Personalized Skincare at the St. Ives Mixing Bar Pop-Up

You have probably heard me say that I am a firm believer that many skincare products are not ideal of every person or every skin type. Certain products work and some don’t, and then even when you find a product that does wonders for your skin, you may not like the fragrance or the texture. Sometimes, these things just need to be personalized. And that’s where St. Ives comes in.

St. Ives invited me to stop by their seasonal pop-up in NYC – the St. Ives Mixing Bar.

I was super excited to be invited to come in and discover what the pop-up shop is all about. I had heard about it last summer, but never had the opportunity to make my way to the city to check it out.

If you’re not familiar with St. Ives, it is a wonderful brand that is great for your skin. They use natural, fragrant ingredients to create amazing scrubs for the body and face that are also very nourishing. I have been using their face and body scrubs since I was a teenager, and only floated away because there were just a few things that I wanted to tweak that I couldn’t at the time. But the mixing bar changed all of that for me.

The St. Ives Mixing Bar is a pop-up shop that is located in Midtown, New York and is only available for the summer season.

When entering, you can see the freshness of St. Ives and the magic that they are about to create for your with a personalized skin care product.

I went on a visit while I was in NYC last week, and upon entering, I was greeted by the staff of the St. Ives Mixing Bar where they provided me with the instructions on how the process works.

At the front of the store, you’ll find a collection of ready-to-buy items such as bath bombs, cleansing sticks, and hand lotion. So, if you’re not ready to make your personalized product, or if you already have and you’re just popping back in, there are plenty of items that you’ll be able to grab right at the front.

To start the process, you’ll be given a “menu”. This menu is basically the instructions on how to create your own product – whether it be the facial scrub, the body lotion, or the facial moisturizer – and it provides you with the steps on what you need to choose to make the product yours.

If you’re not too familiar with what each ingredient is, what it feels like, or what the fragrances are, in the back of the shop, you’ll find a sink where you can test out the different products to help you make a decision.

The staff there worked with me to feel out each product so that I understood what the different ingredients were and what type of product I had the opportunity to make.

Skincare is essential, make-up is a choice.

During my visit, I decided to mix together my own facial scrub. As you know, I absolutely love taking care of my skin and the St. Ives scrubs used to help me so much with my teenage acne on my face and even on my back. And while my acne has mostly cleared up, my back still breaks out quite frequently, so I was very interested in creating a strong scrub that I could use on my face and my back.

After I tested out the products at the St. Ives Mixing Bar, I used the “menu” and a dry erase marker to pick out what I wanted to go into my scrub, and then turned in my “menu” to the front desk. They checked me out and gave me my ticket and then off I was to meet the person that was going to mix together my personal facial scrub.

During the mixing process, I stood at the counter and had every product and step explained to me as it went. It was nice to know what was going on in my facial scrub and how each step is essential to making the facial scrub fit for my skin.

There were a few organic products that went into my facial scrub that I didn’t even realize made a difference until I saw it being made right in front of me. It was fascinating to be able to see the process to make my facial scrub which only really took about 15 minutes to make.

At the end, my facial scrub was put into a container with my name marked on it and off I could go with my personalized facial scrub.

After I had my facial scrub put together, I was able to look around the rest of the store. On display, they have a variety of different full-sized products on display that you can try out and even purchase at a certain point.

There’s also a special photo booth in the back where it catches you in a 180 degree 3D look that you can send directly to yourself to post or put on your social media.

The whole store is just marvelous. It is exactly what you would expect from St. Ives where freshness is something that they completely embody.

It was a privilege to be invited to the pop-up shop to be able to experience it this season.

Make sure that you stop by and check it out and keep connected to the main site as they will be having a variety of different shows for their “Live with St. Ives” – they have already had The Vamps stop by for a little show.

Thank you to St. Ives for having me at the St. Ives Mixing Bar Pop-Up. Thoughts and Opinions are 100% my own.