There’s nothing like a sugar & spice scrub for that soft supple feel to your skin. Making sugar and spice scrub at home is fairly simple and inexpensive. Sugar is a relatively recent addition to the list of kitchen ingredients with beauty benefits. Sugar contains glycolic acid which hydrates skin. The granular texture of sugar helps exfoliate and remove dead cells allowing fresh skin to come back. With many exfoliating substances there is often the risk of over scrubbing which results in damaged skin. With sugar one overcomes this risk as rubbing more makes the sugar dissolve in the medium that you are using. Apart from all this sugar is a very inexpensive ingredient and being a preservative by nature has an extremely long shelf life. So any scrubs you prepare with sugar as the base is not likely to go bad for a very long time.

Spices do their own part in skin care. A lot of spices are very strong astringents and clean deeply reaching even the dirt, grime and dead cells. Their strong action calls for them to be used in combination with a moisturizing agent such as oils or butter. Two such spices are ginger and cinnamon. Ginger can be used fresh or dry.

Here’s how you can make your own sugar and spice scrub at home. Sugar is the base and hence you need fairly substantial quantities of it. It is recommended that you use equal amounts of granulated white sugar and packed brown sugar. Combine the two sugars and whisk until homogenous in color. Stir in powdered spices. Dry ginger and cinnamon is a common pair. Nutmeg and some vanilla extract could also be used. Ground cloves can be added but the smell is quite strong and it is not recommended for dry skin. For oily skin a spoon of ground oats can be mixed in. Finally add the oil and mix well. For one cup of the combined sugars use half a cup of oil. Store it in an airtight jar for later use.

To use, wipe your face with a warm wet towel to remove the superficial dirt. Apply about a spoon or two of the scrub and rub in circular motions for about 2-3 minutes. Do not rub too hard that you feel the prick of the sugar granules. Rinse it off and pat dry.

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