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 St. Ives-focused routine Superior for dry, oily, sensitive, combination, and acne-prone skin.
What are St. Ives's best products?
The St. Ives products on this page vary by skin type, with the BHA Exfoliant providing a high fit for oily and acne-prone skin while moisturizers such as the Renewing Moisturizer rate lower for those skin types.
BioMed Research International, 2020Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 2024
Which St. Ives moisturizer is best for dry skin?
Does St. Ives cause breakouts?
St. Ives products may sometimes cause breakouts if they do not match a skin type, though the BHA Exfoliant helps clear clogged pores for oily and acne-prone skin.
BioMed Research International, 2020Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 2024
Is St. Ives fragrance-free?
No, the St. Ives products on this page are not all fragrance-free because three out of the four products list fragrance among their ingredients.
What are the key ingredients in St. Ives products?
St. Ives products feature key ingredients such as salicylic acid in the BHA Exfoliant, glycerin and collagen in the moisturizers, and walnut shell powder in the Apricot Scrub. These ingredients help exfoliate, hydrate, and soften the skin.
BioMed Research International, 2020Dermatology Practical & Conceptual, 2022
How do I build a St. Ives skincare routine?
To build a St. Ives routine, cleanse with the Apricot Scrub, then apply either the Renewing Moisturizer or the Renewing Collagen & Elastin Moisturizer, and use the BHA Exfoliant for targeted care.
What are good alternatives to St. Ives?
Good alternatives to St. Ives include CeraVe, Cetaphil, Paula's Choice, Neutrogena, Kiehl's, and Dermalogica, which all have dedicated pages on Lovi. These similar brands offer alternative skincare selections for various skin types.
St. Ives vs CeraVe: which is better?
St. Ives is better than CeraVe for dry, oily, sensitive, combination, and acne-prone skin because Lovi rates the St. Ives-focused routine Superior for all of these skin types, compared to High or Superior for CeraVe. Some St. Ives products help keep skin smooth, though shoppers should note that 3 of the 4 products on this page contain fragrance.
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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