Get your face to smell like a sweet apricot! (St. Ives Apricot Scrub)

Member Name: diamond_sparkles

Product:	St. Ives Apricot Scrub
Date:	06/11/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: My skin got smoother and less dry after three weeks

Disadvantages: Not as natural as it claims to be

I am obsessed with beauty products and when I saw the St Ives scrub for the first time, the thing that appealed to me the most was the "Swiss Formula" written on top of the tube. Intrigued, I decided to treat myself and see how it goes. I have to say that I am far from being disappointed. I have normal to dry skin and I can usually afford to scrub more often that the twice a week limit since my skin does not tend to get oily quickly. This one is for all skin types and it is supposed to be oil free. According to my friend, who is a beautician, this oil-free formula is very well suited for people with oily or mixed skins since scrubbing tends to release sebum that make your skin even more oily.


On unclasping the tube, I was really pleasantly surprised by the smell of apricot. Usually beauty products never smell like they claim to smell but this one definitely had the apricot smell in it. It was just a little bit too sweet a smell, but in a nice manner! This product claims to have captured "the secrets in this deep cleansing formula with 100% natural exfoliants that gently exfoliates, removing dull, dead skin cells to instantly reveal smooth visibly healthy skin". I have to say that the part of the "100%" natural exfoliants is quite untrue- for those who actually believed it! In fact, among the long, long elements listed in the ingredients list, I could find alcohol and glycerin. While these are two elements that are practically omnipresent in every beauty products, they really shouldn't have tried claiming that they are 100% natural. I was really bugged by this because I love organic products.


I have to say, though, it does work. Not instantly as it again claims to work but having applied it thrice a week for one week, my skin really looked finally free of dead cells. The next week, I again used it for three times and the week after, I scrubbed just once. I have to admit- I am really impressed by the softness and glowing aspect to my skin. I don't know if it has something to do with the fact that I used the St Ives facial mask side by side, but my friend who bought the same scrub used it without the mask, and with similar results. It is certainly not a miracle product; I can certainly see some dry skin and the occasional dullness to my complexion, but as far as smoothness goes, St Ives really rose up to expectations!


The scrub itself is of creamy consistency, not the runny or overly solid ones that I have had the misfortune of encountering at times! It is white with the brownish-orange apricot bead scrubs. Compared to most scrubs, this one has teeny tiny minuscule beads which I think is better since it can be used more often and it also gets into better contact with the skin. In fact, I can compare this scrub to the L'Oreal Young scrub, which I also adored because of the tiny beads. I cannot be totally sure about this but I remember a magazine claiming that tiny beads work better than large beads in scrubs so you might want to give this product a go.


I usually follow the directions for using this scrub- that is, moisten the face and massage then rise. But occasionally, if I see that my skin is too dry due to the cold, I usually put just a drop of water mixed with a little amount of scrub and massage in my face. I will not recommend this method to everyone though, because it can seriously damage your skin cells and sebum secretion, especially if you have oily skin or scar easily. I also usually steam my face first to open the pores and then scrub it with this product and I can easily assure you that it works even better this way!


This is one product that I would certainly recommend. It smells divine and while the smell sadly doesn't linger for long, your face will certainly smell wonderful for approximately ten minutes afterwards! A note of warning though- my skin usually tingles lightly when I use it since I have sensitive skin but you might want to do an elbow test first in case you have extremely extremely senstivie skin or allergies. Overall, this is one product you simply can't pass by. If you want, you can visit the website at


www.stives.com


Just don't be naïve enough to genuinely expect a 100% natural product like I did!


Thanks for reading!

Summary: Scrub away!