The Meaning Behind Forbidden Salt (& Why You Should Lick Anyway)
I didn’t mean to start a sticker shop called Forbidden Salt. It just… happened. Like a crystal growing quietly in the dark.It started when I made my first crystallized book. My best friend/soulmate/roommate/platonic other half looked at it and, in true chaotic neutral fashion, said:
“It looks like salt. I want to lick it.”
To which I said:
“It’s borax. It’s forbidden salt. Don’t lick it.”
Boom. Brand name born. It felt weirdly perfect — I was also drawing POTS-themed stickers, being told to literally eat more salt, and reclaiming parts of myself I had hidden away for too long. The name hit like truth does: salty, funny, slightly unhinged.
✨ So what is Forbidden Salt?
It’s a crystal that looks too pretty not to taste.
It’s the judgment I’ve gotten for following doctors’ orders about salt intake.
It’s the ethereal parts of me — the weird, creative, angry, sacred stuff I was taught to silence.,
It’s what I wasn’t allowed to be:
too loud
too sick
too needy
too salty
It’s the art I make from grief and glitter. The stickers I design when I’m too dizzy to stand but still want to scream something honest into the world.
🧂 So… why “Lick Anyway”?
Because sometimes you have to take the risk. Because maybe life is hard and sparkly and slightly toxic and you deserve to taste it anyway. Because healing is messy. Creating is messy. And sometimes, licking the thing (literally or metaphorically) is the only way forward. Also, if someone sees my tagline and raises an eyebrow… I’ll kindly suggest they go lick themselves. :)
🎨 Why I Make This Stuff
I didn’t start Forbidden Salt with a business plan. I started it with time I didn’t ask for, a body I was trying to understand, and a lifetime of symptoms that were finally — finally — being seen. I was grieving the girl who thought her pain was imaginary. I was furious at the way I’d been dismissed. And I was overflowing with creativity I hadn’t had space for in years. So I drew. I made things. I laughed at the worst moments. And then I turned those moments into stickers, prints, and art with just enough chaos and hope to help someone else get through the day.
🌙 Who This Shop Is For
Forbidden Salt is for the ones who never felt picked. The ones who were told to be quiet, get over it, or “just try yoga.” It’s for the chronically ill, the overthinkers, the people who would’ve been happier in a book or a fantasy realm — and who are now learning how to build that realm for themselves.
It’s for anyone who has ever felt forbidden.
🐾 Shoutout to My Quality Control Officer
My mini schnauzer, Mistletoe, is my emotional support goblin and unofficial co-founder. She curls up on the backs of my knees while I draw, sniffs every sticker with suspicion, and keeps me grounded when my brain goes full firestorm. If there’s a flaw in your order, blame me. If it’s perfect, she’ll take the credit.
💌 Final Words from the Heart
If you’ve stumbled across this little shop on a rough day, I hope you find something here that helps — a laugh, a spark, a mirror.
To the version of me who needed this space five years ago: You’re gonna create what you were missing. You’re going to hold a candle through the dark, and when you do… other people will find you by the light.
So here we are:
✨ Art for the overwhelmed
✨ Stickers for the soft and spicy
✨ Magic for the misfits
Stay weird. Lick anyway.
—Holly