Hey everyone! So awhile back Target was having a sale on St. Ives scrubs where if you bought three you got a five dollar gift card or something like that, so I thought, for the sake of the blog, why not get all of them and see which one is best?
So this is the whole line of face scrubs so far. The apricot, green tea, and oatmeal have been around for awhile, but the pink lemon and orange is pretty new.
All of the scrubs have this image on them, which tells you how scrubby/exfoliating they are.
First: The oatmeal. This scrub is "gentle", meaning it won't leave your skin feeling like you washed it with sandpaper. Immediately after using this scrub your skin will feel noticeably softer, which is what it claims to do, so good job them. I don't really have a problem with dryness, so I'm not sure if it works very well in that department.
In terms of acne, I wouldn't use this scrub as a daily exfoliator. I used this every day for about three weeks and I noticed more acne than usual. However, this does help with acne if you use it as a mask. Once a week I will wash my face, then put this on and leave it for about half an hour (the instructions say 5 minutes). This gives it time to dry. I've found that even if this doesn't completely get rid of acne, it helps to bring pimples to the surface so they can either be popped (I know you're not supposed to but I'm gonna do it anyway) or go away faster.
I would put this scrub in 3rd place.
Next is the apricot scrub. This is labeled as "deep" on their scale. To me this just meant that there were larger pieces of exfoliant in the scrub. I didn't notice that my skin felt a bit more exfoliated than it did with the oatmeal, but it wasn't too rough after one use. However, if you are going to use this more than once a day, your skin might get a bit irritated (or if you have sensitive skin once a day might be too much). I didn't really notice anything good happen while using this scrub. I didn't even notice "softer skin," which is what they claim this helps with. My acne got worse, and to me the smell is a bit strong. I have since started using it as a body exfoliant about once a week, but I don't like to use it for my face.
4th place.
The green tea is placed in "moderate" on their chart. The scrubby bits are much smaller than the ones in the apricot and oatmeal, but I feel like they do a better job of exfoliating. While using this I definitely saw improvement in my acne (which is probably due to the salicylic acid, something I use very regularly), and while I haven't really noticed huge improvement in the blackhead department, I have noticed that if you leave this on for a few minutes while in the shower (or if you're just washing your face) it really helps with redness. I have continued to use this since trying it and now it's part of my daily routine.
1st place!
The pink lemon and mandarin orange is the newest addition to the scrub line. It's also placed in the "moderate" category. The exfoliators feel a bit bigger than the ones in the green tea, but nowhere near as large as the ones in the apricot. I really enjoy the smell of this one, because it's noticeable but not too strong like the apricot. I do think that this makes your skin appear brighter after using it, and I haven't gotten any breakouts while using it. Another aspect I really like about this scrub is that it's a bit creamier than the others, and when you combine it with water it kind of lathers a bit. You won't get any noticeable foam, but it feels more like a foaming cleanser. I have also added this one to my routine.
2nd place
A few months after I got these scrubs, St. Ives started selling their apricot scrub with salicylic acid. I probably won't try it since I didn't particularly like the scent or the scrub, but I'm assuming it'll work much better!
I hope you found these reviews useful. If you have any comments, or any thoughts about these products or other products I should try, go ahead and leave a comment below!
