Why I'm Not Making Tallow Soap (And Why That's Okay)

If you've spent any time in the handmade skincare world lately, you've probably noticed that tallow is having a moment. Beef tallow balms, tallow soaps, tallow everything!  It's everywhere right now, and people are genuinely excited about it. I get it. There's something appealing about the back-to-basics, ancestral skincare angle. And honestly, tallow has real merit as an ingredient.

So why isn't it on my table? A few reasons, and they're all pretty simple.

The first one is personal. Two of my daughters are vegetarian. I make products I'd give my family, and I formulate from a place that reflects my values and theirs. Putting rendered beef fat into my product line just doesn't fit the story I'm telling or the people I'm making things for.

The second reason is more technical. One of the things I love most about my process is herbal infusion. I slow-infuse olive oil with calendula, dandelion, comfrey, plantain, and more, and olive oil is exceptional at this. It draws out the good stuff beautifully and holds it. Tallow can be infused, but it's finicky and frankly not worth the extra effort when olive oil does the job so well and brings its own skin-loving properties to the end product.

The third reason is about scent. Tallow has to go through a significant amount of processing to become truly odor-neutral, and even then, you're working hard to get to a starting point that my oils are already at. I'd rather put that energy into the botanicals and the formula than into wrestling an ingredient into submission.

Here's something worth knowing if you're curious about tallow soap: a bar made entirely of tallow is actually not a great bar of soap. Tallow alone produces a hard bar, yes, but it needs other oils to balance it out, to bring lather, conditioning, and skin feel into line. You still end up needing coconut for cleansing bubbles, castor for lather, lighter oils for conditioning. Which means tallow isn't replacing your plant based oil blend, it's just joining it.

And my oil blend is already doing exactly what I need it to do. I work with a carefully balanced combination of coconut, palm, olive, avocado, and castor oils with each one earning its place in the formula for a specific reason. Together they produce a bar that lathers beautifully, conditions without being heavy, and holds up through use. Tallow wouldn't bring anything new to that party. It would just be an ingredient I added because everyone else is adding it, and that's never a good reason to change a formula that already works.

This is probably a good place to talk about shea butter, because it comes up a lot when people compare tallow to plant-based alternatives. And honestly? It's a fair comparison. Both tallow and shea butter bring richness and skin-conditioning properties to a formula. Both have a long history of use on skin. If someone tells you tallow is good for your skin, they're not wrong.

But here's where I land: shea butter does everything tallow does for my purposes, and then some. It's rich in oleic and stearic fatty acids ( the same qualities that make tallow appealing) but it also brings a lighter, more absorbent skin feel that I prefer. It melts beautifully into skin without the heaviness that tallow can sometimes leave behind. And it plays exceptionally well with the other ingredients I'm already working with.

Shea butter is the backbone of several of my skincare products (ie balms, creams, salves) and it earns that spot every time. It's versatile, it's stable, it infuses well, and my skin loves it. For my formulas and my customers, it simply makes more sense.

I'm not anti-tallow. I'm just very pro-shea.

And the fourth reason I'm not making tallow soap? Honestly, I don't need to. I have a vendor friend who makes tallow products and does it right, with care, quality, and intention. When a customer at my table asks about tallow, I'm happy to send them her way. That's what this community is for.

There's a lot of pressure in the maker world to chase every trend, to add every buzzy ingredient, to be everything to every customer. I've decided I'd rather be really good at what I do than mediocre at everything. My oils are carefully chosen. My infusions are slow and intentional. My bars are formulated on purpose.

That's the Cobb Cabin Crafts way. Tallow just isn't part of it and I'm at peace with that.

Jen Cobb is the maker behind Cobb Cabin Crafts, a small batch handmade soap and skincare business rooted in intentional ingredients, slow processes, and the belief that the best things take time.