A home tallow and honey balm recipe is suet tallow and a liquid oil by weight, with about 1% vitamin E and 2 to 3% raw honey. Raw honey won't dissolve in fat. So it goes in small, as the balm thickens, and the jar's kept dry and used up in weeks.
A jar meant to keep uses an oil-soluble honey extract instead, and that's how we built Honey Glow ($42 as of October 6, 2026). Honey's effect on skin gets its own post, tallow and honey balm: does it work.
Tallow and honey balm recipe by weight
Here's one 2 oz (56 g) jar in common home ranges. It's not a look inside ours.
| Ingredient | Share | In 56 g |
|---|---|---|
| Suet tallow | 70 to 75% | 39 to 42 g |
| Oat or jojoba oil | 20 to 25% | 11 to 14 g |
| Raw honey | 2 to 3% | 1.1 to 1.7 g |
| Vitamin E | About 1% | About 0.6 g |
Melt the tallow and oil together on low, to about 60 °C (140 °F). Off the heat, let it fall to about 45 °C (113 °F) and stir in the vitamin E. Keep stirring until it's clouding at the edges. Then whisk the honey in hard for a full minute, until no streaks show. Pour, and chill the jar.
The cooling is the recipe, since on my bench honey dropped into hot, thin fat sinks before the spoon's out. Our recipe calculator scales the fat and oil for other jars, and what to add to a tallow balm has the grams for arrowroot or beeswax.
Why raw honey fights a no-water balm
USDA lists honey at 17.1 g water and 82.1 g sugars per 100 g. Beef tallow has none. Sethi and colleagues' 2016 review notes that oil and water separate without an emulsifier, and a balm has none. So the honey's still honey, in beads that sink and pool.
Honey's tough on microbes. Mandal and Mandal's 2011 review credits part of its action against bacteria to the osmotic effect of high sugar and low moisture. It also calls honey hygroscopic, drawing moisture from its surroundings. Water changes that. Carter and colleagues' 2016 review notes diluted honey's sugar and acidity drop to negligible levels, though some activity remains.
In a jar, honey's pull draws water in from damp air and wet fingers. Adding aloe or a hydrosol brings far more. Halla and colleagues' 2018 review calls water an ideal growth factor for microorganisms. Once there's water in a jar, it needs a preservative system, which our tallow lotion post covers in full.
That's why our balms hold no water. A raw honey jar should be small and used within weeks, and a sour smell means it's done.
Manuka or ordinary honey?
Manuka's still honey, so in fat it beads and sinks the same way. Its grades are lab measures. Carter's review traces most of manuka's extra antibacterial activity, the part left once hydrogen peroxide is neutralized, to methylglyoxal, or MGO. It forms from a compound found in the nectar of manuka flowers. The honeys the review lists carry labels like UMF 10+ and MGO 550+, and standardized manuka is registered as a wound care product. That's a clinician's territory. A home balm goes on intact skin, and I haven't found a study comparing manuka with ordinary honey in one. So the grade's a cost choice. Buy a raw honey you'd eat, and manuka honey in skincare covers the grades in more depth.
Whipped tallow honey balm recipe
Whipping runs on the same cold rule. Chill the melted base until it's cloudy and just setting at the edges, then whip it on medium until it's pale and roughly doubled. Drizzle the honey in during the last minute or two of whipping. Keep it at 2 to 3% of the weight you started with, since whipping adds air and no grams. Up to half of a whipped jar can be air. We start where whipped ends up, with a dense jar poured and sold by weight. A warm whipped jar collapses and sets dense. How to make whipped tallow balm has the full method, and it leaves raw honey out for the reasons above. Whipped or poured, keep the jar cool.
Using beef tallow with honey on your skin and face
On skin, the fat does most of the work. Lin and colleagues' 2018 review says plant oils can form an occlusive barrier that helps skin hold its moisture, and a tallow balm does that same surface job. For a face, warm a pea between your fingertips and press it onto damp skin at night. Sethi's review says occlusive oils belong on moist skin.
Honey brings its own smell, so keep it off your face if you'd rather nothing scented touched it. If you've reacted to bee products or pollen, ask an allergist first. Patch test a new batch on your inner forearm for a few days before it goes on your face. It's cosmetic care, not a treatment, and your provider's plan comes first.
How we do it in Honey Glow
We left raw honey out of Honey Glow for every reason above. Its oil-soluble manuka honey extract dissolves into the fat and stays there. Nothing beads, and there's no water. Cold-pressed oat oil and calendula CO2 sit around it in a dense, poured jar. Inside Honey Glow has the longer story.
If you'd rather have the honey jar made and steady on the shelf, Honey Glow is the one I'd hand you, Classic or Vanilla Edition. If honey's off the table for you, Bare Silk Unscented ($34) has no essential oils and smells like nothing.
The jar for this job is Honey Glow ($42). Subscribe to two jars and a third rides free, and every subscription takes 25% off the first delivery.
Questions we hear
How do you make a tallow and honey balm?
Melt 41 g of suet tallow and 13 g of oat or jojoba oil on low, then cool it until it's about 45 °C (113 °F). Stir in 0.6 g of vitamin E. Once the edges cloud, whisk in 1.4 g of raw honey and pour, for one 2 oz (56 g) jar.
How much honey goes in a tallow balm?
Home recipes run raw honey at 2 to 3% of the batch, or 1.1 to 1.7 g in a 2 oz (56 g) jar. USDA weighs a tablespoon of honey at 21 g, so that's a quarter teaspoon or less. None of it dissolves.
What are the benefits of a tallow and honey balm?
Most of the benefit is the tallow's, since a fat on damp skin slows water loss and relieves the feel of dry, tight skin, while honey in a balm with no water mostly changes the feel and smell. Our post tallow and honey balm: does it work goes through what the honey studies found.
Can I use beef tallow with honey on my face?
Yes. Press a pea onto damp skin at night, after a patch test on your inner forearm for a few days. Skip honey if you'd rather keep anything scented off your face. If you've reacted to bee products or pollen, ask an allergist before it goes near your skin.
Go deeper
The beef tallow for skin guide is the long read. How long tallow balm lasts covers the shelf, and if a batch sets grainy, melted, grainy or different explains what's normal.
Sources
- Halla N and colleagues (2018). Cosmetics preservation: a review on present strategies. Molecules.
- Mandal MD and Mandal S (2011). Honey: its medicinal property and antibacterial activity. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, volume 1, issue 2, pages 154 to 160.
- USDA Agricultural Research Service (2019). Honey, FDC ID 169640, SR Legacy release, published April 1, 2019. FoodData Central.
- Sethi A, Kaur T, Malhotra SK, Gambhir ML (2016). Moisturizers: the slippery road. Indian Journal of Dermatology, volume 61, issue 3, pages 279 to 287.
- USDA Agricultural Research Service (2019). Fat, beef tallow, FDC ID 171400, SR Legacy release, published April 1, 2019. FoodData Central.
- Lin TK, Zhong L, Santiago JL (2018). Anti-inflammatory and skin barrier repair effects of topical application of some plant oils. International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
- Carter DA, Blair SE, Cokcetin NN, Bouzo D, Brooks P, Schothauer R, Harry EJ (2016). Therapeutic manuka honey: no longer so alternative. Frontiers in Microbiology.