Food waste: slap it on your face

Recipe for pumpkin puree

Charlotte Harding suggests a few easy steps to create a pumpkin puree to begin your beauty regime.

Step one: Slice open pumpkin and scoop the seeds out.

Step two: Cut the pumpkin into cubes, approximately two inch.

Step three: Put cubes into saucepan and cover with water.

Step four: Cover the pumpkin and boil for an hour, but check around 30 mins. (You want the pumpkin pieces to be fork-tender)

Step five: Once cooked, remove from pan and add to a blender.

Step six: Add some water from the pot if needed.

Step seven: Blend until consistency is even.

Step eight: Let the puree cool to room temperature before using.

How we can use pumpkin puree in our beauty regimes:

Facial scrub

1/2 cup pumpkin puree, 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin seed oil and three tablespoons of sugar.

Mix ingredients together and apply it on your face. Scrub in circular motions and rinse off after 2 minutes.

Pumpkin face mask

Two teaspoons of pumpkin puree, 1/2 teaspoon honey, 1/2 teaspoon milk and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.

Mix ingredients together, apply the mixture to your face for 10 minutes and then rinse to reveal beautifully moisturised skin.

Skin rejuvenating body scrub

1/4 cup pumpkin puree and 1/4 cup brown sugar

Combine both ingredients in a bowl. Apply the mixture to your body using circular motions and wash off with warm water.

Salt foot scrub

1/2 cup pumpkin puree with two tablespoons of olive oil and enough salt to make a paste.

Apply to your feet and massage, then rinse with water. Using salt gives more exfoliation than sugar; this scrub will help if you are suffering from dry skin or callouses.

For more information:

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Welsh beauty bloggers aim to tackle pumpkin waste this year by urging us to slap it on our faces.

A video posted by Farah D (@farahdhukai) on Oct 2, 2016 at 7:05pm PDT

Charlotte Harding, a local blogger, published a blog post this week where she made a collection of her favourite beauty regimes using her children’s leftover Halloween pumpkin, including: facial scrubs and exfoliators, foot scrubs and facial masks. She said she has always preferred to use natural products so was “amazed” when she saw the benefits of pumpkin for hair and skin.

Pumpkins are full of vitamins that a great for your hair and skin

Pumpkins are full of vitamins that are great for your hair and skin

Hubbub, a charity that starts environmental campaigns, has created a #PumpkinRescue community that urges people not to waste their leftover pumpkin, after it has been reported that 15 million pumpkins are carved for Halloween in the UK every year. Also, according to Recycle for Wales, UK households waste 7 million tonnes of food every year, peaking at periods of celebration, such as: Christmas, Easter and Halloween.

The Welsh environmental secretary, Lesley Griffiths, says that the vision of Wales becoming Europe’s top recycling nation is “absolutely achievable”. Recent recycling figures for 2015-16 show Wales leading the rest of the UK and recycling a total of 60.2%, with Cardiff specifically recycling 58%. Andrew Osbourne, recycling officer for Waste Awareness Wales said, “These statistics are really encouraging.” However, councils are looking at alternative ways to recycle in order to meet the expectations of recycling 70% of waste by 2024-25.

Charlotte Harding suggests that we ought to use the remains of Halloween pumpkins to make beauty products that will moisture our hair and skin, even out skin tone and tackle anti-aging. Farah Dhukai, infamous beauty and food blogger, posted a video of her homemade pumpkin face mask to her 3.6 million Instagram followers and said, “This mask will make your skin look naturally airbrushed!”