Carey Shaw, my brand had started to find itself. Bath Poetry was born: a collection where poetry and natural products inspire both body and spirit.
At first, I drew on public domain authors who had shaped my love of words: Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson, Rainer Maria Rilke, Edgar Allen Poe. Soon, I reached out to living writers and friends, including the poets Anne Campbell and Tracy Hamon, and even my youngest daughter. When the pandemic hit, my desire for connection only grew. I invited Canadian singer-songwriters I admired, like Hannah Georgas, Amy Millan, and Jenn Grant, to share their poetry. Their words became part of the Bath Poetry story, and in turn, the products became a small bridge of care between us.
Looking back, I see how everything began with my sister. After she passed away, scent became memory. Freshly cut grass, warm rice pudding, spicy patchouli, the smell of a summer storm — all carried her presence with them. As children, we had played “store” in a tiny playhouse, filling imaginary orders, imagining the world of grown-up care. That playfulness lives in everything I do: in blending a new product, crafting a post, or writing a poem for a jar.
Play, memory, and poetry. These are the three threads that guide every choice I make, every risk I take. Bath Poetry is not just a business — it is a living connection, a way to honor the people I love, the stories I treasure, and the small, joyful moments that make life feel whole.
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Bath Poetry Founder Nicolle Nugent is a self-taught apothecary maker with a background in the arts and a sincere passion for poetry. She is currently Curator of Education at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan and lives with her family in Lumsden, Saskatchewan.
