Emu oil is the rendered fat of the emu, the second largest bird in the world, and it's sold mostly as a skin moisturizer. Next to beef tallow, it carries far more of the fragile polyunsaturated fat that goes stale. Its human research is thin, and so is tallow's.
We chose beef suet for every jar we make, and for the plain moisturizer job, the jar I'd hand you is Bare Silk ($34). It's suet tallow with four supporting ingredients, and prices here are as of October 5, 2026.
What is emu oil, and what is it used for?
Emu oil starts as body fat, and it's rendered into oil much the way suet is rendered into tallow. The birds are native to Australia. Chen and colleagues (2022) note that emus store their fat mainly under the skin and in the abdominal cavity. A 2001 study by Beckerbauer and colleagues records that emus first reached the United States as zoo stock between the 1930s and the 1950s.
Emu oil's lead fatty acid is oleic acid, the same as tallow's. Chen measured about 46% oleic acid and 14% linoleic acid. Saturated fat came to about 35%. Chen's team lists moisturizing as one of the two main reasons cosmetics use emu oil. The claims around it don't stop at moisture. Beckerbauer's team listed the popular ones, from calming swelling to helping wounds and burns, and noted that no scientific evidence backed them yet.
What did the emu oil studies test?
The human trials on emu oil's benefits for skin are few, and both of the ones I found are small. In a 2016 study by Zanardo and colleagues, 70 breastfeeding women put a cream with 30% emu oil on one areola after each feed and left the other bare. A day later, the treated side read wetter on a corneometer, a probe that measures water in the skin's outer layer. That's a modest hydration result. The study was open label, so the women knew which side got the cream.
The second trial looked at dermatitis. In a 2015 double-blind pilot by Rollmann and colleagues, people going through radiation therapy used emu oil or a cottonseed oil placebo twice a day. Skin scores leaned toward emu oil. The difference wasn't statistically significant, and the authors called for larger studies to settle it. Earlier, the case for emu oil rested on animal work, and Zanardo's team built on one such study.
Some of you are here because of dermatitis. Whether it's eczema or skin under radiation, your dermatologist or your radiation team leads that call, and I make the balm I'm about to recommend. It's cosmetic care, not a treatment. Your provider's plan comes first.
How does tallow compare with emu oil in the jar?
Both are rendered animal fats that lean on oleic acid, and the difference between them sits in the fragile, polyunsaturated part. USDA's record for beef tallow lists about 4 g of polyunsaturated fat per 100 g. Our post on the fatty acids in tallow has the rest of that profile, so I won't repeat it here. Emu oil's linoleic acid alone ran 14% in Chen's sample. In Beckerbauer's birds, it ran from about 18% to 28.5%, depending on what they ate.
| Trait | Emu oil | Beef suet tallow |
|---|---|---|
| Where the fat sits | Under the skin and in the abdomen (Chen 2022) | Around the kidneys |
| Lead fatty acid | Oleic, about 46% (Chen 2022) | Oleic (USDA) |
| Polyunsaturated share | Linoleic alone, 14% to 28.5% | About 4% (USDA) |
| Human skin trials | A few small ones | Mostly lacking (Russell 2024) |
That gap shows up on a shelf. A 2019 review by Domínguez and colleagues notes that a fat's tendency to oxidize climbs exponentially with its number of double bonds. Our recipes carry no water and no preservative system. So a fat low in polyunsaturated fat, the kind that oxidizes slowly, is the one we want in the jar. Tallow's own skin record isn't deeper, though: a 2024 scoping review by Russell and colleagues found that most published work on tallow and skin lacks human subjects.
Why did we choose beef suet?
Supply came first, because a balm's only as steady as its fat. We source 100% suet, the dense fat from around the kidneys, from grass-fed and grass-finished cattle on Montana family ranches, bought direct. We buy the fat. We do not run the ranch. Our Montana render partner renders it, and the balms are blended in small batches in the Mountain West, so we know where each jar's fat started. Our post on suet, not trim covers why the cut of fat matters as much as the animal it's from.
Emu oil is harder to hold steady. Beckerbauer's team fed one group of emus a diet rich in beef tallow and another a diet rich in soybean oil. The soybean birds laid down oil higher in linoleic acid. That's a moving target for a recipe that has to match from jar to jar. Smell counts too. Our suet is nearly scentless, so Bare Silk Unscented smells like nothing, and the scented jars smell like the botanical on the label.
For a plain moisturizer, Bare Silk is the jar I'd pick. It's grass-fed suet tallow with meadowfoam seed oil and organic jojoba oil, plus vitamin E and organic arrowroot. The Unscented original has no essential oils or fragrance. We pour it dense and sell it by weight, and there's a Lavender edition if you'd like a scent.
Start with Bare Silk ($34), five ingredients and sixty days to disagree.
Questions we hear
What is emu oil?
Emu oil is rendered from the body fat of the emu, a large bird native to Australia that stores fat mainly under its skin and in its abdomen. Once it's rendered, the oil leans on oleic acid. It carries more linoleic acid than beef tallow does, and its makeup shifts with what the birds were fed.
What is emu oil used for?
Emu oil is sold mostly as a skin moisturizer, and you'll find it in cosmetics and oil-based products for external use. The claims around it run wider, from calming swelling to helping wounds and burns. A 2001 study noted that no scientific evidence backed those claims yet, and the human trials since have been few.
Is emu oil better than tallow for skin?
Neither fat has strong human evidence, so it's hard to call one better. Emu oil has a few small trials, including a 2016 study where a cream with 30% emu oil raised skin hydration on the treated side within a day. Most published work on tallow lacks human subjects. Tallow carries far less polyunsaturated fat, so it should keep longer in a jar with no water.
Does emu oil go rancid faster than tallow?
Going by the chemistry alone, emu oil should go stale sooner than beef tallow does. Emu oil's linoleic acid ran from 14% to 28.5% across two studies, while USDA lists beef tallow at about 4% polyunsaturated fat. That's because a fat's tendency to oxidize climbs exponentially with its double bonds.
Why doesn't Craft Tallow use emu oil?
We source 100% suet from grass-fed and grass-finished cattle on Montana family ranches, bought direct. That's a fat we can trace. Emu oil's makeup shifts with the birds' feed, and it carries more of the fat that goes stale. Our suet's also nearly scentless.
Go deeper
The beef tallow for skin guide is the place to start if you're new to tallow. For freshness, how long tallow balm lasts picks up the oxidation thread, and how tallow is rendered for skin follows the suet from fat to jar. If smell's the worry, will it smell like beef answers it.
Sources
- Beckerbauer LM and colleagues (2001). Influence of two dietary fats on the composition of emu oil and meat. Poultry Science 80(2):187 to 194.
- Chen Z, Lan M, Li L, Luo S, Chen J, Yi X, Zhang X and Li B (2022). Chemical characterization and in vivo toxicological safety evaluation of emu oil. Nutrients 14(11):2238.
- Rollmann DC, Novotny PJ and colleagues (2015). Double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study of processed ultra emu oil versus placebo in the prevention of radiation dermatitis. International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics 92(3), pages 650 to 658.
- Domínguez R and colleagues (2019). A comprehensive review on lipid oxidation in meat and meat products. Antioxidants 8(10):429.
- Russell MF, Sandhu M and colleagues (2024). Tallow, rendered animal fat, and its biocompatibility with skin: a scoping review. Cureus 16(5):e60981.
- United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (2019). Fat, beef tallow. FoodData Central database, SR Legacy release, FDC ID 171400, USDA.
- Zanardo V and colleagues (2016). Efficacy of topical application of emu oil on areola skin barrier in breastfeeding women. Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 21(1).
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.