Lifestyle Beauty & Style Celebrity Skincare Jessica Biel Defends Her 20-lb. Epsom Salt Met Gala Bath: 'Little Red Carpet Hack' The actress said she "felt really good" the morning of the Met, thanks to her Epsom salt trick By Catherine Santino Catherine Santino Catherine Santino is a Style Writer-Reporter at PEOPLE. She began as a contributor for PEOPLE in 2022 and joined the staff full-time in 2024. Her work has previously appeared in The Zoe Report, Popsugar, Insider and more. People Editorial Guidelines and Dave Quinn Dave Quinn Dave Quinn is a Senior Editor for PEOPLE. He has been working at the brand since 2016, and is the author of the No. 1 New York Times best-selling book, Not All Diamonds and Rosé: The Inside Story of the Real Housewives from the People Who Lived It. People Editorial Guidelines Published on May 16, 2024 01:45PM EDT Jessica Biel at the 2024 Met Gala. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Jessica Biel is standing by her viral Met Gala beauty hack. After the 42-year-old star revealed the soaked in 20 pounds of Epsom salts the night before the star-studded event, she defended the technique on the Thursday, May 16 episode of The View. "It's just a little hack, like a little red carpet hack. I'm getting off a plane, relaxing," the actress said when Sunny Hostin asked about the headline-making move. "Does it like, shrink your skin in or something?" Hostin inquired."It’s amazing," Biel replied. "And it gives you magnesium inside your body. I slept really well, I woke up, I felt really good, I felt calm. It’s kind of an adrenaline, kind of night. It’s a lot of exciting people. Jessica Biel Says Her Viral Met Gala Epsom Salt Bath Trick Is Her Go-To to ‘Feel Confident’ (Exclusive) Shortly before Biel hit the Met steps on Monday, May 6, she offered fans a look into her getting-ready process, which included soaking in 20 pounds of epsom salt in hot water the night before. "For real," she said in a TikTok video as she showed herself pouring the salt into the bathtub. At the event, she took the red carpet (sans her husband, Justin Timberlake) in a pink silk faille gown and cape by Tamara Ralph Couture, which were embellished with striped coque feathers and crystals. The ensemble took 320 hours to make. “Epsom salt baths is a tool I love and use for all things, after traveling, sore muscles, of course, magnesium, absolutely, to sleep well, to de-stress, to, you know, just feel confident in your body to go to a big event like the Met Ball, which is what I was utilizing it for,” the actress later told PEOPLE exclusively. When it came to choosing her look, Biel shared that while pink isn’t her favorite color, she gravitated toward the dress. “It’s actually not necessarily the color I am often drawn to, but this particular pink and this particular dress just was the one for me,” she tells PEOPLE. The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now! Jessica Biel at the 2024 Met Gala. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. "The look was really built around the Cartier necklace and earrings and ring I was wearing," the Candy alum said on The View, adding that "the idea was playful fairy garden nymph-like character.""It just felt fun and happy and it made me feel, I don’t know, just really good," she added. Close