Why I Started Making Tallow Skincare And Why Ingredients Matter
Fifteen days in a hospital isolation room changes how you think about what goes into your body.
A few years ago I was hospitalized with COVID and spent over two weeks completely isolated. It was rough. When I finally got home, recovery didn’t happen overnight. I dealt with lingering long-COVID symptoms for nearly two years.
Eventually I made a decision: I was going to take my health seriously and figure out how to heal.
I began eliminating heavily processed foods and shifted toward a simpler, more animal-based way of eating. Slowly things began to change. Over time I lost more than 100 pounds, my energy returned, and I started feeling like myself again.
That experience taught me something important.
What you put in your body matters.
Highly processed junk can harm you. Real, simple foods can support healing.
At some point that realization led me to another question:
If what we eat matters this much… what about what we put on our skin?
That question eventually led me into the world of traditional tallow skincare—something people had quietly used for generations before modern lotions filled store shelves.
From Cooking With Tallow to Skincare
As part of changing how I ate, I started rendering my own beef tallow for cooking. It’s a traditional fat that people have used for generations, and I liked knowing exactly where it came from and how it was made.
One day my daughters told me something that caught my attention.
They were already using tallow for skincare.
That got me curious. Like a lot of dads, I wanted to do something special for my kids. I started looking into it more seriously, reading about traditional tallow balms and how people had used them long before modern skincare aisles existed.
The more I researched, the more it clicked.
Your skin absorbs things. Not exactly like your stomach, but it still interacts with what you put on it. And just like food, what you apply to your skin can either support it… or work against it.
So I decided to try making a tallow balm for my daughters.
They started giving me ideas right away—textures they liked, scents they preferred, and what actually felt good on their skin. If something was too greasy or smelled off, they told me immediately.
The first time I made a large batch, I filled jars for everyone and brought them to a special family dinner. Watching them enjoy something I had made for them was a lot of fun—and it turned out to be the beginning of something bigger.
Since then, most new ideas go through them first. They’ve become my honest critics, and I rely on their feedback more than anything.
My wife has also played a big role. She makes helpful suggestions, gives good guidance, and does plenty of product testing herself. If a batch isn’t good enough, it doesn’t make it past her.
One of our most popular products—Sleep Tight magnesium balm—was originally created for her.
Most of the feedback that shapes these products still comes from the women in my life.
The Label That Made Everything Click
Before making my own skincare, we had been using a popular “high-end” lotion from a major beauty retailer. It cost more than $20 for a small bottle, and I had never really questioned it.
One day I flipped the bottle over.
52 ingredients.
The first ingredient was water.
That was the moment it clicked. Why was I paying premium prices for something that was mostly water?
As I read through the rest of the list, I saw preservatives, stabilizers, thickeners, and additives that existed mainly because water-based formulas need them to stay shelf stable.
None of them were necessarily unusual in modern cosmetics.
But it made me stop and think.
If I wouldn’t put certain things in my body anymore… why was I comfortable putting them on my skin?
Why Beef Tallow Became the Foundation of My Skincare
Tallow isn’t magic.
What it offers is something simpler: a fatty-acid profile that closely resembles the oils our skin naturally produces.
When it’s properly rendered and thoughtfully formulated, beef tallow absorbs well, supports the skin barrier, and leaves skin feeling nourished—not greasy.
For generations, people used simple fats like beef tallow as a natural moisturizer long before modern skincare products existed.
You don’t need dozens of ingredients to make something effective.
You just need the right ones.
Choosing Ingredients the Same Way I Choose Food
One thing my health journey made very clear to me is that cheap, highly processed ingredients are usually not the best choice.
So when I began developing skincare formulas, I decided to approach ingredients the same way I now approach food.
I don’t look for the cheapest option.
I look for the ingredient that actually belongs in the formula.
For example, I often use Fractionated Coconut Oil alongside tallow.
It’s more expensive than many oils that companies commonly use as fillers. But it’s highly stable, absorbs quickly, and allows the tallow to remain the star of the formula without overpowering it.
That philosophy applies across everything I make.
I would rather choose the right ingredient than the cheapest one.
How These Products Are Made
I start with fresh beef suet sourced from a local butcher.
From there, it goes through a slow, multi-stage rendering process that takes days—heating, cooling, filtering, and refining until the tallow is clean and stable.
I ruined my first batch. And my second one too.
My wife’s sniff test made that very clear.
But after enough batches, the process came together. Today she still smell-tests everything before it ever makes it into a jar.
And honestly, that’s probably the most honest quality control system I could ask for.
If it doesn’t pass the “would I give this to my daughters” test, it doesn’t make it into a jar.
After going through my own health journey, it also felt right to give some of this work back to others.
I’ve started donating skincare to ministries that run residential programs helping women rebuild their lives.
Healing takes time, and small things can matter during that process. My hope is that having simple, well-made skincare available is a small encouragement while they focus on getting back on their feet.
The Idea Behind Moose’s Tallow
Moose’s Tallow didn’t start as a business idea.
It started as a way to make something better for my family—especially my daughters.
I wanted skincare that was simple, thoughtfully made, and built from ingredients I could actually explain.
No unnecessary fillers.
No ingredient lists that require a chemistry degree.
No cutting corners to save a few dollars.
Just carefully made products built around ingredients that make sense.
What began in my kitchen with my wife and daughters testing early batches is now something I’m proud to share with other families who want the same thing.
