[DISCLOSURE: All reviews on this site reflect my opinion of a product or service I have used. I will always disclose in the review if something was gifted to me but, unless otherwise noted, assume a product or service was purchased with my own money. Links in my reviews may be affiliate links, which means I will receive compensation for you using my link to make your purchase.]

The Brand

Sanara Skincare is a Texas-based brand founded by Rebekah Jasso Jensen, a Mexican-American medical professional and breast cancer warrior. She was inspired by the herbs and botanicals used in many Latin-American cultures. Her years of dealing with her own skin issues led her to create her own products. Her idea of a minimalist nature-based skincare approach and her breast cancer diagnosis came together as the Sanara Skincare brand – from the Spanish sanará, meaning “you will heal”. A beautiful “back to basics” mantra that is pretty obviously something I’m into.

The Soap

I’ve been using the Brazilian Black Clay Soap with Jojoba Oil and Cupuaçu Butter for a few weeks as my main face soap. It has a soft scent, not overly fragranced or perfumey. The website’s description of the scent is a blend of “orange oils, lavender, ylang-ylang and amyris”. It comes in two size options – 1 oz ($5.00) and 4 oz ($18.00) – and it comes in a little box, no plastic shrink wrap here!

I use the 1 oz bar on my face because it is easier for me to lather up between my hands. I love how quickly it lathers. As I mentioned in the Osmia post I have combination skin, so I have the joyful task of finding a soap that won’t leave me feeling tight and squeaky but that also doesn’t make my face feel like an oil slick. This soap is marketed as appropriate for all skin types, safe for use during pregnancy, and vegan. The soap removes makeup and daily dirt without any negative residue or dryness that mass-produced bar soaps tend to have. Unlike the Osmia soap, I did only use this with my hands. It lathered up well enough that I felt I could massage the soapy suds on my face without the aid of my FOREO LUNA 3 and still feel clean.

After each use, I rinse off any suds that may be clinging to the bar and I leave it on a soap holder by my sink. This is so that it’s lifted enough to dry completely between uses and not get grimy. We do not want our soaps to get nasty.

The Body Oil

Alongside the soap, I have been using the Chilean Rosehip Seed Body Oil with Jojoba & Vitamin E after I shave. (Which means the bottle is mostly full because it’s winter, oops.) The body oil is offered in three sizes – a 5ml trial size ($5.00), a 2 oz travel bottle ($15.00), and a full size 8 oz bottle ($42.00). I bought the travel size bottle for myself and I also have the trial size that was given as a bonus goodie in a box my sister gifted me this Christmas.

The oil is soft and light and absorbs very quickly for me. (Full disclosure: I do have eczema flare-ups on my legs in the winter, so I’m sure my legs just get thirsty.) It isn’t heavy or greasy like olive oil might be but it’s not as runny as, say, something like the Neutrogena sesame body oil. I have used other rosehip oils in my skincare routine before and this doesn’t have the same scent, thanks to the same natural oil blend used in the bar soap.

My only qualm with the body oil is that it is a plastic bottle. I understand that glass bottles are expensive due to how heavy they are compared to plastic bottles, so I won’t knock Sanara for using these bottles. I just hope that maybe they can work on using something that is compostable/plastic-free in the future.

The Samples

In my purchase of the body oil and the bar soaps, I received bonus goodie trial size tins of their Cupuaçu Seed Body Butter with Aloe & Vitamin E which comes in a rose gold 15g tin for the trial size ($5.00) and a 2.7 oz tub for the full size ($39.00) and their Bamboo Fiber and Mango Seed Body Polish with Cupuaçu & Vitamin E which comes in the same style 15g tin for the trial size ($5.00) and the same 2.7 oz tub ($39.00). The cupuaçu seed body butter was amazing – according to the site, it’s even more hydrating than shea butter! And the smell is that same gorgeous blend from the body oil and soap, so it just tied everything together so well. I’m just so sad that the little trial size I was gifted is already gone. The bamboo fiber body polish was a nice treat for giving my legs a little scrub down and it also had the signature Sanara scent. I might consider buying myself one of the full-size tubs in the future but, honestly, I don’t use body scrubs or body butter very often so I don’t want to risk it going bad before I finish it.

The Gift Box

Like I mentioned in the section about the body oil, my amazing sister sent me some Sanara products for Christmas since this is our first Christmas since she moved. The box included the Tranquila Candle (9.5 oz, $55.00), coming from the Spanish word for “quiet”, which is a scented candle with a wooden wick in a matte grey plaster holder with the Sanara logo in rose gold on the front. It has the same scent profile that the other products have and Sanara recommends lighting the candle to clear the negative energies and promote self-love and calmness. The candle’s packaging reads “May you light this candle and feel generations of cultivated prayer and healing”, a thought that I find very beautiful. I haven’t even lit the candle yet but I frequently open the box to smell the candle. It’s heavenly. I definitely see this being perfect for a candle-lit bath soak.

Also in the box was a rose gold tin box that matches the little trial size tins. Inside that tin was the Yerba Mate Bath Soak with Aloe & Jojoba Oil – the product I’ve been wanting to try since I first heard of Sanara Skincare. My mom’s side of the family is from Argentina and I love yerba mate, so a yerba mate bath soak? Count me in! The bath soak itself is made of yummy ingredients like yerba mate and acai berry, with Brazilian black clay and the oil blend from the other products. So I’m in heaven just knowing that, when I have the chance, I am going to be soaking in this amazing smelling bath soak. The soak is offered in three different sizes – trial size (a 14g drawstring pouch for $5.00), a travel size (a 2 oz pouch for $12.00), and the full size (12 oz rose gold tin for $43.00). I will definitely report back after my bath – I just have to find one of those nice soaker tubs first.

Notes

This soap is vegan but, please, double and triple check the ingredients list to be sure that it doesn’t have any ingredients that might trigger your skin. My skin has enjoyed this soap and I do have some skin sensitivities, but everyone is different.

If you are interested in Sanara Skincare products and you would like to try them out, feel free to use my affiliate code MsLayJay for 10% off your purchase.

Let me know if you have any questions about this soap, I will have another post later where I use the larger bar on my body and I will finally test out the bath soak!