How to Make Your Shower Steamers Last Longer

How to Make Your Shower Steamers Last Longer 

You drop a shower steamer on the floor, turn on the water, and by the time your shampoo is rinsed out, your steamer has disappeared. One steamer, one shower, gone. It happens to almost everyone the first time they use one, but we can help fix that!

How long should a shower steamer last?

When used well, one shower steamer can last for 2-3 showers. If yours only lasts one shower, you're not doing anything wrong exactly, you just need to find a better location for your steamer!

Why your shower steamer dissolves so fast

A shower steamer is built to react with water and steam to release scent. But there's a big difference between getting splashed and getting blasted! When sitting directly under the water stream, a steamer takes on far more water than it needs to and fizzes out fast. Most of the scent goes straight down the drain instead of into the air around you! Steam, on the other hand, activates it gently.

Where to place your shower steamer

This is the single biggest thing you can do to extend the use of your steamer. Put the steamer in a back corner of the shower floor, off to the side, where it catches splashes and steam, but never sits under the direct flow of the shower head. You want it damp, not drowning.

If your shower runs hot and steamy, and most do, the ambient steam alone will release the scent beautifully without the steamer taking a direct hit. Closer to the water means a stronger, shorter burst. Further away means a softer scent that lasts across more than one shower. Most people find their sweet spot somewhere in between after a try or two.

Use a shower steamer tray

If you want an easy upgrade, this is it. A Shower Steamer Tray lifts the steamer up off the wet shower floor so it isn't sitting in a pool of water.. That standing water is a quiet steamer-killer. It keeps dissolving your steamer long after you've turned the water off.

Our wooden tray solves that. It gives the steamer a dry place to rest, drains the water away, and keeps it tucked in a corner out of the stream, all at once. It's the difference between a steamer that's a soggy lump by your next shower and one that's dried out and ready to go again. 

If you don't have a tray yet, our shower steamer discovery kits are the easy way in. Each one comes with four full-size steamers and a wooden tray, so you get the scents and the thing that makes them last in a single box.

Let it dry out between showers

When you're finished with your shower, pour off any water that's pooled around or under your steamer and set it somewhere it can air out (exactly what the tray is for!). A steamer that dries fully between uses holds onto its shape and its scent. One that stays wet, keeps dissolving and goes flat long before it should.

How to store shower steamers so they keep their scent

Before use, store your steamers in a cool and dry place, in a sealed container or bag, away from the steamy bathroom air. Shower steamers are reactive by design, so a humid bathroom shelf will slowly activate them right there on the shelf, and they'll lose fizz and fragrance before you ever get to them. A closed container in a linen closet or a bedroom drawer keeps them fresh far longer than an open dish by the sink.

Bottom line:

1. Keep the steamer out of the direct water stream, in a back corner of your shower is best.

2. Set it on a shower steamer tray, so it drains instead of sitting in a puddle.

3. Pour off pooled water and let it dry fully between showers.

4. Store unused steamers in a sealed container, away from humidity.

Do those four things and you'll get noticeably more out of every steamer you own.

New to all this? Start with our guide on what a shower steamer is and how it works, then browse the full shower steamer collection to find your next scent. Or, our discovery kit gives you four steamers and a tray and is a great way to figure out what you love!