If you can resist the urge to eat it before you make it to the shower, you’ll enjoy all the sugar scrub benefits for men. Beyond tasting good, sugar scrubs are ideal for sensitive skin, provide gentle exfoliation, and give you that squeaky clean skin feeling. They’re a sweet addition to your skincare lineup.
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What Are Sugar Body Scrubs?
Sugar body scrubs use brown or cane sugar as a base, with an oil, and some scented ingredients to make a simple body scrub. Using a body scrub has a slew of benefits that you can read about in that link, but the top points to know are that they soften your skin, clear your complexion, double as a pre-shave, and prevent ingrown hairs.
Sugar scrubs do all that with less hassle than salt scrubs and even less hassle than most commercially produced scrubs. They’re easier to wash off and less likely to cause redness or rashes.
Sugar Scrubs Are Good For Sensitive Skin
Think about that small grain size in a pile of sugar for a second. Now compare that (in your head) to a pile of sand. The sugar seems soft by comparison, doesn’t it?
Sugar scrubs are counterintuitively soft. Most scrubs are abrasive and grainy, rubbing away dead skin the harsh way. Sugar scrubs actually dissolve the dead skin on your body and gently work away at dried-on debris. They’re acidic, so they use their chemical properties to give your skin a hand, rather than harshly scouring your skin.
Hence, they’re especially good for guys with sensitive skin, who tend to get dry, flaky, or rashy with new products. In fact, one specific way to use them is as an exfoliant if you have blackheads on your inner thighs.
Sugar Scrubs Leave Less Residue
Unlike most scrubs, paired with a bit of warm water, sugar scrubs will dissolve slowly against your skin. You should still rinse off carefully so you don’t leave behind any sticky bits, but their dissolving properties help speed up the rinse.
That’s an especially great feature if you have a lot of body hair that tends to catch on the gritty pieces of your scrubs. If you start your shower by using a sugar scrub, it’s sure to have completely dissolved (if not having rinsed off) by the time you’re done.
Sugar Scrubs Smell Great
Don’t worry, you won’t smell like you just waltzed through candy land. But while you’re using a sugar scrub, you’ll notice how sweet it smells. It’s like a mini aromatherapy session in the shower, just basking in the good scents.
Sugar scrubs won’t leave behind much of a scent on your skin, so they also won’t mess up your carefully calculated soap-deodorant-cologne scheme. They’re easy to pair with other scented products.
Lots Of Sugar Scrubs Are Natural
Imagine this: you’re inexplicably stranded in the desert with nothing but your skincare products. What will you do?! Well, you can start by eating your sugar scrub.
Jokes aside, skincare products have gotten so advanced and so chemical-y that we don’t really know what we’re putting on our skin anymore. I’m not going to make the “if you don’t want it IN your body, why would you put it ON your body” argument. (It’s a dumb argument. Go eat your shoes then, Karen.) But at the same time, it’s comforting to know that sugar scrubs are gentle and natural (this includes sugar based body scrubs vs body wash).
How Often Should You Use A Sugar Scrub?
For maximum sugar scrub benefits, you should only use a sugar scrub at most 3 times a week. But the nice thing about sugar scrubs is…they’re so gentle….if you have hardy skin, and you really want to use a scrub everyday or every other day, sugar scrubs are the way to go.
Their small, round particles aren’t too abrasive, so you can sometimes get away with more frequent use if you’re having a grimier week than usual.
Are Sugar Scrubs Healthy?
I already mentioned that they’re safe enough to eat – sugar scrubs are even better for your skin than they are for your tongue and teeth.
Most are all-natural and incredibly gentle. If you’re not sure whether your sugar scrub contains natural ingredients, just read the ingredient label. You should be able to pronounce, and even recognize, at least 99% of the ingredients on the list. In fact, you might be able to find lots of the ingredients in your own kitchen.
That’s a life hack right there. If you’re on a budget and can’t afford to try a handcrafted sugar scrub made by the experts, you can cobble together your own at home (probably one of the better sugar scrub benefits no one talks about). All you really need is sugar and oil (the type of sugar and the type of oil doesn’t even matter). Just mix them together until you like the consistency.
How Long Do You Leave Sugar Scrub On?
You shouldn’t really leave a sugar scrub on your skin. It’s not meant to be treated like a face mask. Just like most scrubs, even though they’re gentler, they do leave your skin feeling a little parched.
Rub in your sugar scrub for 30 seconds to a minute, then rinse it off. The sugar should come off easy and dissolve if you’re using warm water. Don’t leave behind any residue. Then apply a moisturizer afterwards!
You’ll smell sweet and have those glowy skin vibes.
For an entire step-by-step plan, check out our guide on how to use body scrub.
Frank Edwards
Frank Edwards is a men's grooming & style expert who is "internet famous" for being able to simplify complicated grooming routines into easy, yet effective rituals any man can do. As a professional analyst, he has spent years researching the biggest brands, products, experts, best practices, and breaking news in the space. He takes this analysis, tests it out on himself, and then documents everything in his writing. As a result, his experience-based articles are considered by some to be the gold standard in men's grooming and men's style.