Before and after beef tallow, the first change is feel, not looks. By day two to seven most people notice less tightness, less flake, and skin that stays comfortable past noon. The look of fine lines, tone and marks takes weeks, eight to twelve of them, and some things never change at all: pore size, deep wrinkles, and any skin condition a provider is managing.
I sell tallow balm, and we don't shoot before-and-after photos of our own. Every face differs, so a stranger's pair can't tell you what yours will do, and most of the pairs online show a change in the light, the lens or the hour before they show a change in the skin. What I can give you is the week-by-week table below, jar by jar, drawn from a lot of jars going out the door and a lot of skin coming back with opinions, plus a way to photograph yourself so you'll know what changed and what was the lighting.
If the change you're after is the look of fine lines, the jar is Velvet Face Renewal ($89), a true 1% bakuchiol on a tallow base, and the fair test is twelve weeks. If it's dryness, flake and a barrier that stings, Bare Silk ($34) is the jar most people feel inside a week.
Reviewed October 13, 2026.
Week-by-week expectations, jar by jar
This is the table I'd want before buying. "Most people notice" is the strongest phrase in it on purpose. Skin is personal, and yours keeps its own pace.
| Jar | Weeks 1 to 2 | Weeks 3 to 6 | Weeks 8 to 12 | What won't change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bare Silk ($34) | Less tightness and flake; comfort past noon; no sting on a raw cheek | Skin that reacts less to weather and washing; fewer midday reapplications | Steady. That's the job; it's a maintenance jar | Pore size; any named skin condition |
| Honey Glow ($42) | The look of dryness lifts on cheeks and hands; less reapplying | Barrier-stressed patches settle; knuckles and shins hold moisture overnight | Hands and shins that stay comfortable through a dry season | Deep lines; pore size |
| Moonlight Calm ($69) | Calmer-feeling skin after the last step at night; no water sting | A calmer-looking complexion in the same morning light | A quieter-looking baseline, trigger days aside | Rosacea itself, and its triggers |
| Velvet Face Renewal ($89) | Plumper-looking surface; smoother feel; no retinoid in it, so no retinoid scaling | The look of fine lines softens; the look of dullness lifts (Alison's week-6 forehead) | A more even-looking tone; forehead and eye lines look softer in the same light | Etched wrinkles at rest; pore size |
| Recovery Balm ($74) | Softer skin over marks, elbows and heels | Newer marks look closer in color to the skin around them | Older marks look less shiny and closer to surrounding skin; hard-worn spots stay soft | The structure of a mark; the texture of silver marks |
If you're still choosing a jar, the tallow balm comparison page lines up twelve brands by what their own pages print, and the jar-by-jar reads against Primally Pure, Toups and Co and Amallow say what each jar does well before they say where ours differs.
What does beef tallow for wrinkles look like before and after?
Before and after beef tallow, the look of fine lines softens within a couple of weeks, because a dense balm pressed onto damp skin holds water at the surface and a hydrated surface reads smoother. Plain tallow doesn't change collagen, so a deep wrinkle that stays when your face is at rest looks much the same at week twelve as it did at week one.
The bigger change in the look of wrinkles takes eight to twelve weeks and needs an active, which is why Velvet Face Renewal ($89) carries a true 1% bakuchiol on a tallow base, twice the 0.5% used in the twelve-week trial against retinol. Does beef tallow help with wrinkles? gives the long answer, study by study.
Here is a pair that passes the photo rules further down this page. Alison Harris, a verified Velvet reviewer, used it morning and night and took her own weekly photos in the same room; her before and week-six pair is below, posted with her review, and the forehead detail from the same two photos follows it. The change she wrote about is the look of the lines across her forehead. What most people get at six weeks is the look of fine lines softening on a hydrated surface; the deeper lines keep the twelve-week clock, and some never move.
What changes in the first week?
Feel. Tallow works on two of the three jobs a moisturizer can do: occlusives slow evaporation from the surface and emollients slot into the stratum corneum to smooth it, while humectants, the third job, pull water up from below. Its semi-solid fractions set into a thin film and its fluid fractions fill the gaps between surface cells, so the change you'll notice first is that the hour-three tightness stops showing up. Flake on the cheeks and around the nose reads smoother to a fingertip by day two or three. Shins stop itching at night.
The look of dryness follows the feel. Ashy elbows and knuckles, the gray cast on winter shins, the crepey look of a dehydrated cheek: those are surface water and surface light, and they change as soon as the surface is smooth and holding water. It's the fastest before-and-after there is, and it's the tallow doing it, not an active. The mechanism is in the complete guide to beef tallow for skin.
Two cautions. Pressed onto dry skin, tallow seals dryness in, so damp skin is the whole method, and it isn't just our rule: dermatologists say to moisturize while skin is still damp after a shower or bath. And if a jar makes you break out or itch inside the first week, that's your answer, not a phase to push through. Tallow carries no exfoliating acid and no retinoid, so there's no "purge" to wait out.
What changes by week 6?
The look of fine lines, if the jar carries an active for them. Plain tallow softens the look of lines by holding water at the surface, and that shows within a couple of weeks, but it doesn't change collagen. Bakuchiol is the studied active for the look of wrinkles: in a 12-week trial in 44 patients, 0.5% bakuchiol twice daily and 0.5% retinol once daily both significantly reduced wrinkle surface area and hyperpigmentation with no statistical difference between them, and the retinol group reported more facial scaling and stinging (Dhaliwal and colleagues, British Journal of Dermatology, 2019). Velvet is formulated at 1%, twice the trial dose, and the full read on that trial is here.
At six weeks, a verified reviewer, Alison Harris, wrote of Velvet: "There is a visibly noticeable difference, especially on the wrinkles on my forehead." Her before and week-6 forehead photos sit on the Velvet page, same light, no filter, which is the only kind of before-and-after I'll put my name near. Tone moves on the same clock. The look of dullness lifts first, then the look of unevenness, as oil-soluble vitamin C and rosehip CO2 work through one turnover cycle after another.
Why six weeks and not six days? Skin renews from the bottom up. A new cell takes about 47 to 48 days to travel from where it forms to the surface (Iizuka, 1994), so anything that changes the look of the surface by changing what arrives there needs at least one full cycle to show. That's also why the 60-Day Skin Test runs sixty days and not fourteen, and why the trials that impress dermatologists run eight to twelve weeks.
What takes 8 to 12 weeks?
The look of marks. Stretch marks and scars are structural, and no balm changes the structure. What a balm carrying rosehip, sea buckthorn, tamanu and helichrysum can do is keep the skin over a mark soft and well-fed, so the mark reads closer to the surrounding skin in color and sheen. Newer marks, still pink or purple, change in look sooner. Silver marks with years on them change least. Julianna, a verified reviewer of Recovery, described a scar looking like regular skin instead of red scar skin after a few weeks, and that's the shape of it: color and sheen first, texture last if at all.
The look of deeper lines moves last. Twelve weeks is the length of the bakuchiol trial for a reason, and it's the point I'd take the final photo. Tallow for stretch marks and scars has the same-light protocol for marks, and tallow for wrinkles has the week-by-week for the face.
What does beef tallow for scars and stretch marks look like before and after?
Before and after beef tallow, the look of scars and stretch marks changes in color and sheen first and in texture last, if at all, over eight to twelve weeks of a daily balm worked in. Newer pink or purple marks change in look sooner than silver ones with years on them.
A balm doesn't change the structure of a mark. Recovery Balm ($74) sets helichrysum, rosehip CO2, sea buckthorn and tamanu in grass-fed suet tallow for the look of scars and stretch marks, on intact skin only: after any procedure, wait until the skin has closed and settled and your provider has cleared a balm. Tallow for stretch marks and scars has the week-by-week.
What a balm doesn't change: a keloid, a raised scar, a pitted scar from old breakouts, or the color of a mark that has sat for years. Work a pea in for a minute once or twice a day, on closed skin only, and put sunscreen over any mark you're watching, because a mark in the sun darkens faster than the skin around it.
What does beef tallow on the face look like before and after?
On the face, the first change from beef tallow is how your skin feels, and it's there inside two to seven days. The look of fine lines and tone moves over eight to twelve weeks, and most of that change needs an active in the jar.
A pea of balm covers a whole face, and on damp skin it holds water at the surface. So a fair photo at week two shows the look of dryness and flake gone, on a surface that reads smoother. Weeks six to twelve are where an active shows, in the look of tone and fine lines. That's the job of Velvet Face Renewal ($89), with a true 1% bakuchiol.
No photo will show pore size changing, or a deep wrinkle that's there with your face at rest. If you're still deciding, is tallow good for your face answers the five objections, and the best tallow balm for face matches a jar to your skin.
What does beef tallow under the eyes look like before and after?
Under the eyes, the before and after comes fastest, because the skin around your eyes is the thinnest on your face. It's the first place to show dryness and the first to soften, and half a grain of rice covers both eyes. Keep it off the lash line and out of the eye.
Inside two weeks, the look of fine dry lines there softens, since a hydrated surface reads smoother in the same light. Dark circles don't budge, because they come from vessels or pigment. Neither does morning puffiness, which is fluid under the skin that no balm drains. Our post on tallow around the eyes covers the smaller dose and what a balm won't do for bags.
What doesn't change?
Pore size stays put. Pores are set by genetics and by the size of the oil gland under them, and no moisturizer changes either. A smooth, well-fed surface can make pores look less obvious in soft light, and that's the whole of it.
Deep, etched wrinkles. Lines that stay when your face is at rest are folds in the dermis. A balm works on the surface above them: it can make that surface look plumper and catch light more evenly, and it can't fill a fold.
Any condition a provider is managing. Eczema, rosacea, psoriasis, acne: tallow is a moisturizer, and moisturizers sit in the supportive-care column of dermatology guidelines, not in place of the plan. It's cosmetic care, not a treatment. Your provider's plan comes first.
How do you take beef tallow before-and-after photos that tell the truth?
Same window, same time of day, same distance, no filter. Pick a window with indirect light (north-facing if you've got one), stand in the same spot at the same hour, and hold the phone at arm's length with the rear camera if you can manage it, since many front cameras smooth skin by default. Turn off any "beauty" mode. Shoot once a week on the same day, before you apply anything, with your face washed and dry for ten minutes.
Take three frames: front, left three-quarter, right three-quarter. Keep the same expression, at rest, no smile. Don't compare a morning photo to an evening one, or a January photo to a July one; tan, sunburn and puffiness show up as "results" in both directions. Label the files by week, and don't look at them again until week six. Judging week by week is like weighing yourself hourly.
What a fair set shows at twelve weeks with Velvet is a softer look to fine lines, a more even-looking tone, and skin that catches light more evenly. What it won't show is a different face. If the face changes, the lens or the light changed.
How to read other people's before-and-after photos
Light, lens, distance and the hour can change a face on camera more than a month of balm does. Overhead light digs shadows into every line, and soft light from the front fills them in. Hold a new phone, or the same one closer, and it's a different face. Makeup and filters read as results. So does a shower or a fresh layer of balm an hour before the shot, since a surface holding water looks plumper for a while.
The FTC's Endorsement Guides set the rules for a brand's testimonials. They have to reflect the person's real opinion and experience, and they can't carry a claim the brand couldn't legally make. A specific result is usually read as what you can expect, and a "results may vary" line doesn't change that. If the brand can't show the result is typical, it has to say what people generally get. A free jar or a payment behind the post has to be disclosed.
The only promise we make is the 60-Day Skin Test. Alison's Velvet pair is hers, posted with her review, not a photo we staged.
You'll learn more from your own two weeks than from anyone's pair. Feel and the look of dryness move first, so shoot day one and day fourteen with the setup above and note how your skin feels by mid-afternoon. The look of lines keeps its twelve-week clock.
Which jar for the change you want
For the look of fine lines and tone, Velvet Face Renewal ($89), twelve weeks, weekly photos. For the look of stretch marks, scars and hard-worn elbows and heels, Recovery Balm ($74), same timeline, newer marks sooner. For dryness, flake and a barrier that stings, Bare Silk ($34) if your skin reacts to everything, or Honey Glow ($42) if it drinks lotion and asks for more by noon. For skin that flushes, Moonlight Calm ($69) as the last step of the night. Every jar carries the 60-Day Skin Test: use it for up to sixty days, and if your skin disagrees, write to us and we refund the product price.
If you take one thing from this: start with Velvet Face Renewal ($89). Sixty days on your skin; if it disagrees, we refund it.
Questions we hear
How long does it take for beef tallow to work on skin?
Feel changes in two to seven days: less tightness, less flake, the look of dryness gone from hands and shins. The look of fine lines, tone and marks takes eight to twelve weeks, and the fair way to judge is a weekly photo in the same light, compared at week six and week twelve.
Can tallow make skin worse before it gets better?
There's no purge with tallow, because it carries no acid and no retinoid. If your skin breaks out or itches in the first week, that's a mismatch, not a phase; stop, and the 60-Day Skin Test covers the jar.
Will the results last if I stop using it?
The feel changes are maintenance, so dryness comes back on its own schedule once you stop. The look of lines and tone with Velvet holds as long as you keep using it; it's care, not a procedure.
Are the tallow before-and-after photos online real?
Some are. Check for the same light, the same distance, the same expression and no filter, and be suspicious of a tan, a sunburn or a lens change, since each one reads as a result. The Velvet page pair from Alison Harris is the standard I'd hold others to.
Can I use tallow with retinol or vitamin C?
Yes. Apply the water-based product first, let it dry, then press tallow onto re-dampened skin as the last step. Velvet already carries bakuchiol and oil-soluble vitamin C, so on Velvet nights I'd skip the extra actives.
Does the amount I use change the before and after?
Yes, and in the wrong direction if you overdo it. Too much on dry skin reads greasy, not glowing; a pea-size amount on damp skin is what every timeline in this post assumes.
Tallow balm reviews: what should you trust?
Trust the reviews that describe the jar: its texture and smell, and how it felt on damp skin over two weeks. A review that says a skin condition vanished is describing what a moisturizer does for dryness, or a coincidence. We send our own review request to buyers whether they're happy or not. If you write one for us, that's the review we're asking for, good or bad.
Are there beef tallow before-and-after photos for eczema, rosacea or acne?
Not from us. We don't publish customer photos of flares, and never photos of children. For eczema-prone and rosacea-prone skin, a fair photo can show a calmer surface with less visible flake. For blemish-prone skin, it shows whether a balm sat well. That's all a photo shows, since a balm is care between flares, not a treatment for the condition. Tallow for eczema-prone skin and tallow for rosacea-prone skin carry the long answers, photo rules included, and acne as a messenger covers breakouts that keep coming back.
Can beef tallow make a scar disappear?
No. Over eight to twelve weeks of a daily balm worked into closed skin, the look of a mark changes in color and sheen first, in texture last and sometimes not at all, and a keloid, a raised scar or a pitted one keeps its shape. Newer pink marks change in look sooner than silver ones with years on them. Recovery Balm ($74) is the jar built for the look of scars and stretch marks, and the provider who closed a procedure scar decides when a balm goes on it.
Go deeper
Start with the complete guide to beef tallow for skin for what the fat does and how to use it. Tallow for wrinkles sets the face timeline in more detail, tallow for stretch marks and scars does the same for marks, and bakuchiol vs retinol covers the trial behind the twelve-week number. If a jar arrives melted or goes grainy in week three, what's normal and the twenty-minute reset has the fix. What Reddit asks about beef tallow covers the questions people bring to the threads before they try it. How to read tallow balm reviews covers the FTC rule and five tells before you trust the stars.
Sources
- Rajkumar J et al. (2023). The Skin Barrier and Moisturization: Function, Disruption, and Mechanisms of Repair. Skin Pharmacology and Physiology 36:174-185.
- American Academy of Dermatology Association. Dermatologists' top tips for relieving dry skin. AAD.
- Dhaliwal S et al. (2019). Prospective, randomized, double-blind assessment of topical bakuchiol and retinol for facial photoageing. British Journal of Dermatology 180:289-296.
- Iizuka H (1994). Epidermal turnover time. Journal of Dermatological Science.
- Federal Trade Commission (2025). FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking. FTC.