St. Ives Review

I admit it, I'm a beauty product junkie. I love reading about, seeing, and trying new products as soon as they're available. Sometimes my lust for the latest and greatest makes me forget about tried and true classics, like St. Ives. The lovely people at St. Ives sent me some goodies to review, including the ultimate always and forever amazing Apricot Scrub.

I still remember seeing St. Ives Apricot Scrub among my mom's things and loving that is smelled just like my Apricot doll. (She was the only doll I ever liked and had white hair and always used big words, seriously, so much foreshadowing of what was to come...) I don't think the formula has changed a bit, and it still works wonders on skin. I treated myself to a little DIY pedicure before a Memorial Day BBQ, where my feet made their reappearance in a super cute pair of wedge sandals. Just work the scrub into wet skin and let those little granules do their magic. The apricot oil helps keep your skin hydrated and nourished out of the shower. This is one of those products that made me feel so grown up once I started using it, like I'd finally become part of the secret Lady's Beauty Club. It's still winning awards and smoothing out skin of ladies and gents all over the world. I hadn't used it in ages, but judging how quickly I emptied the tub St. Ives sent me, it seems safe to say that I'm back in the scrub club.

I also got two different face washes from St. Ives' olive line - Moisturizing Olive Scrub and the Moisturizing Olive Cleanser. The olive products are gentle and will keep skin moisturized, I normally wouldn't use a moisturizing product - my skin is oily-slash-combination, so I stick to products made for oily skin. But lately I've been seeing some annoying dry spots on my face, what better time than to try these two cleansers? Both have a wonderful, fresh olive scent I'm kind of crazy about. I keep the scrub in the shower and use it on my neck and décolletage, since those areas need a little TLC too. I use the cleanser with my Clarisonic Mia, and my skin feels soooooo soft and clean afterward.

I enjoyed my trip down memory lane with St. Ives, especially with the Apricot Scrub - which, if you haven't used it in a while (or ever), is worth a revisit. Grab yourself a tub of it from the drugstore and scrub away! Then show off that fresh clean skin at the next beach blanket BBQ, but don't you dare forget the sunscreen!

Simple Skincare Review

Recently, the lovely people at Simple Skincare sent me some products to try out and review. Simple is a popular brand in the UK that is now available here in the U.S., in 2011 they were counted as the #1 facial skincare range. You go, Simple Skincare! The Simple line of products can be used by all skin types, but it was specifically for sensitive skin. There are no dyes, artificial perfumes or harsh irritants, the entire line is hypoallergenic, non-comedogenic and pH balanced.

Beauty Bar's Sample Society

To celebrate Spa Week, we're gonna bring you a little extra beauty courtesy of Beauty Bar's Sample Society. You all know I'm obsessed with Birchbox, and I've become suspicious of copycats, but I think Sample Society is a winner. If you're familiar with Birchbox, you'll know how the basics of Sample Society work, but there are a few differences. First off, Sample Society is $15 per month. For those $15 you get 5 samples from high end brands, a code for $15 off a purchase of $50 or more that includes at least one item from your box (code is good for 60 days!), expert beauty advice that comes with each box, and a one-year subscription to Allure magazine.

For the time being, there are no personalized boxes, everyone gets the same one every month. You can cancel at any time, and there's an easy to use website dashboard where you can make changes to your account, review your boxes and browse other goodies available from Beauty Bar.

And now for the question of the (Spa) week, what's in the box....?