Sugar

[shoo g-er]

Categories: Carbohydrate

Benefits:
Topical Exfoliant
Skin Cell Renewal
Skin Hydration

Although it is known to have deleterious effects on a person’s health, sugar is equipped to provide beneficial attributes to one’s skin. In addition to being a topical exfoliant, sugars increase the skin’s ability to retain moisture, therefore maintaining skin hydration and helping maintain a healthy skin barrier function. Sugar also helps to retain skin oil balance, thus preventing one’s skin from becoming too dry or too oily.1-2-3

Sugar is a short-chain, soluble carbohydrate, as well as a natural humectant or moisture retaining substance. These qualities make it the ideal candidate for gently stripping away dead cells at the surface of the skin, reducing skin surface debris, and providing the necessary nourishment environment to promote healthy skin and cell renewal. The humectant nature of topical sugar increases skin elasticity and epidermal barrier repair, which helps to combat skin xerosis (abnormally dry skin).3

  1. Mammone, Thomas, and David C. Gan. "Methods of exfoliation using N-acetyl glucosamine." U.S. Patent No. 6,413,525. 2 Jul. 2002
  2. Knutson, Richard A., et al. "Use of sugar and povidone-iodine to enhance wound healing: five year's experience." Southern Medical Journal 74.11 (1981): 1329-1335
  3. Fluhr, J.W., Darlenski, R. and Surber, C. (2008), Glycerol and the skin: holistic approach to its origin and functions. British Journal of Dermatology, 159: 23–34. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2133.2008.08643.x