Who doesn’t adore sinking back into a blissfully warm bath to release the stresses and strains of everyday life?! It’s one of life’s simplest and best pleasures. Adding bath salts to your bath brings about even more benefits to your bath time. Here we share 10 of the wonderful benefits of bathing salts.
Salt bath benefits
Popping some salt in the bath comes with some wonderful benefits. Epsom salts and Himalayan salt are best, rather than grabbing your run of the mill table salt!
There are many benefits associated with using salts in your bath, including:
1. Natural
Salt is, of course, an entirely natural product. Our oceans are full of it and bathing in the ocean has been a long-standing human preoccupation! Bearing in mind many bath products aren’t natural, and instead involve you submerging your body in a chemical concoction you’d probably avoid if you knew the real ingredients, choosing simple natural salt is preferable.
2. Detoxifying
Epsom bath salt benefits have long been hailed. One of the primary benefits of Epsom salt baths is that the minerals introduced to the water and absorbed by the skin help to detoxify the skin as well as reduce irritation and swelling . This is lauded for bringing numerous benefits from alleviating pain to even aiding weight loss.
3. Magnesium
Another of the Epsom salt bath benefits is the high level of magnesium that you will benefit from as you soak in the tub. Magnesium is best absorbed through the skin, so getting it from a bath is wonderful and relaxing.
Magnesium is linked to improving sleep through calming restless muscles, so enjoying an Epsom salt bath before bed is ideal. What’s more, soaking in a magnesium rich bath could also help alleviate period pains.
4. Moisturizing
It turns out that bathing in a bath filled with natural bath salts can actually improve the skin barrier function. This allows the skin to stay hydrated for longer. We often think that swimming in the sea dries our skin – but actually this barrier improvement, when combined with a good body moisturizer, is one of the benefits of bathing salts.
5. Muscle aches and pains
Muscle soak bath salts aren’t anything different from regular bath salts. Bath salts are known for relaxing tense muscles and reducing aches and pains. Indeed, there is some evidence that salt bath benefits extend to reducing inflammation which in turn eases pain.
This is true whether your aches are coming from pushing too hard at the gym or because your arthritis is playing up. Indeed, various arthritis bodies recommend regular Epsom salt baths. Furthermore, soaking in the warm water helps to support sore joints and muscles, easing pain and soreness.
If you don’t have time to have a leisurely bath, you can even get some bath salt benefits by using them in a foot soak for sore and tired feet. Add a few drops of peppermint oil and your feet will thank you! Soaking your feet in bath salts brings lots of benefits including reduced itching from athlete’s foot, targeting toenail fungus and reducing odour.
6. Healing and wellness
Both the benefits of an Epsom salt bath and a Himalayan salt bath are gaining traction. More and more studies are emerging which show that salt baths can boost our immunity, perhaps through replenishing electrolytes, aiding cellular function and establishing balance. More research needs to be done, but already salt baths are heralded for bolstering things such as cardiovascular health, circulation and even regulating blood sugar levels.
7. Soothing irritation and inflammation
Those with sore, dry or irritated skin will particularly benefit from a salt bath. Bath salts have long been used to calm irritation from skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.
If you find that a standard bath stings, add some bath salts and you should notice the difference. It doesn’t just soothe the skin, but can actively help to treat it, reducing inflammation. Bathing in bath salts will also help to relieve dryness and itchiness. Many choose to add other natural ingredients to help, such as oats or natural oils.
8. Natural scrub
Bath salts can be mixed into the warm water of a bath until they dissolve. Additionally, they can be used as the basis of a scrub used in the bath or even the shower. This way you can enjoy bath salt benefits and get the benefit of natural exfoliation. This will help your skin to look radiant and healthy. The best way to do this without irritating the skin is to grab a handful of bath salts and rub them gently and directly onto wet skin, let them soak on the skin for a few minutes, and then wash them off. Of course, we offer our natural coffee scrubs too!
9. Lowers stress
Soaking in a bath can lower stress all by itself but add in bath salts and you have a potent de-stressing mix. The improved circulation helps you relax your body inside and out. Your muscles are eased. Both your mind and body benefit from a salt bath, and the warm water just adds to the effect. After a stressful day, enjoy a relaxing salt bath and feel the stresses and strains of the day move on.
10. Sleep
Partly due to the magnesium, partly due to soothing aches and pains, and partly due to relaxing you and helping to regulate your temperature before bed, bath salt benefits extend to helping you sleep.
UpCircle’s very own bath salts
For a while, we’ve been considering introducing bath salts to our range of skincare. As always, we really take our time in product development, wanting to ensure that we bring you something that’s unique, sustainable and cruelty-free, completely in line with our values.
Our bath salts will bring you all the salt bath benefits above. But they bring even more benefits besides. Most specifically, we are rescuing waste flowers, specifically roses and using the dried rose petals in our salts, ensuring a fragrant, botanical and relaxing scent. Given around 15% of flowers in UK supermarkets for sale are wasted, we wanted to reimagine how these flowers could be used.
About two years ago the UpCircle co-founder Anna was on a panel alongside one of the buyers who helped us launch into Sainsbury's. On the panel Anna was discussing how the inspiration for UpCircle products often comes from everyday observation and curiosity.
We have two railway arches which act as warehouses for UpCircle. The rest of the arches on the row are occupied by florists. Every Monday, the bins outside the arches are FILLED with beautiful flowers that the florists have not sold the previous week. Those are sadly disposed of despite looking absolutely stunning still.
Anna was telling this story on the panel and the Sainsbury's buyer had a lightbulb moment. Why don't UpCircle start upcycling unsold flowers from Sainsbury's' own flower supplier? Anna was put in touch with this supplier and the timeline for our new Bath Salts began...!