Does "Equate" Beauty Equal Good?

I cannot be the only one....who tries to make the distinction between being a penny pincher and buying what I need at a great price.  When it comes to personal grooming and beauty products the difference between economical and bargain can mean looking fabulous or like how I feel most of the time, harried, running late, and sleep deprived.  With this in mind, I carefully try to choose products that I need to keep myself presentable to the rest of the world while simultaneously buying my family's necessities.

On one of my weekly trips to the Wal-Mart, to pick up granola bars and macaroni and cheese (you know the usual), I remembered the sputtering and spitting my face wash had made that morning and thought I should replace it while I was out.  I took a right turn down one of the many soap aisles and came across the Equate Refreshing Apricot Facial Scrub, the Wal-Mart self labelled version of the St. Ives facial scrub, which is delightfully priced under $3.00.  I tossed the Equate scrub into my cart and continued on to purchase the rest of the mostly unnecessary items on my list.

I put the Equate Refreshing Apricot Facial Scrub to the test the following morning and was pleasantly surprised.  The texture of the scrub is well balanced between the cleanser and the ground walnut seeds (aka: the scrub), although there isn't much of an aroma what I could smell was nice, and the Equate scrub left my skin very smooth without loosing too much of my top layer of skin (always a plus). I think that the Equate Refreshing Apricot Scrub does a great job of mimicking the original, one of the best store branded products I have used, and is sulfate and paraben free, both great selling points to me. Do I think it is worth saving a dollar or less purchasing the Equate version versus the St. Ives....not necessarily, but I'll leave that penny pinching or bargain shopping decision up to you.