Well they do say 'no pain, no gain' (The Sanctuary Salt Scrub)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	The Sanctuary Salt Scrub
Date:	21/04/09 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good exfoliator, leaves skin soft

Disadvantages: quite painful!

I love body scrubs and I buy absolutely loads of them - I think there must be at least seven or eight in my bathroom at the moment, my obsession is a little bit out of control! I think it's the idea of a product that will rub away the layer of dead surface skin to reveal fresh new glowing skin underneath that I really like! Maybe I'm just a bit strange...

If you're not familiar with it, then you should know that The Sanctuary is a spa in Covent Garden and they have a range of body care and now skincare products.

This particular scrub is made with dead sea salts which will polish the skin, sloughing away any dead skin cells, and jojoba, coconut and sweet almond oils to moisturise and 'refine and resurface' the texture of the skin leaving it super smooth.

You can buy this scrub in either a large glass jar or you can buy a single-use sachet, which is what I bought, as I wanted to test the product before considering purchasing the full tub.

When it came to using the product, I did actually encounter a few problems with the sachet. Firstly, despite it having a notch on both sides, I found it very difficult to open. I tried tearing it the usual way, as well as using my teeth, but I just couldn't tear it open, so actually had to get out of the bath to get some scissors! Secondly, the salt scrub is quite dry, yet it sticks together and is difficult to get out of the sachet, and I lost a fair bit of it into the bath water, which was quite annoying.

The scrub itself has the same scent as many of the Sanctuary body care products in their orange range. It's a beautiful scent, although fairly hard to describe, but it's slightly orangey, light, fresh and feminine, and is really relaxing to use.

As I mentioned, the scrub is quite dry. It is basically coarse salt which is mixed with what appears to be a small amount of oils. Because of its dryness you have to be careful when using this, not to lose too much of it, as it can easily slip between your fingers.

As I rubbed this onto my skin, my first impression was that it felt extremely scratchy and uncomfortable. In fact, I'd go as far as saying it hurt. As the grains are so big they are really rough to use, and it actually left my skin bright lobster red. I do have quite sensitive skin, and it did feel itchy for around half an hour after using this, but thankfully this did subside. Also it's worth mentioning that this should not be used on irritated or broken skin. I have a particularly bad patch of eczema on one foot, and accidentally got some of the scrub on it, and my god, was it painful! I suppose it was literally a case of rubbing salt into the wound!

Once you rinse this scrub away, you will notice that it leaves a slightly oily layer on the skin. This stays even if you use a soap or body wash after using the scrub, but in fact I quite liked it as when I got out of the bath my skin felt as though I had just applied moisturiser and so I didn't feel the need to apply a body lotion.

After using this my skin felt incredibly soft and all traces of dry flaky skin on my knees and elbows had disappeared. I was also pleased that a trace of the lovely scent was left on my skin.

A single use 60g sachet of this scrub costs £1.26 or you can buy the full 650g tub for £8.76 and both are available from Boots.

Overall I am quite pleased with the results I got from this scrub, and would definitely use it again. My main gripe is that the salt is quite scratchy so it is a bit uncomfortable to use and I'd suggest that it's probably not suitable for very sensitive skin.

Summary: good if you can stand the scratchiness