We love tallow. And no, it’s not because it’s "in" right now. In fact, the use of tallow is ancient, dating back to ancient Egyptian, Roman, and Greek civilizations. We’re not doing anything new here. Truthfully, we’re just getting back to the basics.
Now, we don’t stand behind everything that was done in the bronze age, but when it comes to tallow, we are in full agreement that this is a superior source of moisture and protection.
We hear it from women who have tried our day balm again and again. That they’re skin is glowing. They actually feel moisturized.
Here are the reasons we love tallow, especially on our skin.
Tallow very closely resembles human skin sebum
Something we keep hearing from women who have tried our tallow face balm is that it absorbs so well into their skin. It doesn’t sit on their skin in a layer of shiny grease all day. It blends right in and feels lightweight.
For those of you that like to dive into the nitty gritty, you’ll see that on very important component that tallow is missing is the wax esters—that’s why we also include jojoba oil in our formula. Together this combination matches human skin sebum very closely, creating that seamless blending.
Tallow actually moisturizes
This one seems obvious. But tallow is something called an “occlusive” which means that it locks in moisture. There are some ingredients that do the opposite—they draw moisture from their surroundings, giving a drying affect to your skin.
When tallow locks in moisture, you feel it all day long. The texture is like nothing else.
It is resourceful
This is something that we love about tallow. Tallow is mostly a byproduct of raising animals for meat. The fat is a widely underused part in our current culture. The product is mostly sitting there, waiting to be used. And we are so, so happy to put it to a good use. We love being able to support our local farmers and use this highly underutilized byproduct.
Tallow is stable under UV radiation (aka sunlight)
We talk about this one at length in our article Stable vs. Volatile Fats.
The short version is that there are certain fats (volatile) that breakdown very easily and will go rancid when exposed to heat or sunlight. Namely things like grapeseed, safflower, rapeseed, soybean oil.
Then there are stable fats that retain their integrity when exposed to reasonable amounts of heat and sunlight. Tallow is super stable. That’s why we feel so confident putting it in our day balm, when we know we’re going to be exposed to some UV radiation, no matter the time of year.
These are just a few of the reasons we love using tallow, especially on our skin. It has become a staple in our households that is here to stay. Try our new tallow face and body balm.
Maybe it’s not just “hot right now.” Maybe it’s something that is ancient and lasting and modern society is just waking back up to it.