Skin Apotheke Ubtan Facial Scrub review!

As I've discussed here, as well as here, here, and here, I made out like a bandit over Black Friday, effectively shopping my way through my Christmas list and picking up goodies for myself as well (my bank thanks me and my credit card is doing yoga to get through the pain of intense exercise). And while I'm getting sick of writing about skincare for the moment (I tend to go in spurts where I focus heavily on interior design, or fashion, or beauty), I can't stop writing until I make known to the world one of my very favorite skincare purchases, not just of the Black Friday bonanza, but maybe of all time. Yeah. Shit's like whoah.

I am so pleased to introduce you to the Skin Apotheke Ubtan Facial Scrub.

The writer of Epic Beauty Guide raved over this product, and I'm running out of my Acure Brightening Scrub, so I thought I'd see what the fuss was about.

Review: 

I typically don't get too excited about facial scrubs, because they all tend to work pretty similarly for me: my skin feels baby soft afterward for like a minute, then gets really dry and I have to slather on the moisturizer in order to get that soft feeling back. So I was skeptical about all the great reviews on this product. Me of little faith. I love this so much that it's taken up permanent residence in my bathroom and I may have a panic attack when it starts running out.

The ubtan scrub comes as a powder, which you can mix with a variety of substances to make your own specialized mask. I first mixed it with a little water until it made a paste, then rub-a-dub-dubbed all over my face. After washing it off, my skin felt baby-smooth and not dry at all!

Since the scrub looks like a pretty smooth powder in the container, I was surprised by the good amount of exfoliation it gives without being too harsh. I can best describe the 'after' feeling as Polished--any rough skin sloughed away, leaving behind smooth, silky-feeling skin. I can't wait to try this with other liquids, like coconut milk or Greek yogurt! Lately I've been mixing the powder and applying it while my shower warms up, then leaving it on while I shampoo my hair, like a mask. Then when it's time to wash my hair, I wash the mask/scrub off at the same time. Feels luxurious!

Final Verdict: Run don't walk! This facial scrub is something special in a sea of very similar scrubs. Check out Ria's blog post on the history and best use of the scrub as well!

EDIT: Since writing this post, I have used the scrub as a mask with heavy cream (recommended for really dry skin), which works wonderfully too! Have fun figuring out which liquid base works best for your skin!

Ria of Skin Apotheke was very kind to also include a sample of the Organic Exfoliate Radiance Face Mask with my order.

Ingredients: organic aloe juice, organic white grape juice, raw cane sugar juice, hydroxyethyl cellulose, vegetable glycerin, papaya extract, green papaya extract, pineapple extract, phenoxyethanol, tetrasodium edta, citric acid

The mask, which is a lovely clear gel, feels cool and a bit tingly on contact and never gets too sticky, hard, or crusty, which I like. I let it sit on my skin for about 10 minutes as recommended, and it washed off easily after. Given how much I adore the ubtan scrub, I thought I'd find the same miraculous results with this product too. Unfortunately, I can't say that I have really noticed any change in my skin before/after the mask. It could be a product that takes a number of uses before really seeing results, so I'm planning on using up my generous sample and will update this post if I find anything contrary to what I've written!

Oh! And I did as Ria recommended in her product description and used this mask as the liquid for making the scrub into a paste. The benefit of this is that it seemed to 'stick' the scrub to my face a little better than water alone, but it wasn't enough of an advantage that I'd buy the full size product.

Final verdict: If you're gonna go all crazy on Skin Apotheke products, this mixes nicely with the Ubtan scrub, but water works sufficiently well that I don't see this as a necessary purchase. And since I like the shop so much, I wouldn't advise against purchasing this, I just think that I've used other, more immediate-impact masks that I'd buy over this. 

All in all I was very happy with my experience with Skin Apotheke products. I'll be a forever customer for the Ubtan scrub, and I plan to explore some more of her products (I've got my eye on the serums as well as the eye cream). Get your Skin Apotheke Ubtan Facial Scrub here!

Photos and ingredients list courtesy of Skin Apotheke