The Sanctuary's Polishing Hot Cloth Cleanser: My Holy Grail cleanser.

After my success with the my other Sanctuary products (see here and here), this seemed the most natural choice for my new cleanser after my Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish gave up the ghost.

The Polishing Hot Cloth Cleanser (PHCC for those fond of abbreviations..talking of which, how are OMG and LOL going to fake ID their way into the OED?) comes in squeezy tube giving me piece of mind that I am getting every last drop out.

Consistency wise, it's a thick smooth cream.  It's more fluid than my Cleanse and Polish (C&P) so I don't need to work it in as much.  This also makes it easier to remove.

The accompanying muslin cloth is more robust than the Liz Earle one and I find that it works better as it removes the product and my makeup in one swipe.  It feels rougher when dry but a lot softer than the Liz Earle one when it's ready to use.

The Sanctuary describe scent as being one of essential oils.  I say teabags.  Either way, a bloodhound would have a field day picking out the scent.

Instructions mandate wetting the muslin cloth in warm water, wringing it out and laying it over your face to open the pores.  I probably do it for longer than I should as it's quite relaxing.

It works brilliantly as a makeup remover as it leaves my skin feeling clean and moisturised.  It doesn't sting my eyes which is just what I want and it removes really stubborn products like the GOSH liquid liners with ease.  I just wipe the cloth around my eyes and my eye makeup just slips off.

My skin feels very soft after I've used this and it looks plumped out.  I use it at night and am always surprised at how plump and smooth my skin feels in the morning.  I didn't have the same plumpness and smoothness from C&P.

My face also feels warm after using this which is something C&P didn't do.  I asked my facial lady about this and she said it was good as it shows the blood is pumping around your face.  Thus, claims of being an at home salon treatment are correct.  I would have thought that the more you had to work a product in, the more the blood would start pumping around your face so going by that logic, the C&P would have gotten the blood pumping as it's thicker and needs more working in.  

Why do I like it more than Cleanse and Polish? 

• The smell isn't as strong as the herby scent of C&P.  With this, you have to sniff it out whereas C&P seeks out your olfactory senses.
• The packaging.  C&P has a push down spring activated dealy and it finishes abruptly.  However, if you keep it in your cupboard for a while after it's finished, more comes out.  I kept it back five times after it had "finished" and still I got little bits of product.
• The muslin cloth.  Compared to the one you get from Liz Earle, this has a bit more life about and it feels nicer. Size-wise, it's the same so no worries there.
• The consistency.  C&P is a thick, hard cleanser which needs working in.  This is softer and glides over the skin but you can still work it in.  It is easier to remove from the delicate eye area.
• The salon-y method of usage.  Putting the warm muslin cloth over my face before applying the product really makes it work better as it gives my skin that salon facial warmth.
• The end result.  My skin is soft, smooth and plumped out.  I can skip moisturising if I'm feeling lazy.
• The price.  When bought with a voucher it works out at roughly a fiver which is good value for actual spa results at home.  When bought without a voucher, it is £10.20

This is my new holy grail cleanser.  I won't be looking for anything else as my drawers are already full of things that didn't work. 

I wouldn't go as far to call it a good budget buy generally as it is only £3 or so less than the Liz Earle one and that's not really much of a budgetary difference.  However, with the Boots £5 off vouchers, it comes in a much more purse friendly £5.20 in which case, it is a budget version.  You can pick it up here and if you hurry, you get a free Sanctuary gift..

Oily T Zone? Mix your mud masks and get perfect skin!

It's no secret that I love a good mask.  Being "blessed" with combination skin means I can use one more often than those with normal skin.  In this vein of mask love, I picked up The Sanctuary's 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask with another of my £5 off vouchers.  On my first use, I wasn't really impressed with it.

One thick coat and an hour later, it hadn't dried at all.  A thinner coat gave the same result.  The "thermal" heat is activated by water so you have to apply it to wet skin and even then, the heat is gone by the time you've finished applying it to your nose.  It feels like someone has blasted your skin for a second with a hair dryer on the cool setting.  However, it doesn't have the usual "raw mud" smell, it smells like teabags.

Ater using it, I checked the pores on the side of my nose and was super chuffed to see that they were clear.  Pardon the TMI here but my pores have expanded recently and I can see them full of a white substance that just won't budge.  Nothing else I have used has cleared these pores out.  However, it wasn't as good on my forehead as my Origins Clear Improvement mask.

I would never have thought to use two mud masks at the same time until I read the tips on the back of the 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask box.  The tips stated that if you have combination skin, you should use a mask for oily skin on the T Zone and a mask for normal skin on the cheeks and chin so that all your skin concerns are addressed at once.  So I got thinking..why not use the Origins mask on my forehead and the Sanctuary one on my nose?

Since I've started doing that, my skin has not looked better.  My nose pores are behaving themselves after their once a week clearout and my forehead doesn't grease as it used to.

The main difference between both masks is that the Origins one dries very well on the skin whereas the Sanctuary one doesn't dry at all.  Both are easy to remove, the Origins one flakes off with ease whereas the Sanctuary one can be removed with a wet hand.  There's another difference..if you want a mask to just clear the oil but leave you moisturised, choose the Origins mask..if you want your pores to be sucked clean, choose the mask by The Sanctuary.  The Sanctuary one clears my pores and keeps my nose from greasing up.  If you need help with both issues, buy both!

If you have clogged pores that you struggle to clear then I'd seriously suggest buying this as my pores were terrible but it's worked a right charm.

Moral of this story? 
Mud/charcoal masks, like human beings, were not created equal.  One may be good at one thing, another good at something else.  And don't be scared to experiment with your facial skincare!

The Sanctuary's mask comes in at £10.20 and the Origins mask is £17.36.  You can pick them both up from Boots.

Review: The Sanctuary Brightening Facial Radiance Exfoliator

It's no secret that I love the body exfolatiors from The Sanctuary.  For some reason, their facial skincare never really jumped out at me.  The only reason I bought this was because I had a £5 off voucher and I'd be damned if I wasted it. 

The Sanctuary say "ultra-fine apricot granules and grape seed exfoliate and refine, while a trio of pumpkin, pineapple and papaya extracts work naturally to help increase cell renewal. Skin is left feeling smooth and glowing with radiance."

What do I think?
The granules are anything but fine.  The suggested usage for this is every 2-3 days.  My skin is combination and I can only use this once a week.  Even then, I have to be careful with it because I will end up with a red face...and you know how hard it is for Indians to go red.

The smoothness and radiance I get from this is immediate.  My skin feels like a peach.  No other exfoliator has given me instant radiance like this does.  As soon as I've washed my face, I can see it looking a lot smoother and brighter. You know sometimes you use a scrub and it gives you fantatic skin and then a few hours later you've greased up because it's removed too much of your natural oils? This doesn't do that.  It may feel harsh but it manages to make my skin radiate and not strip the oils away.

Consistency wise, it's sticky to the touch.  The directions say to use it on a damp face which does aid in the spreading process.  

The citrus-y smell of the scrub is due to the fact that it contains citrus oil.  I thought that as they big up pineapples and pumpkin in the blurb, it'd smell more of those.

You can't see it from this photograph but it seems to contain little clear bubbles..they look like oxygen bubbles but I'm not sure what they are? I don't know if they burst as you smooth the scrub on..

I do quite like this.  You also don't need to use much to get the results.  The instructions suggest a pea sized amount but I find a grape sized amount is better.  For the record, it felt just as harsh when I used a pea sized amount so it's not like I'm tripping myself up by using more than I need.

Repurchase?
I would buy this again but only if I had the £5 off voucher.  I feel a bit of a twat saying that but then who would shell out the full price when Boots always have their vouchers flying around?  Taking into account that it gives me brilliant radiance and doesn't make me grease up, I will definitely be picking up a replacement.  If you fancy it, you can pick it up from here for £10.20..or £5.20 with the £5 off voucher!

Scrub A Dub Dub, Three Men in a Tub..

Heh..I wish! Though I don't think women get off on gay men as much as men do on lesbians..do they? The thought of two women is normally enough to send guys off into Bonerville but I don't think women get the same happiness from envisioning two men, I might be wrong..

Anyway, scrubs.  I love them.  The skin on my body has turned from normal to dry recently and it annoys me because it practically happened overnight.

I'm lazy so I try to find scrubs which promise moisturisation.  My HG scrub is by Origins but I use it very quickly and it's not cheap.  I'm always on the lookout for a nice scrub and I think I've finally found my favourite:

The Sanctuary Kyphi Nourishing Hot Sugar Scrub.

I can't remember when I bought this item but I do know that I have two of them. 

I have to say that the scrubs by The Sanctuary make me laugh..I've used three of them so far, two were warming and one was not.  The first was in a squeezy tube and was too gentle for me.  The second was in a tub and looked like clay. I used to use it in the shower and when I'd finished showering, it looked like I had messed myself in the shower which isn't the look you really want.  When I wash this one off me, it looks like I'm bathing in piss...I know, you read the blog for the makeupy stuff but you stay for the class.

It does nourish very well.  It cleaned my skin up a treat and smoothed it out, too.  I like the fact it says hot and not warming because it is hot.  You might have to turn down the heat of the water in the shower, I did that and I found it helped with the heat the scrub gave.

This scrub is perfect for getting your skin "summer ready".  It may be hot but it works far better than a lot of the scrubs which don't warm up on contact.

It's quite milky and liquidy looking for an exfoliator..however, it has differing sizes of exfoliant in it which is something that I never paid any mind to before but now I think about it, it's perfect.

I LOVE this and it really is worth the £12.99 price tag.  It works for my dry skin so I imagine it working just as well on more normal skin.  I've used it a fair bit before I took the photo of the tub and to all intents and purposes, it still looks full.