Did Cleopatra really bathe in milk? Wouldn't a milk bath stink?

History has always said that she did. It made her sound very decadent to the stoic Romans, which was the intention of every word their historians wrote about her.
But, if she did, she was not alone. WOmen have used milk for baths (rich women) for a long time. It probably wasn't a total milk bath, but water with milk added to it.
I found a recipe online:
Cleopatra was famous for her beautiful skin. Her secret was that she soaked in baths of fresh milk.
SIMPLE SOLUTION: Modern laboratories now know why milk worked such wonders for her skin: the lactic acid in milk is an alpha hydroxy acid, a natural material that dissolves the glue that holds dead skin cells together. Milk can cleanse the skin down to its deepest layers.
This secret beauty formula couldn't be simpler. Add 2 to 4 cups of fresh milk or buttermilk to the bathwater as the tub is filling. Soak for a good 20 minutes. Gently rub your skin with a washcloth or loofa to slough off the dead skin. Rinse your body thoroughly after soaking.
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/cleopatras-milk-bath-formula.html

i dont think that it was that bad. they added milk to their bath water and rinsed off pretty good but she did look fine

A milk bath will stink if you leave it out for like a day. Still it's pretty common practice to take a milk bath. Try it. it's not all milk. Honey is in it too.

Cleopatra is shown bathing in milk in the movies (such as in the famous 1963 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and in the parody Carry on Cleo of 1964), but there is no ancient source to support that she ever did so. On the other hand, the emperor Nero's wife Poppaea was said to bathe in the milk of asses and it was reported that wherever she went she made sure to have a retinue of 500 lactating asses for that purpose (the source is Pliny the Elder's Natural History 11.41.96 and 28.12.50). This is depicted in the 1932 movie The Sign of the Cross starring Claudette Colbert.