✦ 20 QUESTIONS WITH ESKER BEAUTY ✦
For our very first edition, who better than our own founder and resident Chief Bath Person, Shannon Davenport?
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1Are you a bath person or a shower person?
Bath person — it’s basically my job title. I’ll choose lying in warm water over standing in a shower every single time.
2Night shower or morning shower?
Both, but the night bath is the one that counts. I dry brush most mornings to wake my body up, then soak after the kids go down. (I’ve also been known to sneak a 20-minute tub mid-workday like a tiny lunch break, running the water while I’m still answering emails.)
3Do you wash your legs?
Yes I gently wash my legs and feet with body wash — and I dry brush them first, always toward the heart. Once you understand lymphatic flow, you can’t un-know it.
4Do you bathe on your period?
Fully team period bath. My mom always swore the flow stops in the water — I’ve never fact-checked her, but warm water does wonders for cramps, so that’s reason enough for me.
5How do you feel about body hair?
Honestly, I’ve never been obsessed with being hairless. I’m a semi-lax shaver — every week or two. If I get really hairy I start to feel less clean, so that’s usually my cue, but I’ve made peace with the in-between. It’s just not something I lose sleep over.
6Do you sing in the shower?
Yes, I love singing! It's such a fun thing to do in the shower, I need to do it more.
7What’s a shower epiphany you’ve had?
Honestly, Esker itself. I came off a decade of corporate trend forecasting with a completely fried nervous system, and the bath was the one place my body actually downshifted. A lot of this brand was dreamed up neck-deep in warm water.
8Cold plunge? Yes or no?
I respect the science, but I’m a warm-water woman through and through. Heat, magnesium, a long soak — that’s my reset. I’ll let everyone else have the ice.
9Would you / do you shower or bathe with a partner?
My tub is my sanctuary, and most days I want it gloriously to myself. That said — my husband and I have been known to share a soak once the house is finally quiet and the kids are down. But if I’m honest, bath time is my one solo ritual of the day, and I protect it fiercely.
10Do you talk on the phone in the tub?
Yes — and I’d argue it’s underrated. There’s something kind of fun and indulgent about taking a call from the tub. Usually it’s my mom.
11Do you have a shower/bath playlist? What’s on it?
Yes — I keep our Esker bath playlist going. It’s full of what I love: calm strings-and-piano, soul and dreamy folk.
♫ Listen to the playlist on Spotify
12Do you shower before or after the bath?
Neither, and I’ll defend it: with a good lathering soap I feel completely clean coming out of a bath. If a quick rinse makes you feel extra fresh, go for it — I just don’t bother.
13Do you wash your hair in the bath?
Usually, since I have a lot of it — but never when there’s oil or a bath bomb in the water. That residue clings, and I can’t stand it. On a pure therapeutic soak, I leave my hair up and out of it.
14Do you have a childhood bath memory?
So many, and they all pull me right back to my mom’s house. The big one is bubbles — building giant mounds of them and just playing, completely lost in it. The best part now is getting to watch my own kids do the exact same thing: same delight, same mountains of foam. That full-circle moment is a huge part of why I built a brand around the bath. A warm tub still feels like going home.
Me and my kiddos.
15How many times a week do you wash your hair?
Three to four — roughly every other bath or shower. I stretch it as long as I can.
16What’s one bath item/product you can’t live without?
17Outdoor shower? Yes or no?
Yes — and an outdoor tub is genuinely on my life-goals list. One day I want a house with a soaking tub open to the sky. That’s peak bathing. (Bucket list: a Japanese onsen and a Turkish hammam.)
18What’s in your spa bag?
Body oil to seal everything in, my Body Plane, a dry brush, Magnesium Bath Enhancer, a good candle, and an ice water — I get so thirsty in the tub. I also love Coyuchi's waffle robes and towels.
19Do you watch anything in the shower/bath?
I always mean to do something meditative… and then I’m scrolling or clearing email. On my better days it’s a podcast — I’m a Hidden Brain person.
20What’s a beauty habit you’ll defend forever, even if everyone tells you it’s wrong?
Dry brushing. It’s ancient, tried-and-true, and wildly underestimated. I’m deep in learning about the lymphatic system right now — it’s the invisible engine under everything — and a few minutes of brushing before a bath beats most expensive products.
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Thank you, Shannon, for sharing the details, quirks, rituals, and routines that make you, you.
Stay tuned for more editions of 20 Questions with Esker Beauty.
