Review: Salonpas

I was recently sent a few Salonpas patches to try. I had to wait until I had some pain to use them though… that’s weird huh, to wish for pain?

Alright, so maybe I wasn’t exactly wishing for pain… maybe just a slight soreness.

But after my trail run on Saturday, my ankle was feeling sore and achy. I had rolled it several times on loose rocks, plus my trail shoes just put an uncomfortable pressure on the side of my foot. So when the pain was still there a couple days after the race, I knew I had the perfect chance to use the patch!

The Salonpas is a topical pain-relief patch that can be worn for up to 12-hours. I would imagine it might stay on a surface like the back a little better after 12 hours than it does wrapped around an ankle, just due to the bony and moving nature of that joint. I found that it tended to peel away on the edges when I applied it to my ankle.

It uses menthol and methyl salicylate (an NSAID) as the active ingredients to soothe pain and reduce inflammation. There is definitely a menthol scent when you open the patch, so take that into account. If you didn’t want to stink out your co-workers, you could wear the patch overnight to get pain relief. I’m not quite sure how it would affect me being closer to my nostrils either, since I could smell it for most of the day when it was applied to my ankle.

I found the patch to be cooling and to actually provide quite a bit of relief for a minor ache. You should only use one patch at a time, so if you’ve got a lot of pain all over your body… try soaking in an ice bath or something! Don’t dress yourself in these things! You’ll smell bad and it will probably have adverse effects! I like that you can use these to address the specific site where there is pain, as opposed to taking a pill that passes through your digestive system and into the blood to work. (I’m just a bigger fan of topical remedies and ice for sports-related pain than I am of pills.)

Salonpas offered Jill Will Run readers a trial kit that included a water bottle, a towel, a pedometer and some patches. The giveaway closed on August 28.

Salonpas sent me the product for free for the purpose of review. The thoughts here are my own.