Product Face Off: Julep Glycolic Hand Scrub & SPF 30 Hand Cream VS Elf Hand Cream and St. Ives Apricot Scrub

This idea has been brewing ever since I first received the Julep Products as part of my Maven packages. (If you don't know what the Maven Program is, please look at my previous posts about this awesome program!)

As part of the Julep Maven sets previously posted about, I received their Glycolic Hand Scrub & their SPF 30 Hand Cream. The Hand Scrub immediately reminded me of St. Ives Apricot Scrub, because it's very similar in texture.

This idea for a face off hit at a great time because I've been increasingly noticing how much my hands have aged. I have extremely pale skin, and while I've been wearing SPF 30+ on my face daily since I was 15 years old, I was not so smart with my hands. They're kind of wrinkled, sundamaged and older looking than I would like. I've been interested in figuring out what products I can use to help my hands look their best. By comparing these products, I can see which I might end up adding to my regiment! I'm much more a budget shopper than one who normally buys fancier brands of things, so I also was very interested in comparing a high end product to a drugstore product for that reason.

Now, On to the product face off!

First, We have Julep Glycolic Hand Scrub Vs St. Ives Apricot Scrub.

Price breakdown: Julep Glycolic Handscrub, $32 for 3 oz tube = roughly $11/oz
St. Ives Apricot Scrub, $7.25 for 6 oz tube = roughly $1.20/oz

On the Left is the Julep Scrub, on the Right is the St. Ives scrub.

Texture difference: The Julep handscrub has far less of the abrasive particles to exfoliate with. The scrub is fairly gentle and smells like real citrus fruits. It's a more watery texture compared to the St. Ives, which has a much thicker texture, and is much more gritty.
Both products exfoliated my hands extremely well. For the sake of fairness in comparison, I used the Julep Scrub on my left hand, and the St. Ives on my right, and both looked the same when I was finished.

Smell wise, I prefer the Julep Scrub as it has a real citrus scent. The St. Ives has a more artificial scent to it and smells faintly of Apricot. I think a better comparison would have been with the non-medicated kind, but unfortunately I did not have that in my house to use for this!

I really don't see a drastic enough difference between these products to justify paying $10 more per oz for a hand scrub. I will happily use the Julep Scrub and then just use St. Ives Apricot Scrub instead, mostly because of the price difference. That said, the Julep brand definitely has much nicer packaging, and would be perfect for inclusion in a manicure gift set for a birthday or the holidays! However, for those of us on a budget, Apricot Scrub is a good dupe.


Next we have the Hand Cream Face off! Julep SPF 30 Hand Cream VS ELF Lavender Hand Cream.

Price Breakdown: Julep SPF 30 Hand Cream - $28 for 3 oz = about $9/oz
ELF Lavender Blossom Hand Cream - $4 for 4 oz = $1/oz

Again, I used the Julep Product on my left hand, directly after washing off the Glycolic Scrub.

My Right Hand gets the ELF Hand Cream, after being scrubbed with St. Ives.

The Julep Hand Cream Swatch. You can see that it spreads out easily and is very smooth. This is not a creamy hand cream, it has the consistency of most sunblocks, and smells faintly like yogurt.

The ELF Hand Cream is much creamier, and takes a little more rubbing in for it to disappear. It also smells very powdery, not like lavender at all to me.

This is my Left Hand after rubbing in the Julep Hand Cream completely. As you can see, it's very shiny, most likely due to the sunblock. It actually just looks like my hand has sunblock on it, to me.

The right hand with the ELF hand cream on it, rubbed in. It's still a little bit shiny, but not nearly as much as the Julep.

As far as scent goes, I prefer the ELF Hand Cream. I don't like the faint yogurt smell that the Julep one has. I like my products to have a scent to them. However, this hand cream would be absolutely wonderful if you are allergic to scents or want one that will not interfere with your perfume. I also prefer the creaminess of the ELF hand cream to the more runny texture of the Julep version. However, I want my hand cream to have SPF, and the ELF version has none, so Julep wins in that category.

Again, the Julep Hand Cream would work much better than the ELF version would for gift giving, since the Julep version has a more contemporary spa like package, and since it's unscented, appeals to more people.
I do with Julep would release a scented version, and that ELF would add SPF to theirs.

Just for comparison sake, here are the ingredient lists as well. First we have the

Julep SPF Hand Cream: Active Ingredients: Octinoxate 7.5%, Oxybenzone 4.0%, Zinc Oxide 3.0%, Ensulizole 2.0% Inactive Ingredients: Butylene Glycol, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Caprylyl Glycol, Ceteareth-20, Cetearyl Alcohol, Ceteth-10 Phosphate, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Oil, Cyclomethicone, Dicetyl Phosphate, Dimethicone, Glycerin, Hexylene Glycol, Isononyl Isononanoate, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Octyldodecyl Neopentanoate, Phenoxyethanol, Potassium Hydroxide, PVP/Eicosene Copolymer, Retinyl Palmitate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Triethxycaprylylsilane, Water, Xanthan Gum.


Elf Lavender Blossom Hand Cream: Water, Cyclopentasiloxane, Petrolatum, Butylene Glycol, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Glycerin, Isocetyl Stearate, Stearic Acid, Shea Butter, Soothing Aloe Vera Gel, Hemp Seed Oil, Panthenol, Dimethicone, Isopropyl Palmitate, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Fragrance, Cetearyl Alcohol, Propylene Glycol, Polysorbate 60, Triethanolamine, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetyl Acetate, Disodium EDTA, Carbomer, Steareth-20, Octyldodecanol, EXT. violet 2(CI 60730), FD&C Blue 1(CI 42090), FD&C red 40(CI 16035),Lavender Oil, Grape Seed Oil, Chamomile.

St. Ives Medicated Apricot Scrub: Active Ingredients: Salicylic Acid (2%) Inactive Ingredients: Water, Juglans Regia (Walnut) Shell Powder, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Zea Mays (Corn) Kernel Meal, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Trietanolamina, Glyceryl Searate, PEG 100 Stearate, Prunus Ameniaca (Apricot) Fruit Extract, Cetyl Acetate, Carborner, Polysorbate 60, Ceteareth 20, Acetylated Lanolin Alcohol, PPG 2 Methyl Ether, Phenethyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Methylisopthiazolinaone, Fragrance, Titanium Dioxide

Julep Glycolic Hand Scrub: Glycerin, Water, Polyacrylate_1,Crosspolymer, Glycolic Acid,Prunis Ameniaca (Apricot) Seed Power, Microcrystalline Wax, Glyceryle Stearate,Cetearyl Alcohol,Ceteareth-20, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Oil, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Extract, Salvaia Officinalis (sage) leaf extract, chamomilla recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Extract, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Xantham Gum, Polysorbate 20, 1.2-Hexanediol,Caprylyl Glycol, Tropolone, Sodium Hydroxide. Does not contain Parabens, Sulfates or Phthaltes.

As a note, I love that the Julep Scrub has so many natural extracts in it. I just really wish they had extended that to the lotion, because then the price difference is understandable, as essential oils are costly.

I also think that the Julep Website should update to have the ingredient lists available, especially with so many people suffering from allergies!

I think that if you can't afford the Julep versions, you really are not missing out as there are other products that can do the same things for literally 1/10th of the cost. But Juleps versions are a nice splurge, or great for giving as gifts! I'm happy I got them in my Maven box to try, but I most likely won't be ordering these products specifically unless they release a different version of the hand cream.