St. Ives Fresh Skin Apricot Scrub Exfoliating Oil-Free

I purchase St. Ives Fresh Skin Apricot Scrub Exfoliating Oil-Free from WalMart (or drugstores) in the 300 mL tub for about $4-$6 CDN, depending on where you buy it. It claims to "deep [clean], instantly leaving skin smooth and glowing." It also states that it is non-irritating, dermatoligist tested, and made with 100% natural extracts.

Over the past two years, I've become a HUGE fan of exfoliating. It started during my second year at University - my friend, Lisa, used St. Ives Apricot Scrub, and I became curious about it. So I ended up trying it.

This particular scrub from St. Ives is very abrasive, in my opinion. It feels like tightly-packed, slightly moistened grains of sand. It has a smooth consistency, but is very grainy. Other exfoliants from St. Ives are more gentle - being more of a cream consistency with less exfoliating beads/grains. Do you ever come across those exfoliators where you end up with like, one bead, on your face, and you're trying to push that bead around to exfoliate your entire face? Ya. This particular scrub is not like that at all. You are hard pressed to find more of the cream in this product than the grains.

Personally, I like this kind of exfoliant. I can feel it doing its job - sloughing off dead skin and deep cleaning my pores to give my skin a polished look. When used with gentle circular rubbing motions, this scrub won't necessarily hurt, but it will be slightly uncomfortable initially - espeically around sensitive areas such as the nose and chin.

However, when you rinse your skin off - you look instantly renewed, refreshed, and revitalized - or at least, I do afterwards. Haha. This scrub leaves no area of your face untouched, and even when used with a gentle hand, will buff off that first layer of dead skin cells, revealing new, brighter skin underneath.

I find this scrub also very useful for my allergies. When I'm exposed to dog or cat dander/fur, my face breaks out like a crazy person. Oh boy. And my face flakes. I get this gimongo rash that just peels and peels and peels. I find this scrub especially useful for those allergic reactions, because I can get off some of that dead skin, without significantly irritating my rash underneath. I mean, don't get me wrong, rubbing grains all over a rash doesn't exactly feel pleasant, but it doesn't leave my face burning and sore - it just gets rid of the yucky flakes of dry skin lifting off my face.

I use a dollop about the size of a green grape over my entire face about once every two days. I use it in the shower in the morning, before I cleanse. Perhaps I shouldn't exfoliate that often, but it's what works for me.

I love the smell of this exfoliant, also. It's a fresh, sweet apricot scent - it's a heavier scent in the tub, but after you wash it off, the scent does not linger on the skin. The scrub itself is not at all moisturizing, so you will need to apply your regular moisturizer after using it.

The only thing I have to say is that my second tub had a very rancid smell to it after a few months, and I had to get rid of it and buy a new one. This was not true of my first or third tubs, so I'm thinking it was just one bad tub. Either way, it's something to watch out for.

I am on my third tub of this stuff, and I'm still loving it. Each tub lasts a substantial amount of time, even if you're using it every two days as I do. I highly recommend this to anyone who's looking for an easy way to deep-clean your pores and give your skin a fresh, revitalized look in a matter of minutes, with a price tag that won't break the bank. Again, if you're looking for something more gentle and less abrasive, check out St. Ives skin care line to find a scrub that's more gentle for your skin type.

I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars.
****

"Charm is deceptive,
and beauty is fleeting:
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."
--Proverbs 31:30 (NIV)