Clean and Clear Morning Burst Facial Wash Vs. St. Ives Apricot Cleanser

Everybody knows that growing up means-at least usually-dealing with oily and uncooperative skin at best and full blown acne at worst. Because of this, there are now tons of facial cleaning products: lotions, soaps, rinses, toners, scrubs, peals. You name it, it's probably out there. However, my two immediate favorites have been Clean and Clear Morning Burst facial wash and St. Ives Apricot Cleanser. I like them both, but each has its strengths and weaknesses and I'm here now to compare and contrast them for you.

First off-Clean and Clear Morning Burst facial wash has some things going for it. One is the scent. I guess they have done studies about this sort of thing, but the citrus scent they put in it really does leave you somewhat more alert and awake; it's a good thing to use on those mornings when you stayed up way to late IMing people, playing a computer game, or RPing with some friends/rivals (either way). I'd give the Morning Burst face wash a 9 for scent and a good 8 for the wakeup factor. St. Ives Apricot Cleanser on the other hand has a fresh scent and all, but it's a pretty generic one and definitely won't give you that alertness boost. I give the Apricot Cleanser a 3 for scent and a 1 for any wakeup factor (which is really just due to the fact that you have to splash water on your face to get it off).

Secondly, a face cleaner/wash has to actually do the job, you know, clean your face. So, first I'll say that St. Ives probably has that hands down between the two. It has that apricot grit in it that removes more dirt and dead skin than just plain gooey soap and water will, and it has more salicylic acid to cut through the oil and treat pimples already on the surface of the skin and below it. Over all I give St. Ives Apricot Cleanser a 9.5 in the cleaning department; I threw in the .5 just for the apricot grit. Now, the Morning Burst face wash does clean, but it doesn't really lather that well and mostly removes surface dirt and oil. There is nothing gently abrasive that gets below the surface, so for acne it's probably not a good treatment, though it may be a good preventative if you just have a little oily tendency to your skin that could cause a break out. I give the Morning Burst face wash a 5 for cleaning ability and no bonus .5 because it has no grit.

Thirdly, we all know that, where there is salicylic acid and soap involved, there is usually a concern about your skin drying out. Some face washes come with a moisturizer or say they don't dry your skin out, but if you're washing the natural oils away, then you're still drying out the surface of your skin no matter what the labels say. But some that have moisturizers don't always clean away troublesome oils away very well and others that dry out skin badly make the skin look cracked and ashen which is hardly a good alternative to oily; it's only the other extreme. So, out of the two products I am comparing and contrasting, I would have to say that the Morning Burst face wash dries out the skin less while removing surface oil as I mentioned before. It leaves the skin feeling somewhat dryer but not necessarily dried out. I have rarely experienced cracking skin or flaky skin when using the Morning Burst face wash, though I guess if you use it more than once a day, one could get dry skin from that overuse, but on a normal, once-a-morning basis there really shouldn't be any drying. On the scale of 1 to 10, 1 being oily and 10 being dry as the Sahara, I give Morning Burst face wash an even 4 or maybe even a 4.5, but nothing over that. St. Ives Apricot scrub, though, dries out the skin enough that you may need to use a moisturizer every two days or so if you use it once every day. It can commonly cause some flaky skin and also ashen skin, though a hypoallergenic, non-oily face cream should take the edge off without undoing all the washing you just did. I give St. Ives an 8 or even an 8.5 for drying out the skin, though for a person with a severe oily skin problem it might not be so bad, maybe a 5 or a 6.

These two products have their strengths and their downfalls even though I use and like both of them. Sometimes I use them in combination, like one in the morning and another at night. But any facial cleansing product can be great if it's used for the right skin problem and in the right way (i.e. more often is not always better). I've laid out the fact of what I have found out about these two products, but only you can decide which one you prefer.