Sanctuary 4 in 1 Restoring Body Elixir

4 in 1 Restoring Body Elixir is a new product from Sanctuary's Sleep range. It contains a quartet of luxurious oils - coconut, sweet almond, sesame and olive oil, as well as ylang ylang, Frankincense and Patchouli fragrances to help calm and reduce tension and apparently help you drift off to sleep.

I normally don't have too many problems with sleeping. I generally find it fairly easy to relax and tend to drift off quite quickly, but I've been having trouble over the last few weeks. I feel really tired and sleepy until I actually get in to bed and suddenly I'm wide awake and just can't seem to relax. The more I try to doze off, the more uptight and stressed out I seem to get which results in lots of tossing and turning and a fair amount of huffing and puffing. A couple of weeks ago, when browsing through the Sanctuary range at Boots, I spotted the new restoring Body Elixir and decided to give it a go in the hope that it would help me and the boyfriend (I've been keeping him awake too) get a decent nights sleep.

Sanctuary 4 in 1 Restoring Body Elixir

The Elixir is described as a 4 in 1 product because it can be used in a variety of different ways. You can add it to your bath, use it as a massage oil, apply it to damp skin for extra hydration and it can also be used as a hair conditioning oil. I've tried it in all of the above ways apart from the hair conditioning one. My hair's quite fine and heavy oils never work well and tend to leave it looking lank and greasy, so I decided to give that one a miss. Used as a bath oil the warming, soothing, ever so slightly spicy scented Elixir works really well to relax and calm and leaves skin feeling soft. When it's applied to damp skin, the oil really helps to hydrate and leaves skin feeling smooth and soft without any horrible greasiness. The way I've been using the product the most though, is as a massage oil. Although the above two application methods are nice, I do find the scent fades quite a lot so I've been applying a small amount to arms, chest and various different areas just before bed so I can really get an intense hit of the aroma.

So has it helped me to drift off to the land of nod? Well, the lovely scent has definitely helped me to relax before bed, which in turn has helped me to nod off a lot more quickly than I have been without the oil. I can't say the Elixir is completely responsible because I've also cut down on the copious amounts of tea and coffee I consume everyday which I suspect may have playing quite a big role in my sleep problem. I still feel the oil has helped me though and the hydrating affects are an added bonus.  

Looks like Mouse may have caught a whiff of the soothing, relaxing aroma!

All in all, the restoring Elixir is a lovely product and the warm, soothing scent is a nice change to the usual lavender scented relaxation products which are available. I'll be continuing to use it before bed and as a moisturising product and will be keeping a bottle handy for the colder, winter months when I want something warm and comforting to apply after baths.

4 in 1 Restoring Body Elixir is available from Boots and sanctuary.co.uk where it costs £8.25 for a 100ml bottle.

Do you have any favourite products which help you drift off to sleep?