Why Sugar Scrubs Work
ugar's more than just a way to sweeten your coffee. When it's mixed into a whipped sugar scrub, common table sugar becomes one of your best weapons against rough, dry skin. Better yet, a body scrub can be loaded with sugar and still not add an ounce to your hips. Sugar works to beautify your skin from the outside in, smoothing and polishing until you look perfect from head to toe.
Why Sugar Scrubs Work
The outer layer of your skin, the epidermis, looks a lot like a flaky pastry under a microscope. Those little flakes aren't very appetizing, though; they're dead skin cells, and your body naturally sheds millions of them a day. However, your epidermis sometimes gets a little backed up, and layers of skin cells refuse to flake away when your body is done with them. That's when you need to exfoliate. Exfoliation literally means "removing leaves," and that's how sugar works to exfoliate your skin. Think of the sugar crystals as gathering up the tiny leaves of dead, dry skin so that you can get rid of them and reveal the younger, livelier-looking skin …show more content…
As you smooth a whipped sugar product onto your skin, you're loosening the old skin cells that contribute to an ashy, dull complexion. What makes sugar so special is that unlike other exfoliating scrubs, its crystals are smooth and won't scratch your skin or leave you feeling scraped raw.
Sugar scrubs do more than just physically sweep old skin cells from the healthier-looking skin beneath them, though. When you combine sugar with water, it produces glycolic acid. You've heard of alpha hydroxy acids and how good they are for your skin; glycolic acid is a particular type of naturally occurring AHA. While the sugar works to lift the cells physically, glycolic acid is dissolving the glue-like substance that holds them stuck to your skin. Synthetic scrubs can only do one or the other, but sugar scrubs give you double-duty exfoliation.
Moisturizing Sugar
Why Sugar Scrubs Work
The outer layer of your skin, the epidermis, looks a lot like a flaky pastry under a microscope. Those little flakes aren't very appetizing, though; they're dead skin cells, and your body naturally sheds millions of them a day. However, your epidermis sometimes gets a little backed up, and layers of skin cells refuse to flake away when your body is done with them. That's when you need to exfoliate. Exfoliation literally means "removing leaves," and that's how sugar works to exfoliate your skin. Think of the sugar crystals as gathering up the tiny leaves of dead, dry skin so that you can get rid of them and reveal the younger, livelier-looking skin …show more content…
As you smooth a whipped sugar product onto your skin, you're loosening the old skin cells that contribute to an ashy, dull complexion. What makes sugar so special is that unlike other exfoliating scrubs, its crystals are smooth and won't scratch your skin or leave you feeling scraped raw.
Sugar scrubs do more than just physically sweep old skin cells from the healthier-looking skin beneath them, though. When you combine sugar with water, it produces glycolic acid. You've heard of alpha hydroxy acids and how good they are for your skin; glycolic acid is a particular type of naturally occurring AHA. While the sugar works to lift the cells physically, glycolic acid is dissolving the glue-like substance that holds them stuck to your skin. Synthetic scrubs can only do one or the other, but sugar scrubs give you double-duty exfoliation.
Moisturizing Sugar