Shea Couleé Has the Recipe For a Perfect Bath

Drag Files

Shea Couleé doesn't come to play, they came to slay.

And after a long day of slayage, whether that involves recording an episode of their America's Next Top Model-themed podcast, starring as Marcia Brady in Paramount+'s drag edition of The Brady Bunch, or simply sharing one of their countless gorgeous drag looks on Instagram, Couleé likes to unwind in the bath.

So it makes sense that the RuPaul Drag Race All Stars 5 winner now wants to share their wealth of knowledge on crafting the perfect bath with their $100,00 bar, a deeply moisturizing bar soap created in collaboration with The Quiet Girl Shoppe, a female, Black-owned small business that makes artisanal body care products with all-natural ingredients.

Couleé and The Quiet Girl Shoppe founder Adrienne Williams-Simmons's meeting was kismet. The drag queen discovered the soaps through Instagram (a longtime friend helps Williams-Simmons run the business), and then Williams-Simmons coincidentally reached out to Couleé about a potential collaboration.

"I love soap, because honestly, the bath is where I do my meditation and all of my relaxing and self-care," Couleé tells InStyle. "My boyfriend Dan and I ordered some soaps from The Quiet Girl Shoppe and they were just so fantastic. Then, it was like they read our minds because they reached out asking if I'd be interested in doing a collaboration. And so for the past year we've been working on developing the formula for the $100,000 Bar."

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The $100,000 Bar is a nourishing, antioxidant-packed, vitamin-rich blend of olive oil, coconut oil, and shea butter, and aromatic essential oils. The orange and pink shades of the color block soap are a nod to Couleé's power colors, which has been present in many of their drag looks throughout their career.

For Couleé, head-to-toe moisturization has always been key, long before their skin-baring drag costumes. "My mom literally used to check our elbows and knees before we left the house to make sure there was no ash to be found," they recall. "So I usually hear my mother's voice in my head saying, 'make sure you moisturize!'"

And that's exactly why the drag star has put shea butter in their $100,000 Bar.

"As somebody who has tried many different types of moisturizers on the market, natural shea butter is supreme," Couleé says. "It's so good for you and your skin just looks so glowy. It provides moisture that really does penetrate deep into the skin, but it's not greasy and doesn't transfer."

Gentle exfoliation, with some Epsom salts in the bath, is also important for allover smooth, glowy skin.

And while the soap's name is a nod to the Drag Race grand prize amount, Couleé feels equally expensive offstage, too.

"I feel like $100,000 after a night of performing for a sold-out, amped-up audience," the drag queen says. "And then coming home, peeling myself out of my drag, taking a nice, long bubble bath, luxuriating in all of my skincare, and then putting on a lovely soft terry cloth robe while I lay in bed putting moisturizer on my hands before turning on the Golden Girls and going to sleep."

Sounds like the recipe for a great night.

The Shea Couleé x Quiet Girl $100,000 Bar retails for $12 and is available for presale at sheacoulee.com. It will officially be available August 1.