Things to do in New York: St. Ives Mixing Bar

I am obsessed with skincare; I cleanse, moisturize, and apply creams at least twice a day. To say I love giving myself facials would be an understatement. I actually look forward to days where I have no plans so I can take 30+ minutes to give myself a facial!  I had planned a trip down to New York City so I could see my cousin, and I was researching things to do and saw that there was a St. Ives Mixing Bar pop up shop where you could create your own face scrub. I got SO EXCITED! I added it to the top of my list of things to do while I was there (along with Smorgasburg of course!).

The St. Ives Mixing Bar is located at 577 Broadway – the SoHo neighbourhood of New York City. It was originally opened from June 16^th to July 30^th, but due to its popularity it was extended to September 30^th. The Mixing Bar allows you to create your own body lotions and facial scrubs for $12 USD each. Now, YOU’RE not actually making it, but rather choosing how it’s made. There are more than 50 ingredient combinations (textures/scents) to choose from when making your lotions and facial scrubs.

In addition to creating those, there are also limited edition St. Ives candles on sale for $10 USD each. There is also an educational ingredient wall which showcases the individual ingredients and what they’re best used for. Three sink stations line up against the back of the store where tester products are available for sampling so you can try out the different combinations before creating your own.

When I first got into the pop up shop, I was overwhelmed by everything – but in a good way. I was so happy to be there and be able to create something that I would enjoy using over and over again. My first stop was to the sink stations to try out all the variety of facial scrubs. I tested out each variety of exfoliator type as well as the different scents. When it was time to choose what I wanted in my facial scrub, I had plenty of options to choose from. I ended up making two facial scrubs for me and my boyfriend… secretly they are both mine, but he doesn’t need to know that haha.

Here are all the options to choose from when creating your own facial scrub:

For my facial scrub, I chose the deep exfoliation factor seeing as I already love using St. Ives Blemish Control Apricot Scrub. All the levels of exfoliation had different options to choose from, but for the deep exfoliation, the only option available was Walnut Shell Powder. I paired it up with the Pineapple Mango scent and I am so glad I did – it smells AMAZING. For my “boyfriends” facial scrub, I chose the moderate exfoliation using Volcanic Sand and the Avocado Honey scent. This one wasn’t as strong smelling, but I really enjoyed it. I decided to get two different types of scrubs so I can choose between a moderate or deep cleansing depending on how my skin is.

Here is one of the staff members creating my facial scrub! It starts with a cup of water and they add all the ingredients into it – dehydrated lotion, glycerin, fragrances, etc. It takes a trip to the blender (which is also heated) for about a minute and a half. When its done, it comes out looking like a whipped lotion. They add a scoop of the exfoliator into it and mix it by hand. Then they scoop it out into your own labelled tub!

I posted a picture on Instagram from the St. Ives Mixing Bar and I got so many people asking about this! I would definitely recommend coming here – and HURRY because it’s gone after September 30th! The only thing that could have made this cooler is if YOU could make the facial scrub yourself, but I know it’d be a liability of some sort and people would make a huge mess of it.

Would you visit the St. Ives Mixing Bar?
What kind of facial scrub would you choose?