Pineapple Tallow Balm: My Weird Winter Skin Fix

Okay so. My face was basically a desert. Like, flaky patches near my eyebrows, that tight feeling all the time, the whole thing. I was using this expensive cream from that fancy store in the mall, you know the one with the black and white packaging? It did nothing. Zero. Felt like I was just smearing expensive water on my face. Anyway, I was complaining about it to my friend Sarah over text and she was like “have you tried beef fat?” And I just stared at my phone. Beef fat. For my face. I thought she was messing with me. But she sent me a link to this Etsy shop with this whipped tallow balm, specifically the pineapple one. I was skeptical. Obviously. But my skin was so bad I was willing to try anything, even something that sounded like a cooking ingredient. So I ordered it. That was back in, I don't know, November maybe? When it first got cold.

It arrived in this little jar. I opened it and just looked at it. It looked like… whipped butter. But softer. The texture was weird. Not bad weird. Just not what you expect from skincare. I poked it. It was cold from the mailbox. Smelled like pineapple maybe? Or not. Something. Like a tropical candy but not sickly sweet. I was sitting at my kitchen table, my foot was asleep, and I just went for it. Scooped a little. Rubbed it between my fingers. It warmed up fast. Put it on my cheeks. Waited for the greasy feeling.

It never came.

That was the first weird thing. It just… went away. My skin drank it. I looked in the mirror expecting to be shiny. I wasn't. I just looked normal. But not tight. That was new.

How Beef Tallow for Skin Became a Thing (Apparently)

So after that first weirdly good experience, I fell down an internet hole. I had to know why this beef tallow skincare thing was happening. Turns out, it’s not new at all. My grandma, if I’d asked her, probably would have known about it. People have been using animal fats on their skin forever. Like, centuries forever. Lard, tallow, all that. It makes sense if you think about it. Before there were labs and chemical formulas, you used what you had. And tallow from grass-fed cows is stable, lasts a long time, and get this—it’s really similar to the oils our own skin makes. Our sebum. So it’s like giving your skin back something it already understands. It’s not a foreign substance it has to fight. The whole “natural skincare comeback” isn’t just about plants. It’s about this old-school, simple stuff that just… works. No twenty-ingredient list you need a chemistry degree to understand. Just one thing. Processed cleanly. Whipped up so it’s not like rubbing a candle on your face. That’s the history of tallow for skin in a nutshell, I guess. It was the original moisturizer. Then we forgot about it. Now we’re remembering.

My cat, by the way, is obsessed with the jar. He doesn’t try to eat it. He just sits and stares. I think he likes the smell.

What This Pineapple Tallow Balm Actually Does

Right. So what does it do. It’s not magic. But it fixed my specific winter problems. The flakiness around my eyebrows? Gone in like, three days. The tight, itchy feeling on my cheeks after I wash my face? Never happens now. I use it at night, right before bed. Sometimes in the morning if I’m feeling extra dry. I put it on my lips too when they’re chapped and it’s better than any lip balm I’ve bought from a store. It just… stays. It doesn’t evaporate.

The pineapple scent is cheerful. That’s the best word. It’s not a perfume-y pineapple. It’s like the idea of pineapple. A tropical escape in a jar, which is hilarious when it’s 30 degrees and sleeting outside. It makes the whole routine feel less like a chore and more like a little treat. A vacation for your face that takes ten seconds. I keep it on my nightstand. The jar is small, feels solid. Made in France, which I only know because it says so on the label. It feels like someone put care into it, not just pumped it out in a factory.

I told my mom about it. She was even more skeptical than me. “You put what on your face?” But her hands get so dry in winter they crack. I gave her a little scoop in a sample jar. She texted me a week later: “Okay fine. Where do I get it.”

My Skin After a Few Weeks of This Stuff

So it’s been a couple months now. I’m on my second jar. I didn’t run out fast, you use so little. But I wanted a backup. My skin just feels… calm. That’s it. It doesn’t look wildly different. I don’t have a “glow” or whatever they call it. It just doesn’t hurt anymore. It doesn’t feel stressed. It feels like skin is supposed to feel. Neutral. Healthy. Boring, even. And after years of it being difficult, boring is amazing.

I used it on my elbows too. They were always rough. Like sandpaper. I’d put lotion on but it never stuck. I started rubbing a tiny bit of the tallow balm on them after my shower. They’re smooth now. I don’t know when that happened. I just noticed it one day.

It’s the opposite of complicated skincare. There’s no ten-step routine. It’s one jar. For everything. Face, lips, elbows, knuckles. That’s the appeal, I think. In a world where everything is made to be more complex, this is aggressively simple. Beef fat, whipped, with a nice smell. That’s the product. And it works better than the $80 cream in the fancy jar that promised me the moon.

Would I Buy This Pineapple Tallow Balm Again?

Yeah. Obviously. I already did.

Look, if you’re curious about this whole traditional tallow skincare thing, this is a really good place to start. The whipped texture makes it easy to use, not intimidating. The pineapple scent makes it fun. And the results are… real. It’s not a miracle. It won’t change your life. But if your skin is dry, tight, angry, or just generally being a pain, it might fix that specific problem. It fixed mine.

I got mine from this little Etsy shop, Malti. The whole process was fine. It shipped fast. Came packaged nicely. No complaints. It just feels like a good, honest product. No flashy ads. No influencers. Just a thing that works.

Anyway. My skin’s happy. I’m happy. That’s all I wanted.

Quick Questions I Get Asked

Is beef tallow good for your face? Weirdly, yes. Because it’s so similar to the oils our skin already makes, it absorbs really well. It doesn’t just sit on top. It’s like giving your skin something it recognizes. My face definitely thinks it’s good.

Does tallow balm clog pores? I was worried about this. I have skin that can get clogged. But this hasn’t done that. It seems to sink in instead of blocking things up. It’s not greasy at all once you rub it in. For me, it’s been fine.

What does the pineapple tallow balm smell like? It smells like pineapple. But not fake. Not like a cleaner. It’s sweet and fruity but in a light way. It doesn’t stick around all day, just while you’re putting it on. It makes the whole thing feel less clinical. Cheerful, like I said.

So yeah. If your skin’s being difficult this winter, might be worth a shot. It’s just a little jar of whipped beef fat that smells like vacation. And it works.