Useful information

How to choose bath salts

2022/01/01

Happy New Year to you all!
Wishing you all the best this year.
It’s cold here in Japan.
On such a cold night, don’t you miss your bath time more?
Bath salts are a great way to increase the warming effect of bathing.
In this article, I will explain how to choose the right bath salts.

What are bath salts for anyway?

When you soak in a bathtub with bath salts, it’s an easy way to give your regular bath a boost.
Aside from enjoying the color and scent, bath salts have a variety of benefits and effects.
First of all, the basic effect of bath salts is to enhance the effects of bathing: the warming effect to warm the body and the cleansing effect to remove dirt from the body. Just taking a plain bath warms you up and refreshes you, but bath salts enhance this effect.

There are two types of bath salts

On top of that, different types of bath salts have additional benefits and effects.
Did you know that there are two main types of bath salts?
One is classified as a “quasi drug” and the other is a “cosmetic”. The applicable category is indicated on the package of the product, so please check. By the way, some products are labeled as “medicated,” but “medicated” means quasi-drugs.
Quasi-drug bath salts have efficacy and effects for the following: rash, roughness, bruises,
stiff shoulders, sprains, neuralgia, frostbite, hemorrhoids, sensitivity to cold, back pain,
rheumatism, recovery from fatigue, cracked and chapped skin.
On the other hand, for bath salts classified as cosmetics, the efficacy and effects that can be labeled are limited to “cleansing the skin”, “keeping the skin healthy”, and “moisturizing the skin”.

Carbon dioxide bath salts improve blood flow

So a bath filled with quasi-drug type bath salts can be expected to have the same effect as a
hot spring. I guess you could call it a mild onsen, or a home version of a hot spring.
So, if you have a cold, chapped skin, cracked skin, or other symptoms that bother you,
quasi-drug type bath salts are recommended.
Furthermore, there are several types of bath salts. depending on their ingredients.
First of all, the most popular and commonly seen type of bath salt is the “carbon dioxide”
type. These are the ones that produce bubbles when you add them to the bath water.
The carbon dioxide gas dissolved in the water dilates blood vessels and improves blood flow.

What bath salts do you recommend for winter?

There are bath salts that contain “moisturizing ingredients” such as jojoba oil, shea butter,
glycerin, liquid lanolin, and casein. The water becomes thicker and softer to the touch, and the moisturizing ingredients coat the skin. In winter, when the skin tends to be dry, it is especially pleasant to take a moisturizing bath.
In terms of increasing the effect of warm baths, “herbal medicine” bath salts are also recommended in winter.
Herbal bath salts are made by chopping or extracting plants found in nature. There are a variety of plants used, such as Chinese ginseng, osmanthus, Chinese juniper, Chinese cinnamon, Chinese toadstool, capsicum, and mugwort. Yuzu-yu, which is taken during the
winter solstice, is one of these.

Cool bath salts also warm the body

There are bath salts that contain cooling ingredients such as menthol and hackberry. The package often has the word “cool” written on it. These bath salts are perfect for summer because they make you feel refreshed after taking a bath.
When you bathe with these cooling bath salts, you will feel cool and refreshed, but your body
will not actually be cooled. The warmth of the bath is still maintained, so don’t worry.
It is also a good idea to have several types of bath salts on hand so that you can take a bath according to your mood.
Reference
The official textbook of the Bathing Proficiency Test: “How to take a bath properly”.
Bathing is the ultimate way to recover from fatigue.