St. Ives Face Moisturizer Cream, Collagen and Elastin Review: A Massive $5 Hydration Tub

Introduction

Brand: St. Ives
Key Ingredients/Technology: Safflower Seed Oil, Soluble Collagen, Hydrolyzed Elastin
Benefits: Deeply conditions dry skin, provides a soft glow, won’t clog pores
Product Size/Quantity: 10 Ounce (Pack of 1)
Dimensions: 3.94 x 4.33 x 2.76 inches
Weight: 0.75 Pounds

With many years of experience testing face moisturizers, I usually laugh when I see a giant, half-pound plastic tub of face cream sitting in the drugstore aisle for under five bucks.

I bought this massive 10-ounce tub of St. Ives Renewing Collagen & Elastin Moisturizer strictly because the price-to-volume ratio is absolutely insane. My immediate expectation was a heavy, greasy, heavily perfumed body lotion masquerading as a face cream that would instantly give me cystic acne. I needed to see if it actually makes sense to spend money on this enormous budget tub, or if it is just cheap filler that belongs on your feet, not your face.

Let’s put this into perspective. A standard facial moisturizer is 1.7 ounces. This tub is 10 ounces. You are getting nearly six times the product for the price of a fancy latte. I threw this giant plastic container on my bathroom counter and used it aggressively on my face, neck, and chest through a bitter, dry weather spell to see if it actually works. I wanted to find out if you can genuinely get away with spending five dollars on skincare without ruining your face.

Pros & Cons

Who Should Buy This

If you have chronically dry skin that drinks up thin, watery lotions in five minutes and you refuse to spend forty dollars on a tiny glass jar of moisturizer, this is targeted right at you. It is a highly practical, utilitarian solution for budget-conscious people who want to aggressively slather a thick layer of cream down their face, neck, and chest every single night without feeling guilty about wasting expensive product, making it a surprisingly strong candidate for the Best Face Cream for Women Over 50 on a strict budget.

However, if you have highly acne-prone, oily skin or a fierce sensitivity to artificial fragrances, do not let the cheap price tag tempt you. The heavy safflower oil base will feel suffocating on a greasy T-zone. You should also skip this if you are expecting the topical collagen to actually erase deep wrinkles or rebuild your skin’s internal structure. It is a heavy-duty surface hydrator, not a medical-grade anti-aging treatment.

Technical Specifications

Our Testing Experience

First Impressions

The packaging is cheap, bulky, and purely functional. It’s a massive, wide-mouth plastic tub. Twisting off the lid, the cream looks exactly like thick white icing. The smell hits you instantly. It is that very specific, nostalgic St. Ives scent—a strong, clean, slightly powdery floral fragrance that lingers. I scooped out a generous finger-full, already hating the fact that I was dipping my hands directly into my face cream. The texture is incredibly dense in the jar, but it actually spreads surprisingly well. I slapped a heavy layer onto my cheeks and forehead. It felt wet and highly reflective for a few minutes. I fully expected it to just sit there like a greasy mask, but after about five minutes, it sank into my skin, leaving a soft, slightly tacky finish.

Daily Use

I forced myself to use this day and night for a month. As a night cream, it is fantastic. I layered it right over a liquid toner, and it sealed everything in perfectly. As a daytime moisturizer under makeup? It requires patience. That is a real-world annoyance you have to deal with. If I applied my liquid foundation before giving this cream a solid ten minutes to completely absorb, my makeup slid around and separated along my jawline. I quickly learned to apply it, go drink my coffee, and then do my makeup. I also got highly annoyed with the tub itself. If you close the lid with even a tiny bit of lotion on your hands, the cheap plastic gets incredibly slippery and crusty around the threads.

Key Features in Action

Let’s talk about the collagen and elastin claims. Brands love throwing these words on cheap creams. The reality is that applying collagen to the outside of your skin does not rebuild the collagen inside your skin. It just acts as a moisture-binding sponge. The real hero here is the safflower seed oil. This natural emollient actively repaired the dry, rough patches around my nose within three days. The “non-comedogenic” claim is surprisingly accurate. I have combination skin that clogs easily, and I was terrified this thick paste would cause deep cystic acne. It didn’t. My pores stayed totally clear.

Long-Term Performance

After four weeks of heavy, generous scooping, the 10-ounce tub barely looks dented. My skin felt consistently quenched. I completely stopped waking up with that tight, dry, pulling sensation on my cheeks. Did it erase my fine lines? No. But the brute-force hydration definitely plumped up the surface of my skin, making dehydration lines far less visible. It is a highly reliable, blunt-instrument hydration tool that just works.

How It Compares

Side-by-Side Comparison

In my opinion, this St. Ives moisturizer stands out purely because of the absurd cost-per-ounce ratio. CeraVe is undoubtedly a better, safer product for repairing a damaged, sensitive skin barrier due to the ceramides, but it lacks the cosmetic plumping effect and costs more. Neutrogena Hydro Boost is the gold standard for oily skin, but you pay nearly twenty bucks for a tiny 1.7-ounce jar. St. Ives gives you over half a pound of highly effective, pore-safe hydration for the price of a cheap sandwich.

Customer Feedback

Overall Satisfaction

Buyers consistently rate this giant tub highly for curing harsh winter dryness and saving them a fortune on skincare.

Most Praised Features

• The massive quantity means you can aggressively moisturize your neck and chest daily.
• Cures flaking, tight skin without triggering acne or blackheads.
• Absorbs fully into dry skin without leaving a sticky, ruined pillowcase at night.

Common Concerns

• The open-mouth jar is unhygienic and requires you to wash your hands before every use.
• The floral perfume scent is too strong and irritates sensitive eyes.

Who Loves It Most

Frugal adults with normal-to-dry skin who want a single, multi-purpose tub of moisturizer for their face, neck, and hands.

Is It Worth the Price?

Price Analysis

Let’s do the brutal math on this tub. You are paying $4.79 for exactly 10 fluid ounces of face cream. That breaks down to $0.48 per ounce. In the modern skincare market, that is practically free. Standard drugstore facial moisturizers cost between $10 and $20 per ounce. You are absolutely not paying for advanced peptides, stable antioxidants, or elegant airless pump packaging. You are paying for a giant, mass-produced vat of safflower seed oil and glycerin. But if your only goal is to lock moisture into your face and stop flaking, spending five dollars on a tub that will easily last you six to eight months is a brilliant financial decision. You are buying raw, unpretentious hydration.

Value Features

• The massive 10-ounce size easily replaces separate face, neck, and chest creams.
• The non-comedogenic formula means you won’t waste money fixing new acne breakouts.
• The safflower oil base mimics expensive lipid-repair creams for pennies on the dollar.
• Cruelty-free certification gives you ethical manufacturing at an extreme budget price.

Vs. Competitors

This product obliterates almost every competitor on the shelf when it comes to pure volume-to-price value. You sacrifice luxury packaging and fragrance-free elegance, but you keep fifty bucks in your pocket while getting a face cream that performs exactly the same basic function as the expensive brands.

Final Verdict