I love going into a Lush store to smell and look at all the lovely soaps and powders and bath bombs, though my overwhelming sensation when I'm there is of wanting to eat these things rather than use them in my bath. Afterall, the products are made to look like gingerbread men, sugar cookies, chocolates kisses, and swirly candy. My favorite is blue ocean salt, which of course, is a cleanser and exfoliator (to me, it looks like crushed rock candy).
I've now discovered the existence of edible salt that's just as pretty as the inedible kind. Salt Traders, "purveyors of fine salt," carries hand-harvested salt in many beautiful colors with suggestive names like "Hawaiian Alae Sea Salt," "Danish Viking-Smoked Salt" and "Peruvian Pink Salt". And, unlike bland, white table salt, they contain trace minerals from the sea and have exotic flavors picked up from the places where they're harvested and from the methods used to process them.
At $11.00 to $24.00 for a 4 oz. bottle, I think these are perfect little gifts for friends who have everything or for the wannabe gourmet in your life. Read about how salt trading has shaped the history of food on the Specialty Food magazine website.