I Have Beef With Tallow

Who needs vaccines and Vanicream, when you have raw milk and beef tallow? That’s what the internet thinks, anyway. TikTok (or TallowTok) is currently slathered with devotees hailing beef tallow (yes, the rendered fat from a cow) as a miracle moisturizer. As of March 2025, there have been more than 68.5 million posts on tallow. Brands cash in, while influencers flaunt before-and-after transformations, render tallow from suet, or smear beef lard on their skin, thinking it’s tallow (it’s not).

The backlash against industrialized beauty mirrors anxieties about ultra-processed food. The same people avoiding seed oils in their diets are now seeking beef-fat balms for their faces—it’s not a coincidence that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is selling “Making Frying Oil Tallow Again” merch. But in a rush to eliminate toxins and stick it to big corporations, you may have overlooked other risks. I bought some on the internet and smeared it on myself to figure it out.

A Brief History of Tallow

Cow fat as face cream is not as far out as you might think. For centuries, terrestrial animal fats—beef tallow, lard, and lanolin—were staples in skin care. The Babylonians used ash and rendered fat to craft soap. Over time, tallow found its way into early-candle-making and medicinal remedies. Nineteenth-century ointments relied on them to treat everything from burns and chapped skin to wounds and ingrown nails. Traditional soap was a mix of tallow and coconut oil, and early lipsticks blended animal fat and beeswax. Some tattoo artists will still recommend beef tallow soaps to better preserve ink.

By the 1990s, advances in cosmetic chemistry favored plant-based and synthetic alternatives that offered greater stability and consistency. Safety concerns surrounding bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) also prompted companies to distance themselves from animal-derived ingredients. Though byproducts like collagen, hyaluronic acid, and keratin evolved with modern skin care, tallow was (mostly) left behind.

But now, beef tallow is back.

This revival is part of a cultural obsession with ancestral living. It’s the same impulse driving the popularity of the carnivore diet, bone broth, and unpasteurized milk. Grand View Research reports that the U.S. tallow market brought in $627.9 million in 2023 and is projected to surpass $1 billion by 2030. At its core is the rejection of modernity, the belief that industrialization has corrupted nature and that the past held purer solutions. The beauty industry, with its preservatives, emulsifiers, and laboratory formulations, has become the enemy. Tallow, by contrast, is framed as a return to the untainted.

Beef tallow is rich in triglycerides and also contains essential vitamins A, D, K, E, and B12. Some studies suggest that tallow can increase fatty acid concentration in the skin, making it a moisturizing agent. However, comparative studies have found that alternatives like pumpkin seed oil and linoleic acid offer superior hydration. While some might tout its “natural” benefits, that word is more marketing than fact.