What Mel B Can’t Live Without

My favorite essential oils are from Neal’s Yard, and I especially love the Women’s Balance blend that I also mix with my own secret ingredients, which I can’t tell you about. Then I put it all in my bath. I put it on my hands and my neck if I’m feeling a little bit stressed or overwhelmed. And it gives a really nice aura and smell about you. I sometimes layer perfume as well. I’ve used the same fragrance for about the last, God, nine years. It’s calledSilage, and it comes in a green bottle. Perfume smells different on everybody’s specific skin, but this mixed with the essential oils has become my scent. I spray it and I don’t even feel like I’ve got it on, but then I’ll walk past somebody and they’ll go, “My God, what is that?” I’m like, “It’s my oils and my fragrance.”

I put this on my body and my feet at nighttime, and I like to mix it with the Women’s Balance essential oils from Neil’s Yard. It’s not too slimy and it moisturizes without feeling gloopy or sticky. I have tried nearly every product, and this is still the one that I come back to every night before bed.

This has been a godsend, because it halves your bed. So my husband has one setting, I have another. When I was going through menopause with no help, I would have my side set on super-cold. It also tracks your sleep and your REM and your deep sleep. And it can gently vibrate and wake you up in the morning so you don’t have a screaming alarm. Or you can use it for a nap. So if you want to have a 20-minute nap, it’ll do the cycle of your nap. I call it a disco nap. All you need is 20 minutes. When we were babies, we had to go down for a nap otherwise we would be cranky, and it’s the same with me now.

With my previous house, I was renting, because I didn’t quite have enough money to afford my own place. I was in a very abusive marriage for ten years. Not just abuse, but financial abuse. So there I had a blow-up bath, which is way cheaper and way, way easier. But I had to wash it out every second time I used it. Whereas with this one, it’s attached to my pump system. So it’s constantly recycling the water and cleaning itself. You are only meant to do 12 minutes per week, and you can spread that out throughout the week. So I do it on alternate days where I’m not working out or lifting weights, because if you do an ice bath and a sauna on the day that you work out, it kind of doesn’t let your muscles pump up and develop so much.

I’ve got one of my outfits at theBarbicanright now, which is part of a massive exhibition that’s going on in London. It’s the leopard-print outfit that I wore at the Brit Awards, which was the Spice Girls’ first major award that meant so much to us. I’m a big fan of leopard print. I’ve got leopard-print socks on right now, and I have a leopard-print blanket next to me. I usually have leopard-print nails. I have always said that it goes with everything and it never goes out of style. I dressed myself for the “Say You’ll Be There” and “Wannabe” videos. The skort and leopard-print bustier top were mine. For the “Wannabe” video, I treated myself to a pair ofJohn Paul Gaultier trousers, but then I wore a £1.99 bright-green tank top.

I turned 50 last year, and these help me with my hot sweats, my brain fog, my anxiety, my sleeping, everything. My husband brings it to me with my cup of coffee with almond milk in the morning, and I literally rip the little sachet open and drink the liquid. Then I’m good to go for the rest of the day. I take Menopause Max. It’s the most potent one out there. It’s got everything: mushrooms, selenium, vitamins B6, C, and D. Plus it tastes really good. Women can start going through perimenopause as young as 35. I’m like, “Why are we not talking about it?” I have no problem saying that I’m 50 and I’m going through menopause. You can take this along with HRT, but I just take this and it has calmed down all of my symptoms.