Just when we feel like we have seen it all—snail slime, bee venom, fish guts—the skin care industry discovers a new innovative ingredient from animals. Enter beef tallow, an ingredient trend sweeping Tik Tok, with reported benefits such as moisturization, anti-inflammatory, collagen boosting and barrier strengthening.
Although beef tallow used to be the cooking fat of choice for fast food chains due to its high smoking point, it is now the skin care of choice for some Tik Tok influencers. As of October 2024, the term is seeing over 200K searches per month.* So the question is, where are consumers getting their beef tallow and is it worth all the hype?
Beef Tallow Sources
Just as you may imagine, natural beef tallow can be whipped up in any old kitchen. Being rendered beef fat, the consumer only need to cook the beef, take out the fat, add liquid, cook until rendered fat separates and then strain to remove impurities. As you may imagine, skin care experts have concerns about consumers preparing their own beef tallow and applying it to their face, but we will get into that in a bit.
Alternatively, some manufacturers on the market are capitalizing on this trend by offering beef tallow products for premium prices. These products claim to moisturize and soothe the skin, specifically referencing irritated skin or skin with eczema or psoriasis.
Beef Tallow Benefits
Beef tallow is rich in triglyerides as well as vitamins A, D, K, E and B12.1 It's composition is said to make it biocompatible with the skin. Though little research has been done on beef tallow and skin, there have been a number of benefits reported.
Chief among the claims is moisturization, with the fatty acid content of beef tallow providing the skin with moisture and preventing moisture loss. Similarly, these ingredients also help strengthen the barrier. The vitamin K in beef tallow helps to heal skin and improve scars. As we know, vitamin A helps cell regeneration, aiding in both aging skin and acne. Users of beef tallow claim that it has the same vitamin A effects as retinol, but these claims have not yet been proven.
Beef Tallow Concerns
So, what do the experts say about slapping beef tallow on your face. Some dermatologists note that beef tallow can be comedogenic for those with acne. They note that more research needs to be done on its comedogenicity to determine if it can actually worsen acne.
Though its moisturization benefits seem to be real, esearch suggests that beef tallow can irritate the skin if in high concentration.1 Experts suggest that though beef tallow can have benefit for the skin, there are better alternatives on the market.
Of course, making your own beef tallow as a moisturizer appeals to those looking for cost-effective, eco-friendly methods of finding skin care. That being said, it can't be used by those looking for vegan products, and its user in DIY cases has to be comfortable smelling like ground beef in the name of beauty.
Reference
1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11193910/
