That Pineapple Tallow Balm I Tried: My Skin Got Weirdly Happy

Okay so. My hands were a disaster last winter. Like, cracking and bleeding and just angry. I was using this expensive cream from a brand you see in airports, the one in the blue jar that costs like forty bucks. It smelled like a grandma’s perfume cabinet and did absolutely nothing. My skin just drank it and was still thirsty and sad five minutes later. I was so annoyed. Anyway, I kept seeing stuff about beef tallow balm online, specifically this Whipped Tallow Balm in Pineapple scent. I was skeptical. Beef fat? On my face? Sounded like a weird cooking experiment. But my regular moisturizer was failing me, and I was desperate. So I ordered a jar from this little Etsy shop that makes them in France. Figured I’d give it a shot.

How I Ended Up Putting Beef Fat on My Face

Look, I’m not a crunchy person. I buy most of my stuff at Target. But the whole natural vs commercial skincare thing was getting real for me because the commercial stuff just… stopped working? Or maybe it never did. That fancy cream just sat on top of my skin. It felt greasy but not moisturized, you know that feeling? Like putting plastic wrap on a dry sponge. So I started reading. Tallow, especially from grass-fed cows, is apparently really similar to the oils our own skin makes. Our sebum, or whatever. So the idea is it gets absorbed properly instead of just coating the surface. It made a weird kind of sense. My coffee was getting cold while I was reading all this. I think it was a Tuesday, maybe Wednesday. I just clicked buy.

The jar showed up a couple weeks later. It’s small. Cute. I opened it and poked it. The texture was… interesting. Not what I expected. It’s whipped, so it’s super light and fluffy, like cool buttercream frosting but not sticky. You scoop a tiny bit and it melts instantly from your finger heat. I put some on the back of my hand first. Smelled like pineapple. Not fake candy pineapple, but like, the actual fruit smell when you cut one open on a hot day. It was cheerful. I was worried it would be gross or smell like meat. It doesn’t. At all. It just smells like summer vacation. I rubbed it into my dry, cracked knuckles. It vanished. No greasy film. My skin just… ate it. And it felt softer. Not slippery-soft, but normal-soft. Like my skin used to feel. Huh.

What This Pineapple Tallow Stuff Actually Does

So the first night, I used it on my face. I was nervous. I have combination skin and I was sure I’d wake up with a shiny, clogged-up face. I used a tiny amount, warmed it between my fingers, and patted it on. It felt… fine. A little rich, but it sank in while I was brushing my teeth. Went to bed. Woke up. My face wasn’t an oil slick. It was just calm. My usual winter redness on my cheeks was quieter. My forehead, which gets dry and flaky, wasn’t flaky. It was just skin. I was shocked. I kept using it. Morning and night. Just that one product.

Here’s the weird part—the difference wasn’t dramatic overnight, but it was steady. After a week, the cracks on my hands were healing. Not just covered up, but actually closing. The skin around my nails stopped peeling. My elbows, which are always rough, felt smooth for the first time in maybe a decade. I don’t know how else to describe it. It just works. It’s not magic. It’s not a “glow” or a “radiance.” It’s just that my skin stopped freaking out. It decided to be normal skin again. I didn’t have to think about it. I’d get out of the shower, put the balm on, and forget about it. No waiting for it to absorb. No sticky phone screen. Nothing.

I told my sister about it. She has psoriasis on her elbows. I gave her my jar to try for a weekend. She texted me saying the itching calmed down. She ordered her own. I’m on my second jar now from that same Etsy maker. I use it for everything. Dry patches, my cuticles, even a little on the ends of my hair when they’re frizzy. It’s just a solid thing. It’s become my only moisturizer. I threw out the fancy blue jar. It’s sitting in my trash can right now. Feels good.

My Skin After a Few Weeks of This Stuff

So it’s been a couple months, I guess. Winter is still here, the air is still dry and awful. But my skin isn’t fighting me anymore. That’s the biggest thing. I don’t have a cabinet full of products I’m trying to layer. I have this one jar. It sits on my bedside table. The pineapple scent is just nice. It doesn’t linger all day, which I like. It’s just a little happy moment when I put it on. Reminds me of a poolside drink or something. A tropical escape in a little glass jar. Cheerful.

I don’t want to sound like an ad. I’m just some person typing this on my phone while my laundry is in the dryer. But I got genuinely frustrated spending money on things that promised results and did nothing. This thing promised nothing. It’s just whipped beef tallow and some essential oils for scent. And it fixed my winter skin. My fine lines around my eyes look… less angry? Not gone, I’m not twenty. But they’re not as deep. Probably because the skin is actually hydrated now, not just temporarily plumped with silicone. The tallow mimics our skin’s sebum so it absorbs deep. That’s the science, I guess. All I know is the result.

Would I buy it again? I already did. I’m waiting for the third jar to arrive. I got one for my mom too, for her winter-damaged hands. She called me confused (“This is from a cow?”) but then she called back a week later saying her knuckles didn’t hurt. That’s it. That’s the whole review. It’s simple. It works. I don’t know what else to say.

Quick Questions I Get Asked

Is beef tallow good for your face? Yeah, surprisingly. Because it’s so similar to the oils our skin already produces, it absorbs way better than a lot of plant oils or synthetic stuff. It doesn’t just sit on top. It feeds your skin what it actually recognizes. Sounds weird, works great.

Does tallow balm clog pores? Not in my experience. And I’m prone to clogged pores. It’s non-comedogenic, which means it shouldn’t clog them. It absorbs so completely that it doesn’t leave a pore-clogging residue behind. My skin has been clearer since switching, honestly.

What does the Pineapple tallow balm smell like? Like actual pineapple. Sweet and fruity but not in a fake, sugary way. It’s bright and cheerful. Smells like summer. The scent is pretty light and doesn’t stick around all day, which I prefer.

Anyway. If your skin is being difficult with regular store products, this might be worth a shot. I was super skeptical and now I’m just a person with a jar of whipped beef fat on my nightstand. And happy skin. That’s all I wanted.