Beef Tallow Skin Care Is a Hard Pass For Dermatologists

Over on TikTok and Instagram, people are using beef tallow as a facial moisturizer. But if you head to Target and browse the skin-care aisle, you likely won’t see it listed on the ingredients label of a moisturizer (yet, anyway). While beef tallow has non-food uses, it’s not an ingredient widely utilized in today’s conventional skin-care products.

Some people using beef tallow in their skin-care routines claim they get their supply directly from their local butcher shop, while others buy the pre-jarred renderings meant for cooking. Most of the beef tallow-infused skin-care products that you can find featured in TikTok videos appear to come from indie brands and consist of thick balms or moisturizers, sometimes formulated with other natural ingredients like honey, beeswax, and olive oil.

Should you use beef tallow on your skin?

Some do-it-yourself ingredient trends have a way of making you wonder (for a split second, anyway) if you’ve been wasting hundreds of dollars on conventional skin care for your entire life. But in regards to adding beef tallow to your skin-care line-up, experts recommend you use other moisturizing alternatives.

“There is still little clinical or scientific evidence that beef tallow is actually beneficial for use on skin or in skin care,” says Ava Shamban, MD. “There are countless products formulated for various skin types and conditions—all manufactured in high volume for standardization—[that] are studied and proven as better options than tallow.”

Dr. Gymrek echoes this point, noting she sees no “outstanding advantage applying tallow to the skin over commonly-used plant-based alternatives that provide similar benefits.” She prefers other plant-based alternatives (but more on that later).

So what about all of those beef tallow enthusiasts who swear it’s been their best moisturizer discovery yet? Heather Woolery-Lloyd, MD, a board-certified dermatologist, says that if someone is using beef tallow and is thrilled with the results, she has no problem with them continuing to use it, though she doesn’t actively recommend it to patients. “As a dermatologist, it wouldn’t be my first choice for someone with eczema or severely dry skin,” she says. “I think there are other options that are better tolerated,”

Can beef tallow help with acne breakouts?

Many of the beef tallow skin-care videos on social media revolve around the claim that beef tallow can help clear up acne breakouts, but all of the experts Allure spoke with warned against using it on acne-prone or oily skin. “It seems like bull,” says Dr. Shamban. “It’s not a replacement or functional alternative to a treatment ingredient.”