Sanctuary Spa Beauty Sleep Recovery Mask Review

 

Sanctuary Spa isn't a brand that I'd usually seek out - not for any other reason than it's a brand that I associate with Christmas gift boxes and I often have a body lotion or shower gel hanging around from previous Christmasses!

 

But I was sent a selection of Sanctuary Spa products to review, including their classic Hot Sugar Scrub (still love that after all these years) and the equally classic Body Butter. But in amongst the well-known body care items were a couple of skincare items - which were new to me as I wasn't even aware that Sanctuary did skincare!

 

One of the items received was the Beauty Sleep Recovery Mask.

 

 

Sanctuary Spa Beauty Sleep Recovery Mask £14.00 for 75ml BUY HERE

 

After recently concentrating on and using a lot of natural skincare, I've become much more aware of product ingredients. It's been great to use products that contain simple and few natural ingredients.

This sleeping mask contains "Youth boosting Tetrapeptide - Calming Orange Flower Oil and Relaxing Lavender".

Sounds nice and natural, right? But take a look at the full ingredients and you start to wonder, what exactly are all those scientific, chemical sounding ingredients and what do they actually do for my skin?

 

Ingredients:

Aqua (Water), Butylene Glycol, Sodium Polyacrylate, Glycerin, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Alcohol Denat., Dimethicone, Phenoxyethanol, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Trideceth-9, Pentylene Glycol, Polysilicone-11, Sodium Gluconate, Citric Acid, Fructose, Sodium Hydroxide, Urea, Propylene Glycol, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Linalool, Mica, Allantoin, Maltose, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Lactate, Sodium PCA, Trehalose, Citrus Aurantium Amara (Bitter Orange) Flower Oil, Limonene, Decyl Glucoside, Glucose, Sodium Hyaluronate, Sodium Benzoate, Geraniol, Caprylyl Glycol, Hexylene Glycol, Tetrapeptide-26, CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), CI 77491 (Iron Oxides).

 

The Tetrapeptide is the main beneficial ingredient listed on the front of the tube but is actually nearly the last item on the ingredient list, so I feel that this is stretching the point somewhat!

 

 

Texture, Scent and Application

The mask is a thick balmy gel which has a very velvety feel. On application, it turns from a balm to a cooling, watery gel which does leave your skin feeling extremely soft. But here's the thing - the velvet texture is a dead give away for a silicone base - Dimethicone is reasonably high in the ingredients. For me personally, this isn't a problem - I actually like that velvety silicone feel but a lot of people do have problems with silicones, although Dimethicone is apparently non-comodogenic. But I do have to mention this inclusion as what works for me, may not work for others.

Scent-wise, there is an unmistakable but fairly light Lavender scent(I cannot make out any Orange Flower Oil) but it's over-shadowed by quite a sharp chemical scent. Again, although this took me slightly by surprise on the first use, it's not something that totally puts me off.

What is most noticeable about this mask is how intensely soft my face feels after application - I'm guessing that it's all a bit 'smoke and mirrors' because of the Dimethicone, but I really, really like it! It's not at all suffocating either, despite the velvet barrier.

It's advised to use this 1-3 times a week.

 

And the next morning?

Whatever all these scientific-sounding ingredients are, they seem to be doing something really right as my skin is very much refreshed, hydrated and skin is plump when I wake up without any greasy residue. It makes me pretty uncomfortable writing that sentence as I feel that I really should be more aware of what I'm actually putting on my skin. But this is an honest review, and rightly or wrongly, this stuff works remarkably well for me.

 

Thoughts

YMMV (Your mileage may vary!) - if silicone is not a friend of your skin then you might want to steer well clear of this product.

But for me, I love how this feels on application and I love how my skin looks and feels the next morning. I've been applying this over a facial oil last thing at night and I find that it acts as a great sealant for the oil. I'm much preferring the facial oil/Beauty Sleep Recovery Mask combination over a heavy night cream.

I'm uncomfortable with the ingredients list and do feel that the selling point of tetrapeptide and essential oils is a little far-fetched when the amounts used are possibly quite negligible. But using this mask is a bit like eating a jammy doughnut - you know that it's not the greatest idea, but it absolutely hits the spot!