What is Tallow?

As the signature ingredient included in all of my hand-crafted soaps, I have had many people ask me, "Just what IS tallow?" So this page is here to help answer that question.

Tallow is an odorless, tasteless white colored fat that is rendered and further clarified from beef, sheep, and even deer! The tallow that is used to make our soaps here at Handy Heidi's Creations, LLC comes from grass-fed beef.

Historically, cultures all over the world appreciated the nourishing properties of tallow. When used in bar soaps, tallow provides a light, creamy lather and helps to clean the skin without stripping moisture. It was used as a primary ingredient to make a wide variety of skincare products, such as soap until the development of synthetic (artificial man-made) surfactants and detergents took the lead in commercial soap manufacturing.

Tallow naturally has high levels of  vitamins A, D, E and K, as well as antioxidants and essential fatty acids, including CLA. Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) is an essential fatty acid that is responsible for the free flowing of moisture in and out of our cells. When we don't have enough of it, our skin can simply not stay hydrated regardless of how much water we drink or how many moisturizers we apply.

Tallow consists mainly of glyceryl esters of oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids which gives it the ability to closely match and work with our skin's own natural oils. In fact, with a molecular structure so similar to skin, 'tallow' even translates to sebum in Latin! It ranks very low on the comedogenic scale, meaning that it works with your sebaceous glands to lock in moisture for your skin without clogging your pores. So closely resembling our own skin's moisture system, tallow is commonly known to be gentle enough to use even with sensitive skin.

With so many wonderful features, we were really drawn to the idea of

"Going Back To Our Roots" and utilizing tallow to create our hand-crafted soaps!