Tallow: What It Is, Why We Use It, and Where Ours Comes From
There are ingredients in our products that most people recognize right away — coconut oil, cocoa butter, vitamin E. And then there's tallow.
It tends to stop people for a moment. Maybe because it sounds unfamiliar, or because it's not the kind of ingredient you expect to see on a modern skincare label. But once you understand what it is and what it does, it's hard to imagine leaving it out.
So what is tallow, exactly?
Tallow is beef fat that has been slowly rendered — cooked down to remove impurities — until what remains is a clean, stable fat with a long history of use in both cooking and skincare.
If you're familiar with lard, it's the same idea. Lard is rendered pork fat; tallow is rendered beef fat. Both have been used for centuries in ways that modern cosmetics have largely moved away from — not because they stopped working, but because synthetic and petroleum-based alternatives became cheaper to produce.
The earliest records of tallow in skincare go back over 5,000 years. The Sumerians and Babylonians used it to make soap. The ancient Egyptians and Romans used it as a moisturizer, a cleansing agent, and a treatment for burns and skin damage. It wasn't a trend. It was just what worked.
Why it's so good for skin
The reason tallow has been used on skin for so long comes down to something fairly simple: it's structurally similar to the oils our skin already produces.
That similarity matters. It means tallow can actually penetrate the skin's lipid barrier rather than just sitting on the surface the way many water- or plant-based products do. It absorbs. It nourishes at a deeper level. And it brings a lot with it when it does.
Tallow is naturally rich in fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K — all of which are antioxidants that help protect the skin from environmental damage and reduce visible signs of aging like fine lines and dark spots. These same vitamins stimulate collagen production, which supports skin elasticity over time.
Vitamin A helps skin cells turn over more quickly and regulates sebum production, which means tallow is less likely to clog pores than you might expect. Vitamin E soothes and speeds up the repair of damaged skin. Vitamins D and K help protect and maintain the skin's barrier function while reducing inflammation.
Beyond the vitamins, tallow contains omega-3 fatty acids, which are antimicrobial — meaning they help slow the growth of bacteria, viruses, and fungi on the skin's surface. And its essential fatty acids, including oleic, palmitic, and stearic acid, work together to deeply hydrate and repair.
It's a lot to pack into a single ingredient. But that's kind of the point.
Where ours comes from
We source our tallow from Cedar Mountain Farm in Hartland, Vermont — and we couldn't be more proud of that partnership.
Cedar Mountain Farm is owned and operated by Kerry Gawalt and her husband Stephen Leslie. Kerry is a woman farmer in the truest sense of the word — deeply knowledgeable, genuinely passionate about the land, and committed to doing things the right way even when it's harder.
The farm practices regenerative agriculture, which goes beyond simply avoiding harm. Regenerative farming actively works to restore the health of the soil and the surrounding ecosystem. It benefits the land, the animals, and the environment as a whole — and it's the kind of approach we want supporting every ingredient in our products.
The cows at Cedar Mountain Farm are raised with care. They're named. They graze on fresh grass, eat a well-balanced diet, and are housed in a bedded pack barn with fresh sawdust. Kerry and Stephen don't use electric farm machines — they work with horse-drawn implements to avoid introducing emissions into the fields. The manure from the cows goes back into the land as compost for their no-dig garden, completing a cycle that wastes almost nothing.
That kind of thoughtfulness is rare. It's also exactly what we want behind an ingredient we're putting on people's skin.
A note on sustainability
There's one more thing worth saying about tallow, and it's something we feel genuinely good about.
Tallow is a byproduct of beef production. Without people choosing to use it, it would be discarded. By incorporating it into our products, we're making sure that part of the animal is respected and utilized rather than wasted.
That matters to us. It's not the most glamorous part of the story, but it's an honest one. Using the whole animal — thoughtfully, carefully, with intention — is part of what it means to make products that are rooted in something real.
Which products contain tallow
You'll find Cedar Mountain Farm tallow in four of our product categories: Hand & Body Lotions, Body Butters, Bar Soaps, and Lip Balms.
Each of these products is made in small batches in Vermont, with a short list of ingredients you can actually read. Tallow is one of them — and now you know exactly where it comes from and why it's there.
We also want to be clear: we understand that some people prefer to avoid animal-derived ingredients altogether, which is why we offer a range of vegan options as well. There's room for everyone here.
Good ingredients come from good places. That's something we think about with everything we make.