Tallow balm/cream

[DotNTimmy]

If your opinion is 'ewww beef gross' then this thread isn't for you...please don't de-rail.

Does anyone have a recommendation? I really want to try one but most of the creams i'm seeing are 'tallow and xyz ingredients' with no %'s...I don't mind a bit of something else for smell etc but I don't want to end up with one that's 10% tallow and 90% honey and oils.

I've even considered making my own as at least I know it's nearly pure then...H&B sell a pot of pure grass-fed tallow for a tenner and I've seen online tutorials about heating it, adding jojoba and whipping it to a cream...but DH thinks I'm mental which I may be 😂

You can definitely gently melt your pure tallow with another oil and then pour into a pot. The whipping will do nothing at all except introduce air pockets but by all means try it.

Points to note:

This is only doable as a balm, ie no added water or water containg liquids at all. If you add water you need emulsifiers and preservatives and proper shearing all of which are outside of the remit of a home hobbyist!

If you add a liquid oil such as jojoba you will end up with a runnier balm. A better option is a bit of shea or cocoa butter, or even coconut oil. Something solid at room temps. OR add jojoba AND a bit of beeswax to harden. You do not need much.

Stir in a couple of drops of essential oil as the mix is cooling.

Keep everything immaculately clean. The reason a balm is safe to make at home is the complete absence of water and therefore the lack of a medium for bacteria to grow. However a pure fat can still attract moulds and you can of course be adding damp bits of dirt that will grow bacteria if you are not scrupulously careful. If you are putting this on your skin then keep everything clean. Dry items (pot, pan, stirring implements etc) taken out of a dishwasher straight after a cycle will be sufficiently clean.

I am glad to see that tallow and animal fat is making a comeback. Animal fats are so, so superior to vegetable fats for human (animal!) skin, but we have had decades of conflating animal fats with animal testing, and with the marketing of vegetable fats as somehow more 'natural'. Even when something like emu fat gets rediscovered and becomes a buzzword, it is carefully marketed as somehow nothing to do with actual poultry.

Ask any woman who has had sore nipples whether olive oil or lanolin worked better....!

I use the ancestral cosmetics unscented one and it's honestly one of the loveliest things I've used on my skin. I use it at night and it melts into the skin, the next morning my skin is glowing and soft. Saw results almost immediately.