What a Dermatologist Actually Think About the Beef-Tallow Skincare Trend
First, what is beef tallow and where does it come from?
“Beef tallow is rendered fat,” says Lauren Ploch, a board-certified dermatologist at Georgia Dermatology and Skin Cancer Center in Augusta, Georgia, and at Southern and Georgia Dermatology in Aiken, South Carolina. “It’s rich in lipids but provides no protein or carbohydrates.” Tallow can come from any ruminant animal (herbivorous mammals whose moniker stems from their form of digestion, called rumination), which includes sheep, bison, buffalo, goats, sheep, and even giraffes. Here, we’ll be specifically talking about tallow sourced from cattle.
- Lauren Ploch, MD, MEd, FAAD , She is board-certified by the American Board of Dermatology. She is an active member of the American Academy of Dermatology and a member of their Media Expert Team.
For thousands of years, tallow has been repurposed by human beings: the first dipped candles were created in Ancient Rome using tallow, and it would later be used in soaps during the Middle Ages. Amazing as these advances in humanity were, though, those of us in 2024 have something none of those civilizations possessed: options. Tallow may have served as a great hand cream or lip balm 500 years ago, but we have access to (literally) tens of thousands of products and, more importantly, expert-driven research to help us choose the right products that meet our individual goals and needs.
Wait, so how does beef tallow relate to skincare?
Good question, hypothetical reader! In short…it probably shouldn’t be, but tallow has recently gathered a devoted social media fanbase, who consider it a sort of “wellness superstar” ingredient, promoting its use in cooking (totally fine!), supplements (meh), and skincare products (yikes).
A quick glance through TikToks about beef tallow in skincare or the #beeftallowskincare hashtag on Instagram (used on 5,000 posts and counting) will show you a mountain of influencers singing the praises of beef tallow to address everything from acne and dullness to dryness and fine lines. (These are easily findable on both TikTok and Instagram, but I won’t link specific posts here due to the potential for spreading misinformation.) These users often hold up products or point viewers toward retailers that include beef tallow in their formulas, sometimes alongside sponsorship disclosures to signify the poster’s partnerships with the featured brand or calls to shop their affiliate links to the products.
You are far less likely to be shown, unfortunately, any qualified dermatology experts promoting these products. Why? Well, all the board-certified derms are too busy trying to help people recover from using beef tallow in their skincare routines.
Is beef tallow good for your skin? Should I use it?
When contacted for her expertise on this subject, Dr. Ploch informed me that she had seen several skin issues caused by beef tallow in her clinical practice, many of whom discovered the ingredient through social media.
“I've had several people come in for acne flares after using beef tallow,” says Dr. Ploch, adding that she would not recommend it for acne-prone skin and personally does not use it at all. So, why are people using it in the first place? “People are always looking for natural moisturizers, but our skin lipids are not the same composition as the lipids in beef tallow,” says Dr. Ploch. “Our skin lipids are ceramides, cholesterol, and free fatty acids; tallow is composed of fatty acids.”
Most creams, says Dr. Ploch, combine ingredients into formulas that moisturize your skin in different ways. Some moisturizers (hyaluronic acid, for instance) are humectants that draw and retain moisturizer into the skin, while others (like ceramide lipids) hydrate your skin as emollients. “Other moisturizers, like dimethicone and petrolatum, can create an occlusive barrier to block moisture from leaving the skin,” she explains. While tallow can provide emollient and occlusive properties, she warns that it can be pore-clogging and inappropriate for those with acne-prone skin.
For those debating or currently using beef tallow to treat their acne, Dr. Ploch’s recommends discontinuing its use immediately. Instead, she suggests turning to a gentle cleanser, mild chemical exfoliants, and a moisturizer formulated with the “correct composition of lipids for our natural skin (ceramides, cholesterol, and free fatty acids).”
By the way, if your curiosity about tallow in skincare stems from a desire to pursue more environmentally friendly and sustainable beauty practices, you may find yourself disappointed on that front, as well. Journalist Jessica Scott-Reid at Sentient closely examined the claims of influencers and marketers promoting tallow as ethical. “This tactic can be traced back to the meat industry,” writes Scott-Reid; it’s a philosophy that ignores the “substantial processing” all animal products must undergo to become usable, just like any other skincare ingredient. As is the case with many products guilty of greenwashing, the moral-sounding adjectives frequently splashed onto the labels of beef tallow products—eco-friendly, ethically sourced, et al—are largely unchecked.
“I don't think that people realize that most of our skincare products are derived from natural sources,” says Dr. Ploch, “but those natural sources are purified and distilled into their active ingredients, then those active ingredients are carefully measured into safe quantities to mix into skincare products.”
What to take away From beef-tallow TikTok
If you stay on TikTok long enough—or for any length of time at all, really—you may notice just how many “experts” are floating around on the platform. Mental health experts without psychology degrees or counseling accreditations, fitness experts with no experience in sports medicine or personal training, relationship experts whose only qualifications include their own dating history…you get the picture. At times, this is amusing (castor oil navel pulling, anyone?). It also speaks to the larger issue of most people’s lack of access to qualified medical professionals.
This is not to say that all TikTok reviews and recommendations are unfounded or dangerous. The platform can be an excellent resource for finding community and combating isolation, discovering tried-and-true budgeting advice from people who’ve been in a range of financial constraints, or unearthing unique gift ideas. Still, influencers who claim to possess authoritative knowledge and expertise in health-related topics can inflict unintentional harm on their audience. A little due diligence and caution can save you from, say, taking chemical peel advice from someone with next-to-zero dermatological knowledge whose only stake in the game may be their partnerships with peel-making sponsors.
“We have so many safe, proven ingredients in skincare products,” says Dr. Ploch. “There's no reason to experiment with our most important organ: our skin.” The lesson: If you want or need to take skincare advice from the internet, take it from board-certified individuals who won’t tell you to put rendered beef fat on your acne. Your skin will thank you. Derms will thank you. Even the cows will probably thank you.
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