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Beef Tallow: Learn how this trending ingredient, rich in vitamins and hydration properties, can help your skin, and get expert tips on safe usage.

Beef Tallow: Trending Skincare Ingredient

Beef Tallow: The new must-have ingredient in skincare

Also known as rendered beef fat, used in cooking for many years due to its high smoke point. Recently, TikTok made this ingredient popular for use on the skin, and it is now trending as a must-have for the skin. Let’s dig into everything related to this superstar ingredient for health and skin benefits.

What Is Beef Tallow?

Beef tallow is rendered beef fat from cows with a special extraction process that is heated up and cooked to remove impurities and filtered into a liquid that solidifies as it cools making it stable for extended use. Suet has a tougher and grittier texture and is best for baking. Lard comes from pork. Tallow has been used to make candles and soaps for many years and now found its way back into the beauty industry. 

Is Beef Tallow Good For Your Skin?

Yes. However, beef tallow is not FDA-regulated and more studies need to be done on its efficacy for the skin. Using beef tallow on the skin increases hydration levels and strengthens the skin barrier. A study done by PubMed states, “Looking at the composition of tallow and the protective barrier of the skin that must be penetrated, tallow looks to be biocompatible. Tallow is rich in triglycerides, specifically oleic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, and linoleic acid, thus lending to its wide range of industrial applications. Tallow also contains essential vitamins, such as Vitamins A, D, K, E, and B12.” The problem we are seeing on TikTok is people are rendering their own or buying beef tallow and putting it raw on their faces. We don’t recommend doing this, because you don’t know the source of the beef tallow. Tallow which is not from grass-fed beef, contains toxins. In humans and animals, toxins are stored in the fatty tissue. 

Why Do People Use Beef Tallow On Their Skin?

In the age of increased dry skin cases, beef tallow is helping with skin moisture. However, from an esthetician standpoint, why are so many younger consumers suffering from dry skin? It is because we are using too many over-the-counter skincare products that strip the skin. Or we are using too many products in general and listening to social media influencers who claim they are skin experts. This creates dry skin in younger people who should not worry about these skin issues!

How Is It Used On The Skin?

Beef tallow is best used in a moisturizer.

Is Beef Tallow Safe For The Skin

Yes, when formulated correctly. Manufacturers mix beef tallow with other moisturizing ingredients or oils, which can potentially cause the product to become comedogenic. We don’t recommend buying a new moisturizer just yet. We still need to research and find products we are happy to recommend. Beef tallow’s composition mimics the oil in our skin which is why it has become a talked about ingredient. Glamour Magazine discusses the skin benefits, “Tallow is packed with omega-3 fatty acids capable of nourishing and strengthening the skin barrier as well as conjugated linoleic acid, the anti-inflammatory properties of which should improve the symptoms of eczema, psoriasis, and rashes. Plus, tallow is rich in fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, which can absorb easily into the skin to stimulate collagen production and skin cell renewal. These vitamins also deliver antioxidants to shield the skin from free radical damage and prevent signs of aging.” 

What Is The Difference Between Tallow For Skincare vs. Cooking?

It’s basically the same thing. However, when used for cooking, you can render the fat and use it at a high smoke point to cook or fry foods. Beef tallow was used to cook french fries and fried foods at chain restaurants for many years.  Dermatologists don’t recommend tallow for the skin. When we hear fat or oil, we automatically think about pore-clogging ingredients. Tallow has many vitamins, nutrients, and the ability to repair our skin barrier and it aids in increasing moisture. We believe that in the right formulation, this is a great ingredient as a skin moisturizer.

Can Beef Tallow Cause Acne?

Beef Tallow is not comedogenic. Beef tallow calms inflammation and aids in wound healing. When mixed with other ingredients, it can clog the skin and create acne. When you do a Google search, it states that beef tallow is comedogenic, this term means it’s a pore-clogging ingredient that can cause acne. However, if you look at the research that has been done, tallow mimics our oil glands, which means it does not clog the skin and normalizes oil production, especially in oily or dry skin types. A PubMed study says, “A comparative study looked at the effects of a topical emulsion, which had the main ingredient as tallow. Specifically, they concluded that the use of high fat-containing emulsions could prove to be helpful in atopic dermatitis or psoriasis. Another therapeutic benefit of topical tallow was wound healing.” However there is little research if tallow causes acne, only claims from dermatologists that it does. The study also talks about how they must mix in various ingredients for tallow to be effective. It’s the other ingredients that have the potential to clog the skin. Our expert opinion is to be patient and wait for more research or when professional lines create beef tallow because these ingredients will be made without comedogenic ingredients.

Will My Skin Become Sensitive?

Beef tallow is not meant to create skin sensitivity. However, if you are not using organically sourced tallow, the chemical composition of the herbicides is a known irritant. The same PubMed study mentioned above states, “While this is a very useful tool in the agricultural business, the need to learn about the possible side effects to humans, especially skin, is crucial. POE-T is a surfactant derived from tallow and used in glyphosate herbicides. The use of this non-ionic surfactant is to help with the delivery of glyphosate into plants.POE-T was not reported to cause significant irritation to a specific organ or body system after repeated exposure through oral and respiratory consumption. However, a GARD skin assay also classified tallow as being a skin sensitizer, which increases the risk of photosensitivity-related irritation. Marten et al. concluded that concentrated POE-T was very irritating to the skin, corrosive to the eyes, and sensitizing to the skin.” If you have used beef tallow and had a skin reaction, it is not caused by tallow itself, but by the herbicide used to treat plants that the cows ingest and is stored in their fat cells that we put on our skin.

Beef Tallow vs. Retinol

Claims that beef tallow can replace retinol are false. While beef tallow contains vitamin A, it is not enough to do what retinol does for the skin. Retinol, a vitamin A derivative, stimulates fibroblast cells responsible for collagen and elastin production which helps slow down aging. If you want more information about retinol benefits, please check out our blog post on retinol.

How Influencers Talk About It

Social media influencers talk about skincare like they have knowledge and education to back them up. The beef tallow trend started on TikTok and gained popularity thanks to influencers. Estheticians and dermatologists have been writing about how it can impact the skin. Even Forbes Magazine published an article about this topic, “Remember celebrities or social media influencers claiming that something works and is safe is not the same as real scientific evidence. In fact, who knows how much they are even using the product they are pushing and what else they may be doing.” Amen to this! We have to question whether the celebrities or influencers are actually using these products. We have known for years that celebrities never use the products they promote on TV, they are just the spokesperson!

Health Benefits of Beef Tallow

Lastly, let’s end with the health benefits!  Beef tallow is a hidden secret for health benefits. We want to end with a quick video about the amazing health benefits and why you need beef tallow in your kitchen by Dr. Paul Saladino, MD

Samantha has been following the Carnivore diet for over a year and feels amazing. These are doctors she follows and has learned from. Another great doctor to follow is Dr. Anthony Chaffe, MD. He shares great information about the Carnivore diet and how to get started.

Is Beef Tallow Worth The Hype?

While offering amazing skin benefits for hydration and barrier repair, we don’t suggest running out and buying skincare products. More research needs to be done and we must find reputable sources to formulate skincare products. Let’s keep the conversation going about this trending skincare ingredient!

👉 If you have questions or comments, please drop them in the comments below.

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