Everybody’s skin is different, and oily skin doesn’t automatically mean tallow won’t work for you.
Tallow suits oily skin more often than people expect. It’s a fallacy that adding oil to already oily skin makes it worse.
I want to lead with that, because most of what’s written about tallow on oily skin sorts people into two buckets and sends half of them away. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that skin doesn’t cooperate with buckets.
What I’d tell you at my booth is what I’ll tell you here. Try it on one spot. Don’t commit your whole face to it on day one. And know that if your face says no, you haven’t wasted the jar.
What the Pore Ratings Can’t Tell You
The fair answer is that it depends on your skin, and I can’t see your skin from here.
Tallow is a rich fat. On skin that already makes plenty of its own oil, that’s more to ask than it is on skin that’s gone dry. Dermatologists quoted by Cleveland Clinic raise exactly this, and they’re right to raise it.
But there’s no single pore answer that covers everybody. Comedogenic ratings mostly trace back to old tests on rabbit ears, and a 1982 review found they didn’t line up with what happens on human skin. Plenty of people with oily skin get on with it. Plenty don’t. Neither group is wrong about their own experience, and neither group’s experience predicts yours.
If you want a number that decides this for you, I don’t have one, and anyone handing you one is guessing.
Why Most Breakouts Come Down to How Much
It can, on skin that congests easily.
Here’s the part that’s more useful. When someone asks me about clogged pores, it’s usually because it already happened to them. And when I ask how much they were using, the answer is nearly always far too much.
It’s dense. The amount that works is much smaller than the amount that feels right in your hand. A thick layer of any rich fat on congestion-prone skin is going to cause trouble. That’s a dosing problem rather than a verdict on the fat.
That doesn’t mean everyone who broke out used too much. Some skin just doesn’t get along with it, the same way some people can’t wear wool. But it does mean a fair test uses a lot less than you think. I’ve put what goes into each jar on what’s inside every jar, so you know exactly what you’re testing.
If a doctor already has you on something for your skin, talk to them before adding anything, including mine. Prescription routines are built carefully, and a rich fat dropped into the middle of one is a bad idea for reasons that have nothing to do with tallow.
If your breakouts are deep, painful or leaving marks and nobody’s looked at them yet, see a dermatologist first. That’s a job for a doctor.
How to Test Tallow on Oily Skin Properly
This is the whole point of the post, so here it is plainly.
- One spot, not your face. Pick somewhere you can watch. Along the jaw is the one I suggest most.
- Less than feels right. Pea-sized covers a whole face, so a test area needs barely anything at all.
- Two weeks, and actually look. Skin takes time to tell you things. Two days proves nothing either way.
- Change one thing. If you start this and a new cleanser in the same week, you’ll learn nothing about either.
I micro-aerate every batch so it spreads further, which is why a pea-sized amount covers a face. A 2 oz jar used daily on a face lasts two to three months. That tells you how little a test spot needs.
If that patch looks busier than usual after two weeks, you have a real answer, and it cost you almost nothing to get it.
Your Skin Already Knows
I can’t promise you either way, which is exactly why I’d rather you tested it cheaply than took my word for it.
What I can tell you is that a two-week patch answers the breakout question better than any amount of reading. Your skin already knows. It just needs a fair chance to say so.
Oily in the Middle, Dry on the Cheeks
This is where most of the yes answers live, and it’s the group I’d most encourage to try.
Plenty of people are dry across the cheeks and oily through the middle. Combination skin usually does well with it if you stop treating your face as one surface. Use it where you’re dry, leave it off where you aren’t. Don’t feel obliged to apply it evenly just because it came in one jar.
That’s what the people who get on with it have generally worked out for themselves.
If Your Face Says No, You Still Have a Jar
This is the part nobody tells you, and it’s the reason I don’t think trying tallow on oily skin is much of a risk.
If it turns out not to suit your face, the same jar still works beautifully everywhere else: heels, hands, elbows, knees, neck. The backs of your arms in February.
Feet especially. Thick, dry heel skin is where a rich fat earns its keep. Plenty of people who decided against it for their face carry on buying it for their feet.
So the downside of testing is a jar that ends up living somewhere other than your bathroom shelf.
The Two Weeks That Tell You
Renewal Unscented, if you’re going to try it. Not because it’s lighter, the formula is just as rich. Because it takes fragrance out of the picture so you’re testing one thing instead of two. Renewal is also the one I point sensitive and acne-prone skin toward generally.
Use less than you think, on part of your face, for two weeks.
That’s the whole method. Tallow on oily skin is a small test you run on yourself, and either result is worth having. You can see the full range, and how it’s made is over at the ranch.
Try one spot before you commit
If it suits you it suits you, and one small jar tells you that faster than any review will.
