The tomato facial

Those whacky Spaniards. One minute they’re running with bulls who could skewer them with a tiny flick of their enormous heads, the next they’re making human salsa. As we speak, the traditional La Tomatina festival is making a mess of the town of Buñol, where 9000 locals and 30,000 tourists are hurling bright red and juicy tomatoes at one another until everyone in sight is soaked, marinated and completely stained beyond redemption.

I admit it looks like fun (at least until someone bops you with an unripe Roma) and it’s at least slightly less mental than being chased by cranky cows, but I don’t quite get why they do it. And neither do they. The tradition might have started with a political protest, a bad busker or just one heck of a food fight, but no-one really knows for sure. It’s just tradition.

But I can think of at least one reason to drench and be drenched in tomato sauce: antioxidants. Tomatoes are just bursting out of their skins with free-radical slaying lycopene and vitamin C as well as vitamin A. They’re also naturally astringent plus a potent source of lactic acid, which melts away dull skin cells to get you soft and glowingly smooth.

Not that I’m about to start La Tomatino in my own backyard. I could stretch to a quick tomato facial (just slice a fresh tom in half and rub on for a few minutes before rinsing) but that’s about at close as I’m going to get. Why would I DIY when Ella Bache makes a far more elegant Crème Tomate and Elixir D’Eclat with the stuff? And L’Occitane is launching a gorgeous, Mediterranean-inspired Tomato and Olive bodycare line in September too. I could even slip into the salon for a delicious Tomato Face Mask from Ilcsi Organic Skincare. Sure, it’s more expensive than your average food fight, but at least it saves on Napisan…