A tallow face cream recipe for one 2 oz (56 g) jar is about 39 to 45 g of rendered suet tallow and 11 to 17 g of a light oil such as jojoba, plus 0.56 g of vitamin E. You melt it low and pour it dense. There's no water in it, so it needs no emulsifier or preservative system, and a face recipe takes no essential oil.
Strictly, that's a balm. A cream is an emulsion of water and oil, as cream, balm, lotion or butter explains. If you'd rather skip the stove, our finished face jar is Velvet Face Renewal ($89 as of October 6, 2026), actives and all. The recipe's grams and percentages are common home ranges, and none is a look inside our jars.
Tallow face cream recipe by weight
| Ingredient | Home range | In one 56 g jar |
|---|---|---|
| Rendered suet tallow | 70 to 80% | 39 to 45 g |
| Light oil, such as jojoba | 20 to 30% | 11 to 17 g |
| Vitamin E | About 1% | About 0.56 g |
Melt the tallow and oil on the lowest heat, then stir in the vitamin E off the heat. Pour once the edges cloud. Chill the capped jar about 20 minutes so it sets fine and even, and if it's grainy anyway, melted, grainy or different has the fix.
Our recipe calculator starts at four parts tallow to one part oil and calls 75:25 a face balm that glides. It'll do the grams for any other jar size, and you can whip the result. Up to half of a whipped jar can be air. For a face jar, I'd pour it dense and leave the air out. Whipped tallow 101 and how to make whipped tallow balm cover the fluffy kind.
Why there's no water in it
Sethi and colleagues' 2016 review of moisturizers says emulsifying agents, mostly detergents, undo oil and water's natural tendency to separate. Water then calls for a preservative to kill or inhibit microbes that get in during use. Tallow doesn't need either. USDA lists beef tallow at 0.00 g of water per 100 g, so keep water out in every form. Tap water, aloe gel, a hydrosol and raw honey all count. Add any of them and you're making a lotion that needs an emulsifier and a preservative system, as our lotion post explains.
The vitamin E guards the fat. Keen and Hassan's 2016 review calls vitamin E an important fat-soluble antioxidant, and it notes most over-the-counter antiaging creams carry 0.5 to 1%. Its stability drops once a product's open to air and light, they add. Keep it capped and cool, and our shelf life calculator will estimate a range in months for your oils.
Which oil for which face
For a first batch, I'd pick jojoba. Gad and colleagues' 2021 review puts it at almost 98% wax, mostly wax esters, and notes its structural likeness to skin's sebum and its high resistance to going rancid. Meadowfoam and squalane are the other light picks. Our squalane and meadowfoam post compares them, and our oil chooser scores carriers by how fast they oxidize.
A dry face can take the calculator's 80:20. On an oily one, the amount matters more: a dermatologist on the AAD's moisturizer page says too much moisturizer can clog pores for some people. If you break out easily, test a grain of rice on one cheek each evening for two weeks. Is tallow comedogenic and tallow on oily skin go further. It's cosmetic care, not a treatment, and if a dermatologist manages your breakouts, their plan comes first.
For most faces, it's a pea at night. Sethi's review says occlusive oils should go on moist skin, so warm the pea between your fingertips and press it into skin that's still damp. How to use a tallow balm has the amounts, and is tallow good for your face covers who it suits.
Why this face recipe has no essential oil
A face is the last place I'd want to learn I react to a scent, and Europe's rules explain why. Its 2023 rule on fragrance allergens calls contact allergy a life-long change in the immune system. Labels there already named 24. The rule adds 56 more, lavender oil among them, so a leave-on label names any of the 80 above 0.001%.
The AAD's moisturizer page adds a plainer reason: fragrance can irritate dry skin. If you add an oil anyway, our essential oil dose calculator caps a face at half a percent, 0.28 g in a 56 g jar. A jar for pregnancy or a baby takes none, so I'd point you to Bare Silk Unscented. Essential oils for tallow balm covers the rest.
Actives: bakuchiol and vitamin C are a formulator's job
For the look of fine lines, a plain recipe does the moisture part: Sethi's review says emollient lipids improve skin's softness and smoothness. Does beef tallow help with wrinkles has the rest. Past that, you'd need an active at a studied dose, and oil-soluble ones can go in a fat. Both of Velvet's do: bakuchiol, and oil-soluble vitamin C (tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate).
In Dhaliwal and colleagues' 2019 trial, 0.5% bakuchiol twice daily was comparable with 0.5% retinol on wrinkles and pigment over 12 weeks, with less scaling and stinging. Our actives dose checker says whether your percent sits inside what the trials used. Velvet carries a true 1% bakuchiol, twice the trial's 0.5%, and 1.5% vitamin C, the only numbers we print for any Craft recipe. A home active weighs a fraction of a gram, so it takes a scale that reads 0.01 g. Bakuchiol vs retinol has the trial. Our Velvet post opens the jar. Tallow doesn't screen UV, so sunscreen still goes on every morning.
For a finished face jar, I'd hand you Velvet Face Renewal, our clinical-strength face balm for the look of fine lines, worn morning and night. Bare Silk ($34) is the plain face jar, five ingredients with no essential oil in the Unscented original. If you'd rather have vials and recipe cards than a stovetop, there's the Craft Tallow Kit ($110, on pre-order with about a three-week ship window).
The jar for this job is Velvet Face Renewal ($89). 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 tallow face cream?
For one 2 oz (56 g) jar, melt about 39 to 45 g of rendered suet tallow with 11 to 17 g of a light oil such as jojoba on low heat. Off the heat, stir in 0.56 g of vitamin E and pour once it clouds. Twenty minutes in the fridge sets it fine and even. There's no water in it, and as a face recipe, it takes no essential oil.
Can you make whipped tallow face cream?
Yes. Whipping folds air into the set balm and adds no water, so it's still a balm. Up to half of a whipped jar can be air. Ours is poured dense and sold by weight.
Is tallow face cream good for wrinkles?
A plain tallow balm softens and smooths skin while it's on, which helps the look of fine lines. For more, you'd want a studied active. A 2019 British Journal of Dermatology trial found 0.5% bakuchiol twice daily comparable with 0.5% retinol over 12 weeks, with less scaling and stinging.
Can you put essential oil in a tallow face cream?
We'd leave it out. A 2023 EU rule has leave-on labels name 80 fragrance allergens above 0.001%, lavender oil among them. If you add one anyway, our essential oil dose calculator caps a face at half a percent, and a jar for pregnancy or a baby takes none.
Go deeper
Start with the beef tallow for skin guide. Fatty acids in tallow has USDA's numbers for this fat, and if you've got raw suet, how to render beef tallow at home starts there.
Sources
- Gad HA and colleagues (2021). Jojoba oil: an updated comprehensive review on chemistry, pharmaceutical uses, and toxicity. Polymers 13(11):1711.
- Sethi A, Kaur T, Malhotra SK and Gambhir ML (2016). Moisturizers: the slippery road. Indian Journal of Dermatology, volume 61, issue 3, pages 279 to 287.
- Keen MA and Hassan I (2016). Vitamin E in dermatology. Indian Dermatology Online Journal, volume 7, issue 4, pages 311 to 315.
- European Commission (2023). Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 as regards labelling of fragrance allergens in cosmetic products. EUR-Lex.
- American Academy of Dermatology Association (2022). How to pick the right moisturizer for your skin, last updated January 25, 2022. AAD.
- US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (2019). Fat, beef tallow. FoodData Central, SR Legacy, FDC ID 171400, April 1, 2019.
- Dhaliwal S and colleagues (2019). Prospective, randomized, double-blind assessment of topical bakuchiol and retinol for facial photoageing. British Journal of Dermatology 180(2):289 to 296.