Montana in February is a good place to learn what dry actually means.
The air holds almost no moisture and the wind takes what’s left. The wood stove runs all day. By January hands crack and faces go tight. This is where I started making tallow, and dry skin is the problem it solves best.
Tallow for very dry skin is the use I’d defend hardest. It’s also where I get the same question every time. If tallow is so good on its own, why put other things in it?
Why Is My Skin So Dry in Winter?
Two things, and one of them is inside your house.
Cold air holds less water than warm air, so outdoor winter air is dry to begin with. Then you heat it, and heating dry air makes it drier still relative to your skin. The furnace or the wood stove is usually doing more to your face than the weather is.
If you have wondered why is my skin so dry in winter, that is the whole of it. Skin loses water to the air around it constantly, and the drier the air, the faster that happens. Nothing about your skin has changed in November, the conditions around it have.
Which tells you what a winter product actually needs to do: slow the water leaving, and do it for hours rather than minutes.
Why Tallow for Very Dry Skin Holds Up
A dense fat slows that water down on its way out. That’s occlusion, and it’s the same reason ointments beat lotions on genuinely dry skin.
Tallow does it well for two reasons. It’s substantial enough to stay where you put it rather than absorbing away in twenty minutes. And it has some of the same fatty acids as your skin’s own oil, so it goes on like something familiar.
There’s no water in my jars either. A water-based cream is largely the thing you’re trying to hold onto. Plus the machinery needed to keep water and oil mixed on a shelf. Take the water out and you don’t need most of that machinery.
That’s why the best moisturizer for severely dry skin is usually the greasiest-sounding one on the shelf, not the most elegant. Elegance and staying power tend to pull in opposite directions.
So Why Add Anything At All?
Because plain rendered tallow is a blunt instrument, and I’d rather make something people will actually use every night.
Argan oil goes in for the appearance of elasticity, and because tallow on its own will not micro-aerate the way I need it to. It is light enough to work into the fat without changing the job the fat is there to do.
Hibiscus is a seed oil, and I’ll say that plainly because some corners of the tallow world have decided seed oils are the enemy. It goes in alongside the argan for the same reason, the appearance of elasticity, and it lends the color. I’m not going to pretend a plant oil is a contaminant just to sell you purity.
Plant-based fragrance oil rather than the obvious alternative. It fuses into the fat instead of floating on top of it, which is most of why mine doesn’t smell like a roast. Working that out took me months.
Argan oil in micro-aerated tallow is what makes a dense fat pleasant enough to keep using. A product you abandon in week two does nothing for your skin at all.
How to Layer Moisturizer on Dry Skin
The order matters more than the products, and almost nobody gets told this.
- Wash with lukewarm water and pat most of it off. Leave your skin a little damp.
- Anything watery goes on first, if you use it.
- Tallow goes on last. Warm a small amount between your fingertips and press it in.
That’s the whole of how to layer moisturizer on dry skin. Thin to thick, onto damp skin, fat last.
The damp part is the one people skip and it’s the one that matters most. Putting an occlusive on bone-dry skin seals in the dryness.
When Dry Skin Is Something More
This is worth saying before you spend money on anything, mine included.
Skin that stays dry no matter what you do, or that comes with anything else new, is worth a doctor’s opinion rather than another jar. Persistent dryness can travel with thyroid problems and with several skin conditions, and a cosmetic doesn’t touch any of those.
That’s worth saying plainly, because a cosmetic and a diagnosis are two different things.
The Morning Your Hands Stop Splitting
If your skin has gone past dry into cracked and splitting, that’s Moxie, in Vanilla Spice or Eucalyptus. It’s the richest jar I make and it’s built for exactly this. Use it as a thick layer at night, with cotton gloves or socks over the top.
For dry skin that hasn’t got that far, Renewal is the everyday jar, in Mandarin Orange or Unscented. Go with Unscented if fragrance bothers you. If your face is also showing its age, that’s Ageless, and its four scents are a matter of taste.
Use it at night, on damp skin, and use less than feels right. Tallow for very dry skin works on repetition, not on quantity. Give it a month.
If Montana winters taught me anything it’s that dry skin is a maintenance problem, not a one-off fix. The jar that works is the one still on your nightstand in March. You can see the full range, and how it gets made is over at the ranch.
For skin that has gone past dry
Moxie is the richest jar I make, for skin that is cracked rather than just thirsty.
