There’s no easy way of saying this, so im just going to come out with it…
I make my own skin products and I’m currently using lard.
I know, you’re probably wondering how on earth it came to this?
Well i’ll tell you. It all started when I couldn’t be bothered to buy face cream anymore!
My mum had started buying expensive creams for me…you know, the ones I couldn’t afford…but I didn’t really understand what all the fuss was about and certainly couldn’t keep up the habit !
So I started buying cheap face creams, but then I became confused by all the ingredients… and the pots! The pots were so SMALL! Then I needed to buy body moisturiser, foot cream, hand cream, lip balm! I started to feel I was at the butt of a very expensive joke!
After a while, I started to hear the whisperings of a new crowd who were doing away with the mass produced creams and making their own…out of tallow balm!? A whole sector of society I had never known about were buying and selling tallow face and body cream (and making a fortune). Initailly, I admit, I had to look up what ‘tallow’ actually was and discovered it was simply good old beef dripping! I don’t know about you, but beef dripping always threw up visions of gravy to me, but it turns out it can be purified into a pre white fat. I went to the supermarket to see if I’d been overlooking ‘tallow’ or beef dripping in the dairy aisle, but found it scarce and certainly not as common place as other fats. I did eventually find beef dripping (minus the gravy) in the local butchers, so bought some, melted it down, added some essential oils, let it cool a bit, whipped it with an electric whisk and put it into a pot. Voila. From what I can remember it was good, but a little hard as a cream. I tried again, adding half coconut oil, but it still wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.
Creating my own ‘tallow balm’ gave me an element of confidence to branch out and after some more research, I found that people also make face cream out of lard. By this time i was completely invested in the whole ‘animal fat face cream’ so tried out the lard too. Following the same method, i melted the lard, added essential oils, cooled slightly, whipped and jarred again, this time creating a much softer cream/balm. Due to its neutral scent, the lard absorbed the essential oils brilliantly and since then it’s just been my favourite skin product!
If you research the properties of lard, it is found to have a cellular and Ph makeup very close to that of human skin. It consists of both saturated and monounsaturated fats, collegan type proteins and vitamin D, E and A.
https://www.yorkieacresfarm.com/this-little-piggy-the-magic-of-lard-for-skincare
When it comes to adding essential oils, it’s important to do your own research (don’t go putting oregano or thyme oil on your skin or you’ll know about it!). Do a tester to check you have no allergies. Just for reference, I use Frankesense and Lavender.
It is also worth noting that this face cream does not have SPF qualities, so if you are concerned about this, you may just want to use these products for night time or on areas not exposed to the sun for prolonged periods of time.
