Product Review: Rocky Mountain Soap Company Sport Massage Butter

I've been hitting Bar Method often since returning from Paris and eating all the food. This uptick in exercise has been great (yay muscle tone!) and not so great (hello pain, particularly in my left tricep and elbow). Thankfully the new and improved Rocky Mountain Soap Company Sport Massage Butter ($17), which I received as a PR sample in June to test and review, promises to be the perfect remedy for all my body's aches.

Packaging-wise, this is a solid twist-up massage butter stick that looks almost identical to Rocky Mountain's normal body butters. What's inside the formula sets the Sport Massage Butter apart though. A special blend of therapeutic oils—arnica, camphor, wintergreen, rosemary and black pepper—soothes soreness and inflammation in muscles. The base of sunflower seed oil and beeswax is also softer and meltier on first contact, creating plenty of slip with just a few swipes.

You can use the Sport Massage Butter by rubbing it on yourself or by pairing it with an intense foam roller/stretching session. However, for the best results and most immediate relief it's better to have someone give you a massage with it, which is why Lawrence and I have been trading post-workout massages while the massage butter lasts. It does work, but in a gentle, slow-acting way. There's no acute tingling and no immediate whoosh of sensation like I'd usually get with pain-releasing or peppermint essential oils. When I use the Sport Massage Butter, I typically don't notice anything within the first 5 minutes. After 10-30 minutes, the worst of the soreness passes, particularly in smaller muscles like the triceps and biceps. After a good night's sleep, any lingering soreness in larger muscle groups like the shoulders and quads is as good as gone. If you exercise often and heavily it's worth a try to relieve muscle soreness without relying on painkillers. Just give it time to work.