Facial Scrub For Combination Skin: DIY recipe from Dermatologist

Scrub, may it be homemade or from market essentially has two ingredients:

Scrubbing agent:

• Scrubbing agent: We will use brown sugar as a scrubbing agent because it is both physical and chemical exfoliator. It has glycolic acid, a chemical exfoliator that works by loosening the bonds between dead and damaged skin cells. 
• Base: When it comes to combination skin, we need a base that is neither too oily nor too drying. You can use either aloe vera or a non-comedogenic oil as a base.

How to make?

It is super easy to make the homemade facial scrub for combination skin, all you need to do is take some brown sugar into your palm and pour the aloe vera or oil of your choice slowly until all the brown sugar is wet. Mix the two with the index finger of another hand. Massage this scrub on your face for a minute or two. Rinse off and pat dry. 

Watch this video for demo:

What will you need?

Brown sugar: Prefer organic and unrefined brands available on Amazon.in, amazon.com or amazon.co.uk

For base, you can either use

• Aloe vera especially when your skin is more oily in humid weather or if you have black/whiteheads or pimples. Make sure that you use chemical free brands of aloe vera as mentioned in the article, Best (chemical free) aloe vera gel: Dermatocare Pick.
• Oil: If your skin is on the dry side, then you can use one of the following light weight non-comedogenic oils:

How often can I use this scrub?

You should use this scrub twice in a week. 

What are the side effects?

This homemade facial scrub can irritate sensitive and inflamed skin. In fact, scrubbing should be avoided in the inflamed, red, or irritated skin.

How to store?

This homemade facial scrub should be made fresh before use because the wet brown sugar softens into a sticky mass upon storage. All it takes is less than a minute!

Can I add other ingredients?

Though lots of recipes mention the use of lemon juice along with brown sugar, it might not be a good idea because the glycolic acid in brown sugar already has acidic pH. Similarly, honey is too sticky to let scrubbing agent glide through freely on your skin. 

In fact, there is no need to add any other ingredients because brown sugar provides both physical and chemical exfoliation to this homemade facial scrub. Also, there is no point in adding many active ingredients in the scrub because too many ingredients can do more harm than good to your skin. You can always give your skin a healthy treat of natural ingredients by applying a homemade face pack just after scrubbing. At Dermatocare, we believe in recommending researched and minimalistic homemade skincare.