I’ve seen this product pop up in a few reels/tik toks/youtube shorts and being highly recommended, mostly because the brand is gravely environmentally conscious. Well, I happen to own this product, and its popularity prompted me to write a review, not so much as to give my two cents but more as to publish a public service announcement.
UpCircle’s ethos is all about using upcycled ingredients in skincare – that is, leftover ingredients or stuff that would otherwise be thrown in the trash are being repurposed and reused in their skincare products. The coffee face scrub is an example of that, since the coffee grounds they use have been already brewed. The sentiment is great and I can see why people who value sustainability really lean towards UpCircle, but skincare is a science (literally, from the medical field) and the main concern about ingredient sourcing should be, in my opinion, how good for the skin they are.
The main ingredient in this scrub is grinded coffee beans, and honestly, that’s both its highlight and major downfall . The good part about having real coffee powder is that it smells like coffee, real coffee, not an artificial coffee aroma. Best smell ever to wake up to in the shower on a very early morning. The sensorial experience is great.
The problem with coffee powder is that it is sharp and rough and does not soften nor dissolve with water (like sugar scrubs do), so because of it, it should be nowhere near your thinner, more sensitive face skin. You can feel how rough and abrasive this is as soon as you try it – there’s no getting around it, and I’m not being a p*ssy – this is a face scab waiting to happen. And the coffee beans aren’t the only reason why you should keep this away from your face, specially if you have sensitive skin (which this is marketed for! are they trying to get sued?): this has essential oils (orange, geranium, rosemary and bergamot) and quite a few perfuming ingredients that can be quite irritating.
I usually give a pass to perfuming ingredients when they are used in skincare products that won’t stay on your skin for too long (like cleansers and exfoliators), but that does not apply when said products are targeted for sensitive skin. There’s good stuff in here – shea butter, jojoba oil, apricot oil – but that does not make up for the bad. No amount of shea butter will rectify the risk of a bruise.
I would say this would work better as a body scrub, but honestly, there are some areas on the body that are just too sensitive for this scrub (keep this far away from the chest area!) so it’s safer to save it for the feet. That feels like it has enough endurance for it.
Ingredients: Coffea Arabica Seed Powder, Sucrose, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Fruit Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Kernel Oil, Rosa Canina (Rosehip) Fruit Oil, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Peel Oil, Pelargonium Graveolens (Geranium) Flower Oil, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Oil, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil, Pogostemom Cablin (Patchouli) Leaf Oil, Citrus Aurantium Amara (Bitter Orange) Leaf Oil, Anthemis Nobilis (Chamomile) Flower Oil, Benzyl Alcohol, Dehydroacetic Acid, Benzoic Acid, Sorbic Acid, *Limonene, *Citronellol, *Geraniol, *Linalool. *Natural constituent of essential oils listed.
This all being said, I have enjoyed using it as a body scrub from the knees down, and the scent is out of this world fantastic. If this was not marketed as a face product (nor for sensitive skin), and rather as a heavy duty scrub, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.
Up Circle has since change it’s packaging to a glass jar (which I actually prefer), but the formula is still exactly the same. This currently costs 18,99€ for 100 ml of product and although it is quite pricey for a foot scrub (because I will never use it on my face), if I can’t find anything else with this scent for cheaper out there, I might repurchase it. Yes, my feet are that fancy.
