Photos from Unsplash and AD Classic/ Illustration Andrea Daquino for NPR
Rubbing rendered animal fats into your pores and skin would possibly sound gross, however beef tallow has grow to be a stylish skincare product that some declare can clear up zits, is nice for dry pores and skin, and even makes you look youthful.
Tallow is fats that has been slowly melted, strained after which hardened right into a waxy paste. Typically utilized in cooking, all types of animal fat — goat, swan, even lion — have additionally been used as a cosmetics ingredient since antiquity, says historian Susan Stewart.
Now, in 2025, some individuals are embracing beef tallow as a “pure” skincare alternative. On TikTok, lots of of movies with tens of millions of views talk about or promote tallow merchandise. Manufacturers like Good Ol’ Days Tallow Co., Evil Items!, Betr4you and HolyCow seem time and again, from a raft of creators who earn fee for each jar of tallow they persuade another person to purchase.
In a single TikTik from the account @ItsColleensShop, a girl drips her finger right into a jar of the model Good Ol’ Days Tallow Co. after which licks it earlier than telling the digital camera, “If you cannot eat your skincare, then you definately should not be placing it in your face.”
Movies from different accounts promoting different manufacturers of tallow say the identical, virtually verbatim.
Although Good O’ Days Tallow says it comes from grass-fed cows, not every little thing edible is sweet for the pores and skin, dermatologists warn.
The declare: Beef tallow is a superior, pure pores and skin lotion that may give you clear, glowing and youthful pores and skin.
The proof: Tallow’s not whole snake oil. Your pores and skin could look plump and dewy after making use of it, says Marisa Plescia, vp of the Society of Beauty Chemists and founder FemChem Magnificence. That is as a result of, as a saturated fats, tallow has a excessive lipid content material and these fatty compounds create a form of barrier that locks in moisture.
Nonetheless, different merchandise, together with shea butter and olive oil, additionally comprise lipids that create the identical impact.
“Beef tallow isn’t any totally different, actually, than every other plant oil that is on the market,” says Plescia.
And there are means higher choices for moisturizing your pores and skin than cooking oils, Plescia says. The lotions that chemists formulate embody humectants, akin to glycerine and hyaluronic acid, which are a magnet for and bind to water to maintain your pores and skin moist. Plain fat haven’t got these.
The dangers: Whereas some TikTok creators declare that tallow has cleared up their complexion, beef fats can truly make zits worse, warns Dr. Delila Foulad, a board-certified dermatologist at UCLA Well being, who focuses on treating pores and skin and scalp problems
“Beef tallow is actually a lipid, or an oil. Placing that in your pores and skin may clog your pores,” she tells NPR.
There’s additionally an opportunity of an allergic response, much like how some individuals’s pores and skin reacts to jewellery that accommodates nickel. These with psoriasis or eczema ought to be further cautious of tallow since their pores and skin barrier is already compromised, says Foulad.
Issues that you simply apply on the pores and skin “may cause a secondary allergic contact dermatitis, which is principally a pores and skin allergy,” Foulad says.
For individuals who nonetheless wish to strive it, she recommends they begin with a patch check: Put tallow on only a small space of the pores and skin and wait a few weeks earlier than slathering all over the place.
“If you’re going to have a response, it is not one thing that often occurs straight away,” she says.
Additionally, this animal fats can go rancid over time, particularly in scorching climate. So hold it within the fridge.
Not like tallow, historically formulated lotions and moisturizers comprise antioxidants that forestall decomposition, or spoilage, explains Plescia.
What’s behind the development: Tallow can look like a extra pure choice in comparison with lab-made magnificence merchandise that comprise substances with chemically-sounding names, akin to phenoxyethanol and C13-14 isoparaffin.
And the U.S. is having a cultural second the place individuals are skeptical of artificial substances, says Jennifer Reich, a sociologist on the College of Colorado Denver who researches how individuals make well being and wellness selections.
“That could be a backswing, to company developments of issues like meals and family merchandise which have typically had substances that haven’t been significantly protected or have environmental impacts,” she says.
NPR has beforehand reported that sure substances present in some gels, lotions and lotions will be dangerous to reproductive well being, or comprise carcinogens. And, in March, the Meals and Drug Administration introduced a voluntary recall of zits merchandise for potential benzene contamination, which is a carcinogen
As a form of shortcut to more healthy selections, Reich says individuals go for issues like beef tallow that appear pure as a result of it ostensibly comes from a farm as an alternative of an opaque provide chain of abroad factories.
Tallow appears to have a particular attraction for males, notes Jordan Foster, a sociologist at Alberta’s MacEwan College.
Crimson meat has long-standing associations with masculinity: cowboys, cavemen, Ron Swanson. So when males use beef tallow, Foster says they’re aligning with these comparatively slim gender scripts, whereas nonetheless collaborating in a historically female area of skincare.
One TikToker @mercercaiden stated that he makes use of a whipped tallow cream as an aftershave and to moisturize his knuckles.
“I really feel youthful already,” he stated as he rubbed what seemed like a tablespoon’s value of fats into his face.
The underside line: Tallow balm in all probability will not damage you a lot (although zits and eczema victims beware), however be careful for claims that it is higher simply because it is pure.
Although comprehensible, Reich says this feeds into a bigger development of rejecting science and warns that data on social media can lack nuance or lead to harmful selections, akin to ingesting unpasteurized milk or making an attempt unproven medical therapies.
Not each ingredient with a protracted title is essentially harmful however if you wish to keep away from these which can be linked to potential well being issues, listed here are a handful that scientists are particularly involved about.
However Reich says this systemic drawback of lax rules can’t be solved on the person degree, no matter how onerous an individual works to determine which merchandise are protected: “These are actually taxing selections to make day by day. They exhaust individuals.”
The most effective plan of action, says Foulad, is to seek the advice of with a dermatologist who ought to be updated on the newest analysis and will help you choose merchandise that may work properly to your pores and skin.
