Happy 2016! I hope you had a great time ringing in 2016; I got hit with a cute little winter cold, so I’ve spent the first couple days of 2016 in a less than glamorous manner — no sequins, just sweatpants and lots of NyQuil.  I know they say how you spend your New Year dictates how you’ll spend the rest of your year, but I’m ignoring that because I’m just not about that.

I’ve never been a huge resolutions person, but I do want to continue striving to become the very best version of myself in 2016. As we get to the close of each year, I try to think about something that I want to work on. In the past, I’ve focused on curating healthier friendships, learning to be objective when my anxiety typically effects decisions I make and not letting myself get lost in the crowd or peer pressured into feeling like I need to be at a certain point because “everyone else is.” I think that this year, I really want to work on controlling negative thoughts; I’m always my harshest critic, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I think working on less negative self-talk as well as adopting a more positive attitude are going to be the two things I really strive to get better about in this new year.  Overall, I just want to be “brighter” going forward and while I know that’s something that’s going to take work in different areas, I’m hoping it’s attainable.

But what about the physical side of being brighter? I dread the winter months like you wouldn’t believe. Snow? Dry skin? Painfully cold fingers and toes? Chapped lips? Having to wear multiple layers to the gym? None of it’s appealing to me. Thankfully, everyone’s favorite drugstore brand knows that and created some great new products to solve the winter woes.

I was first introduced to St. Ives by my mom during the height of my lengthy acne bout; I’ve talked about it before on here, but I suffered from pretty intense acne during my pre-teen and teen years and it killed my self-confidence. While nothing about acne is fun, I really hated the scarring that came along with it. One of the products I used to help turn over the dead skin was St. Ives Apricot Scrub. This was a scrub I used religiously during my teens so I was really excited when Influenster asked me to try out some new products from St. Ives’ new line.

Putting on lotion after I shower has never been something I liked doing. I hate when lotion is thick and then I have to struggle to get pants on or feel greasy when I go to bed. What immediately struck me about the Pear Nectar and Soy lotion was how lightweight it is. It quickly absorbs into the skin and but still feels moisturizing. This is much more up my alley and with all the extra showering I’ve been having to do with hopping back into my normal gym routine, I need to be able to get some moisture back into my skin.

The exfoliating body wash has been the product from this box that I’ve found myself reaching for the most since receiving this box. The scent is not super strong, but still citrusy, I always have been drawn to citrus scented lotion, body wash, perfume, etc. so this wash is perfect for me. The exfoliating wash and mask from this Vox Box are safe for sensitive skin, which made me wonder if I’d be underwhelmed by their exfoliating ability, but the body wash might be the “just right” of exfoliating body scrubs for me. It pulls all the oil and dirt off without being painful or make you wonder if you’re accidentally going to scrub off a part of your body. {I’m looking at you Lush Ocean Salt!}

I put the Oatmeal Scrub + Mask on after I got home from the gym one night and let it sink into my skin before stepping into a hot shower. I like to use masks this way from time to time to really give the product time to sink in and also tighten my skin a little. When I went to rinse out my conditioner, I went ahead and scrubbed the mask off. I felt pretty meh about this one; I look for my face scrubs to be a little rougher — my skin’s a lot better than my teen years, but I still like to feel like I’ve pulled all traces of oil, dirt and dead skin off my face before I put on moisturizer. {Also, lipstick! A lot of time the leftover lipstick “residue” will give me minor breakouts and really dry lips}

I still felt like there was a lot of “old” skin left on my face. Overall, this is the product I was least impressed with. I would rank the Lush scrub I’ve been using the past nine months ahead of this, but if you are looking for a gentler exfoliator this may be a product you’d appreciate!

Thank you Influenster for sending me these products for free to test and review! Influenster collects product reviews from top social media influencers and sends them products to test out. You can sign up here 🙂