Tallow vs. Olive Oil for Skin: An Honest Comparison

Short answer: olive oil is a cooking oil that happens to feel moisturising, and a tallow balm is made for skin. Both are fats. The differences you will actually notice are practical ones: how long each stays where you put it, whether it ends up on your sheets, and how long it keeps once the lid is off.

Olive oil is the oldest skincare hack there is. It is already in the kitchen, it costs almost nothing, and it feels rich going on. We get asked about it constantly, so here is the honest version, including the places olive oil does perfectly well.

We are Jeremie and Megan Hannon, and we make whipped tallow by hand in small batches in Loomis, California. We do not sell olive oil, so take the comparison with that in mind and check the parts you can check yourself. If you already know you want the simplest option for dry or reactive skin, our Unscented Whipped Tallow is two ingredients and nothing else.

What is actually in each one?

Olive oil is dominated by a single fat. Roughly three quarters of it is oleic acid, one long-chain unsaturated fatty acid, with smaller amounts of linoleic and palmitic acid and a handful of polyphenols. It is a plant fat whose job is to store energy inside a fruit.

Tallow is rendered beef fat, and it is a mixture rather than one dominant fat: mostly stearic, palmitic and oleic acid, a blend of saturated and monounsaturated, and it naturally carries the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Those come from the animal and the pasture rather than from anything we add.

Ours comes from grass-fed, grass-finished cattle raised on 150-plus acres of regeneratively farmed land, with no herbicides, pesticides or vaccines, and we render it in small batches ourselves. Our grass-fed vs. grain-fed guide covers why we are picky about it.

Plant oils are not the problem here

Worth saying plainly before we go further, because a tallow company writing this page could easily slide into running plant oils down. We are not going to. Argan, rosehip, jojoba and sea buckthorn are excellent, and we built the Pure Glow Face Serum out of eight of them and sell it alongside the balm.

The question on this page is narrower and more practical: is a bottle of cooking oil the right tool for a dry-skin routine? That is a different question from whether plant oils are any good.

What we are not going to tell you

This page used to carry two claims that are no longer on it, and we would rather name them than quietly drop them.

• A summary of published research on olive oil and the outer layer of skin. That research exists and it is worth reading. We could not open either source we had linked when we checked them today, and we are not willing to summarise a finding we have not re-read, or to leave a link up that we cannot confirm resolves. If you want to know what the evidence says, ask a dermatologist or a pharmacist rather than taking our summary of it.
• A claim that tallow closely mirrors the oil human skin makes. It is a comparison repeated everywhere in this category, including by us. We cannot point you to a source we have read and confirmed, so we are not making it any more. What we can say is what the fats are, which is above.

The rest of this page is things you can verify on your own bathroom shelf.

The practical differences you will actually notice

Olive oil is liquid at room temperature. That is the whole story behind most of what follows.

• It stays wet. It sits on the surface and transfers readily to clothes, pillowcases and towels. A water-free balm sets on the skin and stays put overnight.
• It keeps badly. Culinary oil is unpreserved and will eventually turn, especially decanted into a warm bathroom. We wrote about shelf life on the balm side in does tallow balm expire.
• It is hard to use a little. Oil pours. A balm is scooped, and a pea-sized amount covers a surprising area once it warms in your fingers.
• It has a smell, and so do we. Olive oil smells like olive oil. Unscented tallow has a faint natural smell that fades quickly for some people and not for others. If that is a dealbreaker, a scented option like Lemon + Lavender solves it, and we go into it in does tallow skincare smell like beef.

Olive oil has two honest advantages worth naming. It is already in your pantry, and it is nearly free. If budget is the deciding factor, that is a real answer and we are not going to talk you out of it.

Where tallow is the wrong choice

Being straight about the limits, because they matter more than the sales pitch.

• If your skin runs oily or acne-prone, a rich balm on your face may not agree with you. Try hands and body first. We have not had our jars tested for comedogenicity, so we do not describe them as non-comedogenic and we are not going to put a number on it. More in does tallow clog pores.
• It is beef fat, so it is not vegan, and neither is it vegetarian. The full answer is in is tallow vegan.
• Every one of our balms contains organic coconut oil. If you react to coconut, check with your own provider before trying one.

If you want the simplest swap Unscented Whipped Tallow. Two ingredients: our grass-fed tallow and organic coconut oil. No fragrance, no dyes, nothing added. Made by hand by the two of us in Loomis, and if it is not right for your skin, write to us and we will make it right. Get my jar, 10% off

Which one should you use, and when?

Reach for olive oil when you want a cheap body oil on skin that is already comfortable, or to loosen makeup in a pinch. It is food, and used that way it is fine.

Reach for a balm when the skin is actually struggling. Dry, tight, flaky, wind-chapped, cracked at the knuckles, rough at the heels. For faces specifically, some people layer the Pure Glow Face Serum first and follow it with a thin pass of balm at night. For lips, olive oil is simply too thin to last, and Lip Relief holds on through the night.

If you are weighing other options, we have written the same kind of comparison on tallow vs. petroleum jelly and tallow vs. shea butter.

What about using either one on a child's skin?

Ask your paediatrician first. We are a small balm maker and not your child's doctor, so we are not going to tell you that any product is suitable for your baby, ours included, and we are not going to tell you a kitchen oil is either.

What we can tell you is what our Unscented jar factually is: our rendered grass-fed tallow and organic coconut oil, no fragrance, no dyes, nothing else. Take that to whoever looks after your child and let them make the call. If you see a page anywhere, including an older version of this one, that answers this question for you instead of sending you to a clinician, treat that as a reason to trust it less.

Can I just mix olive oil into tallow at home?

You can, and people do. Understand what you are doing, though. You are adding an unpreserved kitchen oil to a jar you will dip clean fingers into for months, and you are thinning out a balm that was whipped to a particular texture on purpose. If you want it thinner, warm a small amount between your palms first. Same result, nothing introduced.

Common questions

Is olive oil bad for your face? "Bad" is too strong. Occasional use on comfortable skin is unlikely to cause trouble. Our practical reservation is about using a liquid cooking oil as a daily facial moisturiser, not about plant oils generally.

Does olive oil go rancid on the skin? The oil in the bottle can turn over time, particularly if it is decanted and kept somewhere warm. A water-free balm kept with the lid on is more stable.

Will tallow feel heavier than olive oil? Yes. It is a balm rather than a liquid, so it feels richer going on and it stays put longer. Use less than you think.

Can I use olive oil to take off makeup? Yes, that is one of the things it does well, and it rinses with a normal cleanser afterwards.

Is tallow vegan? No. It is rendered beef fat, so it is neither vegan nor vegetarian.

Where to start

Fragrance-free: the Unscented jar. Want some scent: Lemon + Lavender or Vanilla + Mint. Face-focused: the Pure Glow serum. You can see what is actually in stock side by side in the whipped tallow collection. If you are not sure which fits your skin, email us and a real person in Loomis will answer.

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.