When you think: “Mixing Bar” you probably think of drinks.
But the St. Ives Mixing Bar in Soho that mixes up something more lasting:
affordable bespoke beauty scrubs and body lotions!
The St. Ives Mixing Bar by Unilever is located at 577 Broadway just off the corner of Prince Street & Broadway in NYC.
When you walk in the store, you’ll find an exciting atomosphere, with lights, and the walls festooned with colorful graphics of the ingredients you can put into your very own personalized body lotion or facial scrub.
Although there are over 50 different combinations with 100% natural ingredients from grapefruit to kale!
But you don’t have to be a chemist to customize your product. Helpful staff will answer questions (for example, I didn’t know that rice powder would make my gentle scrub, gentle).
There is also a “menu” that makes it easy to choose your scrub or lotion.
At the preview event, I decided to create a facial scrub with Blackberry and basil, but I have sensitive skin, so I chose the gentle (Rice Powder) scrub formula. I watched it being made and my name was added to the label. The scent was divine, and the scrub was gentle, but thorough.
As a beauty reviewer and editor who gets many products to try, I was amazed at how good it was. Even though this one was just $12 for a generous jar, it was one of the best scrubs I’ve ever used and nope…no one is paying me to say this.
My jar of scrub will be good until a “due date” of November 2017. Watching your product being created is a learning experience, and it’s also a wonderful way to take home a memory of NYC.
Unfortunately St. Ives Mixing Bar is only going to be open until July 30th unless Unilever decides to extend it due to popular demand.
Hours are: Monday-Saturday: 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. Sunday: 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.
If you can’t make it to NYC, you can still purchase some other good budget beauty scrubs easily in mass market retailers and Drugstores such as Duane Reade, CVS, Walmart and Target (just to name a few).
Here are a few more I really like!
*For even more reviews of facial scrubs on advicesisters.com type: “facial scrub” in the “Search This Website” box toright-handnd side of this page.
Oils are trendy and St. Ives has two newbies to try. These Exfoliate & Nourish Oil scrubs are just $6.99 These are made with 100% natural exfoliants and pure grapeseed oil. The Apricot Oil version has key ingredients of Apricot Oil, and walnut shell. The coconut oil version features Coconut Oil and Coconut shell powder
Affordable and soothing, I love this St,. Ives St. Ives Nourished and Smooth Oatmeal Scrub and Mask ($2.99). It is a multi-tasking scrub and mask in one. As someone with sensitive skin, I lvoe that it’s a gentle exfoliator, or leave it on as a nourishing mask. Key ingredients include soothing Oatmeal Extract, Honey extract, 100% Natural Walnut Shell Powder, and Hydrated Silica. You get a lot, for very little $$.
Who doesn’t love the fresh and uplifting scent of grapefruit? YESto Grapefruit Correct & Repair Daily Facial Scrub $(9.99 4 oz/ $2.99 1 0z.) is a gentle facial exfoliator wit 98% natural ingredients including a powerhouse of ingredients such as fruit acids (lemon balm extract and grapefruit extract) to help reduce hyper-pigmentation and make skin more radiant . The 4 oz. version is available at Target, Ulta, Walgreens and CVS The travel size is exclusive to Target.
I also really like the YesTo Tomatoes Clear Skin Detoxifying Cleanser($9.99 5 fl. oz and 43.99 2 fl. oz.) the travel siz is exclusive to Target. It’s a cleanser, not a “scrub” per se, but it does the work of a scrub very gently and subtly. It has 97% natural ingredients in a paraben-free cleanser that has a light exfoliating quality plus a non-drying cleanser. Tomatoes and salicylic acid work their magic in a gentle gel-based cleanser with eco-friendly jojoba spheres to cleanse and unclog pores. Charcoal derived from bamboo and containing natural minerals draws out impurities, tomato extract had lycopene, a powerful antioxidant with anti-inflammatory benefits, salicylic acid helps break down blackheads.
*St. Ives Mixing bar photos by Alison Blackman
