Lavender Tallow Balm: The Weird Thing That Fixed My Winter Skin

Okay so my face was just. Done. It was like, the third week of January maybe? The air was that dry cold that feels like it’s sucking the life out of you. My skin felt tight all the time. Like if I smiled too big it might crack. I tried that big blue tub of CeraVe everyone talks about. Nothing. Felt like I was just smearing water on. I even bought that La Roche-Posay Lipikar stuff from the pharmacy, the one that was like twenty bucks. Made my skin feel kinda greasy but still weirdly tight underneath. Like it was sitting there not doing anything. I was getting desperate. My knuckles were red. My cheeks were flaky. It was a whole thing.

Anyway I was scrolling on my phone late one night, half-watching some baking show, and I kept seeing stuff about tallow balm. Beef tallow. For your face. I was like, you have got to be kidding me. Rubbing cow fat on my skin? It sounded like something my great-grandmother would have done before they invented real lotion. But the comments. People were saying it worked. Like, actually worked for this exact dry skin nightmare I was having. I was skeptical. So skeptical. But my face hurt. So I figured, what’s the worst that could happen.

How I Ended Up Putting Beef Fat on My Face

Look, I didn’t wake up and decide to do this. It was a process. I read this one post from someone who said their kid’s eczema cleared up with tallow balm. Then I saw it was grass-fed, from France, whipped into this… cream thing. Not just a block of fat. The logic they said was that it’s similar to the oils our skin already makes. Our sebum or whatever. So it sinks in deep instead of sitting on top. That made a weird kind of sense. More sense than the fifteen synthetic ingredients in my old moisturizer that clearly weren’t talking to my skin.

I ordered the lavender one from this little Etsy shop. The Whipped Tallow Balm. I figured if I was gonna do this weird thing, the lavender might make it smell less like, you know, a kitchen. It was a Tuesday. I remember because the mail came late and my neighbor’s dog would not stop barking at the mail truck. The jar was small. Cute, actually. Kinda heavy glass.

I opened it. The texture was… not what I expected. It was thick but soft. Like cold butter that’s been whipped. You scoop a little with your finger and it melts from your body heat. I put a tiny bit on the back of my hand first. Just in case. It soaked in. Like, really soaked in. Didn’t leave a greasy film. Just made my skin feel… quiet. Not screaming for moisture. Huh.

What This Lavender Tallow Stuff Actually Does

So the first night I used it, I was just gonna do my cheeks. The driest parts. But I put a little on and it was so… not gross. It just vanished. So I did my whole face. And my hands. My poor, cracked knuckles. The smell is lavender but not like a cheap candle. It’s herby. Earthy. Calming. It’s not strong. You catch it when you put it on and then it’s just this soft scent. Perfect for before bed. I put it on and read for a bit and honestly, I slept like a rock. Could’ve been the lavender. Could’ve been the fact my face wasn’t itching.

Here’s the thing about natural skincare – sometimes it’s just a vibe and doesn’t work. This wasn’t that. Morning after, my skin wasn’t a desert. It felt normal. Not oily. Not dry. Just normal. I kept using it. Morning and night. After a shower when my skin is all parched. My bottle of fancy hyaluronic acid serum is just sitting there now. Collecting dust. This tallow balm for dry skin just… does the job.

I got a weird patch of what I think was perioral dermatitis near my mouth last year from some other “miracle” cream. It’s been calm since I started this. My fine lines? I mean, I’m not 20 anymore, but the ones on my forehead look less like canyons and more like… faint cracks in pavement after rain. Smoother. I use it on my lips too. Chapped lips in winter are the worst. Gone.

Oh, random tangent – using this stuff made me remember my grandma had this old tin of something called “bag balm” for cows’ udders that she’d use on her hands in winter. Maybe she was onto something with the animal fat thing. Maybe we overcomplicate everything now.

My Skin After a Few Weeks of This Stuff

I’m probably a month in now. My skin routine is a joke. It’s just: wash face, pat dry, scoop a little balm. That’s it. I don’t need three serums and a moisturizer and an oil. This one jar does it. My skin barrier or whatever people call it – it feels strong. The wind doesn’t make it sting. The heater doesn’t make it flake.

I used to have this red, sensitive patch on one cheekbone. Always. It’s just… gone. I didn’t even notice it leaving. I just looked in the mirror one day and thought, huh. That’s not red anymore. That’s the weirdest part. It didn’t feel like a dramatic transformation. It felt like my skin just slowly went back to being the skin I had before it freaked out. It’s just healthy. Not “glowing” in that weird Instagram way. Just… not problematic.

I told my sister about it. She has super sensitive skin, reacts to everything. She was horrified at first too. “You put what on your face?” But she tried mine and texted me a week later asking for the Etsy link. Now she uses it. My mom wants to try it for her hands. It’s just a simple thing that works. I’m on my second jar now. I keep the first one in my bag for my hands.

Would I Buy This Lavender Tallow Balm Again?

Yeah. Obviously. I already did.

It’s not magic. It’s not going to make you look 25 again. But if your skin is dry, or sensitive, or just pissed off at modern life and all the chemicals we throw at it… this might help. It’s a simple solution to a simple problem: skin needs oil. Sometimes the best oil is the one that looks most like the oil it’s supposed to make.

It’s winter as I’m writing this. My face is fine. My hands are fine. That’s kind of a miracle. I don’t know what else to say. It just works. I don’t have a ten-step routine anymore. I have a one-step routine. And it’s a jar of whipped cow fat from France. Life is weird.

Anyway. If you’re curious, it might be worth a shot. If your skin’s being difficult. I got mine from this Etsy shop that just makes this stuff. Simple packaging. No crazy claims. Just a good product.

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Quick Questions I Get Asked

Is beef tallow good for your face? Weirdly, yes. The science-y reason is that it’s really similar to the oils our own skin produces. So it gets absorbed deep instead of sitting on top like a lot of lotions. It’s like giving your skin back what the dry air and harsh products strip away.

Does tallow balm clog pores? I was worried about this too. But no, not for me. Because it absorbs so well, it doesn’t just clog stuff up. It’s non-comedogenic. My skin actually feels clearer since I started using it, probably because it’s not freaking out and overproducing oil anymore.

What does the lavender tallow balm smell like? It smells like real lavender. Not fake perfume lavender. It’s herby, a little earthy, and really calming. It’s not overpowering. You smell it when you put it on and then it fades to just a soft scent. Perfect for using at night.