What Is Beef Tallow?

Beef tallow is rendered fat that comes from the cow. It has been used in cooking and skincare for thousands of years. Civilizations such as the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all used beef tallow for a variety of purposes. In the past few decades, vegetable and seed oils have been used instead. Now, beef tallow is making a comeback after traditional influencers started to boast about its nutritional benefits and taste in food, and its benefits are being used in skincare. 

Where Does Beef Tallow Come From?

Beef Tallow is usually best sourced from suet, which is the hard white fat surrounding the kidneys of the cow. Suet is known to be the most nutrient-dense fat. 

General beef fat trimmings can also be made into beef tallow. Tallow from trimmings is much softer but has a noticeably more beefy smell, which is why our products at Nektar are made from suet.

Grass-Fed vs Grain-Fed Beef Tallow

The term grass-fed seems to confuse a lot of people when choosing beef tallow for cooking or a skincare product. Similar to grass-fed beef, the term grass-fed indicates that the cows' diet consists of grass and forage on pasture, rather than grain.

Grass-fed beef tallow is also generally more nutrient-dense than your typical grain-fed tallow. In studies, it has been shown that grass-fed beef tallow contains higher levels of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K2, along with anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids, and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).

Due to grass-fed cows being much leaner than the typical grain-fed cow, much less tallow can be made from grass-fed cattle due to the limited amount of fat and suet. 

We recommend always choosing the grass-fed option over the grain-fed. However, it might not be as big a deal as people make it due to many "grass-fed" products not being 100% grass-fed or grass-fed at all. 

Can Tallow For Cooking Be Used For Skincare?

Cooking tallow can absolutely be used for skincare; there are a few things to consider. Most cooking tallow is sourced from beef trimmings, while tallow for skincare is sourced from suet(the white fat surrounding the kidneys). Both cooking tallow(from trimmings) and skincare tallow(from suet) will moisturize the skin. Tallow made for skincare is typically more nutrient-dense due to being sourced from suet fat, which contains higher levels of vitamins A, D, E, K, and B1, along with selenium and choline. And not to forget, a lot of cooking beef tallow has a strong beefy smell that might be noticeable to others.

When using beef tallow for skincare, it's best that the suet gets properly rendered down in multiple stages, until it has reached a pure white, no-beef smell product. 

Skincare products such as our Traditional Tallow & Beeswax Balm uses high quality grass-fed beef tallow from suet that is also mixed with beeswax and olive oil to make it a complete, nutrient-dense balm.