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[beetiger]

I've been playing a lot with getting scented samples of stuff these days, and I seem to have acquired a number of sugar scrubs, which confuse me. What exactly does one do with these, and why?

Thanks for any help.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

gentle exfoliation

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Exfoliate bits. I've made a few, they're yummy.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

I've heard they make your skin really soft. Haven't tried them yet, though. Something in sugar is supposed to be similar to some chemical touted as an anti-aging thing for the skin, but i can't remember which...alpha-hydroxy acid, maybe?

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

In-shower exfoliation, usually post soap.

[hanseth.livejournal.com]

As others have said, exfoliation. I make my own, with table sugar and oil (grapeseed, sweet almond, apricot kernel, and/or olive). I've got crazy dry, sensitive skin, and at the moment it's all broken out in nasty eczema patches so there's broken skin as well, and the gentle exfoliation + moisture from the oil works wonders.

And on broken skin, it's WAY better than a salt scrub.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Thanks. This was the level of detail I needed. It seems weird to put sticky stuff on myself after soap, but I tried it today and it was pretty nice. Now I smell like a combination of pumpkin pie spice and the Trick #2 I put on afterwards. :)

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

The ones I have used were something pretty innocuous, like vanilla. I layer vanilla oil under almost everything I wear anyway, so it works. You want to leave the oil from the scrub on your skin. (same with salt scrub, but those irritate me)

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

Hey--can I ask you a question about that? Do you use any emulsifier in there to make the oil a little easier to wash off? I have table sugar, honey, regular grade olive oil, and god knows a ton of scent ready at hand, but another friend told me that if I don't use an emulsifier in there it will be impossible to get off without more soap.

[hanseth.livejournal.com]

The honey would make it stickier, I think, and even more difficult to wash off. Seriously, I just use table sugar and oil. No scent, no honey, no emulsifier, no extra anything.

As for me, I actually really like that the oil doesn't wash off easily. As I mentioned, I have insanely dry skin, so anything that keeps moisture on my skin is a good thing. It's sort of the point as far as I'm concerned - exfoliate, then the oil stays on and can moisturize better.

One thing you can try is to just make it without oil. If you wanted it scented you could mix it the scent in with some dry sugar and use that under running water. I used to do it that way (minus scent) before I started experimenting with oils.

[hanseth.livejournal.com]

Though now that I'm thinking about this, maybe I ought to try honey! Since it's all hydrophilic and stuff, it could be an excellent thing for my skin in the shower. Hm!

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

The take on that I heard was that it was the natural anti-bacterials in honey that might keep the sugar from being a bacteria pit. But I don't intend to make more than about 3-4oz at a time. enough for a couple showers. In the winter, I use it nearly daily, so it's too expensive to buy online or such.