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.
The straight answer first: tallow balm is not a treatment for eczema, and we will not tell you it is. What it is, is a very short-ingredient moisturizer. Moisturizing is something most people with eczema-prone skin do every day, so it is a fair question whether a balm like ours belongs in that routine. This post is our honest attempt to answer it, including the parts where the right answer is "ask your doctor, not us."
If you are here for the jar we would point you to, and your provider is happy for you to try it, that is our Unscented Whipped Tallow. It is grass fed tallow and organic coconut oil, with no fragrance, no essential oils, no dyes and no additives.
What is going on with eczema-prone skin
Eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, is a long-term skin condition. Skin that is prone to it tends to be dry, itchy and easily irritated, and it tends to come and go in flares. Part of what is happening is that the outermost layer of skin does a poorer job of holding on to water and keeping irritants out than it does in people without eczema.
That is why so much everyday eczema advice is about the basics: lukewarm rather than hot showers, gentle cleansers, avoiding the things that set your own skin off, and moisturizing regularly with something that does not add new irritants. How that fits together for you, and what else belongs alongside it, is a conversation for your doctor or dermatologist. Moisturizer is one part of a care plan, not a replacement for one.
Where a tallow balm fits, honestly
A balm made of fat does not add water to skin. It sits on the surface and slows the water already there from escaping, which leaves skin feeling softer and more comfortable. That is the whole of what we claim for it.
People with reactive skin tend to be interested in tallow balm for one simple reason: the ingredient list is short enough to read in a single breath. Our unscented jar has two ingredients, grass fed tallow and organic coconut oil. Both are fats that have been used on skin for a very long time, and both are there on purpose. When you are trying to work out what your skin does and does not tolerate, fewer ingredients means fewer suspects.
What we do not claim: that it calms flares, that it changes the course of eczema, that it works better than what your dermatologist prescribes, or that it suits every eczema-prone person. Some people with sensitive skin find they do not get on with a particular fat, and the only way to find out is to try a small amount carefully.
Two ingredients. No fragrance. Nothing else to guess about.
Grass fed tallow and organic coconut oil, whipped by hand in Loomis, California. The jar we suggest to anyone whose skin reacts easily.
Start unscented, and patch test first
For eczema-prone skin, start with the unscented jar. Fragrance, including natural essential oils, is one of the more common things sensitive skin objects to, so it makes sense to take it out of the picture while you find out how your skin gets on with the base.
Before it goes anywhere large:
1. Put a small dab on a patch of clear, unbroken skin on your inner forearm.
2. Leave it alone and repeat once a day for four days.
3. If you see any redness, itching, bumps or stinging, stop, and do not use it more widely.
4. If the patch stays quiet, try it on a small area of dry skin next.
Never apply any balm to skin that is broken, cracked open, weeping or infected. That is skin for your doctor to look at.
If your provider is on board, how to use it
After bathing, on slightly damp skin. Pat dry gently rather than rubbing, then apply within a few minutes while the skin still holds a little water.
A thin layer, warmed first. Take a small amount, warm it between your fingertips until it turns to oil, then press it on rather than rubbing hard. A little goes a long way.
Fit it around your prescribed routine, not over it. If you use a prescribed cream or ointment, ask your doctor or pharmacist about order and timing. Do not stop or swap out anything you have been prescribed because a moisturizer feels nice.
Give it a couple of weeks, and keep notes. Eczema-prone skin changes with the weather, stress, sleep and a dozen other things, so a single good or bad day tells you very little.
What about babies and children?
Ask your pediatrician first. We are a small balm maker and not your child's doctor, so we will not tell you a product is safe for your baby's skin, and least of all for a baby with eczema. If your pediatrician says a simple fragrance-free balm is fine to try, the unscented jar is the only one of ours we would suggest, and the same patch test applies. We wrote more about this in tallow balm for babies.
What about our scented jars?
They are lovely, and plenty of people with ordinary dry skin use nothing else. For eczema-prone skin, though, we would keep them for later, once you know the base agrees with you and only if fragrance has never bothered you. The rest of the whipped tallow range is built on the same tallow and coconut oil base, with essential oils added. If you are weighing the two, our guide to scented or unscented tallow balm walks through it.
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.
The simplest jar we make.
Patch test it, check with your provider, and if it suits you, it is two ingredients you never have to wonder about.
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