A tallow candle is rendered beef or mutton fat set around a wick, Europe's household candle before stearin and paraffin. We don't pour them: our suet's bought for skin, and we won't burn it.
That suet goes into jars instead, and the jar I'd hand you is Bare Silk ($34 as of October 5, 2026).
What was a tallow candle?
Most early Western cultures relied on candles made from rendered animal fat, says the National Candle Association's history. By the 13th century, candlemaking was a guild craft in England and France, and chandlers went house to house making candles from saved kitchen fat. It wasn't a clean light, by the association's account. Beeswax, the medieval upgrade, burned without tallow's smoky flame or its "foul, acrid odor."
Whaling brought spermaceti in the late 18th century, and in the 1820s Michel Eugène Chevreul worked out how to extract stearic acid from animal fatty acids. Stearin candles followed, made from animal fat too. Paraffin, refined from petroleum, didn't arrive until the 1850s, and candlemaking began to decline after the light bulb came in 1879.
Are paraffin candles toxic?
Plenty of posts say paraffin candles release toxins into the air. Every candle tested for a 2018 Danish Environmental Protection Agency report gave off ultrafine particles, whatever it's made of. Fully refined paraffin pillars gave off the fewest, about 104,000 per cubic centimeter, and crown-top candles of animal stearin gave off the most, about 430,000. Nearly all the animal stearin candles' particle mass was salts typically used to protect the wick. The Danish EPA co-financed the project, and candle makers helped edit.
Derudi and colleagues, funded by the Associazione Cerai d'Italia, burned candles of different paraffin waxes for a 2014 study and found wax quality strongly influenced emissions. I haven't found a chamber test of a tallow candle, so I can't tell you one burns cleaner.
A 2009 study by Pagels and colleagues found flame retardants in the wick were the likely source of a steady flame's ultrafine particles. A sooting flame added soot and the highest mass. That's why the Danish report advises trimming a long wick and keeping candles out of drafts.
Where does a tallow candle fit?
If you render at home, a candle's a fine use for tallow that won't go on skin. Rendering beef tallow at home walks you through it. For why that fat stays out of a face jar, read Kitchen tallow is not face balm.
We source 100% suet, the dense fat from around the kidneys, from grass-fed and grass-finished cattle on Montana family ranches, bought direct. For skin, Bare Silk Unscented is the jar I'd hand you. It has no essential oils or fragrance and relieves the feel of dry, tight skin on face and hands. It's cosmetic care, not a treatment, and your provider's plan comes first.
If you'd rather not read five product pages, Find my balm asks two minutes of questions and hands you the jar.
Questions we hear
Do all candles give off particles?
Every candle in a 2018 Danish EPA project gave off ultrafine particles, whatever it's made of, and fully refined paraffin gave off the fewest. A sooting flame adds soot and the most mass, according to a 2009 study by Pagels and colleagues.
Do tallow candles burn cleaner?
I haven't found a chamber study that tested a tallow candle, so I can't say they do. The history leans the other way. The National Candle Association describes tallow's smoky flame, then each wax that replaced it as cleaner or brighter.
Do tallow candles smell?
Historically, yes: the National Candle Association's history sets beeswax's sweet smell against the foul, acrid odor of tallow. A balm doesn't meet a flame. Suet rendered for skin is nearly scentless, and our unscented jar smells like nothing on your skin.
Can I make a candle from kitchen tallow?
Yes, and kitchen tallow suits the job, since that fat won't go on your skin. Strain it clean and pour it around a wick. A 2018 Danish EPA report advises trimming a long wick and keeping the flame out of drafts.
Go deeper
Start with the beef tallow for skin guide. One fat, five thousand years follows tallow through history, and where the fat goes covers what's left of the animal.
Sources
- National Candle Association (2026). History of candles, read October 6, 2026. candles.org.
- Danish Environmental Protection Agency (2018). Environmentally friendly candles with reduced particle emissions, Environmental Project 2053. Danish EPA.
- Pagels J and colleagues (2009). Chemical composition and mass emission factors of candle smoke particles. Journal of Aerosol Science 40(3):193 to 208, via Lund University Publications.
- Derudi M and colleagues (2014). Emission of air pollutants from burning candles with different composition in indoor environments. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 21:4320 to 4330.
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.