How to Make Tallow Balm Using Leftover Beef Fat

Did you know you can make tallow balm with scraps of fat from cooking? It is actually easy to make your own tallow balm, and much more economical than buying it. With minimal hands-on time, a few extra ingredients, and simple instructions, you can make a nontoxic moisturizer with beneficial ingredients that work for you!

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Fat used to be a bad word. Almost like a swear word. If you grew up at the same time I did, you remember this!

We were told to avoid fat in our diets. Fat free, and even fat substitutes, were everywhere. Low fat was acceptable, but not as good as fat free. It took awhile for some of us to realize that was all based on shady science, if any, and that we really needed good quality fats for many reasons.

The same, with different reasoning, applied to skin care. If you had any acne at all, you were probably looking for oil-free preparations, dutifully cleaning your face, and maybe using harsh products to strip any hint of oil. It didn’t work awfully well.

As it turns out, some fats are pretty good for us! I’m not going to get into the benefits of eating high quality beef fat here, but for your skin? Tallow is extraordinary.

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Why Not Use Store-Bought Products?

I used to use them, too. We phased most store bought products out over time, though, as we learned more about them. To address multiple health problems in the family, we worked to improve our diet and reduce toxins in the household. Skin care from the store didn’t hold up to even a little scrutiny!

Shockingly, many moisturizers contain drying ingredients, as well as common irritants. Not only that, but typical formulations at the store contain actual toxins. Both cheap and high-end products can be problematic; simply spending more isn’t the answer.

But these products are just on our skin, right? You don’t eat them. True, but our skin absorbs what we put on it. Think about medicines that are applied to the skin. They can work because we absorb them!

Some common problems we found:

• aluminum— goes by other names, and is associated with health problems like cancers and neurological damage as well as environmental harm
• BAC— a preservative that is also a common irritant and also environmentally harmful
• formaldehyde-releasing compounds– not necessarily listed as “formaldehyde” on the package, these compounds go by many other names and are associated with cancer
• methylisothiazolinone— a common allergen and irritant
• parabens— listed using a word that includes “paraben” or as something else, like preervatives or fragrance, these disrupt hormones, absorb easily, and don’t break down quickly in the body
• plastics— listed as phthalates or other terms, these are also absorbed and disrupt hormones
• PFAS— showing up under many names, these “forever chemicals” have different purposes, absorb readily, and cause liver damage, hormone problems, and much more
• propylene glycol— also has many names and is allergenic and irritating to some
• oxybenzone— a sunscreen ingredient with many names, this is associated with hormone imbalance and coral reef damage
• fragrance— this is a huge and unregulated group of substances, many of which can do harm of many types– some, like essential oils, are less likely to be a problem (learn more here)

To learn more, check here, here, or here.

Skip the label-reading!

I don’t know about you, but reading those labels is not an activity I enjoy. The names are long and mostly incomprehensible, at least to me. The ingredients to avoid go by many names. It is hard to figure out what to buy!

If you want to buy a product, one way to check a particular product’s safety is by using this database. There are safe products on the market! You can also search out companies that use high quality ingredients you can identify, even if you have to order online.

Another option is to make your own. This is typically cheaper than purchasing a similar quality, and you can control exactly what is in them. If you don’t like a particular essential oil or want to include an ingredient for a specific purpose, you can easily get what you want and avoid what you don’t.

Making skin care products can be as simple as using a particular oil, maybe dropping a few drops of an essential oil into them first. I love a drop of castor oil around my eyes at night. So easy!

Why Use Beef Tallow on your Skin?

If you have been used to drugstore-type lotions and moisturizers, using beef fat might sound pretty far-fetched. (Even making your own skincare products might sound kind of “out there” and maybe like a lot of work, but beef?!) Here are some benefits of tallow for your skin:

• vitamin A for lines, wrinkles, and elasticity
• vitamin D for antioxidants and decreasing inflammation
• vitamin E for healing and preventing damage from free radicals
• vitamin K for healing and elasticity
• CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) is anti-inflammatory and has immune benefits
• stearic acid softens skin, protects skin barrier, and reduces flaking and itching
• oleic acid builds a protective film, help regenerate skin, and is anti-inflammatory

Besides all that, tallow, being the humble fat of cattle, is readily available and can even be inexpensive!

How Do You Get Tallow?

There are different ways! You can buy chunks of tallow, possibly from a local farmer or butcher. If you do this, you will need to render the tallow before you make tallow balm or anything else with it. This isn’t a hard thing to do, so if you have a good source, consider rendering it in a slow cooker or on the stove. Here are instructions.

If you buy tallow that has already been rendered, you can just proceed to whiz up your balm. You will just melt it, add whatever other oils and essential oils you want, and either leave it like that or whip it into a creamier balm.

If you want to go the extra-frugal route, you can save bits of tallow from cooking projects and make them into tallow balm once you have accumulated enough scraps. That is what I will show you; I saved the tallow off many a pot of broth or other beef projects. Refrigerate the whole thing, then break the solidified fat off and store in the freezer until you have a cup or so.

I had about 2 cups squirreled away in my freezer bag. Here it is:

If you save your beef fat, I would recommend using only fat that hasn’t been strongly flavored. I love a good taco, but I don’t want to go around smelling like one! It might be hard to get all the smell out.

I cook a beef heart now and then, which yields plenty of fat. If I use beef knuckles or ox tails to make a broth, that also yields a good bit of lovely fat. Any sort of beef that is mildly flavored and yields fat is fair game. I have even trimmed big pieces of fat off raw beef and rendered that for skin care use.

How to Purify the Tallow

My tallow had some bits of beef stuck through it. Obviously not what we want for moisturizer!

Also, I love a good burger, too, but I don’t want my moisturizer to smell like one. We have to get the beefy bits out. They could spoil! Thankfully, it isn’t hard to do. The whole process will take awhile, but most of that time is just waiting for it to melt or solidify. Go about your day and check back later.

Step One

First, choose your equipment. You will need to melt the tallow in one container, and use another for heating. Some ideas:

• a double boiler is ideal
• I don’t have one, so I set a glass bowl of tallow in a skillet with water
• I have also put the tallow in a pitcher inside a slow cooker– that is easier and you can take your eye off it, but it takes longer.
• presumably you could just melt it directly on the stove or inside the slow cooker– I haven’t tried it
• probably the microwave would work, but I don’t use one so I’m not totally sure!

Here is my glass bowl of tallow in a skillet with water in it:

Step Two

Now, set your tallow in the smaller container. Add cup or two of water and about a tablespoon of salt for every cup or two of tallow. The proportions needn’t be precise! The salt will help draw the unwanted stuff out of the tallow so you can easily get rid of it.

Much as I like Redmond’s salt for cooking and fermenting, I use a cheaper salt for this purpose. It is going to go down the drain. In the photos, I used inexpensive Himalayan salt.

At this point, set your container of salt, water ,and tallow into the pot of water or slow cooker. Warm it gently until all the tallow melts. It doesn’t need to get hot; take it off once it is melted.

Here is my melted tallow with the salt and water, ready to go into the freezer:

Step Three

Let the bowl of melted tallow cool. The fat will rise to the top, and the water will be at the bottom with most of the salt.

Depending on how fast you want to get this project done, you can do room temperature, refrigerator, or freezer. I used the freezer and it still took most of the day to fully purify my tallow. Most of the day, I was doing other stuff, and just check in on the tallow periodically.

Here is my tallow; you can see a little pink salt on top. The beefy bits are on the bottom.

Step Four

When the tallow is very firm, remove it from the container. You may be able to pry it gently out, resulting in a disc of whitish, solid tallow. This time, I couldn’t do that without breaking it, so I broke it in half across the bowl and removed the halves. And the bits that fell off them.

You can see some brownish beef residue– time to remove it.

You will notice that the bottom of the tallow has stuff on it– bits of beef, salt, and such. You might just scrape this all off with a knife or spatula. I usually have better success rinsing it off in hot tap water and scrubbing a bit to remove everything I can see. I had a little salt around the edges, too, and washed it off.

Repeat the Steps

Now, the tallow is much nicer than before, but there is likely to still be some smell and a few visible bits of beefiness. Repeat the process just as before: melt the tallow gently in salt and water, cool fully, remove and rinse, and see how it is. Here is my tallow after the second round of melting and scraping:

No beef left, just a little pink salt to rinse off. Here it is after the third round:

That looks good to me! No brownish things and minimal beef smell. You can see a little pink salt, which I washed off. This process is like a spa treatment for your hands! I have done 4 rounds before; it all depends on how it looks.

How to Make Tallow Balm

Once your tallow is to your liking, you can proceed to make tallow balm.

If you purchased rendered, purified tallow, you will start here.

First

Melt the tallow one more time, but this time don’t add any water or salt. Make sure the bowl is free of salt and beefy bits! The tallow doesn’t need to get hot, just to melt. Break it up first so it melts fast.

Second

Remove the tallow from the heat and stir in your other oils. See below for suggestions. Add 1/4 cup oil per cup of tallow. I had 2 cups, and used 1/4 cup each rosehip and castor oil this time. I also add about 50 drops of essential oil per cup of tallow, though you could add more, less, or none at all.

This time, my daughter asked for something to help her acne scars. She pretty well got rid of her acne, but she has some scars she hopes to fade.

(You can use tallow balm on acne, but I recommend healing from the inside to really improve it! She had bad acne before the GAPS diet and nothing topical helped all that much. Here is what we did.)

I added lavender, helichrysum, bergamot, geranium, frankincense, and a little tea tree oil. There are others that can helps scars, but I happened to have these.

It smells pretty good. I really hate the smell of tea tree oil and didn’t use much. Without the tea tree oil, it would smell much nicer. I should have just added tea tree oil to one or two jars for my daughter. This is, after all, not just about aroma this time.

Rosehip is also supposed to be good for scars, as well as fine lines and aging skin, so I used it along with castor oil.

Last time I made tallow balm, I used olive oil only, and about equal portions of lavender, peppermint, and orange. That was just wonderful-smelling– soothing and cheering all at once. My sons have used it almost all up, though.

Let the mixture cool down to room temperature. It will probably look yellow-ish and creamy but slightly translucent. You put it all into containers and use it at this point if you want.

Optional Step

If you want a slightly prettier, more luxurious cream, take your hand mixer and beat it for a couple of minutes. It will turn more white, creamier, almost fluffy, and will increase in volume as you whip air into it. I like it better this way, but it will work the same without beating. Just don’t let anyone assume it is frosting…

How to Store Tallow Balm

All the photos on Pinterest show lovely matching jars of tallow balm! If you have matching jars, or want to buy them, do that! I bought 4 1.7-oz jars last time I made it, and I like them. One is still in use in my son’s room, and the other is at college with my other son. That amount of tallow balm seems small, but it lasts.

I like to use glass jars, since they should be pretty nontoxic and not be damaged like plastic can be from the essential oils. Besides the jars that I bought specifically for tallow balm, I have an assortment of re-purposed jars from other uses.

Some are from previously purchased balms or creams, one came with kefir grains inside, some used to have candles in them– they all have lids. Plus a little silicone squeeze bottle from the grocery store. Not a pretty assortment, but a frugal way to store the tallow balm.

What oils should I use to make tallow balm?

You can use the one you like, something you have, or an oil for a specific purpose. Here are some good ones to try:

• olive oil
• avocado oil
• castor oil
• jojoba oil
• argan oil
• rosehip seed oil
• grapeseed oil
• sweet almond oil
• apricot kernel oil

And there are more! Check here for 30 oils and their benefits!

What essential oils are good to use?

Well, it depends on what you like, what you have, and what effects you want. Actually, you don’t strictly need any essential oil. I like to use them for potential benefits and the nice smell. I can smell a slight beef smell without them, too, which I don’t love.

However, if I were going to use tallow balm on broken skin, a mysterious rash, a baby, or a highly sensitive person, I might skip it at first. You could always try one essential oil at a time later so you know what the culprit is if the person reacts badly.

Here are some ideas for other situations:

General use

15-20 drops each lavender, orange, and peppermint

Scars

5-20 drops each lavender, geranium, bergamot, helichrysum, frankincense, and tea tree

Wrinkles and lines

try different combinations of lavender, germanium, helichrysum, rose, ylang ylang, sandalwood, or neroli

Acne

try lavender, clary sage, rosemary, tea tree, frankincense

Calming

10-20 drops each lavender, chamomile, and bergamot

Energizing

10-15 drops each orange, peppermint, eucalyptus, and lemon (skip lemon and orange if you will be in the sun soon after applying– citrus may make you more sensitive to sun damage)

Can I just buy tallow balm?

Yes, you can buy good quality tallow balm. It will cost you more than making it, but convenience has its own value. Remember, a little tallow balm goes a long way! Look for grass fed beef tallow and ingredients you recognize and are comfortable with. If I were going to buy tallow balm, I would buy it here.

This amount of tallow balm will probably last us a year or more!