If you’ve been reading my stuff over the last few months, you might have noticed a theme. Piece by piece I’m replacing my store-bought beauty and skin-care products with DIY versions.

My criteria for making the swap? The DIY version needs to be stupidly easy to make (no multi-step lengthy processes); the ingredients need to be easy to source or, even better, already in my cupboards; and the finished product needs to work at least as well as its store-bought counterpart, if not better.

So far I’ve swapped out my deodorant, toothpaste, and face care products. Today, I introduce you to tallow balm – my new favorite substitute for body lotions.

Tallow? you say. Isn’t that what they used to make French fries with before we freaked out about evil animal saturated fats?

Why yes, indeed, it is. Tallow is rendered beef fat, and since my hubby makes beef bone broth commercially, we have a LOT of it to spare.

I can hear what you’re thinking from here. “But there’s using it and then there’s spreading it all over your body.”

I know. The idea was pretty darned weird to me too, but I kept reading about it (this was one of my favorite articles ) and hearing about the lusciously beautiful skin it left behind. By now you know I’m a lazy poop when it comes to this kind of thing, so when I read about something with promise of “luscious” and “ beautiful” that also happens to be ridiculously easy, is quite literally food for the skin AND uses up something that is currently overwhelming our fridge… well, I’ve got to give it a try.

So here’s what I did:

I took a 1/2 cup of rendered beef tallow and let it soften to room temperature (read: I took it out of the fridge and forgot about it for a few hours – if your home is on the cooler side you may need to put it on the stove on low temperature to melt). I added a heaping tablespoon of Jojoba oil, and mixed in some lavender and frankincense essential oils, both of which are known to be exceptional in skin care. I stirred it up and put it in a little glass jar, which I moved to my bathroom cabinet.

The next time I showered, I tried it (hesitantly, I’ll admit). On it went all over my legs, arms and abdomen. I was pleasantly surprised!

Initially it felt a little thicker than my usual lotion, but it absorbed into the skin really quickly and smoothly. Now, I used beef tallow leftover from extensive broth-making so I’ll admit that even with the essential oils, I still smelled like dinner. But that smell went away very quickly (I asked my husband who swore he wouldn’t come near me if I smelled like bone broth) and I added a couple dabs of my favorite essential oil (Rose, Calm, or Lavender in case you were wondering) which helped significantly.

Important note: if you don’t happen to have a fridge stuffed full of leftover tallow 😉 then you can buy it from your farmer, or render it yourself from suet, and it won’t smell at all!

What really impressed me, though, was the next day. My skin was still beautifully soft and supple, and literally looked firmer. Cellulite cream? I dunno… but this stuff did something magical and my skin looked significantly more toned. I am officially hooked.

If you don’t want to make your own tallow balm, you can often find it at farmers markets or you can buy some online here.

Here are some other great tallow balm recipes I’ve found and can’t wait to try!

Whipped Peppermint Tallow Body Butter by Homemade Mommy

Yarrow Tallow Balm (excellent for eczema) by The Healthy Honeys

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