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

Look. My skin is a disaster in winter. Like, a legit disaster. It’s not just dry. It’s tight, it’s flaky, it gets these angry red patches on my cheeks that feel like sandpaper. I’d wake up and my face would just… hurt. For years, I tried everything. The expensive stuff in the fancy jars from Sephora. The drugstore lotions that come in giant pumps. Those Korean skincare serums with ten steps. My bathroom cabinet looked like a pharmacy. Nothing worked. Or it worked for a day and then my skin just sucked all the moisture out and went back to being a desert. I was about to just give up and accept my fate as a human lizard. Then I saw someone talking about beef tallow balm on, I don’t know, Instagram maybe? And I thought, you have got to be kidding me. Putting beef fat on my face? That sounds like something my great-grandmother would have done. But I was desperate. And curious. So I ordered this Whipped Tallow Balm in Lavender from some little Etsy shop. I figured, worst case, I’m out thirty bucks and I have a weird story.

Here’s the thing. It worked. Like actually worked. I don’t know how else to say it.

How I Ended Up Putting Beef Tallow on My Face

Okay so my skin type. It’s complicated. It’s dry but also gets weirdly oily in my T-zone if I use the wrong thing. Sensitive. Redness-prone. A real joy. Last winter was brutal. I was using this cream that cost more than my electric bill. It smelled like roses and felt fancy. Did nothing. My hands were cracked, my face was peeling, it was a whole situation. I was complaining to my friend on the phone, staring at my sad reflection in the microwave door—it was like 9 PM, I was eating leftover pasta—and she goes, “My weird hippie aunt uses tallow. Like from cows.” I laughed. I actually laughed. But then I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I did some googling. Apparently, beef tallow from grass-fed cows is weirdly similar to the oils our own skin makes. Our sebum. So it absorbs deep instead of just sitting on top. People use it for eczema, for chapped lips, for fine lines. It’s just… fat. Whipped up into a balm. This specific one is made in France, from grass-fed beef suet. I read that and was like, okay, that sounds slightly less medieval. The lavender version was supposed to be calming. For sleep. My anxiety was also bad, so I thought, fine. Two birds. I ordered it. I didn’t tell anyone.

What This Lavender Tallow Balm Actually Does

The jar showed up. It was small. Cute, honestly. I opened it. The texture was… not what I expected. I thought it’d be greasy, like lard. It wasn’t. It was whipped, like cool whip but denser. 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. It felt… rich. But not heavy? I don’t know how to describe it. It soaked in. Like really soaked in. My skin just drank it. No greasy film. That was the first surprise.

The smell. It’s lavender, but not like a candle or a cheap soap. It’s herbal. Earthy. Like real lavender, the kind that grows somewhere sunny. Not sweet. It’s calming. I started using it at night. After I wash my face, I take a pea-sized amount, warm it between my fingers, and just press it into my skin. I don’t rub it in hard, just kind of pat and press. My face feels instantly soothed. The tightness just goes away. I put it on my lips too. And my cuticles. And those sandpaper elbows.

I want to be clear. This isn’t magic. It’s not an instant face-lift. But after about three days, I woke up and my skin didn’t hurt. The red patches on my cheeks were less angry. After a week, the flakiness was just… gone. My foundation, which usually looked cakey and terrible by noon, actually sat on my skin properly. I kept waiting for it to stop working. It didn’t.

My Skin After a Few Weeks of This Stuff

I’m probably a month in now. I’m on my second jar, actually. I keep one by my bed. My winter skin routine is stupid simple now. Wash face. Tallow balm. Done. Sometimes in the morning I’ll use a tiny bit if it’s really cold out. But mostly just at night.

The best tallow for dry, sensitive skin? For me, this is it. It’s a natural moisturizer that doesn’t play games. It doesn’t have twenty ingredients I can’t pronounce. It’s just tallow and lavender essential oil. That’s it. My skin barrier feels… repaired? Is that a thing? It just feels healthy. Not stressed. The lavender part is a bonus. I put it on, the smell fills the room for a minute, and I just… breathe. It’s become this little nighttime ritual. My brain goes, oh, tallow time, time to shut off. I fall asleep easier. I don’t know if that’s the lavender or just the habit, but I’ll take it.

I got one for my mom. She has eczema on her hands. She called me last week and said, “What is this witchcraft?” Her hands haven’t cracked this winter. She’s a believer now too.

Would I Buy This Tallow Balm Again?

Yeah. Obviously. I already did. Look, I’m not a skincare guru. I’m just a person whose skin used to hurt and now it doesn’t. I’m not saying it’s for everyone. If you have super oily skin, maybe it’s too much. I don’t know. But if you have dry skin, sensitive skin, skin that’s freaking out from the cold… this tallow balm for dry skin is worth trying. It sounds weird. It is weird. But sometimes the weird thing works.

I found mine on Etsy, from a shop that just makes this stuff. They’re not paying me to say this. I just like it. It’s one of the few things I’ve bought online that actually lived up to the hype. My skin is calm. I’m calm. It’s a whole thing.

Quick Questions I Get Asked

Is beef tallow good for your face? Yeah, it can be. It sounds gross, but the fat from grass-fed cows is really similar to the oils our own skin produces. So it absorbs deep instead of sitting on top and clogging stuff up. It’s like giving your skin back what the winter air steals from it.

Does tallow balm clog pores? Not for me, and I’m pretty prone to congestion. Because it’s so similar to our sebum, my skin seems to know what to do with it. It absorbs fully. It’s not like putting Vaseline on your face. It’s more like a super nutrient-dense food for your skin barrier.

What does the lavender tallow balm smell like? Like real lavender. Not perfume-y. It’s herbal, a little earthy, very calming. It’s not strong all night, just when you first put it on. It smells like… a field in Provence or something. I don’t know, I’ve never been to Provence. But it smells nice and natural.

Anyway. If your skin is being difficult this winter, and the usual stuff isn’t cutting it, maybe give a tallow balm a shot. It’s the best thing I’ve found for my dry, fussy face. I’m just gonna keep using it. My skin’s happy. That’s all I wanted.