Sea salt soap, or salt bars are a recent obsession of mine. Having struggled with oily skin my whole life, I was intrigued by their ability to remove excess oil but not overdry the skin. The ingredients were simple enough - coconut oil and salt. I had them in stock. But what I wasn't prepared for was how much I'd love making and using salt bars.
Salt isn't new in skincare. It's in everything from soaking salts to bath bombs, even in hair volumising sprays. If you've swum in the ocean, you'll know how cleansing it is, in more ways than one (shout out to my Witchy peeps!)
In this blog post, I hope to answer some of your questions about salt and salt soap bars.
What makes salt special?
Sea salt is loaded with minerals - magnesium, potassium, calcium and even more depending on where it is harvested. Think Himalayan or Dead Sea Salt. Salt is drawing, purifying and amazing for fighting acne. It helps to restore the skin's natural oil balance which fighting bacteria. If you get pimples in summer from the heat and sunscreen, salt bars will help to cleanse all of that away.
Isn't salt drying on the skin?
You'd think so but (science facts!) salt is hydrophilic, meaning it attracts moisture from the air.
Combine that with the Glycerin, which is naturally present in handmade soap and like salt, has hydrophilic properties. Glycerin is also a humectant - which allows the skin to retain moisture.
Hydrophilic and humectant = a gentle soap that leaves your skin feeling amazeballs. Soft, smooth and not at all dry.
Does salt soap work differently than regular soap?
Sort of. You will lather it up and wash with the foam as per normal but I find it's the lather that's quite different to normal. It's like a foamy cloud - puffy and light but somehow without giant bubbles. When massaged into the skin, it looks like lotion. It rinses away cleanly and just feels different from regular handmade soap. These are my go-to body soaps during the hot, sticky summer months. They also last BONKERS LONG in the shower. Even in a family situation where lots of people are using the same soap.
Are salt bars scratchy?
No, it's more like washing yourself with a smooth rock! To get the longest lifespan out of all handmade soap, we do recommend lathering it up and washing with the lather, not rubbing the bar directly on the skin. So that will also help avoid any scratches, especially if there are larger decorative salts on top of the bar. But in general, I've not noticed any scratchiness from salt bar soap.
Want to try one for yourself?
Click on the image below and buy Temple Body Salt Soap.
We hope you've enjoyed this article about Sea Salt! If you'd like to read about any other ingredient or topic, reach out on Instagram or Facebook.
