I love trying out new products in beauty and toiletries and because of this I am forever sending for samples or buying testers from different sites. These I bought from http://www.latestinbeauty.com/ where you can choose three samples and pay just postage once a month. You pay by text and so far I have done this for about six months and all have arrived fine except one. I contacted them and they sent me a second set straight away.
I was keen to try this out but having seen the price in Boots – £27.50 from both Sanctuary Spa and Boots – for a small tube of each part of the mask. This was obviously a luxury mask and so I wanted to choose a time when I was going to get full value from it.
Tthe Sanctuary Spa Active Reverse Thermal Transformation Mask that I got was in a small pack in a very classy looking cardboard pack which contained two sachets; one of each part of the two step process . the colour of the cardboard and packaging is the same as that of the full sized product except in the full size pack you get two small tubes rather than the two sachets.
My sample pack
So in my sample pack I checked the instructions and inspected the two sachets. Like the full sized pack, step 1 was in a silver coloured sachet and step 2 in white one. This face mask is slightly different from other masks as it is a two stage process.
First wash your face or cleanse it thoroughly of all make up and then pat dry then apply step 1. Step I is a peptide Transformation Serum which you smooth on with a generous layer over your face and neck. It feels lovely so smooth and so gentle. The next stage is to massage a generous even layer of step 2 over the top of step 1 to generate a warming effect the step 2 smells gorgeous and slightly of rose which is not surprising as this is a rose clay mask with thermal qualities hence the warming effect.
You put this all over your face and neck but be careful to avoid your eyes. Step 1 is a white coloured serum which is beautifully easy to glide over your face and neck. Step 2 is an orange sort of coloured more gooey clay which goes over the serum very easily and as you apply it you can feel the warming effect straight away. Once you have both stages on your face this is when you lie back and relax. I put mine on before I get in a bath but that does make it hard to time the mask. You can just sit in a chair and read or lie on your bed and pop a cucumber slice over each eye and then set a timer to ping after your 15 minutes are up. I find it hard to read with a face mask on as I have to wear glasses to read and they get mixed up with the mask and means I have to wash them afterwards so I tend to do my face masks in the bath and sometimes do a hair mask as well.
After 15 minutes of relaxation with the warming face mask you gently rinse it off with warm water and then they suggest applying Peptide day cream to protect the newly pampered skin. I toned mine using my Lush toner then applied my usual moisturizer.
They suggest using this three times a week on alternate days to see the best results but at the price this costs I can’t see me spending that on a face mask. It is hard to judge how much younger and gorgeous I look after one use but let‘s put it this way, I am not rushing out to buy it as I feel the results were not startling and I enjoy my Lush or Montagne Jeunesse ones just as much as I did this one and they are a heck of a lot less money.
The serum which was white rather than clear like many serums was lovely to apply with a smooth silky feel and had a pretty nice smell a bit like almonds. It did feel a bit like putting on a quality face cream. The second sachet was a pink sort of clay colour which smelled lovely and of rose and expensive rose at that but it was a lot thicker and gloopier to apply and sort of ran down my face a bit so I had to work to massage it in . It did indeed feel lovely and warm on my face.
The product claims to firm your skin, even skin tone and also minimise the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. They also say this will encourage cell renewal in skin and help the skin increase it moisture and hydration levels. You are meant to have a lovely glowing, smooth balanced complexion after you have finished. Sadly for me, Sanctuary Spa say that best results are achieved after 4 weeks and more amazingly that this can do the same job a having surgery on your face. I can’t say whether or not this claim is true as I have not used this for four weeks and I am disappointed that the miracle didn’t even begin after my one application.
I do sadly have a few lines and wrinkles and I still have them despite all my attempts at reducing them. Of course I have no idea what my face would look like had I not applied all my lotions and potions over the years.
This felt lovely and was a really nice mask but I am not convinced that it is worth the price. I am not sure it does any more than my Lush face masks. My face felt nice and moisturized after using this but it does after all my other masks too. It would have to do a lot more than I found it did if I was going to pay nearly £30 for two small tubes which would probably only give me about 10 uses at a guess from the tube size.
So if you have lots of money this is a lovely face mask but whether or not it actually does make you look years younger and save you spending at the face clinic I am not so sure.
catsholiday: beauty 