BATH SALTS BENEFITS: RELAXATION, HEALING, AND SO MUCH MORE

Not all salt is created equal - and you wouldn't want it to be. Here's the scoop on using pure mineral salts for baths.

SEA SALTS

Sea salts come, of course, from the sea, created by ocean tides that dissolve solid mineral rock into the water. Depending on the source (i.e. Dead Sea, Pacific Ocean, etc.) different minerals are also deposited by active volcanoes and geological differences, as well as taken away by the action of creatures such as mollusks who use the naturally occurring calcium to build their shells. The salt itself is what's left behind when seawater is evaporated.

Unlike table salt, which has been processed until it's 99% sodium chloride with iodine as well as up to 14 other legally allowable chemicals added, real sea salt is nourishing to the skin. While regular sea salt has serious health implications when ingested in quantity, minimally processed bath salts contain, in varying amounts, magnesium, potassium, calcium chloride, iodine, bromide and other minerals, in addition to sodium chloride (the ingredient that makes table salt so... salty). Sea salt is an excellent additive in natural body & bath products because it...

Stimulates circulation
Helps speed up healing of cuts, scrapes and rashes
Helps to reduce inflammation and relieve itchiness from insect bites as well as soothing chronic conditions like acne, psoriasis, rosacea, and eczema, among others
Softens the water, and therefore the skin
Clears the sinuses and reduces mucous and phlegm
Strengthens the immune system
Unclogs pores
Replenishes the skin's natural moisture barrier
Soothes achy, overworked legs and feet
Cleanses and detoxifies your skin
Helps relieve joint stiffness and arthritis, back pain

Interesting Sea Salt Facts

When salt is heated in water, it creates negative ions, just like a lit salt lamp. Because the human body – like all the electronic devices we are constantly exposed to - is positively charged, negative ions literally reset and renew the body, reducing stress.

Sea salt takes longer to dissolve in hot water than Epsom salts. That's why it's so great for foot soaks - you can play around with your toes as you would in the sand, and use it as an exfoliating scrub for the soles of your feet.

Unprocessed sea salts contain the same mineral composition as the amniotic fluid that we were all born in.

You won't come out of a salt bath with puckered, wrinkled skin like you do with a regular bubble bath. That's because the salt has preserved, rather than stripped away, your skin's natural moisture barrier. Salt draws moisture from the skin, along with toxins and bacteria, but only from the top layer - which encourages moisture from the lower layers to rise to the surface, leaving beautifully soft new skin which has been restored to its mineral balance and is now primed to absorb moisture.

You can read more about bathing in salt water. But the best way is to try a sea salt bath for yourself!

EPSOM SALTS

Epsom salts originally got their name from the mineral baths that were built around a naturally occurring saline spring in Epsom, England...and they are not actually even salt as we know it! Epsom salts are comprised of a pure mineral compound of magnesium and sulfate. They have been used as a natural health remedy as well as for many beauty and household-related purposes, for hundreds of years.

Since magnesium and sulfate are both absorbed through the skin, the benefits of Epsom salt baths are easily passed through to the body. Magnesium helps to produce serotonin, a feel-good brain chemical, as well as ATP, the body's energy fuel. It also helps make our (usually too acidic) bodies more alkaline and plays complex roles in the body, regulating the activity of hundreds of enzymes and performing many other crucial tasks, including helping our bodies to absorb calcium properly.

What else? Epsom salt...

Reduces inflammation
Draws lactic acid from the muscles (this is why an Epsom salts bath is always recommended to avoid stiffness and soreness after a deep tissue massage, sports injury, or strenuous workout)
Regulates nerve function and relaxes the nervous system
Improves the absorption of calcium by the body
Flushes out harmful toxins
Treats colds and congestion
Reduces irritability
Improves sleep and concentration
Increases the effectiveness of insulin
Decreases discomfort of swelling and bruising anywhere on the body

DEAD SEA SALTS

The Dead Sea is one of Jordan's most popular landmarks for many reasons, but it is a tourist favourite for its reputed healing spa effects. The water of the Dead Sea has an extraordinarily high salt content of 29% (compared to just 4% in the oceans) and this dense quality allows anyone to effortlessly float on Dead Sea waters. Its mineral composition is also richer than that of ordinary sea or ocean water. The Dead Sea, and its salts, contain not only sodium, but also:

Chloride
Bromide
Magnesium
Calcium
Potassium

As well as trace elements and minerals such as:

Iron
Phosphorus
Sulphur
Titanium

It's no wonder that mineral-rich Dead Sea salts for baths have a reputation for healing and relieving many chronic health conditions, including psoriasis, acne, arthritis, allergies, and common aging. This is largely due to the fact that most of these conditions involve inflammation, and Dead Sea salts are highly anti-inflammatory.

Salt crystals on the shores of the Dead Sea

SPECIALTY SALTS

Nature has provided us with incredible bounty when it comes to salt - and the ability, of course, to manipulate natural salts to our wishes, changing the size of the granules (most sea salts are available in coarse, medium, fine and superfine grinds) and even their chemical composition, depending on the purpose and the type of skin care product desired. Here are some other bath crystals you may encounter in your Saltz&Co natural bath products:

Hawaiian Black Lava Salt: Artisanally harvested from the waters around Hawaii's islands, this salt has both culinary and spa uses. It is infused with activated charcoal to provide additional detoxifying during spa treatments. Read more about Hawaiian Black Lava Salt here.

Himalayan Pink Salt: Formed hundreds of millions of years ago when the Himalayan mountain range was underwater, this salt has had a lot of time to develop an extremely high mineral content. This hand-harvested salt makes an exceptional bath additive due to its higher-than-ocean-levels mineral, element and enzyme content. Pink salt is used for culinary purposes as well as crafted into lamps, cooking planks, serving blocks and more; you can purchase Himalayan Pink Salt for the tub, here.

Other types of salts we aren't using yet - but plan to work with in the near future - include European Spa Salt (which is harvested from the waters of the Mediterranean sea using solar evaporation) and Alaea Salt, a red salt whose rosy hue comes from purified alae clay from the island of Kauai.