Short answer: The Dead Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth, with a salinity of about 34.2 percent, roughly ten times ordinary ocean water. What sets its minerals apart for skin is not just how concentrated they are but what they are made of: magnesium, calcium, and potassium chlorides plus the highest bromide levels of any natural water body, rather than the plain sodium chloride that dominates the ocean. A controlled 2005 dermatology study links that magnesium-rich profile to better skin barrier function, more hydration, and less roughness and redness. The idea that this makes the best skincare in the world is brand positioning, but the magnesium science behind it is real.
A sea that is really a mineral bath
The Dead Sea sits in an endorheic (closed) basin: the Jordan River flows in, but nothing flows out. In the desert heat, water evaporates and the minerals it leaves behind concentrate over geological time. The result is water so dense, about 1.24 kilograms per liter, that swimmers float without effort, and a shoreline that is the lowest exposed land on Earth, roughly 439.8 meters below sea level as of 2025. People have traveled to its shores for wellness for a very long time, drawn by that unusual combination of mineral water, dry desert air, and filtered sunlight.
Salinity is the headline number. At about 34.2 percent dissolved salts, the Dead Sea is close to ten times saltier than a typical ocean, which is part of why floating and mineral bathing feel so different there than at any ordinary beach. For generations, that unusual water has drawn people seeking relief for dry, irritated skin to the region.
Why the mineral mix matters more than the salt
Concentration is only half the story. Ordinary seawater is overwhelmingly sodium chloride, the same table salt in your kitchen, about 85 percent of its dissolved salts. Dead Sea salt is chemically a different substance. By weight, its dissolved chlorides run roughly 50.8 percent magnesium chloride, 30.4 percent sodium chloride, 14.4 percent calcium chloride, and 4.4 percent potassium chloride, and it carries the highest bromide ion concentration of any natural water body. Magnesium, not sodium, is the single largest component. That is the real, citable differentiator: a magnesium- and mineral-rich profile you simply cannot get from ordinary sea salt. In other words, the label matters: Dead Sea salt and ordinary sea salt are not interchangeable.
What the skin science actually shows
Magnesium is also the ingredient with the clearest evidence behind it. In a peer-reviewed 2005 study in the International Journal of Dermatology, Proksch and colleagues had volunteers with dry, atopic skin soak one forearm in a 5 percent magnesium-rich Dead Sea salt solution for 15 minutes, comparing it against a tap-water control. The mineral bath significantly improved skin barrier function, raised hydration, and reduced roughness and redness, with redness serving as a marker of inflammation. The authors tied the effect specifically to magnesium's ability to bind water and support barrier repair, not to salt in general.
It is worth being clear-eyed about the wider claims. For skin disease more broadly, the evidence is mixed and modest. A Cochrane review found only low-quality evidence that salt bathing combined with UVB light (a treatment called balneophototherapy) may reduce psoriasis more than UVB alone, and reviewers note that many such studies have methodological limits. The fair reading is that Dead Sea minerals are genuinely helpful for some skin needs, especially barrier support and hydration, without being a proven miracle cure. That is a strong, defensible story on its own, no superlatives required.
Bringing Dead Sea minerals into your routine
You do not have to fly to the lowest place on Earth to use its minerals. Our Dead Sea collection brings that magnesium-, calcium-, potassium-, and bromide-rich profile into everyday skincare made in Israel: mineral mud, cleansing salt, moisturizers, serums, and anti-aging creams built around the mix that makes Dead Sea water different from any other.
Bring it home: if your skin tends toward dryness, tightness, or a stressed barrier, that is exactly the profile the 2005 research points to. Start with one product, use it consistently, and let your skin be the judge.
Related
- Benefits of Dead Sea salt
- Why is the Dead Sea so salty?
- Benefits of Dead Sea skincare products from Israel
Last updated July 2026.
