Sanctuary Spa are a well known and popular brand in skincare, their products come highly rated by many and are an indulgent and luxurious brand. People try to re enact the spa experience in their own homes with their many products which not only consist of bathing, but also skin care and fragrances. This Body Butter is an award winning product, it was Readers Choice Best Rich Moisturiser 2009 at the Women & Home Best Beauty Buys Award 2009, and I've never read a bad review of the product yet!

I love using body butters above normal moisturisers from a tube. I love the fact when you unscrew the lid you can see the creamy body butter in the tub and can literally scoop it out to smother on your skin. A body butter is also thicker than a lotion, and in my opinion really feels like a good, deep moisturiser that's really sinking into the skin making it feel soft and smooth. I have used various body butters from different brands in the past, the Body Shop range is popular and amongst my favourite choice, mainly because there are a huge range of fragrances to choose from! This Body Butter by Sanctuary is in the Spa Essentials range and if I admit it, I don't find this very posh and oozing of luxury at all, I mean 'essentials' to me doesn't cry out quality, but rather something quite basic. I suppose adding the word Spa to this does try to make it more upmarket but I'd rather it just didn't bother at all. But enough with the name, after all it's the product inside that counts.

The tub isn't the most fantastic and brilliantly designed, it matches the rest of the Sanctuary range with it's orange theme however it's just a sticker stuck on the lid (and one on the base) that makes this a Sanctuary product, otherwise you're just looking with a plain tub with a bright orange lid. The sticker on the bottom tells us that this rich, intensive body butter is crammed with cocoa butter and shea butter, laced with almond oil, macadamia oil and Vitamin E. It certainly sounds promising, all the good body butters include those sorts of oils and cocoa butters, and I love the smell of cocoa butter so this was a plus point with me.

The butter is simple enough to use, after unscrewing the lid I'm hit instantly with the smell of cocoa butter and oils and it smells wonderful, I always associate the smell with relaxing and soft, smooth skin. The butter itself is white, thick and creamy. After my shower or bath, I scoop out a good amount and slowly work it into the skin, paying special attention to any particularly dry areas such as the elbows. When applying this body butter it makes me feel as if I have terribly dry and horrible skin, because as soon as I start to rub this onto my skin it makes it feel a million times softer and smoother straight away, and the rest of my skin seems so terrible in comparison. The body butter isn't so thick that it doesn't absorb into the skin properly, and it doesn't leave skin feeling sticky or greasy. Afterwards I'm left with wonderfully soft skin that smells divine. The smell will linger on the skin for several hours, and I'm left with fantastic smooth skin until my next shower.

It's hard to find any negatives with this product, it really does try to bring the Spa into your own home. The only downsides is the packaging could be better, for the price they charge for this product I would have expected something a little more fancy, but thankfully the product inside is worth the money. The tub costs £9.18 currently from Boots, however there is a frequent 3 for 2 offer on this range so that's an added bonus. I got my tub from a gift set, and I personally wouldn't pay for this separately as I know I'm bound to find another gift set, especially at Christmas, for cheap making this better value for money.

Overall this is a gorgeous body butter, making your skin feel wonderfully soft and smooth with that lovely cocoa butter scent being a nice addition.