My Tallow Skincare Journey
For years I had looked for a solution to my eczema. It started back around 2008. I would get large, dry, scaly, rash-like patches in the crease of my elbows. Doctors would prescribe me medicated creams that never seemed to do anything for me. When my husband and I started having children, I noticed my oldest daughter started to deal with horribly cracked hands that would often bleed.
For both of us, we tried multiple over the counter creams and lotions hoping they would be the solution we were looking for. They didn’t relieve the pain and itching; instead, they usually made it worse. I can remember my daughter crying and screaming as we would try a new cream that would only make her hands sting even more.
A few years into my marriage, I decided to start swapping conventional products for more natural products. Laundry detergents, soaps, makeup, etc. One of these items included swapping from my petroleum based chapstick to a tallow-based lip balm. And then I had the idea one night to apply the tallow lip balm to the crease of my elbows. The next morning, I woke up and my eczema was gone! From that point on, my family and I started experimenting with tallow to see what all it could do for our skin. Tallow healed my eczema. It also healed my daughter’s hands. I have been able to completely switch from my multistep skincare routine to using just one single product – our tallow face balm. My skin has never looked so good!
Why Tallow Skincare Is Making a Comeback (And Why It Might Be Better Than Mainstream Products)
Walk down any skincare aisle and you’ll see shelves packed with brightly packaged creams, serums, and cleansers promising radiant, youthful skin. But behind the shiny marketing, many of these products rely on synthetic ingredients, preservatives, and fillers that don’t always work in harmony with your skin or your health. Recently, a growing number of people are turning back to a much older, simpler solution: tallow skincare.
What Is Tallow?
Tallow is rendered fat, typically sourced from grass-fed cows. While that might sound unusual in a world dominated by lab-formulated skincare, tallow has actually been used for centuries as a natural moisturizer and skin protectant.
What makes it stand out is how closely it resembles the natural oils (sebum) produced by human skin. This similarity is key to why it performs so well. Unlike many commercial products that sit on the surface or disrupt your skin barrier, tallow is highly bioavailable. That means your skin recognizes it and absorbs it easily. Because of this, tallow can:
- Support the skin’s natural barrier
- Lock in moisture without clogging pores
- Help balance oil production rather than overwhelm it
Mainstream products often rely on petroleum-based ingredients or synthetic emollients that create the illusion of hydration without truly nourishing the skin.
Rich in Skin-Nourishing Nutrients
High-quality tallow—especially from grass-fed sources—is packed with beneficial nutrients, including vitamins A, D, E, and K, essential fatty acids, and antioxidants. These nutrients play a crucial role in skin repair, elasticity, and overall health. Many conventional products attempt to replicate these benefits with isolated or synthetic versions, but they often lack the same synergy found in whole, natural ingredients.
Fewer Ingredients, Fewer Problems
One of the biggest advantages of tallow skincare is simplicity. A typical tallow balm might contain just a handful of natural ingredients, sometimes only tallow and a natural scent like essential oils. Compare that to mainstream products, which can include dozens of components such as preservatives, artificial fragrances, stabilizers, and alcohols – just to name a few. For people with sensitive or reactive skin, fewer ingredients often mean fewer chances for irritation. Many conventional skincare formulas include compounds that can strip or stress the skin over time. Sulfates, parabens, and synthetic fragrances are common culprits.
Here at Mountain Meadow Homestead, we only use the most natural, soothing ingredients – tallow, jojoba oil, beeswax, herbs and essential oils. Our straightforward ingredients are great for those looking to reduce their exposure to potentially irritating or controversial ingredients. We focus on skincare the way nature intended using only honest to goodness clean ingredients. We make our tallow balms in small batches so that you get the freshest product delivered to you. Check out all that we have to offer here.