Leading Towards Creativity & Innovation 212 SERIES 2 Chapter 34 Garbage to Glamour: All Hail Red Pitaya By- Products for Innovative and Bio-Sustainable Age-Defying Beauty Siti Salwa Abd Gani 1,2* , Ramya Vijayakumar 1 , Asiah Abdullah 3 & Nur Fauwizah Azahar 1 1 Halal Products Research Institute, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Putra Infoport, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 2 Department of Agriculture Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 3 Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 72000 Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. ssalwaag@upm.edu.my ABSTRACT With the modernization of cosmetic industries in recent times, not only the health and safety features of the active substances incorporated in their skincare are being primary concerns to the consumers, but other details regarding their origin, ethical value, processing techniques, potency, and environmental footprint are also given great attention. Consequently, the popularity of plant-derived active ingredients with appropriately assessed bioactivities are experiencing a positive shift as dermatologists are adopting multiple strategies for the innovation of the plant active- based neoteric formulations. However, a major proportion of actives utilized in the preparation of cosmetic products especially the anti-aging skincare are being acquired from synthetic/animal sources which lead to multiple skin disorders and severe health complications. With the objective to derive a powerful, cost-effective, safe, and bio-sustainable anti-aging active ingredient from agricultural food waste, it is of utmost necessity to merge the food and cosmetic raw materials supply chains into a single supply chain serving both industries without subtracting to one another. Thus, for the first time, this research evaluates the potentialities of the red pitaya by- products, the peels and seeds to act as effective active ingredients in the topical anti- aging nano-formulation. The efficacy assessments revealed that nanoemulsion containing red pitaya peel extract and seed oil visibly reduced the appearance of wrinkles by -5.9% while simultaneously improving the skin texture and energy to