Why I Started Making Tallow Skincare

Why I Started Making Tallow Skincare — And Why Transparency Comes First

I didn’t start this business because I wanted to sell skincare.

I started it because I’m a husband and a dad to four daughters—and I got tired of not trusting what was in the products my family was using every single day.

Over the last few years, I’ve been on a personal health journey focused on simplifying ingredients and choosing things that actually make sense. That path led me toward animal-based nutrition—and eventually toward beef tallow skincare, not as a trend, but as something people have relied on for generations.

At first, the goal was simple: make a clean, effective tallow balm for my own household. Like many families, we deal with dry skin year-round. My wife used a lot of lotion, and I wanted to solve that problem without fillers, shortcuts, or ingredients I couldn’t confidently explain to my kids.

The Moment I Started Reading Labels

Before I ever made my first batch of tallow, I was using a high-end lotion from a major beauty retailer. It cost over $20 for just a few ounces, and I’d been buying it for years without thinking much about 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 further, I saw ingredients like phenoxyethanol, chlorphenesin, polysorbate 60, and steareth-2—common cosmetic additives that are legal and widely used, but necessary mainly because water-based formulas require preservatives, stabilizers, and pH adjusters just to stay shelf-safe.

It felt backwards. A product meant to nourish skin shouldn’t need that much chemistry just to exist.

Why Tallow Is the Foundation of Everything I Make

Tallow isn’t magic, and it doesn’t need hype.

What it offers is a fatty-acid profile that closely mirrors human skin. When properly rendered and thoughtfully formulated, beef tallow absorbs well, supports the skin barrier, and leaves skin feeling nourished—not greasy.

Some of my products include small amounts of carefully chosen plant-based ingredients or ethically sourced fragrance oils. I’m not anti-plant. But if a product is called a tallow balm or tallow lotion, then tallow should be the main ingredient—not something diluted into the background.

In my formulas, tallow is always the star.

Full Honeycomb — Honey Included

One ingredient I use extensively is full honeycomb, with the honey still intact.

This isn’t powdered wax or processed beeswax. It’s raw honeycomb that brings:

Natural humectant properties from real honey
Beeswax structure for protection and stability
A time-tested pairing with tallow that requires no synthetic stabilizers

Using full honeycomb allows me to keep products completely water-free, which means no preservatives and a longer, safer shelf life—without sacrificing performance.

It’s slower. It costs more. And it’s absolutely worth it.

Why Fractionated Coconut Oil Is Worth the Cost

You’ll also notice that Fractionated Coconut Oil (FCO) is used in most of my formulations.

FCO is more expensive than many popular oils—and that’s intentional.

Compared to oils like olive oil, FCO:

Is highly stable and resistant to oxidation
Absorbs quickly without leaving a greasy feel
Is odorless, allowing tallow to shine
Improves spreadability without diluting the formula

I don’t use FCO as a filler. I use it because it supports tallow instead of competing with it. It costs more, but it delivers a better product—and that matters to me.

What I Won’t Do to Cut Corners

There are things I refuse to do, even if they would make production easier or cheaper:

No heavy dilution
No water hidden in balms
No filler oils
No synthetic vitamin E for marketing appeal
No bulk factory sourcing relabeled as “handmade”

I also don’t use invented marketing language or exaggerated claims to sell you something. No miracle promises. No fear-based buzzwords. No pretending one product fixes everything.

Just honest formulations, clearly explained.

How These Products Are Made

I source fresh beef suet, never frozen, picked up directly from the butcher the same day the animal is processed.

From there, it goes through a multi-day rendering process—slow heating, repeated cooling, cleaning, and refinement. I ruined my first batch. My wife’s sniff test made that very clear.

By the third batch, things started coming together. Today, she still sniff-tests everything, and I trust that more than any marketing claim.

I’ve shared over 150 containers with friends and family, followed up for real feedback, and refined every step based on actual use—not trends.