Tallow and the three plant fats it's compared with all hold water in dry skin, and they part ways on melt point and feel. Coconut oil and cocoa butter melt at body heat. Shea butter's melting point runs 35 to 40 C under the Codex standard for unrefined shea, while edible tallow's fatty acids set at 40 to 49 C. So coconut slips, shea goes on rich, cocoa butter starts hard and tallow stays dense until your fingers warm it.
Every jar we pour is a suet recipe with no plant butter in it. For plain dry skin, the jar I'd hand you is Bare Silk ($34), grass-fed suet tallow with four supporting ingredients and no water, priced as of October 5, 2026.
How do the four fats compare on melt point and feel?
Melt point is what decides how a fat behaves in a jar on the shelf and in your hand. In a 2019 pharmacology review, Hua lists coconut oil and cocoa butter among the fats that readily melt at body temperature. On skin, coconut oil goes on thin and quick. Cocoa butter's hard in the jar and turns slick as your skin warms it.
The Codex Alimentarius, the FAO and WHO food standards body, puts unrefined shea's melting point at 35 to 40 C. For edible tallow it lists a titre instead, the temperature at which the fat's fatty acids set once they're split from it, and that runs 40 to 49 C. Different tests mean the two numbers can't be compared head to head. In the hand, our suet tallow holds a dense set and softens as a fingertip warms it.
| Fat | Melt or set point | Feel on skin | Good at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coconut oil | Melts at body heat | Thin and quick | Hair, oil cleansing |
| Cocoa butter | Melts at body heat | Hard, then slick | Firm bars, chapped skin |
| Shea butter | Melts at 35 to 40 C | Soft and rich | Body butter, heels |
| Tallow | Titre of 40 to 49 C | Dense, softens with warmth | A face balm that keeps |
What is each fat made of?
Shea butter, the fat from the kernel of the shea nut, may run 25 to 50% stearic acid and 32 to 62% oleic acid under its Codex standard. Codex allows 1 to 19% unsaponifiable matter, the part of a fat that won't turn to soap.
EU chocolate law shows how close cocoa butter and shea butter are. It lets a maker add cocoa butter equivalents up to 5% of a finished chocolate, and shea's one of the six fats on the list. Each has to mix with cocoa butter in any proportion and be compatible with its melting point.
Coconut oil is built differently. It's about half lauric acid, a 12-carbon saturated fatty acid, according to a 2018 review by Lin and colleagues. That puts it off the EU list, which is for non-lauric fats. Tallow's profile has its own post on the fatty acids in tallow, so I won't repeat it here.
Does coconut oil clog pores?
It can on a rabbit's ear, where pore clogging gets tested. In a 2019 study, Francis and Shojan put coconut oils on rabbits' ears and examined the skin under a microscope. Every oil they tested was comedogenic, virgin coconut oil included. The authors, who work in Kerala, India, don't advise these oils for acne-prone skin in their climate.
The rabbit ear is the catch. The authors call it extremely sensitive, and it's uncertain whether everything that fails there would clog human skin. So read a high rating as a warning sign, and if you break out easily, keep coconut oil for your hair and off your face.
Our post on whether tallow is comedogenic covers our own fat. If a dermatologist is helping you with breakouts, follow their lead, and know that I make the balm I'm about to recommend. It's cosmetic care, not a treatment, and your provider's plan comes first.
Is coconut oil a sunscreen?
No. In the United States a sunscreen is regulated as a drug. The FDA says every one must be tested for the UV exposure it takes to cause a sunburn, with the product on and with bare skin. The agency's list of sunscreen active ingredients runs from aminobenzoic acid to zinc oxide, and there's no plant oil on it.
SPF numbers for coconut oil do circulate online. Our post on tallow and SPF walks through where those numbers come from and what they measured. Tallow doesn't screen UV either. By day, the FDA advises a broad-spectrum sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher, reapplied at least every two hours and more often if you're swimming or sweating.
What is each fat good at, and why are our jars all suet?
Coconut oil's best-known job is hair, and our hair and beard post covers the coconut oil study behind that. It's also an easy cleansing oil. On the body, Lin and colleagues report it matched mineral oil as a moisturizer for mild to moderate xerosis, the medical word for dry skin.
Shea's soft, rich set makes it a natural body butter, and I'd reach for it on heels and lips. Cocoa butter is the one with a federal credential. The FDA's skin protectant rule lists it as an active ingredient at 50 to 100%, for products that protect chapped or cracked skin. None of the other three fats here is on that list, tallow included. Cocoa butter's hardness also suits a firm bar.
Tallow's job in our jars is a dense balm that keeps without water or a preservative system. We source 100% suet, the dense fat from around the kidneys, from grass-fed and grass-finished cattle on Montana family ranches, bought direct. Plenty of good balms blend in a plant butter, and that's fine. Ours keep suet as the only solid fat on purpose, since it sets each jar by itself and needs no wax to do it.
For plain dryness, the jar's Bare Silk. It's five ingredients, suet tallow with meadowfoam seed oil and jojoba oil, plus vitamin E and arrowroot. The Unscented original carries no essential oils or fragrance.
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
Is tallow better than shea butter for skin?
Neither wins outright. Both are rich fats that hold water in dry skin. Shea's a nut fat high in stearic and oleic acid, with a Codex melting point of 35 to 40 C. Beef tallow is rendered fat that sets firm on its own. We chose suet for that dense set and for how it keeps in a jar with no water.
What's the difference between cocoa butter and shea butter?
They're close relatives. European chocolate law lists shea among six cocoa butter equivalents a maker may add, up to 5% of a finished chocolate, as long as each mixes with cocoa butter in any proportion. Cocoa butter's the harder of the two in the jar, and shea goes on softer.
Is coconut oil comedogenic?
It was in a 2019 rabbit-ear study, where every coconut oil tested produced comedones, virgin coconut oil included. The authors don't advise these oils for acne-prone skin in their climate. The rabbit ear is extremely sensitive, so it's uncertain whether a fail there means a fail on a human face. If you break out easily, keep it for your hair.
Can coconut oil replace sunscreen?
No. In the US a sunscreen is regulated as a drug. Each one must be tested for the UV exposure it takes to cause a sunburn, with it and without it. No plant oil is on the FDA's list of sunscreen active ingredients. The FDA advises a broad-spectrum sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher, reapplied at least every two hours and more often if you're swimming or sweating.
Go deeper
If tallow's new to you, start with the beef tallow for skin guide. Suet, not trim explains why we buy kidney fat. Tallow body butter vs tallow balm covers how a soft jar differs from a dense one. The same side-by-side reading of the drugstore jars is in tallow vs Vaseline and Aquaphor and tallow vs CeraVe and Cetaphil; the coconut oil sunscreen claim gets the full answer in tallow and SPF. Tallow vs jojoba and five more plant oils covers the liquid oils that go into a balm.
Sources
- Codex Alimentarius Commission (2017, amended 2022). Regional standard for unrefined shea butter (Africa), CXS 325R-2017, with composition limits and a melting point. FAO/WHO.
- Codex Alimentarius Commission (1999, amended 2024). Standard for named animal fats, CXS 211-1999, which grades edible tallow by titre. FAO/WHO.
- US Food and Drug Administration (2026). Sunscreen: how to help protect your skin from the sun, content current as of September 10, 2026. FDA.
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (2026). 21 CFR part 347, skin protectant drug products for over-the-counter human use, up to date as of October 1, 2026. eCFR.
- Lin TK and two colleagues (2018). Anti-inflammatory and skin barrier repair effects of topical application of some plant oils. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 19(1):70.
- The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (2000). Directive 2000/36/EC relating to cocoa and chocolate products intended for human consumption, consolidated text of November 18, 2013. EUR-Lex.
- Francis A and Shojan A (2019). Comedogenicity of oils, a rabbit-ear study that read skin biopsies under the microscope for comedones. International Journal of Contemporary Medical Research 6(8):H5 to H7.
- Hua S (2019). Physiological and pharmaceutical considerations for rectal drug formulations, a review that covers suppository bases. Frontiers in Pharmacology 10:1196.
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.