My latest homestead creation has been tallow body butter. As some of you may know my family and I raise our own cattle for beef and when we do that we receive the entire animal including things like its tongue, its organs and its fat. Our goal is to always use the entire animal. The best way I had found to use the fat of the cow is to render it down into tallow for many purposes. The latest being the whipped body butter. Tallow is rendered beef fat, I use specifically suet which is the nutrient-dense fat surrounding the organs of the cow. It is rendered down into a clean oil that you can use for cooking, baking, body products etc. Recently, I made a whipped tallow body butter with vanilla essential oil. It smells delicious, it feels incredible and it translates to our skin so well that it does not leave you feeling greasy nor does it clog your pores.
I know that some of you may be thinking that putting beef fat on your body or your face may take a turn for the worse but it's quite the opposite.
Some benefits of using tallow are:
Health fat! Healthy fats lead to healthy skin. The lipids found in tallow is believed to prevent dryness at the cellular level without suffocating the skin's barrier like petroleum-based lotions do.
Nutrient - dense! Beef tallow rendered from organic grass-fed/grass-finished beef is loaded with vitamins A. D & K along with antioxidants. More importantly, it is packed with vitamin E which allows for our natural collagen process to prosper, hence youthful looking skin.
Translatable. Tallow and the oil in our skin (sebum) share many of the same lipids (fats). Because of these similarities the tallow is able to be absorbed through deep layers of the skin and it absorbs quite quickly.
Packs a punch! A little goes a long way with tallow. Using a pea-size amount can cover an entire arm effectively. Personally, I only need to apply it once a day and it holds moisture in my skin for the entire day. The best part about using tallow is that it works for all skin types, combo-skin, oily, dry, sensitive etc. It translates to what your skin needs.
Contains CLA (conjugated linoleic-acid): CLA is an essential fatty acid, it is mainly stored in the fat cells that surround the organs (specifically the kidneys) of the cow. CLA is an omega-5 fatty acid that has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, which has been shown to stimulate epidermal (epidermis: outermost layer of the skin) regeneration.[Source]
The process:
I first take my suet and cut it up into little chunks and then I put it into a slow cooker for roughly 24 hours so that all the fat melts down into the pure liquid gold that we love so much.
I then strain the liquid fat and allow it to harden into a nice chunk of solidified tallow.
The next step I take is to render it another 2 to 3 times so that it becomes the cleanest most filtered oil I can achieve.
Once those steps are taken I am then able to melt down some of the tallow mix it with some of my favorite liquid oils such as organic MCT coconut oil, organic extra-virgin olive oil, organic argan oil, or organic jojoba oil. Then I add in my favorite essential oils for an added benefit and luxurious scent, whip it and store it in a glass amber colored jar.
Some people may be curious about the natural scent of tallow, it's a very mild scent that during the rendering process becomes lesser and lesser but in no way does it smell like you’re rubbing steak on your body (lol!).
The end point here is, this is such a natural and ancient product that we should continue to use to keep us feeling rejuvenated and healthy and we should not be using these toxic lotions and petroleums that just clog and block while getting into our bloodstream that can destroy us in the long run. Go natural, go local, go primal!
In the month of August, I will have a tester batch for all clients to try. I will have it in the studio with very neutral essential oils and or plain tallow butter. I would encourage that everyone try it and see its benefits. Then in the month of September I will have a product line for anyone to buy. I am super excited and super passionate about bringing this product to you guys. Please feel free to ask any questions that you may have.