The new ‘whey’ to anti-age your skin

How the gloopy liquid on top of your yoghurt has become a sought-after beauty product

THE most humble ingredient can sometimes become the star of the show — and whey, the yellowish liquid on the top of yoghurt, is emerging as an unlikely new beauty trend.

Not only should you mix it into your pudding for extra protein, you should be putting it on your skin, too.

this natural dairy by-product promises to leave skin silky smooth, and protect it from the elements and calm inflammation. It’s available in abundance, thanks to the vast amounts of cheese we produce. yet until recently most was simply poured away.

Now a new body care brand, Byre, launched in 250 Sainsbury’s superstores recently, is doing its bit to use some of the 870,000 tonnes of whey it says the UK dairy industry chucks every year. Byre has created a range of milky body washes where whey is the star.

Founder Quentin Higham was inspired by his grandfather, a dairy farmer in yorkshire who never let anything go to waste. ‘He used to give the whey to the pigs to build them up as it was so high in protein,’ says Quentin.

the brand is named ‘Byre’ — another word for a farmer’s cowshed — after the byres Quentin remembers from his childhood helping his grandfather.

as the beauty industry embraced protein as the building blocks of skin and hair, Quentin remembered the nourishing properties of whey and asked a lab if it could be used as a skincare ingredient — and it could. He also discovered it makes the skin feel soft and elastic.

the three body washes — called Full Cream, Semi-Skimmed and Skimmed (all £5, available in Sainsbury’s superstores now and at byre.co.uk) — contain natural British ingredients, such as aloe vera and poppy seed oil, and one per cent whey protein.

‘Whey gives a silky softness to the skin, there is no tightness, no dryness and it’s totally natural and sustainable,’ says Quentin.

He’s not the first to have discovered this abundant elixir. Skin expert Susanne Kaufmann uses whey in several products, and her upmarket organic range sells on Net-a-Porter and in Liberty and is a favourite with meghan markle and alexa Chung.

HER Herbal Whey Bath (£33) is almost 100 per cent whey protein powder and is infused with flower extracts.

Susanne set up a spa at her family’s hotel in the austrian alps. Scouting around for someone to make skincare for it, she found farmer and cheesemaker Ingo metzler just 15 minutes away. He hated waste so had set up a skincare factory to use all his surplus whey.

‘Only about 10 per cent of the milk used in cheese production becomes cheese,’ explains Susanne. ‘the remaining 90 per cent remains as whey, even though these “residues” contain most minerals and vitamins.’

Fifteen years on, Susanne Kaufmann has an international skincare empire with whey as a star ingredient — and Ingo still makes all the products.

So what’s the secret? according to pharmacist and cosmetologist Dr Pedro Catala, whey is such a powerful skin softener because it’s rich in lactose and lactic acid, compounds which are highly moisturising. It’s also chock-full of amino acids, which create a hydrating film on the skin that attracts moisture from the air (or your bath), while stopping your natural moisture escaping.

this so-called ‘trans-epidermal’ water loss — where moisture is lost through the skin — gets worse as we age and makes our skin look dry and wrinkly. ‘In high concentrations, whey protein interacts with proteins in mature skin cells to create an elastic film, which gives a tightening effect,’ says Dr Catala.

‘a whey bath is one of the best and most effective natural treatments, because it makes skin healthy and tender, ’ says Susanne.

I put five teaspoons of whey in my bath tub as recommended by Susanne, and settled in for a good soak. afterwards my skin felt intensely softened and moisturised, as if I’d used an oil. and that’s not all. Whey contains a form of lactic acid identical to the natural lactic acid on the ‘acid mantle’ of our skin — the topmost layer that’s our first line of defence against nasties such as bacteria, viruses and UV rays.

If you have sensitive or allergyprone skin, whey can help it heal, says Kaufmann. But dabbing the watery bit from yoghurt straight on your skin is not a good idea.

Dr Catala warns: ‘If not handled correctly, some natural ingredients can oxidise and go rancid.’ He tells me they release ‘peroxide radicals’ — damaging molecules, which you really don’t want on your face.

So skip the dairy aisle and choose whey cosmetics if you want to make your skin look great.