How about a smoothie for your face?

This zesty homemade mask will freshen, nourish, and brighten up your winter-weary skin.

When my tugboat man is home (and when son/DIL are here) we enjoy “Family Facial Day”.

To be honest, “enjoy” is a relative term, the boys describe it as “endure”.

Of course hub and son don’t participate without a lot of whining, but DIL and I can be fairly persuasive. There’s nothing funnier than using a scrub on a couple of men who’re complaining about how much it hurts like they’re being abused. Men are such babies even though they’re always pleased with the results.

For those of you that had to endure skin-drying heating all winter along with harsh snowy weather, this is a perfect mask to nourish and brighten.

In SoCal, we’ve had our hottest March ever recorded — coupled with low humidity, my own face was looking as parched as the Anza Borrego Desert.

Probably because it’s been so unseasonably warm, the first of our loquats are ripe.

As soon as enough of them are ready, I’ll make jam with our harvest (RECIPE HERE) but I thought I’d experiment creating a mask.

Loquats are full of vitamin-A — looking around our garden, I picked a lime for vitamin-C and a few leaves of white sage for cleansing and purifying. (If you live in an area where loquats don’t grow, you could use apricots or even peaches.)

I tossed it all in the blender with bananas, avocado, and a squeeze of agave nectar.

Then I spied the secret weapon: Emergen- C!

With all the C and other vitamins and minerals, it’s like a healthy smoothie for your face. This is the one I used, but any flavor will work. Hopefully, it won’t tint your skin pink; it didn’t do that to me.

I didn’t invent the Emergen-C facial; my research revealed others have discovered its benefits, too.

Facial Tips:

• Start with a really clean face so the facial will be better absorbed.
• Only make enough for one or two facials — as the ingredients are so fresh, they need to be used right away.

Nourish + Brighten Facial Mask Ingredients:

Loquats: Three small, remove seeds.
Lime Juice: Squeeze half lime
Banana: One half.
Avocado: One half.
Emergen-C: Half or whole packet.
Agave or honey: A teaspoon or two, just to make it sticky enough so the facial doesn’t slide off your face.
Sage: A few leaves (optional if you don’t grow it in your own garden.)
Try adding a few shakes of ground turmeric or cinnamon, too.

• Toss it all in a blender until smooth.
• Pat on your face, neck, décolleté (don’t forget that!).
• Leave on for about fifteen minutes while you recline with a towel behind your head and neck to catch any spills.
• Rinse off thoroughly and moisturize.
• Admire the glow!
• Refrigerate any leftover mask.

It’s been a couple of days since I did it; I’m very pleased with the results, and will absolutely make this again when the rest of the family is here.

It’s so much fun to torture the guys!