St Ives Invigorating Apricot Scrub Review

I know the new line of thought is that we should be using an exfoliating lotion or toner with AHAs or BHAs. Despite this... I love tihs product. It's super affordable, is sufficiently grainy and gritty to dig deep into your pores: I always know I'm getting a good clean out with this! See ya later blackheads....

Every so often I use a scrub as an exfoliator in addition to my normal skincare routine. St Ives Invigorating Apricot Scrub is one of my favourites, mainly because of the apricot fragrance. Using the scrub makes my skin feel extra soft and smooth afterwards as it helps remove the old skin that naturally builds up and is not removed by other cleansing products.

I love this as a body scrub but wouldn't use it on my face. I'm a bigger fan of enzyme scrubs for my face but on the odd occasion I feel like using something with a bit of texture I like Avon's Anew Clinical Micro-Exfoliant because it's more finely milled.

I remember when I was living in Asia someone brought my flatmate back some as a gift and she left it in the bathroom cupboard and it wasn't used that much probably because it was a nice scrub from overseas, I would ask to borrow some from time to time. Particularly before Biore nose strips trying to loosen up the blackheads and have better success. Back in the day I loved the feeling of my skin getting exfoliated and scrubbed and was rather aggressive around my nose area where I had blackheads. I don't remember it helping with blackheads but my skin did feel fresh. I wouldn't use it now because I'm come across much better products.

I switched to this scrub a couple of months ago, having used it in the past with great success, before that I used their Green Tea scrub but.. that wasn't on special that shopping week and decided I'd go with this one for a change.

Mistake.

Where the Green Tea scrub thrived this one failed. I went from having lovely, smooth, blemish and pimple free skin to flaring up within a week of me using it.

It does have a nice scent to it and feels nice when I'm actually using it, but afterwards, there's no difference in my skin, it doesn't feel smoother or as nice as it did. Maybe they changed the formulation? Maybe I had a faulty batch? I don't know.. :(

I've purchased this facial scrub a couple of times to use in the shower and have quite liked it. I love the smell in the morning, refreshing and sweet. Although it's only very cheap I find that it does purify my skin and get rid of dead cells and dirt leaving my skin feeling smooth, clean and soft. It's quite gritty so you don't need to rub it too hard to get the effect of the exfoliating beads. You also don't need much as the formula is quite thick, so a little goes a long way! My skin is normal so I'm not sure if this would be suitable for more sensitive or dry skin types, but it worked well on me.

This was one of the first scrubs I used & fell in love with as a teenager. It smells amazing! The lotion is nice & creamy & you can see the grit (brown flecks from the apricot seed shell I believe). You can really feel it exfoliating your skin but be careful not to rub too hard. Easy option to grab for in the shower for a reasonable price

I haven't used this for a while but back in the day it was a staple in my beauty regime. I loved the smell and how effective it was with exfoliating and the creamy texture made my skin feel a bit more moisturized.

I stopped using it however as I noticed really close up there would be little scratches on my skin (esp if I used the face exfoliate) not that noticeable but enough to simmer down on it.

But for what you pay for - its amazing and effective!

The product does do what it says, however I found that it strips too much moisture from my skin, leaving it quite dry - and I don't normally have dry skin. It smells incredible though! It says to use it three to four times a week, which I did, but due to the dryness I would probably be best to use it less often so my skin has time to recover. There are better exfoliants out there, but for this price and the amount you get, this is pretty good.

A fantastic product to always have in the bathroom. My face always feels incredibly smooth after using it and the one containing salicylic acid is great to prevent break outs. My only concern is that it may be too harsh? I have read that you should use chemical exfoliants e.g. AHAs not mechanical exfoliants. This would have to be the most 'rough' exfoliator I have ever used. With this in mind I tend to use it only 2 to 3 times per week - definitely not an everyday product.