Imagine soaking in a hot bath at the end of a stressful day. The tension and worry flow out of your body as the relaxation flows in. As you float there peacefully, vapors in the bath stream carry an intoxicating fragrance to your nose. The salts in the water nourish your skin, leaving it unbelievably smooth and soft. Aside from being undeniably relaxing and soothing, this practice also has health benefits. Depending on the water, the temperature and the time of soak, many different health concerns can be helped or even alleviated. When you consider that our skin acts as a semi-permeable membrane, both keeping things in, like blood and body parts, and keeping things out, like rain and moisture, AND allowing certain tiny particles through, it only makes perfect sense to add things beneficial to your skin, body and overall health to your bathwater.

            The belief in the power of special waters is as old as time itself. The Ancient Greeks believed that seawater had health enhancing effects. Greek mythology is full of images of sacred and powerful waters. Their most valued foreseer of the future, the Oracle at Delphi, lay on a pristine patch of land accessible only by navigating perilous waters. The baths of the Romans were legendary places of business and social interaction, built wherever in their vast empire hot springs were found. And who can forget Ponce de Leon and his eternal quest for the fountain of youth which brought him to lands yet unknown in the Old World?Unfortunately for everyone concerned, bathing had gone out of vogue in Europe during the Middle Ages, when it was wrongly believed to have contributed to the spread of the Black Death. The vast majority of people were irrationally terrified of water, not even wanting much of it near their bodies, much less wanting to immerse themselves in it. Some even considered a layer of bodily filth to protect against the forces of evil that raged in the world. It wasn’t until much later that popular consensus considered water innocuous, even healthful. Hydrossotherapie, bathing in nutrient rich seawater, emerged in France as a treatment for all kinds of ailments ranging from mental conditions, arthritis, skin problems and even digestion. Another therapeutic practice is soaking in mineral water, as attested by the worldwide popularity of mineral hot springs.

            The waters of the Dead Sea are among the most mineral rich of the world, due to a unique combination of underlying rock composition, dry climate and evaporation. The very waters of the Dead Sea have seeming miraculous aspects, as the high salt and mineral content make the human body so buoyant that floating is completely effortless. (A similar feat can be experienced in our own Great Salt Lake in Utah, albeit to a lesser degree.) Imaging coming from a colder northern climate where bathing is shunned to a warm, arid landscape with a sea that makes you float and feel ethereal. Magical, mysterious waters indeed! Nowadays we know that higher sodium content affects buoyancy of objects, but many of the other miraculous aspects of this water remain.

            My own personal acquaintance with sea salts began over twenty years ago. I was given a small sample of exfoliating salts. I didn’t know anything about them, so they remained on my shelf for a long time. When I finally tried them, I was completely amazed at the silken feel of my fragrant skin. Wanting to experience this joy over and over again, I rushed out and bought a vat of bathing salts. Unfortunately (or not?) for me, I didn’t realize that there were different KINDS of sea salts, and I had gotten the wrong kind. There are primarily two types: those for bathing and those packed in oil (or something else) for exfoliation. Seawater nutrients such as dried seaweed, algae and specific minerals, as well as different types of mud and clay in different concentrations for hair and skin types are all also available to buy. At that particular time in my life, I was not interested in bathing for relaxation, so anything that had to be dissolved in bathwater didn’t really appeal. I experimented with mixing the salts with oils and shower gels, and was always happy with the smooth results, but it really was a lot of work.

            So, my large container of quality sea salts languished on various bathroom shelves and floors for many years. It was only recently when my shower broke and I was forced to take baths that I saw my salts sitting on the floor, dusty and forgotten, and I realized that they had now been in four different homes in a period of over ten years.  I felt the futility and waste, not to mention the chore of always moving and storing them and never benefiting from them. I had taken a few baths with Lavender bath oil before I rediscovered my salts, so I put both the salts and oils in.  The result was an amazing combination of softness, silkiness and fragrance that lasted for days. It was only after a month of baths with Dead Sea Salts before I realized that I was addicted. My jar ran empty. I was devastated. Then, my sister gave me a new kind. And, this kind has fragrance in it! Vanilla this time. I am truly in heaven. I think I’ll go take a bath right now.