Wellness, healing, and feeling centered and well-resourced at home are at the forefront of everyone’s minds right now, including ours.
In recent days, it’s become clear that everyone’s needs are a little different from “normal”. We all need more of what makes us feel connected and grounded, and we certainly need more R & R – and creating these habits and rituals at home is the new normal. We’re all looking for a retreat, or a space to decompress from nonstop work from home, school from home, health concerns, and economic and political stress.
This cultural climate was the impetus for our newest formulas. Since the very beginning, our product inspiration has always come from the needs of our community – especially relevant in 2020.
In that spirit, we’re proud to introduce our Multi-Botanical Bath Salts with CBD, for Intimacy, Wellness and Relief. Designed to nourish, refresh and renew with the timeless wisdom of nature, these all-natural and organic soaks were inspired by ancient traditions – but designed for the current moment.
For more on the process that birthed our Bath Salts, we spoke to Colleen Gerson – Foria’s Functional Wellness Educator and Botanical Formulator – about healing plant allies, surviving tough times, and what drove her to craft her latest creations.
We all love baths! What about bath salts makes bathing even more healing? What were some of your inspirations in creating these bath salts?
The practice of bathing has been a simple, healing retreat since ancient times and celebrated worldwide. When we have nowhere to go but our homes, making space for a deeply replenishing and centering experience, taking a moment to really log out and drop in, this was what we felt most supportive for our community right now. A way to immerse in nature from home, and be restored.
Also, for those that may be curious about exploring hemp or CBD, but are not yet ready to take it internally or even sensually, these bath soaks are a wonderful, gentle invitation into exploring the benefits, and in a medium that we’re all familiar with.
Soaking in hot water is an ancient healing practice, and further enriching the soak with minerals, plants, oils and aromatherapy, can heighten the therapeutic potential and experience. Many cultures around the world have had this connection with plants and water, and continue to use herbal baths in ritual and ceremony.
Herbal bathing is a way that we can immerse ourselves in nature. When we can’t simply run off to the wilderness, or have too much work to do, children to tend to, and other matters to take care of, bathing can be that invitation to close the door and restore ourselves. As an herbalist and wellness practitioner, I believe that weaving in organic plants, internally and externally, in all ways possible is incredibly healing, and reconnects us to our interwoven nature and the potent nourishment they continually offer us.
Tell us about the role Kava plays in these bath salts. Any other ingredients you would like to highlight?
Each bath soak blend has a very intentional combination of plant botanicals chosen for their own unique properties, but a few hero plants I’d love to highlight are:
Kava kava, or piper methysticum, is one of our most beloved plants, and a key ingredient in each of our bath salts for Wellness, Relief, and Intimacy. An incredibly powerful healer and support, with so much similarity to cannabis and hemp, in stigma, diverse varieties, and healing properties to body, mind, and heart. Native to the western Pacific Islands, Kava has been a vital part of the local culture for thousands of years.
With incredibly heart-opening, tension-relieving, and empathic qualities (even her leaves are giant hearts), this plant is consumed as a beverage for daily as well as ceremonial uses. As a root medicine, kava is deeply grounding and calming, and warming and tingling to the taste and touch. As a nervine and antispasmodic, Kava helps to relieve pain and relax muscles and tension in the body and mind, and as a powerful aphrodisiac, she seduces our energy through our heart and pleasure centers.
Ginger, zingiber officianale, is actually not a root but a rhizome. We know ginger well for her immune and digestive supportive qualities, but ginger also has anti-inflammatory and potent pain-relieving effects. Ginger brings warmth, eases internal upset, and encourages a sunny, secure disposition.
Lavender, lavendula, has traditionally been used for purification and peace. As a gentle nervine known to powerfully calm stress and support a good mood and sleep, lavender also soothes skin itch or irritation, as well as offers pain and tension relief.
Hemp, cannabis sativa, we know has a wide range of benefits. In this application, hemp offers skin-soothing and rejuvenating effects, and anti-inflammatory, and analgesic (or pain reducing) properties. A plant of resilience, playfulness and sensuality, and deeply interwoven with our body’s needs for balance.
Eucalyptus, eucalyptus globulus, as well as Fir, abies balsamea, are two of my most beloved forest scents. They can have such an instant impact on our breath and nervous system. Imagine walking in a forest with them, and you feel your breath open and deepen, your mind and mood lift, and feel deliciously supported again. These aromatics and terpenes support our respiratory system, calm the sympathetic nervous system, and uplift our mood. Most of all, I find tree medicine to be incredible at bringing an ancient, centered wisdom and hardy strength, connecting us with our deeper knowing and integrative web of support.
What's the role of the mineral salts you used? And can we really absorb these minerals through our skin?
Minerals are essential to many functions for our health, and we consume them through plants and animals, earth and water.
Epsom salt is actually not salt or sodium chloride at all but magnesium sulfate, and thus a rich source of magnesium and sulphur. Magnesium deficiency is quite common, particularly with those who have a regular menstrual bleed, and adequate magnesium levels are needed for many processes in the body, including supporting muscle contraction and release, nervous system regulation, and digestion. Studies show it’s well-absorbed transdermally through the opening of pores in a hot bath.
Himalayan salt contains over eighty minerals, many of which are essential for our healthy body functioning. There is no solid evidence to support that it emits negative ions or purifies the air, as is touted, but if you’ve ever been in a himalayan salt room or swam in salty seas you may have a deeper feeling sense of the purification and recharge that ancient mineral salts may offer.
Dendritic salt is an all-natural, fine-grained salt that’s been crystallized to provide greater surface area to help evenly disperse the plant oils throughout the salts. It further doubles the absorption of the essential oils and even retains their scent longer.
What are the differences between these 3 bath soak blends?
Each of the bath soaks have epsom salts, organic broad-spectrum hemp, and organically-grown noble kava, and each have their own unique plant blends, scent, and experience. They invoke a nature-immersed retreat to open the senses, relieve tension, hydrate and nourish the skin, and connect us to our wild nature and plant allies.
The Wellness bath is meant for deep relaxation and supportive sleep, with the key notes being lavender, ginger, and calendula for tension release in body and mind, an uplifted mood, skin healing, and deep rest.
The Relief bath blend is like bringing an evergreen forest to you, with kava and arnica for ache relief, and fir and eucalyptus to open up the breath and feel more expansive, grounded, and refreshed.
The Intimacy bath blend entices the senses and sets the mood for deepened intimacy, romance, and bliss, with kava, cacao, and rose all activating the heart, easing tension and stimulating desire for pleasure and heart-centered connection.
What are some important ways to enhance a bath experience?
For a real intentional retreat space, I would invite you to let your partner or kids know that you’re taking 30min of quiet time and no interruptions. Close the door, pour yourself some tea, light a candle, have a good book or a journal and pen, or simply enjoy closing your eyes, breathing deeply, and feeling your body and what you’re letting go.
After getting out of the bath, you may want to lightly pat dry, and let the oils further absorb into the skin, even gently massaging your body if that feels available to you.
What are some of the benefits that may be felt?
Skin feeling soothed, softened, and moisturized, deep body and mind relaxation, more open and expansive breath, relief from pain or tension, uplifted mood, feeling grounded and replenished.
You don’t have to take our word for it.
Early reviews of our Bath Salts are in, and we’re as thrilled as our community is! If you’ve tried Bath Salts, or any of our formulas, and want to share your experiences, we love feedback. Reach out anytime at hello@foriawellness.com or just click here.
It’s been one heck of a Thursday. Mommy-ing + Virtual School Teacher’s Assistant + Busy Executive w/ 4 back-to-back Zoom calls + Wife & Chef. Cut to 8pm…exhausted and inspired by my new Intimacy bath salts I decided to run a bath and pilfer some time to myself. What a treat! No more than 15 minutes into my soak I felt the tension in my body start to melt away. For the first time in a long time I felt calm, present and light. If the water hadn’t turned cold I may have stayed in the tub forever. Added bonus… baby’s in bed and mommy is ready for “special time” with Daddy. *wink* – Neka H. (Intimacy Salts)
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