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product review: Oblepikha Siberica Professional scrubs


I don’t always write beauty product reviews, but when I do. . . Just kidding! This post is NOT going to take that turn before it has even properly begun.

No, but seriously, I don’t normally write product reviews on my blog, but maybe it is time for something new. And, frankly, I like these two products so much, that I just couldn’t resist telling others about it.


I recently purchased two products from a brand called NATURA SIBERICA: a body scrub and a scalp scrub (I know) from their OBLEPIKHA SIBERICA PROFESSIONAL line. First, a little bit about the brand itself. It is a Russian organic cosmetics brand which offers beauty products made of ingredients found in Siberia and the Far East. None of their products contain parabens, artificial colours, silicones, or petroleum products, most of their products are SLS- and PEG-free, and at least 95 % of the product ingredients are of plant origin. They have also been awarded the Eco Bio Cosmetics certificate by ICEA (Environmental and Ethical Certification Institute). Natura Siberica offers a wide range of beauty products: shampoos and conditioners, hand creams and foot creams, toothpastes and bath salts, scrubs and masks, make-up, and cosmetics for children.


Now on to the products I tried. The first thing that caught my attention, of course, was the packaging. Coming from the same line, they also have the same design. The gorgeous colour combination of turquoise and orange definitely pops out among other products on the shelves. And the delicate illustrations of flowers, berries and dragonflies make it all so much the better.


The SEA BUCKTHORN AND HONEY BODY SCRUB is one of Natura Siberica’s newest products. It is a deeply purifying and rich body scrub with sea buckthorn oil and buckwheat honey. Sea buckthorn berries are known for their amazing properties: they are high in vitamins C (about ten times more than in oranges!), E and A, and are a great source of anti-oxidants, minerals, fatty acids and amino acids. The oil extracted from these miracle berries will make your skin clearer, softer and younger-looking, as well as help fight acne.

Buckwheat honey enhances this product even more, adding a powerful punch of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. Buckwheat honey is distinguished by its dark, rich colour, and it has been long established that the darker varieties of honey generally contain much more antioxidants (but we all know that the dark side offers a lot more benefits, right? Honey, bread, chocolate, fruit, leafy greens — the darker the better). It will increase your skin’s elasticity and make it firmer.


The scrub is of a rather bright, warm orange colour and has a pleasant, slightly sweet sea buckthorn smell. The texture is just like I love my body scrubs. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like body scrubs but I’m not actually a big fan of store-bought scrubs. My favourite scrub is coffee with a little bit of honey. But this one has the perfect texture for scrubbing away those old skin cells. It has a lot of small abrasive elements and a thick consistency which feels very nice on the skin. It also leaves a thin oily layer on the skin, so I might conclude that if you don’t use any other body wash after it and your skin is not dry, you could skip the moisturiser. As I was shaving after using the scrub and the skin on my legs tends to get very dry, naturally, I used a moisturiser as well. But, to be honest, I would have preferred to leave my skin slightly oily and smelling like a sea buckthorn smoothie. Body butter coming soon, perhaps?

I am very satisfied with this product. Like I said, I tend to be wary of scrubs in jars, but with this one I could really tick off all my body scrub expectations.


The SEA BUCKTHORN SCALP SCRUB put me off at first by being what it was. A scalp scrub? Really? I had never heard of such a product and I didn’t think there was a need for it either. But, hey, we learn something new every day, don’t we?

The main ingredient of this product, of course, is the sea-buckthorn oil. But it contains a whole array of other plants, like calendula, peppermint, wood sorrel, as well as Moroccan argan oil. It is supposed to make your scalp cleaner, prevent hair loss and dandruff, stimulate blood circulation and hair growth, and normalise sebaceous gland secretion. Sounds unbelievable.


This scrub is a lot different from the body scrub. It has a lot stronger smell which I don’t like all that much, it is a lot darker, and the consistency is a lot less homogenous. It is sort of gel-like with considerably sparser abrasive grains. But I suppose that’s because it works better on hair.

The first time I tried this product was a hassle. I couldn’t seem to work it into the roots of my hair. Everything seemed dry (although it wasn’t) and tangly and plain old pointless. The second time around I did much better. I used quite a lot of product and generously massaged it into my scalp. Then it says to leave the product in hair for three minutes. Now, I don’t have a clock in my bathroom, so I just left it in while I was shaving. After that I rinsed it out and washed my hair with shampoo as usual.

I haven’t used this scrub for long enough to tell if there is any long-term effect, but I found that it was much easier to wash my hair, therefore — it was definitely cleaner after using just the scrub. My hair tends to get very greasy very quickly and sometimes I have trouble even lathering up the shampoo. But this time it worked like a beast.


If you decide to try this or a similar product and have a hard time getting it out of your hair, the sales lady at the Siberica store shared a trick with me: just use the hairdryer to get any left-overs out. Apparently the abrasive elements will pour out of your hair like sand. But honestly, getting it in was a much bigger problem for me than getting it out.

I definitely need to keep using this product to understand how much I like it and how well it works, but for now I am pretty impressed. 

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