St. Ives skincare
St. Ives is an American skincare brand founded in 1980 and owned by Yellow Wood Partners LLC / Unilever PLC since 2024.
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St. Ives is widely celebrated for its thoughtful balance of moisturizers, exfoliants, and serums, all grounded in carefully crafted formulas. Its products suit combination and balanced skin types best, offering gentle yet effective daily care. For specific concerns, the brand features the BHA Exfoliant for acne-prone skin, the Apricot Scrub for skin with dark spots, and the Renewing Moisturizer for mature skin. Through these reliable offerings, users consistently find accessible solutions for their daily skincare routines.
This page covers some of the most popular St. Ives products; for the whole St. Ives range, with a fit score for every product, use the Lovi app.
Other St. Ives products
People Say
★4.6Overall rating based on 24.4k+ reviewsReviewers most often praise St. Ives for deep exfoliation, a gentle and non-drying formula, and softening skin without feeling heavy. The most common complaints are physical exfoliants being too abrasive and insufficient hydration or irritation.
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Questions and answers
Is St. Ives worth it?
Yes, St. Ives is worth it because Lovi rates the brand-focused routine Superior for dry, oily, sensitive, combination, and acne-prone skin. The St. Ives products on this page include options with and without fragrance.
What are St. Ives's best products?
For acne-prone and oily skin, Lovi rates the BHA Exfoliant High, while the Apricot Scrub, Renewing Moisturizer, and Renewing Collagen & Elastin Moisturizer rate Average. For dry, sensitive, and combination skin, the Apricot Scrub and both moisturizers rate Average, and the BHA Exfoliant rates Caution.
Which St. Ives moisturizer is best for dry skin?
The best St. Ives moisturizer for dry skin on this page is the Renewing Collagen & Elastin Moisturizer, followed by the Renewing Moisturizer. Lovi rates both products Average for dry skin.
Dermatology Practical & Conceptual, 2022Current Issues in Molecular Biology, 2024
Does St. Ives cause breakouts?
St. Ives products may lead to breakouts for certain skin types, as Lovi rates some moisturizers as Low for acne-prone skin while rating the BHA Exfoliant as High. Salicylic acid in the line helps prevent acne relapse.
BioMed Research International, 2020Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 2024
Is St. Ives fragrance-free?
No, because only one of the four St. Ives products on this page lists no fragrance while the others contain it.
What are the key ingredients in St. Ives products?
St. Ives products feature key ingredients such as collagen, elastin, and salicylic acid across their range. Collagen helps support aging skin, while salicylic acid helps address blemishes in acne-prone skin.
Dermatology Practical & Conceptual, 2022BioMed Research International, 2020
How do I build a St. Ives skincare routine?
To build a St. Ives routine, cleanse or exfoliate using products like the Apricot Scrub or BHA Exfoliant, and follow with a moisturizer such as the Renewing Moisturizer or Renewing Collagen & Elastin Moisturizer. Lovi rates the St. Ives-focused routine Superior for dry skin, oily skin, sensitive skin, combination skin, and acne-prone skin.
What are good alternatives to St. Ives?
Good alternatives to St. Ives include CeraVe, Cetaphil, Paula's Choice, Neutrogena, Kiehl's, and Dermalogica. These similar skincare brands also have pages on Lovi for comparison.
St. Ives vs CeraVe: which is better?
St. Ives rates Superior for dry skin, oily skin, sensitive skin, combination skin, and acne-prone skin, whereas CeraVe rates High for dry and sensitive skin and Superior for oily, combination, and acne-prone skin. Lovi rates St. Ives Superior for dry skin compared to High for CeraVe.
Who owns St. Ives, and where is it from?
St. Ives is an American brand founded in 1980, owned by Yellow Wood Partners LLC / Unilever PLC since 2024.
Is St. Ives cruelty-free?
Yes: PETA lists St. Ives as cruelty-free.
Research behind St. Ives's key ingredients
Behind these ratings
Lovi rates every product from its full ingredient list with brand-independent rules our dermatologists and cosmetic chemists build and review, and personalizes every pick with AI trained on the real results of millions of users. Lovi trains its fit score models on a proprietary dataset built from more than 10,000 expert-labeled products and more than 100,000 simulated examples, following an internally consistent methodology presented at Cosmoprof, AMWC, and Skin of Color Update.
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Co-founder, Medical Director
Cosmetic chemist, cosmetologist, aesthetic products developer
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Co-founder, CEO and CTO
PhD in computer science, 3x US patent holder, ex-Google, ex-Yandex
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Dr. Sofía Perea Pérez, MD, MSc
Medical Board
Aesthetic medicine practitioner, MSc in Longevity and Anti-Aging Medicine
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Medical Board
Specialist dermatologist, MBBS, MD, IFAAD
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Medical Board
Cosmetic chemist, SCS, IFSCC member
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Medical Board, Medical Advisor
Dermatology MD
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Elina Nazarenko, MD
Medical Board
Dermatology and diagnostic consultant
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Victoria Derkova, MS
Medical Board
Cosmetic chemist, cosmetic development technologist
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