I asked a chemist about topically applying sugars to the skin once, and she told me that it shouldn’t make a difference, as sugars topically applied to the skin may not be added into the Maillard pathway anyway (which is the pathway by which advanced glycation endproducts are produced). Instead, if the sugar is with an antioxidant, she said that the antioxidant would have more benefit than the sugar would detriment. My honest opinion is that I don’t know for sure, and would love to see a study showing the actual effects of applying sugars to the skin.