Beef Tallow for Skin: Why We Make Our Creams With It
When people hear that our evening cream is made with beef tallow, I usually get one of two reactions. Some people light up because they have already been reading about beef tallow for skin, and some people make a face because they only know tallow from the kitchen. Both are fair! Tallow is rendered beef fat, and it has been used on skin for generations. I want to share why we chose it for our creams, how I use it on my own face, and why the grass-fed part matters so much to us.
Our Evening Meadow cream is made with 100% grass-fed beef tallow and small amounts of organic jojoba oil and organic avocado oil, infused with chamomile and lavender. The tallow comes from an outside supplier of grass-fed beef (it does not come from our own animals). Our other tallow cream, Mountain Ease, is grass-fed tallow infused with blue vervain, lavender and mountain mint, and it is made for the places we hold tension, like the neck, shoulders and jaw.
Why we use beef tallow for skin
Tallow is often described as being similar to our skin's own oils, and I think that is a big part of why it feels so comfortable to so many people. When I put it on, my skin feels soft and settled, and the moisture stays with me through the night. Grass-fed tallow is also often described as a natural source of fat-soluble vitamins like A, D and E, which is part of why people have reached for it for so long.
We infuse whole herbs directly into the fat, with no essential oils and no steps in between, so the fat-soluble parts of the plant end up in the cream along with its gentle natural scent.
Is tallow good for your face?
For me, yes, and it is the final layer in my Sunday evening ritual. What I notice on my own skin is that tallow softens and seals in moisture without feeling heavy once it has settled in.
Every face is different, so start with a small amount and see how your skin responds. Many people find a tallow balm is enough on its own, and others like it as a final layer over their usual routine.
Is tallow good for eczema-prone or sensitive skin?
Tallow has a long history of traditional use for dry, rough and sensitive skin, and many people with reactive skin find it gentle because it is so close to what our skin already makes. Our tallow creams are made without essential oils or synthetic fragrance, and that matters to a lot of people whose skin reacts to strongly scented "natural" products. The scent you notice in Evening Meadow comes from the chamomile and lavender themselves, and it is much softer than an essential oil.
If you are managing eczema or another skin condition, please talk with your healthcare provider about what is right for you, and patch test anything new on a small area first. I wrote more about how we think about reactive skin in this post about our herbal salve.
How to use tallow balm on your face
This is the order I use in my Sunday evening herbal face ritual, and it is the way I find tallow works best.
- Start with clean skin. I begin with a clay mask of kaolin and herb powder, then rinse with warm water.
- Mist with a hydrosol. An herbal hydrosol is an herb-powered water, very gentle and hydrating. Chamomile and rose are lovely ones to try.
- Apply a humectant moisturizer. Humectants, usually made with aloe vera or glycerin, attract water to the skin. This layer pulls the moisture in.
- Seal it with tallow. Take a small amount of the cream and let it warm between your fingertips so it softens, then press and smooth it over your face and down your neck. The tallow softens the skin and locks the moisture from the first layer into place.
- Finish with a little lymphatic massage. With the cream on, your fingers glide without pulling. I place two fingers between my eyebrows and make small circles, move along the brow line to the temples with circles at each stop, then circle in front of the ear where it meets the jaw and again behind the ear. Last, I trace down the side of the neck along the sternocleidomastoid muscle to the collarbone, telling the lymph that it is okay to flow.
Then I turn off the screens, dim the lamps and write down three things I am grateful for, and I really let myself feel them. Rest is part of the ritual too.
Mountain Ease is used a little differently. I reach for it on the neck, shoulders and jaw, the places where so many of us carry the day, and massage it in slowly.
Why grass-fed tallow?
The diet of the cow is everything here, because anything the animal eats is stored in its body, especially in the fat. Think about it like this. Healthy soil grows healthy grass, and the grass grows strong by taking in the light of the sun. When cows eat grass on pasture, the food their bodies are designed for, they take in that light and those nutrients, and that is reflected in the fat. Grass-fed tallow is also often described as having a more natural balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
Many cattle are raised in confined feedlots and fed grain and soy mixes, which is a very different life and a very different diet. Since what the animal eats ends up in its fat, we chose 100% grass-fed tallow so that what goes on your skin comes from animals living closer to how nature intended.
There is also something about tallow that feels right to us as farmers. Using tallow is a way of honoring the life of the animal by using all of it, tip to tail, with nothing wasted. Grass-fed cattle also give back to the land, turning their forage into natural fertilizer that feeds the soil. On our own farm, our merino sheep graze the pasture and do the same for our ground, so this cycle of soil, grass and animal is something we live with every day.
People have been putting tallow on their skin for generations, and I love that we get to pair it with the herbs and the land around us. If you try it, I would love to hear how it feels on your skin.
Wishing you a cozy week from the farm,
Anne
From the farm
