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 I've watched a lot of jars go out the door and a lot of skin come back with opinions, so I'd rather set the expectation straight than sell you a miracle. This post is the timeline, jar by jar, plus a way to photograph yourself so you'll know what actually 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.
What changes in the first week?
Feel. Tallow's semi-solid fractions set into a thin film that slows the water leaving your skin, 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 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 keeping the surface fed and plump, 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, 0.5% bakuchiol twice daily performed comparably to 0.5% retinol once daily on the look of wrinkles and pigmentation, with less scaling and stinging in the bakuchiol group (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.
Six weeks is where 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 on the look of tone across successive turnover cycles.
Why six weeks and not six days? Skin renews from the bottom up. A new cell takes something like 40 to 56 days to travel from where it forms to the surface (Halprin, British Journal of Dermatology, 1972), 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.
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 doesn't change?
Pore size. 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. A photo that shows a different face is showing a different lens or a different light.
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, because skin is personal and I can't promise yours.
| 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 |
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, email hi@crafttallow.com 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 tallow take 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.
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.
Brian is the founder of Craft Tallow, a small-batch tallow skincare line shipped from Cottonwood Heights, Utah, built on 100% grass-fed suet. Questions? Reply to any email from us; it lands with him.