Rubbing beef fat on your face is one of the newest techniques skin care trends.
Beef tallow is currently trending on social media as an alternative to traditional skin care products.
The balms with simple ingredients are made from the fat around the kidneys of cows and processed into a butter that can be used as a moisturizer.
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While many may turn their nose up at using an animal product on the face, natural skin care company Hearth and Homestead in Virginia sold its sebum balm product at Black Friday.
Lily Wilmoth, the company’s founder and president, spoke to Fox News Digital in an on-camera interview about the skyrocketing demand for beef tallow.
Hearth and Homestead founder Lily Wilmoth is pictured with her husband and five children. “The biggest product for us has always been our sebum-based skincare products,” she told Fox News Digital. (Hearth and farm)
“It’s bigger than ever,” she said. “The biggest product for us has always been our sebum-based skincare products.”
How is beef tallow made?
Wilmoth revealed that her sebum balm is made from 100% grass-fed beef tallowor the fat that coats a cow’s kidneys, which comes from farms across the country.
The fat is harvested, ground to a buttery consistency and mixed with an herb-infused olive oil before being melted, whipped, cooled and placed in a jar, she said.
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“It’s not the back fat or other types of fat that you find on your steak,” Wilmoth said. “It’s a very specific fat… our ancestors recognized that this fat was special.”
“It contains more nutrients than any other fat in the animal,” she continued. “It is very creamy and white in texture. It has no strange smell or taste.”
According to Wilmoth, nutrients, including vitamins D and A, are stored in this specific fat.
Potential benefits for the skin
“Our skin is an organ,” Wilmoth said. “That’s why it’s so important that everything we put on our skin is something we think about carefully.”
Some moisturizers on the market have a ‘long list of complex ingredients, preservatives, emulsifiers… fragrances and dyes’, which can cause skin conditions such as eczema and acneshe warned.
Sebum balm is recommended as a moisturizer at the end of a skin care routine, after washing with a simple, all-natural soap. (Hearth and farm)
“Algae balm, which is oil-based, does not require preservatives because it does not contain water,” she said. “It won’t disrupt the natural skin barrier.”
Although sebum balm “no healing agent“and every person’s skin will respond differently to it,” Wilmoth noted that many customers say it helps with conditions like acne and psoriasis.
“It has a greater amount of nutrients than any other fat in the animal.”
Dr. Brendan Camp, a New York-based dermatologist, agreed that beef tallow is “generally well tolerated” by most skin types.
He confirmed that beef tallow acts as a moisturizer to help “retain water in the skin” and leave it feeling “smooth and soft”.
For those skeptics who might think using oil on the face can clog pores, one expert noted that the fatty acid profile of sebum is “similar to the composition of our own skin.” (Hearth and farm)
“As an emollient, beef tallow fills in cracks and crevices in the skin that contribute to rough texture,” he told Fox News Digital.
Beef tallow also contains omega-3 fatty acids and several vitamins, Camp noted, which help maintain the health of the skin barrier and protect it from “oxidative stress.”
Not ideal for everyone
Wilmoth admitted that she “can’t guarantee that every person will see great results with sebum,” because every person’s microbiome is different.
“Depending on your specific situation skin typeYou may find that something else works better for you,” she said.
People with oily skin may find beef fat products “too heavy or greasy,” Camp warned.
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“If you have sensitive skin, consider doing a patch test on the inside of your arm before using it more liberally on the skin,” he recommended.
For those who choose not to use beef tallow, Camp suggested trying other basic moisturizers that are free of fragrances and dyes and contain moisturizing ingredients such as ceramides, glycerin, hyaluronic acid and squalane.
One dermatologist warned that beef tallow can cause inflammation in some people. (iStock)
He noticed that too, as most did over-the-counter supplementsBeef tallow products are not regulated by the FDA.
In a video posted to Instagram and shared with Fox News Digital, Dr. Tiina Meder – a cosmetic safety expert, dermatologist and founder of Meder Beauty in London – questions the hype surrounding sebum balm.
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Meder, who grew up in Estonia in the 1970s, said her mother applied beef fat to her face and hands in the cold winters because there were no other options.
“It was the only thing that protected children’s faces and hands from cold burns,” she said.
One expert warned that some of the lipids found in beef tallow could be pro-inflammatory for people and “sensitize the skin.” (iStock)
But Meder wondered why people would choose not to use the variety of creams and moisturizers available today that are “better than beef tallow.”
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“Beef fat is not bioidentical,” she said. “Beef fat lipids have little in common with lipids from human skin.”
“Depending on your specific skin type, you may find that something else works better for you.”
Linoleic acid, which is found in the human sebaceous glands, is particularly essential for skin healthMeder noted, because it is an anti-inflammatory antioxidant and also promotes viscosity – but beef tallow contains none.
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Meder added that other lipids found in beef tallow may be pro-inflammatory for humans and “sensitize the skin.”
“It’s just not right to apply beef tallow to the skin when you have such a huge choice,” she said.
