There is something quietly lovely about a face balm you made yourself: three ingredients, a warm kitchen, and skin that drinks it in the very same night. You can absolutely do it, and the real recipe is below — grass-fed tallow, a little jojoba, gently whipped until it is pale and soft as buttercream. What most people discover after a batch or two is that the recipe is the easy part. It is the graininess, the faint beefy note and the not-knowing-how-long-it-keeps that send them back to a finished jar. Here is how to make it properly at home, and how to skip straight to the result if you would rather have the soft skin without the two-day project.
Or skip straight to the good part
Tallow + Jojoba Minimalist Butter
The same two ingredients you would use at home — grass-fed Belgian tallow and jojoba — cold-rendered until it is truly odour-free, whipped smooth, and safety-assessed under EU law. It melts in like a second skin, and one jar replaces the shelf. €28,90.
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I made mine at home first. I read about tallow, was fascinated, walked straight to a butcher, bought a piece of fat and rendered it myself. It took two days before my ossenvet turned white and pure. The first time I used it I could not believe how soft my skin became — instantly. It still had a faint steak smell back then, and a few drops of essential oil covered that beautifully. Everything Nana Latta is today started in that pan. — Laura, founder
The three-ingredient tallow face balm (the real recipe)
This is the recipe we would give a friend. It makes roughly a 120 ml jar, takes about forty minutes of actual work, and produces a genuinely lovely balm — soft, spreadable, and rich enough to use on face, lips and dry hands. Everything hinges on the quality of your tallow, so start there: grass-fed, cleanly rendered, and as close to odourless as you can find.
Makes about 120 ml
Whipped tallow + jojoba face balm
You will need
- 100 g grass-fed beef tallow, cleanly rendered
- 20–25 ml jojoba oil (olive oil works, but jojoba is closest to skin’s own sebum)
- Optional: 4–6 drops of a gentle essential oil such as lavender — no more
- A heatproof bowl, a small saucepan, an electric hand mixer, and a glass jar that is sterilised and bone dry
Method
- Melt gently. Set the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and melt the tallow until it is just liquid — around 45–50°C. Do not let it get hot enough to smoke or brown; heat is what makes a balm smell.
- Stir in the jojoba off the heat, and let the mixture cool until it turns cloudy and starts to set at the edges. Twenty to thirty minutes in the fridge does it. Rushing this step is the single most common mistake.
- Whip. Beat with the hand mixer for three to five minutes, until it is pale, glossy and roughly doubled — it should look like whipped icing and hold a soft peak.
- Add essential oil last, once the balm is cool, and beat for a few seconds more so it disperses evenly.
- Spoon into the dry jar, press out air pockets, and keep it somewhere cool and dark — never a sunny bathroom windowsill.
Use a rice-grain amount on slightly damp skin and press it in rather than rubbing. If it feels heavy, you are using too much; tallow goes remarkably far. For a full walk-through of rendering and a body-butter variation, our older recipe post How to Make Your Own Tallow Balm covers the process step by step.
Rendering your own tallow: the part nobody warns you about
If you want to go all the way back to the butcher, here is the honest version. You ask for suet — the hard fat from around the kidneys, which renders cleanest — cut it small or mince it, and melt it low and slow for hours, then strain it through muslin. Repeat that a second time with a little water to purify it further. Done well, the result is a firm, white, almost scentless block. Done in a hurry, it stays cream-coloured and smells faintly of Sunday roast forever, because scorched proteins and oxidised fat cannot be un-smelled.
That is genuinely satisfying work, and we will never tell anyone not to try it. But it is also where the two most common home problems begin: the smell, and the shelf life. Both are questions of purity, and purity is a function of temperature control, filtration and time — the three things a home kitchen is worst at. The tallow in every Nana Latta jar is cold-rendered by a Belgian family company that has been doing it the natural way for more than two hundred years, which is why our unscented Minimalist Butter genuinely smells of nothing at all.
Why tallow, and not another fat?
Because your skin recognises it. Tallow is unusually close in make-up to the lipids skin makes for itself, and that biocompatibility is the whole reason a simple balm outperforms far more complicated products: skin drinks it in and calms down instead of fighting it. It also carries the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K naturally, and it seals in water rather than briefly adding some, which is exactly what dry, tight, over-treated skin has been missing. We have written up the full evidence — including where the science is strong and where it is genuinely thin — in Ancestral Wisdom Meets Science.
It is also why the recipe above is so short. There is no need for a serum underneath, an oil on top or a ten-step ritual around it. Feed skin a fat it already knows, consistently, and it starts behaving like calm, healthy skin. That is the promise — and it is also the reason a homemade jar can work beautifully, as long as you get the details right.
Five things that go wrong at home (and why most people switch back)
We hear these five in almost the same order, every time.
1. It goes grainy
You whip a cloud of silk, and three weeks later it is faintly sandy. This is not spoilage, it is crystal physics: beef tallow contains high-melting fats that slowly migrate, aggregate and convert into the stable beta polymorph, forming grains large enough for skin to feel. Researchers put the sensory detection threshold at roughly 40–90 micrometres (graininess in beef tallow, J Agric Food Chem), and — crucially — showed that temperature cycling speeds the whole process up dramatically compared with steady storage (granular crystal formation, J Agric Food Chem). A jar that goes from a warm bathroom to a cool night and back again is being cycled every single day. Cool your batch fast, store it steadily below about 20°C, and you will delay it — but at home you cannot really beat it.
2. It smells of dinner
Faint beefiness is the number-one reason home batches get abandoned, and it is almost always under-purification or overheating during rendering. Essential oils mask it for a while, then fade and leave the base note behind. There is no home fix once it is in there.
3. It turns rancid sooner than expected
Fats oxidise, and warmth and light are the accelerators — light in particular drives photo-oxidation and the formation of reactive oxygen species, which is why industry uses UV-blocking packaging and cold storage to extend the life of animal fats (review of lipid oxidation, Antioxidants / PMC). At home you have no peroxide-value test, so the first sign is usually a sharp crayon-like smell months in. Small batches, dark glass, cool storage.
4. The moment you add water, you have a microbiology problem
A pure fat balm is anhydrous, which is genuinely forgiving. But the recipes that tempt people next — a splash of aloe, a spoon of honey, rosewater, a fresh herbal infusion — introduce water, and water grows things. A national pilot study of cosmetics made on the spot found that transferring product between containers during preparation was a significant cross-contamination risk, and that heat treatment mattered for keeping microbial counts down (customised cosmetics contamination, Sci Rep 2020). Contaminated product usually looks, smells and feels completely normal (microbiological study of used cosmetics, PubMed). If a recipe contains water and no proper preservative system, it is not a keeper — it is a two-week fridge product.
5. The essential oils are added by eye
We love a well-chosen essential oil; our Family Daisy and Fancy Rose both use botanicals. The difference is that ours are weighed to a safe percentage and signed off by a safety assessor. Free-poured at home, they are a leading cause of allergic contact dermatitis from consumer products — a French dermato-allergology study identified a clear series of culprits, with lavender and tea tree among the most frequent sensitisers (essential oil contact dermatitis, Contact Dermatitis 2023), and reviews of patch-test data show several oils exceeding 2% positive reactions (Essential Oils, Part IV: Contact Allergy). Natural does not mean inert. Keep it to well under 1% of the total, or leave it out.
Homemade versus small-batch made: an honest comparison
Both are good things to do. They are just good at different things.
| Made in your kitchen | Made in a Belgian small-batch studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per jar | Low, once you own the equipment | Higher — you are buying the process, not just the fat |
| Scent | Often a faint beefy base note | Genuinely odour-free, cold-rendered |
| Texture over time | Grains within weeks in a fluctuating room | Formulated and cooled to stay smooth |
| Shelf life | Unknown — no testing available at home | Established and stated on the jar |
| Safety assessment | None | Required by EU Regulation 1223/2009: a safety report, product file and notification before sale |
| Best for | Curiosity, gifts, learning what tallow does | The jar you actually reach for every night |
That last row is the honest summary of this whole article. Making it once teaches you something no product page can. Buying it is what most people do afterwards, because they wanted soft skin, not a hobby.
Ready when you are
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Claim 10% off“You only need just a tiny bit to hydrate your whole face. I love the clean ingredients on all Nana Latta products!!”
Eni · review via Judge.me
We love our international clients 🌍
Reading from the US or Canada? We ship worldwide from Belgium — prices show in your own currency and shipping is calculated at checkout, with free shipping available. Every jar is handmade under EU cosmetic law, which bans more than 1,600 ingredients still permitted in the US, and every formula carries a signed safety assessment before it is allowed on a shelf. That is the paperwork a kitchen batch simply cannot produce.
Which route suits your skin?
Dry & flaky
The most forgiving skin for a homemade batch — richness covers a multitude of sins. For consistency night after night, the unscented Minimalist Butter on damp skin is the reliable version.
Oily & combination
Ratios matter here: too much tallow and too little jojoba feels heavy. Get the jojoba proportion right and skin stays balanced without midday shine — that balance is exactly what our two-ingredient jar is built around.
Sensitive & reactive
Skip the essential oils entirely. Fragrance, natural or not, is the most common trigger — an unscented, two-ingredient balm gives reactive skin nothing to argue with.
Acne-prone
Purity and freshness matter more than anywhere else, since oxidised fat is the part that irritates. Read our honest guide to tallow and acne before you experiment.
Mature skin
Older skin makes fewer of its own lipids, so a rich balm is a genuine upgrade. If you want bakuchiol alongside it, Fancy Rose does the work at a dose that has been safety-assessed.
The whole family
Little faces deserve the shortest list of all. Family Daisy is a gentle face cream with chamomile and raspberry, made for dry, sensitive skin from age three.
The jars people reach for
Made the way you would make it — only better
Same short ingredient lists, cold-rendered Belgian grass-fed tallow, whipped by hand in small batches. No rendering pan required.
Minimalist Butter · €28,90
Two ingredients, unscented, award-winning. The recipe above, done properly.
Shop now
Family Daisy · €36,90
Chamomile and raspberry face cream for dry, sensitive skin, from age three.
Shop now
Face Trio · €98,90
Three bestselling face butters together — the easiest way to find your one.
Shop nowFrequently asked questions
How do you make a tallow face balm at home?
Melt 100 g of cleanly rendered grass-fed tallow over a water bath until just liquid, stir in 20–25 ml of jojoba oil off the heat, chill until it turns cloudy and begins to set, then whip with an electric mixer for three to five minutes until pale and fluffy. Add up to six drops of a gentle essential oil at the end if you wish, and spoon it into a sterilised, completely dry glass jar. Store it cool and dark.
Why did my homemade tallow balm go grainy?
Because the high-melting fats in tallow slowly migrate and recrystallise into the stable beta form, creating grains your skin can feel. Temperature swings speed it up sharply, so a jar that sits in a warm bathroom and cools overnight will go grainy fastest. Cooling the batch quickly and storing it steadily below about 20°C delays it, but home conditions rarely prevent it entirely.
Why does my homemade balm smell of beef?
Almost always under-purified or overheated tallow. Suet rendered low and slow, strained twice through muslin and never allowed to brown gives a firm white block with almost no scent. Once scorched or oxidised notes are in the fat, essential oils only mask them temporarily. Commercially cold-rendered tallow is genuinely odour-free.
How long does homemade tallow balm last?
Nobody at home can say precisely, which is the real issue. A pure, anhydrous, well-rendered balm kept cool and dark commonly stays good for six to twelve months, but there is no way to measure oxidation in a kitchen. Make small batches, use dark glass, keep it away from heat and light, and discard it if it smells sharp or waxy.
Can I add aloe, honey or rosewater to a tallow balm?
Not without a proper preservative system. Any water-containing ingredient turns an anhydrous balm into a medium where bacteria, yeast and mould can grow, and contaminated product usually looks and smells perfectly normal. If you do make a water-containing recipe, treat it as a fridge product to be used within a couple of weeks.
Is it cheaper to make your own tallow balm?
Per jar, yes, once you already own a mixer and jars. What you are paying for in a finished product is not the fat but the process: cold-rendering to true odourlessness, tested stability, a stated shelf life and a legally required safety assessment under EU Regulation 1223/2009. Most people make one batch, learn a great deal, and then buy the jar they actually use every night.
Is homemade tallow balm safe for babies?
A pure, fragrance-free tallow balm is very gentle, but home batches carry avoidable risks — unknown purity, no shelf-life testing and no safety assessment. For the very youngest skin we would use a product that has been formally assessed, such as our unscented Minimalist Butter or the unscented Soap Bar.
Related reads
- How to Make Your Own Tallow Balm — the full rendering and body-butter walk-through
- Ancestral Wisdom Meets Science: Everything We Know About Tallow
- Waterless Skincare Is the Future — And Tallow Makes It Extraordinary
- Tallow Skincare: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide (2026)
Laura, founder of Nana Latta
Formula Botanica-trained skincare formulator and health coach, founder of Belgium’s first tallow skincare brand — grass-fed tallow, made by hand in small batches.
