I’m a food waste expert – 5 must-try DIY beauty treatments… and don't chuck out those banana peels | The Sun
A FOOD waste expert has revealed the clever ways she uses everything from banana peels to tea bags to achieve flawless skin without breaking the bank.
The cost of living crisis is no joke and when there’s so much food waste in each household, Sophie Trueman doesn’t quite understand why you’d fork out on a beauty product instead of simply using what you have to get the same results.
Sophie, the Country Director of the world’s largest anti-food waste app Too Good To Go, has spent the last four years of her life tackling this topic.
So, in a bid to help everyone save a few extra quid every week, she’s spoken exclusively to The Sun’s Fabulous magazine about all things skincare and food.
Here, she shares her top six beauty hacks alongside the best ways to minimise food waste in every household…
Banana face mask
“Banana peels work well in many recipes, but they can also provide a nourishing boost for your skin,” Sophie told us. “The high potassium levels present in the peels hydrate and moisturise skin, while the vitamin A works makes your complexion appear brighter.”
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Next time you’ve had a banana at home, don’t chuck it straight into the rubbish bin. Instead, try out this simple recipe and reap the benefits:
- Cut banana peel into very small pieces and add into a bowl
- Add little bit of water and blend to make a paste
- Apply the paste on your face and let it sit for 15-20 minutes
Tea bag eye compress
We all love a cuppa in the afternoons, but next time you’re making one for yourself, remove the tea bag before adding the milk to create an eye compress. Not only will this reduce eyebag puffiness, but it’ll also “help the vessels”.
It’s a simple process, really. Here’s what you need to do:
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- Remove the used tea bags and place them in the fridge for couple of hours
- Place a tea bag beneath each eye for 5 minutes
10Coffee scrub
Sophie told Fabulous that the antioxidants found in coffee grounds helps stimulate blood flow, which in turn revitalises and brightens the skin – and who wouldn’t want that?
- Blend coffee grounds with shea butter
- Add an essential oil of your choice
- Use as gentle scrub on the skin
Potato hair rinse
Who would have thought the water leftover from boiled spuds would be great for your hair?
Sophie explained that the vitamin B, zinc, niacin and iron in the water can help promote hair growth, while vitamin C is great for hydrating skin at the root of the hair.
As a bonus, you can also use it on your face with a cotton pad to add some hydration.
- Boil the potato in cold water for 10 minutes
- Let the leftover water cool down
- Run the leftover water through damp hair for post-wash rinse
- Make sure the potato isn’t wasted and use it for your dinner
Rice water facial toner
We’ve all heard of rice water and the benefits of using it on your skin, but finding a good recipe is hard to come by. This is why Sophie has taken it upon herself to fill in the missing pieces for everyone.
Explaining its benefits, she said: “It’s great for soothing dry, irritated skin”.
- Soak some white rice in cold water for 30 minutes
- Sieve away the rice to eat later, and the remaining cloudy brew is ready to use
Cucumber for the eyes
For many of us, the end of the cucumber is quick to get tossed. But the cucumber-over-the-eyes look is a spa classic for a reason – it works.
Put simply, the cooling properties of cucumbers work to reduce swelling and puffiness under the eyes, with vitamin C and folic acid stimulate new cell growth to leave your under eyes feeling firmer and fuller.
- Cut the cucumber as regular slice
- Place under each eye for 5 minutes
A bonus skincare treatment she was left impressed with came from a TikTok user known as @creative_explained.
She shared: “One of the TikTok hacks I’ve seen shows how we can use the avocado peel to make a fine-powered mask for facials which has great antioxidant properties.”
In his video, Armen Adamnjan shared a step-by-step guide on how to make it:
- Put the skin from used avocado into the oven for 10 minutes
- Use the blender to make the dried peel into fine powder
- Sift it out
- Grab a bowl and add teaspoon of plain yoghurt, powdered avocado skin and honey
- Apply for 10 minutes and rinse with cool water
Despite the soaring cost of food prices and an increase in strategic shopping, a recent survey commissioned by Too Good To Go revealed Brits are throwing away a staggering amount of perfectly edible food per week.
This includes 18 million meat and dairy items, 22 million bread and pasta items, 30.9 million fruit and vegetables and 8.7 million sweets, crisps, and chocolate – enough to feed the population of Thailand for a day.
One of the most common mistakes Sophie sees people making on a weekly basis is throwing away oddly shaped or bruised fruits and vegetables simply because they don’t look ‘perfect’.
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“In reality, they taste exactly the same,” she told us. “Even those more mature fruit and vegetables are perfect for smoothies or juices.
“Make sure to use all your senses before discounting fruits and veg based on how it looks.”
Sophie’s food waste tips
Plan ahead: Plan your meals a week in advance so you know exactly what you need to buy. Write a shopping list and stick to it.
Store foods correctly: For example: onions can make root vegetables go bad quickly, so best to keep them stored apart from things like potatoes or carrots.
Date label: There’s a big difference between ‘best before’ and ‘use-by’ dates. Often food is still safe to eat after the ‘best before’ date, whereas it’s the ‘use-by’ date that indicates when it’s no longer safe to eat. Use your senses to see if food has actually gone off before chucking it away.
When in doubt, freeze: Almost anything can be frozen if you don’t think you’re going to be able to eat it in time.
Keep organised: Rotate goods when new items come in so that your fridge, freezer and cupboards are stocked with the food you need to eat first at the front, and food you’ve bought more recently at the back.
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