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

Jessica Biel attends The 2024 Met Gala Celebrating "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" at The Metropolitan
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.

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. 

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Jessica Biel attends The 2024 Met Gala Celebrating "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 06, 2024 in New York City.
Jessica Biel at the 2024 Met Gala.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty

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"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.

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