Britney Spears is currently living her best life on Instagram following a tough conservatorship battle - where she was freed from a legal arrangement that saw her father control her life.
The 40-year-old newly pregnant pop star frequently updates her 40million followers with confident outfit posts and delicious food.
She has also been taking to her account in recent weeks to share multiple videos of bars of soap being cut and shaved, which are extremely popular in the ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) community.
These videos feature thousands of comments from fans saying how 'satisfying' they find the trend.
Alongside one video, Britney wrote: "I like the sound of this".
Follower paulettemart replied: "Welcome to the ASMR world Britney" while fan account saintbritney said: "almost as good as the sound of ur songs".
Nada Ward, founder of sustainable body bar brand Beauty Kin, explains why the phenomenon of soap cutting has taken the world of social media by storm, and why Britney’s new obsession is a positive move in encouraging consumers to ditch unnecessary plastic bottles of soap and embrace solid bars once more.
“The hashtag #soapcutting has more than 934k posts on Instagram currently, and videos featuring the terms have a whopping 1.5 billion views over on TikTok, so to call this ASMR trend anything less than a viral phenomenon would be an understatement.
“Of course the undeniable pull and power of a cultural icon like Ms Britney Spears will no doubt spur a significant amount of people to discover and explore whether or not they themselves are partial to watching soap ASMR videos.
“Of the many that enjoy watching the vast array of soap cutting videos available on social platforms, many feel relaxed or even feelings of ‘pleasure or tingling sensations in the head’ from consuming the content, while others clearly use the videos as way to escape the often chaotic posts associated with Instagram and TikTok, and welcome the calming simplicity of nothing more than a bar of soap being expertly diced and sliced
“Here at Beauty Kin, I have spent the last few years building a brand that offers solid bars created as an alternative to liquid bath and body products.
"The products contain all active ingredients and have been designed to simply solve common beauty problems, and provide a solution to particular skin issues. The core line comprises of a Hydrating Body Bar, Clarifying Body Bar, Exfoliating Body Bar and Shaving Bar.
“While I don’t particularly encourage or agree with the use of cutting up and effectively destroying solid bars of soap, I do appreciate that this ASMR trend is shining a light on the multiple sustainable benefits of switching to solid bars.
"Our products use 70% less water to manufacture than gels, and are also vegan, cruelty-free and any palm oil used is RSPO certified. So Britney, if you’re reading this and need a new bar to test out some ASMR on - you know where to find us!”
The relaxing videos could help the star during her pregnancy, which she announced last week after her fiance Sam Asghari suggested she take a pregnancy test.
The Baby One More Time singer revealed the exciting news on Instagram, where she wrote: "I lost so much weight to go on my Maui trip only to gain it back … I thought “Geez … what happened to my stomach ???” My husband said “No you’re food pregnant silly !!!” So I got a pregnancy test … and uhhhhh well … I am having a baby … 4 days later I got a little more food pregnant It’s growing !!! If 2 are in there … I might just loose it …"
Britney added: "It’s hard because when I was pregnant I had perinatal depression … I have to say it is absolutely horrible … women didn’t talk about it back then … some people considered it dangerous if a woman complained like that with a baby inside her … but now women talk about it everyday … thank Jesus we don’t have to keep that pain a reserved proper secret… This time I will be doing yoga every day !!! Spreading lots of joy and love !!!"
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