New York’s first smoothie-inspired facial mask bar

“Organic carrot powder high in phytonutrients.” “White honey powder, a natural humectant and antibacterial.” It might read like the menu of a hot, new Manhattan juice bar, but these ingredients are meant for your skin, not your smoothie.

You’ll find them at the Upper East Side spa owned by Jillian Wright, who last year launched her own natural skin-care line, and has now created New York’s first smoothie-inspired facial mask bar, using all food-grade ingredients.

The sweet, apothecary-style mask bar is stocked with the potent powder extracts that you might find at a juice bar or in the health food aisle. Glass canisters are marked kale, acai, and green tea, and she mixes them up with pure aloe into small glass jars on the spot, creating blends based on your skin’s needs.

The concept came largely from a love for green juices. “I can’t live without my green juices. My favorite is LuliTonix, but I also love Aloha for on the go,” she gushes. “They make me feel clean, energized, and happy. I wanted to bring that same philosophy to my mask bar. I want my clients to have skin that feels clean and refreshed after their facial or at home,” she says.

While she could have reached for lots of great products to address her clients’ skin-care needs—including her own line—Wright wanted “the freedom to create something truly unique for my clients in real time,” she explains. “As an aesthetician, I wanted something that could change with their skin, their mood, or with the seasons. It makes the creative process so much more interesting.”

To that end, say you’re 27 years old, with breakout-prone skin. Wright might whip together Coso Mountain clay with green tea, oatmeal, lavender powder, kale, honey, aloe, cucumber extract, and lavender essential oil. The mask is complimentary with a facial or $40, and there are about six to ten uses out of each jar, she says.

There are currently 15 ingredients, some of the most familiar being kale, spirulina, blueberry, acai berry, and green tea. “I wanted to choose actives that would benefit most skin types without irritation or redness. These are powerful ingredients in their purest form. My raw mangosteen powder, for example, is loaded with antioxidants that are also anti-inflammatory and the wild-crafted acerola cherry powder has an amazing vitamin C content.”

She might not have your trendy aronia berries, but Wright seems disciplined about making sure your skin can actually benefit from the ingredients she stocks (as opposed to, say, your taste buds). When I ask her what’s piquing her curiosity, she looks up from a canister of spirulina and says almost gleefully, “I’m researching mushroom extracts next.” —Melisse Gelula

For more information, visit www.jillianwrightskincare.com