Short answer: elbows and knees get rough because of what we do to them, not because anything is wrong with you. They bend hundreds of times a day, we lean on them at desks and kneel on them in the garden, and fabric rubs across them from morning to night. The fix is mostly habit: a small amount of a rich balm, on slightly damp skin, most days, for a few weeks.
This is one of the most ordinary questions we get, and one of the most satisfying to answer, because the routine is simple and cheap. If you want the jar we point people to for it, that is our Unscented Whipped Tallow, which is grass fed tallow and organic coconut oil and nothing else.
Why elbows and knees go rough first
Most of the skin on your body gets a fairly easy life. Elbows and knees do not. Three things stack up there.
They stretch and fold all day. Every time you bend an arm or a leg, the skin over the joint is pulled tight and then bunched up again. That is a lot of movement for one small patch of skin.
They take pressure and friction. Elbows on a desk or a car door, knees on the floor while you garden, clean or play with kids, and sleeves and trouser legs rubbing across both. Skin that is leaned on and rubbed tends to toughen and look ashy or rough.
They get skipped. People moisturize their face and hands without thinking and forget the joints entirely. Out of sight, out of routine.
Cooler, drier air in autumn and winter makes all three more noticeable, which is why this question arrives in our inbox about now every year.
What a tallow balm actually does here
A balm made of fat does not add water to skin. It sits on the surface and slows the water that is already there from escaping, and it leaves the skin feeling softer and more supple while it does. That is the whole job, and for rough elbows and knees it is exactly the job you want done.
Tallow is well suited to it because it is rich without being waxy, and whipping it with organic coconut oil makes it easy to spread over a joint that is all bumps and creases. It will not make a rough patch vanish overnight, and we would be suspicious of anything that promised to. What it will do, used most days, is keep the skin there looking and feeling smoother and more comfortable.
Two ingredients, no fragrance, and a little covers a lot of elbow.
Grass fed tallow and organic coconut oil, whipped by hand in Loomis, California. One jar handles face, hands, elbows and knees for most people for months.
"Oh my goodness, there's so much to love about this product. I love the scent and a little goes a very long way. Even though I'm using this daily, I think this jar will last a long time!"
Angi, reviewing our Lemon + Lavender Whipped Tallow, not the unscented jar linked above. Same base, with essential oils added.
The routine, step by step
1. Right after a shower or bath, pat dry and leave the skin a little damp. This is the best moment of the day for it. The balm has something to hold in, and warm skin takes it up more easily.
2. Take a small amount, about the size of a pea for each elbow or knee. Warm it between your fingertips for a few seconds until it turns from balm to oil.
3. Press it in first, then rub in small circles. Bend the joint slightly as you go so the balm reaches into the creases rather than skating over the top.
4. At night, go a little heavier. A second, slightly thicker layer before bed, with long sleeves or pajama bottoms over the top, gives it the whole night to sit without being rubbed off on the sheets.
5. Keep it up for a few weeks. Rough elbows took months of leaning to get that way. Give a daily routine two to three weeks before you judge it, and expect gradual rather than dramatic.
Small habits that help as much as the balm
Be gentle in the shower. A soft washcloth is plenty. Scrubbing hard at rough skin tends to leave it feeling tight and sore rather than smooth, and hot water dries skin out faster than warm.
Give your elbows a cushion. If you spend the workday leaning on a desk, a folded towel or a soft pad under your forearms takes a surprising amount of wear off the skin. The same goes for a kneeling pad in the garden.
Keep the jar where you will see it. A jar in the bathroom next to the towel gets used. A jar in a drawer in another room does not.
Scented or unscented for elbows and knees?
Either works, and this is one of the places the scented jars earn their keep, because elbows and knees sit well away from your face. If fragrance suits your skin and you like a jar that smells good when you open it, the rest of the whipped tallow range is made on the same base. If you react to fragrance, or you want one jar that also goes on your face, start unscented. We wrote more about that choice in scented or unscented tallow balm.
And if your jar has gone stiff now the weather has cooled, that is normal too, and here is why tallow balm gets hard in cold weather.
When rough is not just rough
Most dry elbows and knees are exactly that. But elbows and knees are also common places for skin conditions to show up, so it is worth knowing what is outside the scope of a moisturizer. If a patch is red, very itchy, cracked or bleeding, thick and silvery, spreading, or not changing at all after a few weeks of regular moisturizing, show it to a doctor or dermatologist rather than reaching for a bigger jar. And do not put any balm on skin that is broken or weeping.
This article is educational and not medical advice. Pure Lifestyle products are cosmetics made to support the look and feel of healthy, comfortable skin. They are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent eczema, psoriasis, or any medical condition. If you're managing a skin condition, we recommend working with your healthcare provider.
Who is making this
We are Jeremie and Megan. Every batch is rendered and whipped by hand in small runs in Loomis, California, and our name is on the jar. If a jar does not suit you, tell us and we will make it right. That is the whole promise and it is deliberately short.
Start with the simplest jar we make.
A pea-sized amount per elbow, on damp skin, most days. Fragrance free, two ingredients, and it goes on your face and hands too.
Want the 10% off code first? Pop your email in and we will send it over, along with the occasional note from the kitchen.