The Sanctuary - Youth Boosting Warming Microbrasion Polish and 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask

I love Sanctuary products and I love products that warm up on your skin (especially now it’s gone so cold), so when I saw these on offer in Boots I had to try them. I used the machine that gives you extra points vouchers etc. in Boots and it gave me some extra points on these as well – I’m on about £14 of points now…YSL Rouge Volupte, you shall be mine!

The Sanctuary Youth Boosting Warming Microbrasion Polish

Sanctuary say: “Youth Boosting facial favourite. Our spa microdermabrasion combines intense warming to help open the pores and stimulate circulation, with an ultrafine polish of marine earth and natural kaolin to help detoxify and leave skin feeling deeply cleansed and refreshed.”

Packaging is nice, the product smells strongly of rosewater (or something like that anyway) which I don’t personally like. This is a good exfoliator; not so gritty that it’s taking off the first 5 layers of skin but not so gentle that you can’t actually feel it working. It was easy to apply.
Now, onto the “warming” part of this…it initially felt warm in my hands but that basically stopped as soon as I applied it to my skin. The warming bit was the bit I was most looking forward to!

My skin definitely looked more radiant and felt smooth after using this, so I’d probably buy it again if it was on offer.

The Sanctuary 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask

Sanctuary say: “The warmth of this self-heating mask helps to open up the pores so the charcoal and kaolin clay can help draw out the impurities from deep within the skin. As well as purifying, the mask also rebalances the skin’s oil levels to clarify, cleanse and leave skin with a silky touch, essential oil of myrrh helps soothe and calm.”

Again, nice packaging, the smell of this product is weird…it reminds me a bit of Play-doh or something, but that must be down to the charcoal in it. It also looks a bit weird…again, like grey Play-doh. I found this quite tricky to apply first as it has a weird consistency (almost a bit too “firm”?) that doesn’t quite seem to want to go onto your skin easily or evenly, I sort of got the hang of it, but it was tricker than applying face mask should be! The “warming” aspect was a bit disappointing again, it warmed up for about 10 seconds then that was it. Hmm, in comparison with the Montagne Jeunesse warming masks that smell lovely, apply easily and feel warm for ages (and cost 99p), this mask isn’t coming out to well.

But actually, it was worth it for how smooth, soft and evened out my skin looked and felt afterwards. I kept touching my face (not good, bacteria from hands+into pores=spots) because my skin felt so lovely. I used this when I’d been out for a few drinks the night before and the “detox” part was definitely true, you’d never have known I’d been out the night before!

I would buy this again as a bit of a boost for my skin when it needs it. It hasn’t quite replaced Montagne Jeunesse for me though, those little sachets do a similar job on the skin and smell, look and feel a bit nicer in some respects too. To me, this is a functional product rather than a nice treat!