I’ve gotten a lot of questions about rendering, storing, and using tallow. Here are some commonly asked ones. What does the water and salt do? Even 200 years ago, tallow was a common household item—and a regular ingredient in homemade soaps, lotions, and other skincare products.

Since it’s rendered animal fat, tallow is incredibly similar to the chemistry of our own skin. So, when issues like dryness, acne, or eczema arise, tallow can soothe the skin and provide the exact mineral requirements needed for optimal healing. You can have tallow balm in a solid version, or you can whip it up so it is light and fluffy. Whipped is my favorite! I have a luxurious and super hydrating DIY shaving cream with tallow in it here. I also have a tallow lotion recipe here. Tallow balm for skin

It depends how you look at it, and how much you use. The highest quality leaf fat from around the inside of the internal organs will give you the hardest, highest quality, most nutrient dense beef fat, with the smoothest texture.

For a while, healthy animal fats like tallow and lard became less popular. That’s because vegetable oils were pushed as being healthier options… which isn’t true ( source)! If you want a tallow face cream for acne prone skin, I would make whipped tallow balm and add the Zit Fighter Synergy from Plant Therapy. It is full of skin clearing essential oils, and works so well with all the nutrients in grass fed tallow. Lard from free range pork is high in vitamin D. Between the two fats, tallow is my favorite. This is because tallow from grass fed cattle contains not only vitamin D, but also vitamins A, D, E, K, minerals, anti inflammatory conjugated linoleic acid, and lots more. In a cleanser, it can be a little drying depending on what it's combined with and the cleanser's pH level - we recommend choosing a cleanser with lower pH levels. Palmitic acid is a very good emollient in moisturizers because it makes the skin soft. It retains moisture by forming an occlusive layer and improves skin health. Stearic Acid It whips up into a light texture really well, making it perfect as a body butter or balm, as you’ll discover in the recipe below.

Where to buy beef fat to render into tallow

Beef tallow is an animal fat rendered from beef, while mutton tallow is an animal fat rendered from sheep. Both ingredients are natural products with a long shelf life. They contain a high amount of saturated fats, with beef tallow being slightly more saturated than mutton which is why we prefer beef tallow for skin.