I just saw this on TV and was wondering if anyone has ever done it. Essentially it said that using sugar as a face scrub in the shower is a good for exfoliating your skin! (sounds crazy, doesn’t it dissolve fairly quickly?)
Also, how often do/did you do it and does it seem bad for someone with acne?
Yep, I’ve done that! I just mix a lot of sugar with a little water, get my face wet, and scrub away. Mind you, I have face scrub that I buy from the stoor, but if I run out I do the sugar thing. My face feels gross if I don’t scrub it every day. So go for it! But honestly a tube of face scrub isn’t a huge investment and you can get kinds that have acne fighting stuff in them.
Clearly, you haven’t been keeping up with the trends in bath and body products for some time. You can pay assloads of money for salt or sugar scrubs, or you can make them at home for pennies. Personally, I’ve quit even bothering with buying facial scrubs anymore. Instead, I mix equal parts brown sugar, white sugar, and vegetable oil and use that (sometimes I throw in a bit of vanilla to make it smell even nicer). There’s not enough water on your face to dissolve the sugar, especially when mixed with the oil (sugar and salt don’t dissolve in oils, as they’re both polar molecules and oil is nonpolar), but it dissolves right away when you rinse. There’s a very thin layer of oil left behind on your face, which is great for moisturizing dry skin, but could be a problem for oily or acne-prone skin.
Clearly 
CrazyCatLady do you think my face wash would retain its non-comedogenic status if I added some sugar to it while it was in my hand right before I wash? I don’t think the vegetable oil would be a good idea…!
Jeez, doesn’t anyone just wash their face with soap anymore?
Heh. I’m a soapmaker, and I never wash my face with soap. (Unless I’ve been gardening or otherwise playing in the dirt.)
Anyway, you should be able to make simple scrubs at home, as someone mentioned upthread. I wouldn’t recommend scrubs for anyone who has much of an acne problem, though–I’d think they’d just be too abrasive, and if your skin is broken out, you don’t want to make it worse.
Adding sugar to your non-comedogenic face stuff should be okay. It’ll wash right off, so it shouldn’t do anything to clog pores, provided you don’t add oil.
I occasionally make sugar scrubs to sell, and although they are very nice sugar scrubs, with oils that most folks don’t keep in their cupboards, it’s still almost embarrassing what you can charge for those thing.
Best,
karol
You might want to reserve the sugar and oil scrub for your body where the oil will be a welcome addition. What I like to do is mix about a teaspoon of baking soda with a squeeze of Cetaphil and gently move it around on my face and then rinse well. I suppose you could replace the baking soda with sugar which would do a similar job of exfoliating.
Not only is a sugar scrub bad for the face if you have acne, if you have sensitive or thinner skin, it isn’t good either. Breaks open all those tiny capillaries (I know I’m spelling that wrong). At least, that’s according to the woman who did a facial for me a couple months ago. You really don’t want to exfolliate your face with anything harsh unless you have “sturdy” skin - I won’t even use a washcloth on mine - too harsh.
(Baking soda isn’t as harsh, if you want a milder scrub).
(Now a good sugar/sand/salt scrub on the back is heaven on Earth).
Ahh! The baking soda and cetaphil idea sounds promising. So many home remedies I had no idea of!
You might want to look into a different exfoliating product if you have acne, one specific to your needs. There are vast numbers available out there. I used to break out every week or so with a pimple around the chin and mouth area until I started using a mild scrub at least every other shower. It also makes my skin soft and not so dry-feeling.
They’re not expensive, and a little goes a long way (a 4oz bottle for me lasts months and months).