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Zero Waste Skincare - Why Tallow Balms & Lard Soaps are Worth All the Hype

written by

Dana Workman

posted on

January 29, 2024

tallow-skincare.webp

What were soaps and beauty products made out of before we had highly processed seed oils and mineral oils? Animal fats.

It’s really only been in the last 100 years or so that these processed oils were available and in EVERYTHING.

And it’s not because they’re better for us… it’s because they’re cheaper.

I know we want to believe that if a product is on store shelves it’s safe, but unfortunately that’s just not the case.

Most soaps and lotions available today are made with cheap oils + chemical colors and toxic fragrances.

These products don’t just sit on top of our skin, our bodies absorb and circulate them.

We’ve been making Old Fashioned Lard Soaps from our pastured pork fat for years.

It’s all we use for hand soap, body wash, face wash, and if we didn’t have such hard well water I think it would be great as a toxin free shampoo too!

I hadn’t found a good alternative for lotion until tried my first tallow balm a couple years ago at a homesteading conference.

The conference room was so dry that my hands and lips were cracking and bleeding, so I went to check out the tallow vendor.

I reluctantly handed over my credit card when she said the little jar was $45, but I quickly realized it was worth every penny.

It felt incredible, and only took the tiniest amount to rehydrate my dried cracking hands and lips.

Plus, it healed my skin instead of just temporarily making it feel better then needing to keep applying more lotion and chapstick. You know how once you use chapstick you seem to never be able to stop using it?! That doesn’t happen with tallow.

The little jar I bought at the conference lasted me almost a year.

I decided then I wanted to make tallow lotions and lip balm out of the suet from our beef cattle, but like most other projects it kept being put on the backburner, until….

I was introduced to Alyse Lewis from ButterHide - a woman owned startup business located near us in Southern, Ohio.

Alyse takes the suet from our beef cattle, and turns it into all these nourishing tallow products!

As we’ve released these products, it’s brought up lots of questions about what is tallow, what is a tallow balm, how do you use it, and what’s all the hype about tallow balms anyway?

So First - What Is Tallow?

Tallow is made from beef suet, a specific kind of fat that protects the organs inside a beef animal.

To make tallow the fat is rendered, aka gently melted down. The final product is tallow!

Tallow is great to use for cooking oil, but it’s also AMAZING for our skin.

It’s full of vitamins and minerals including A, B12, D, E and K, which are all so so nourishing.

Unlike seed oils, the nutrient profile of tallow is very similar to our own skin so it absorbs easily.

Tallow also helps boost our skins ability to fight free radicals, plus increases collagen levels and skin elasticity.

Next Question - What Is Tallow Balm?

Tallow balm is rendered tallow that has been mixed up to create a lotion type skincare product.

Our tallow balm includes our tallow + organic cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, raw honey, beeswax and organic essential oils. Click here to see all our options.

How Do You Use Tallow Balm?

Just like you’d use any face moisturizer, lotion or lip balm!

Our whipped tallow balm can replace all your body lotions, hand lotions and facial moisturizers.

We recommend our unscented tallow balm for young children.

Any of our other scents can be used for hands, body, or face, but each essential oil also has a specific healing property.

Lavender: Anti-inflammatory, best for soothing skin ailments such as eczema and psoriasis. Calming

effect on mood, anxiety, stress and depression.

Vanilla Bean: High in antioxidants that combat free radicals to reduce the signs of aging.

Frankincense: rejuvenates mature skin while helping soreness and pain

Peppermint: cools and soothes irritated skin, and can help reduce tension due to headaches or upset

stomach.

Honey Rose Includes:

Rose Absolute: rejuvenates mature skin, reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles

Indian Sandalwood: Helps Balance skin tone

Rosalina: Anti-bacterial while reducing the appearance of wrinkles

Neroli: Reduces the appearance of scarring and blemishes

Palmarosa: Provides skin-balancing effects for all skin types

Harvest Spice Includes:

Bergamot: Cleansing properties that are best for acne and skin rashes

Lime: Invigorating, Cleansing and purifying properties and can reduce stress and anxiety

Clove: Anti Inflammatory and antimicrobial properties

Copaiba: promotes a clear, smooth skin complexion and well as having anti-inflammatory properties

Tallow Man Balm Includes:

Cedarwood: soothes irritation, redness, inflammation and itchiness

Juniper Berry: Cleansing and purifying properties to treat acne and dermatitis

Fir Needle: used to combat body odors and can improve respiratory conditions.

Patchouli: Augments skin and hair health while relaxing the mind

And as far as what all the hype is about… that’s because tallow really is fantastic.

Alyse, the owner of Butterhide, started making tallow balms to heal her sons eczema. Now even when he has a flare, it’s calmed down quickly by tallow balm.

Jesse uses it on his hands and they went from literally cracking and bleeding this Winter to healed within a day.

My Mom loves it for her hands and face.

I threw away all the other lotions and chapsticks I owned.

I also use it on both of my girls when their lips and faces get windburnt from being out free-ranging.

Between our lard soaps and tallow lotions, our skincare is super simple around here - wash with lard soap, moisturize with tallow balm, put on tallow lip balm. Done!

Shop Tallow Balms Here

A few other things I want to share about tallow balms and lard soaps…

  1. They allow us to use the entire animal and not waste the fat, which is so important to me.
  2. I value things more when I know how hard we worked to raise the beef steer or hog, that the butcher took the time to save the fat for us, and I value the time involved to render the fats and make soaps and tallow balms, plus the mess to clean up afterwards!
  3. The less I buy from big name companies, the better I feel. It’s satisfying to break free of the societal norms and be more community sufficient.
  4. It bothers me that most body care products are so full of toxins. I’m proud to be part of providing my family and community with safe alternatives.
  5. I love collaborating with and supporting women owned business in rural Ohio! Alyse from Butterhide makes our tallow balms and Heather from Twisted Violet Homestead makes our soaps using the beef and pork fat from our animals.

If you’d like to check out the tallow balms and lard soaps we have available, this link will take you into our Online Farm Store.

**Our online store has a minimum order size of $125. If you’d like to order just tallow balms or soaps, please order for Farm Pickup and let me know in the comments you’d like your order shipped. I will adjust to order to include the $10 shipping fee.

Shop Tallow Balms Here

A couple of our favorite clean products that we don’t make ourselves:

Tallow based deodorant from Primally Pure - this is the only one we’ve found that doesn’t burn our armpits!

I love the bug spray and dry shampoo from Root & Clay - use code DANA at checkout for a discount.

If you’d like to stay in the know about all farm happenings, special offers, restocks, and just connect to our farm and family - our email list is the place for that. Add your name and email address below to join us!

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