The History of Dead Sea Skincare
THE EARLIEST DEAD SEA SALT COSMETICS AND LOTIONS
The Nabataeans harvested Dead Sea salts, mixed them with essential oils and balms and derived their income by selling what are the earliest known examples of Dead Sea salt cosmetics and medicinal lotions.
CLEOPATRA’S DEAD SEA
Cleopatra was an enthusiastic user of Dead sea salt cosmetics, skin creams, and lotions. She was gifted the area that included the Dead Sea by her lover Mark Antony under whose possession it was at the time. Cleopatra subsequently charged the Nabataeans for the mining rights to the Dead Sea’s minerals and salts.
GREEKS, ROMANS, AND DEAD SEA SALTS
Roman King Herod the Great was well versed on the beauty and wellness benefits of the Dead Sea, so much so that he built retreats on the shores of the sea. These retreats are the first known Dead Sea spas.
The Greek physician, Galen (born in 129 AD) wrote many books, many of which were still in use for the study of medicine 1400 years years later, mentioned the therapeutic properties of Dead Sea salts and minerals.
ISLAM AND THE DEAD SEA
The Islamic doctor al-Tamini in 1068 AD wrote of the health benefits of the Dead Sea having observed that people who “bathed in and drank from its waters, or injected it in the form of enemas and were miraculously healed.”