Beef Tallow Skin Care Has Taken Over Wellness-Tok—But Does It Work?

 Are you forever chasing the sumptuously hydrated complexion of wellness It girl Hannah Bronfman? Then you'd be happy to know that her juicy sheen comes courtesy of beef tallow—that's right, rendered beef fat—which she slathers on nightly as the last step in her skin care routine.

More info Beef Tallow Moisturizer

“I cannot gate-keep this any longer,” the multihyphenate mother of two declared in an Instagram Reel last week. “This right here? This is the truth.”

What is beef tallow? 

Beef tallow is fatty cuts of cow meat heated up, cooked down, and filtered into a liquid that solidifies to a butter-like texture as it cools. This melting and straining process removes solids and impurities to create a shelf-stable product that can be used in cooking, candle- and soapmaking, and more. 

Applying tallow topically is an age-old remedy for dry skin. But even in a world where excellent moisturizers can be found at every price point, people still swear by it. Bronfman has been “pretty devoted” to Bela Nektar's Cerate of Immortelle Ancestral Recuperative Balm—a facial balm spiked with “grass-fed/grass-finished sustainable organic bovine tallow” as well as CoQ10 and ceramides—for almost two years now after discovering the small-batch brand through a facialist in Santa Monica. In winter, the tallow-based balm seems to keep her skin balanced and plump when it's normally dry. Plus, she hasn't experienced any breakouts from the balm despite its heavy emollient consistency.  

“My skin loves it and soaks it right up,” Bronfman tells Glamour. “It’s super moisturizing and seems a bit greasy, but my skin is literally glowing in the morning…. I find myself using less active serums as well because the bovine is so nutrient-dense.”

Bronfman is far from the only creator singing tallow's praises on social media. On TikTok beef tallow skin care is being touted as a “natural” treatment for a variety of things: fighting acne, fading acne scars, soothing eczema, smoothing wrinkles, healing minor wounds and burns, moisturizing the body, and more. 

Does beef tallow smell like beef? 

Will rubbing beef tallow on your face make you smell like steak? Bronfman, for the record, says the Bela Nektar Cerate balm “smells totally neutral,” although there can be a more or less noticeable odor to bovine tallow depending on the rendering method. The scent is often masked in skin care by whipping it with essential oils, presenting a potential sensitivity issue for some. 

Then again, if the notion of coating yourself in the stuff McDonald's French fries used to be cooked in sends chills down your spine, I totally get where you're coming from. But the truth is, hot girls have been smearing their face and body with fat since the dawn of skin care. “Beef tallow has been used for skin care for centuries, when the standard practice was to use the whole animal and plant-derived ingredients weren't readily available,” says New York City dermatologist Dr. Michele Green. In the comments beneath Bronfman's video, a staff member at a Nashville butcher shop confirmed that scores of Southern women line up to purchase beef lard for the express purpose of using it on their skin. EGOT-winning actor Viola Davis famously uses Crisco—a vegetable shortening commonly used as a tallow or lard alternative—on her bunions. Skinfluencer Charlotte Palermino recently shared that her mother used to apply Crisco on her face as a child.

Is beef tallow good for your skin?

The answer to this question is two-pronged. While beef tallow contains properties that are beneficial to the skin, it also comes with a handful of valid concerns to consider. “The safety and efficacy of tallow for skin care will require further clinical research,” Dr. Green says. Dr. Mamina Turegano, a Louisiana-based dermatologist with an avid TikTok following of her own, agrees. “Tallow is not approved by the FDA to be used in skin care because of the risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease,” she notes. “So if you were to find tallow in skin care, it would usually be something local or homemade.” 

This lack of regulation, Dr. Turegano explains, opens the door to a host of other problems involving the product's sourcing, purity, consistency, use of preservatives (or not), and stability, since tallow can melt when warm. As such, it's vital to pay attention to sourcing if you're planning to dip a toe into the trend. “Beef tallow in skin care products should be derived from high-quality, grass-fed, and pasture-raised cattle, as factory-farmed cattle are often given antibiotics or steroids and are raised in harsh conditions,” Dr. Green adds.

Like most skin care products, the benefits of beef tallow depends on your skin type. According to Dr. Green, tallow is thought to be compatible with human skin because of its compositional similarity to sebum, the natural oils produced by human skin. 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. Dr. Green says tallow, thick yet noncomedogenic, is ideally suited to dry and aging skin but gentle enough for sensitive skin. Those with oily skin may find it too cloying unless applied sparingly. 

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