This past weekend, St. Ives opened their first-ever experiential store, the St. Ives Mixing Bar, in Soho, NYC.
The 1800-square-foot store features an actual mixing bar where guests can choose from more than 50 unique ingredient combinations, to create customized body lotions and facial scrubs. The mixing bar allows you to see, smell, touch body scrubs and lotions made with 100% natural extracts, exfoliates, or moisturizers. My personal favorite part of the whole store experience was being able to mix and match ingredients uniquely to me and my skin type.
When you arrive at the St. Ives Mixing Bar, you’re personally guided through the steps to create your unique scrub or lotion. If you are looking to make a face scrub you can follow three easy steps: first, you pick the level of exfoliation your skin craves, which ranges from gentle, to moderate, to deep; and then you select the exfoliates desired, such as cacao, volcanic sand, or pomegranate. Lastly, you choose the ingredients your skin will love, which is everything from Blackberry Basil to Apricot Honey, just to name a few.
The process is very similar if you are looking to make a body lotion. You first pick your lotion – light or rich – and then you choose the ingredient, either honey, coconut or papaya. Lastly, you pair it with a complementary ingredient, which could include anything from mango, to pistachio, to honeydew, to ensure that your custom lotion has the perfect benefits for your skin! The store specialist mixes it all together right in front of you and you’re done, with a personal touch that is the perfect fit for your skin. I chose a medium exfoliate made from coconut scrub and it’s been so great for my skin, especially with all the extra humidity that comes with NYC summer-living!
In addition to the mixing bar, you can also stop by the St. Ives sink + beauty stations where you can sample existing and customized products right in the store. There’s also an educational ingredient wall featuring popular fresh and natural ingredients. As a great added layer to the whole shopping experience, you can purchase limited edition St. Ives candles, including Apricot Honey, Coconut Cacao, and Blackberry Basil, for only $10 each. The Apricot Honey was my favorite, and it’s been the perfect light summer scent to grace my apartment space.
If you get a chance to stop by (which you definitely should), there are fun social media surprises as well. For example, there is a mirrored-infinity room full of life-sized apricots that make cute gifs you can export straight to your feed! Overall, the St. Ives experience is a great summer beauty pop-up surprise and a fun way to experience over 20 new ingredients that this classic, beloved brand has to offer – from pink lychee, to kale and ginger.
The St. Ives Mixing Bar, located at 577 Broadway (at the corner of Prince and Broadway), will be open from June 16th, 2017 through July 30th, 2017, Monday through Saturday from 11am to 9pm and Sunday from 11am to 8pm.
