Tallow skin care ‘fad' benefits scrutinised

Otago Daily Times

29-04-2025

A large ball of frozen kidney during home rendering of beef tallow (left) and A container of liquid of home rendered beef tallow. PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES
Snake oil or a path to clear skin?
Beef tallow has been promoted by some as the chemical-free answer to skin concerns and award-winning organic food brands and Southern small businesses alike are capitalising on the trend.
A Winton artisan tallow producer and an owner of an supermarket meat supplier both sing the praises of the rendered balm, but Gore Health board director Kristin Leckie says the topical tallow is a "fad" unsupported by skin science.
Ms Leckie said the tallow has to be ingested orally to get its benefits and that the idea that it is to be applied topically has been popularised by influencers who were not experts in the field of skin.
Beef fat, along with pig lard and sheep's lanolin, is said to have been used on the skin by ancient Egyptians, the Roman Empire and the Victorians.
It is recorded as being used up until the 19th century when it was overshadowed by advertising and the dawn of the cosmetic industry.
The return of tallow for the face is seen as accompanying the rise of "ancestral living" where the harsh chemicals and consumerism of modern life is rejected in favour of earlier practices.
Like the carnivore diet, it is seen as a return to more primitive way of life.
The Tallow Boutique NZ owner Claire Roy, based in Winton, said her main aim in producing her home-made, tallow-based balm, was to help people with skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis which were aggravated by the chemicals in modern food and skin care.
Ms Roy started rendering her own tallow in the 1990s, she said, and, as a "bit of an entrepreneur", she began producing and selling it again after seeing its popularity on TikTok.
She makes her Go Solo balm with fat from her local butcher which she renders down and mixes with jojoba, almond, castor and essential oils, as well as locally sourced beeswax.
The tallow "mimics" the skin, containing vitamins A, D, E, K and B12, and creates a protective barrier for the skin, she said.
A container of liquid of home rendered beef tallow.
Ms Roy claimed her product had helped clear up the eczema of some local children.
The organic company Neat Meats which stocks its Harmony brand in supermarkets across the country, has jumped on the gravy train, selling tallow for cooking.
Neat Meats co-owner Andy Ham said he had the idea after seeing tallow's success on the international market and that the product has a high smoke point, so is good for frying and can add an "umami" flavour to chocolate cookies.
He said in the six months the new product was on the market, it had sold over 7000 tubs, winning a gold medal at the Outstanding Food Producer Awards in March.
Mr Ham said the company was always looking for new ways to get return from their animals, and the tallow came from organic farms in the South Island.
His product is made for edible usage, but Mr Ham said his wife and her friends have been making some "amazing" moisturisers with it at home.
Ms Leckie, who has 25 years of experience as a skin therapist, said that putting the rendered fat on the skin will over time congest it, causing blackheads and bumpy, blocked pores.
"You're applying something that essentially is going to suffocate the skin, when we want the skin to breathe and function in the way nature intended," she said.
She also said there had been an increase in skin problems due to mass produced, chemical filled products, but that the answer was in researched-based treatment, which tallow was not.
She said because of the rise in distrust in commercial products a lot of misinformation and new cosmetic solutions were going around.
"Everyone's suddenly an expert," she said.
"They're an overnight expert."
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