Dehydrated skin needs water as well as oils. In this formulation, moisturizing tallow teams up with hydrating water and glycerin plus some other skincare favourites to create a non-greasy, pumpable hand lotion that leaves your skin soft and moisturized without feeling greasy.

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The ingredients

Distilled water

I know water feels like a rather boring skincare ingredient when compared to all the other amazing ingredients we can use, but it plays an important role. The most important one is probably hydration; dehydrated skin needs hydration, and only water can hydrate.

Water also helps dilute the other ingredients in the formulation, and I promise this isn’t a bad thing! In the case of potent ingredients like actives and essential oils, dilution makes them safe to use. And when we’re looking at really rich ingredients, diluting them can make them nicer to use by making it easier to spread a small amount of a nourishing (yet greasy) fat over a large amount of skin. Water does this in our food as well—think about how much less enjoyable coffee would be if it wasn’t diluted with water!

Vegetable glycerin

I’ve included one of my favourite humectants—glycerin—to help prolong the hydrating effects of this lotion. Plain water will evaporate quickly off our skin, but humectants hold onto water so they slow evaporation and keep our skin soft and hydrated for longer.

Ritamulse SCG

Ritamulse SCG (Glyceryl Stearate [and] Cetearyl Alcohol [and] Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate) emulsify our oil and water phasese together. This all-natural emulsifying wax is one of my favourites, but if you don’t have it, you could use Emulsifying Wax NF, Olivem 1000, BTMS-25, or BTMS-50 instead.

Beef tallow

Beef tallow, the solid creamy fat rendered from the fat of cows, gets top billing in this formulation—even though we’re using it at a fairly low level. I highly recommend using grass fed tallow that’s been rendered enough times to remove the beefy smell. My tallow has a subtle yet distinctly beefy smell, and it definitely impacts the smell of the finished lotion, even with added essential oil.

I’ve written a ginormous post all about making skincare with tallow, including digging into many of the claims made about its skincare benefits. Please read that if you want to learn more.

The reason I’ve used a low level of beef tallow is because I’ve found emulsions with a saturated fat heavy oil phase tend to harden and get chalky/crumbly over time. They’ll start out nice and creamy, but a few months later they’ll be matte, hard, and not at all what you wanted when you made the emulsion.

You’re welcome to modify the formulation to use more tallow if you want, but be prepared to keep it around for a couple months to ensure it doesn’t seize up as time passes.

Sunflower oil

Sunflower oil is the star fat/emollient in this formulation. Not only does it ensure the lotion doesn’t thicken over time, it also helps balance the formulation’s fatty acid profile.

Beef tallow naturally contains high amounts of stearic (13–35%), palmitic (26–30%), and oleic acids (34–47%)—but it’s much lower in linoleic acid (~3%), a fatty acid that’s especially beneficial for skin barrier health. Sunflower oil is rich in linoleic acid (~55%), making it a great skincare oil, especially in formulations for dry skin. To ensure you’re getting that beneficial linoleic acid boost, use regular sunflower oil rather than the high oleic acid version that’s often sold for soap making.

If you want to swap out the sunflower oil, safflower oil or grapeseed oil would be my top choices.

That amber liquid is vitamin E

Optiphen™ Plus

Once water is present in a formulation, a broad spectrum preservative is required to keep mould and other microbial nasties at bay. I’ve used Optiphen™ Plus (INCI: Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Sorbic Acid) in this formulation as it’s more widely available than Liquid Germall™ Plus (my usual go-to preservative). I also like that it lowers the pH of formulations a bit; with this formulation it brings the pH into the good-for-skin (and good-for Optiphen™ Plus) range without the need for any other adjusting, and I’m a big fan of how easy that is.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E (a potent antioxidant) helps extend the shelf life of the formulation by delaying rancidicity, a.k.a. oxidization.

Peppermint essential oil

For a fresh minty pop (and to help mask any meaty whiffs from the tallow), I’ve included some peppermint essential oil. This doesn’t completely erase the beefy scent with the tallow I’ve used, but it helps disguise and distract from it. You can substitute another essential oil or fragrance oil if you prefer, just ensure it’s safe at 1% in IFRA category 5A products. If your tallow has a noticeably meaty smell recommend choosing a fairly assertive essential oil that won’t clash too badly with the smell of meat.

If you would like to use this lotion on your face, that would make this formulation an IFRA category 5B product; I probably wouldn’t choose refreshing, chilly peppermint as I’ve learned that can be a bit too refreshing on the face!

Tallow, emulsions, and shelf life

To ensure your tallow emulsions (and all tallow formulations, really—it’s just extra important when water is involved) last as long as possible, make sure the tallow you’re using is completely clean and dry. And lingering bits of meat or blood will seriously shorten the shelf life of your products (and who wants to find a bit of hamburger in their skincare?).

If you’re feeling nervous about the cleanliness of your tallow, I recommend including a chelator (like sodium phytate, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, of Disodium EDTA) in your emulsion and swapping the glycerin for a humectant that lowers water activity more effectively (like propanediol 1,3, propylene glycol, or butylene glycol). Both of these swaps will support your preservative and improve the stability of your formulation.

Relevant links & further reading

• Tallow and DIY skincare: Everything you need to know
• Tallow (beef) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Sunflower Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Beeswax in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Coconut Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Tocopherol (Vitamin E) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• How long will ______ last? What is its shelf life? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
• More body butter bar formulations:
  • Cocoa Coconut Vegan Body Butter Bars
  • White Chocolate Peppermint Body Butter Bars
  • Sugar Plum Body Butter Bars
  • Green & Gold Body Butter Bars
• More tallow formulations:
  • Creamy Tallow Body Butter
  • Tallow Body Butter Bars
  • Rustic Clay Soap
  • Almond Oat Soap
  • Argan Rose Soap
  • Lavender Aloe Soap

Light Tallow Hand Lotion

Heated water phase
70g | 70% distilled water
8g | 8% vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)

Heated oil phase
4g | 4% Ritamulse SCG (USA / Canada / UK / AU)
5g | 5% beef tallow
10g | 10% sunflower seed oil (USA / Canada / UK / NZ)

Cool down phase
1.5g | 1.5% Optiphen™ Plus (USA / Canada)
1g | 1% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
0.5g | 0.5% peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada)

Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.

Weigh the heated water phase into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup or glass beaker. Weigh the entire lot (measuring cup + ingredients) and note that weight for use later. Weigh the heated oil phase into a second heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place both measuring cups in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.

After about 20–30 minutes the oil part should be completely melted and the water part should be thoroughly dissolved. Remove the water bath from the heat and weigh the water phase. Add enough hot distilled water to the heated water phase to bring the weight back up to what it was before heating, and then pour the water part into the oil part. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate.

Grab your immersion blender and begin blending the lotion, starting with short bursts so the still-very-liquid lotion doesn’t whirl up and spray everywhere. Blend for about a minute before switching to hand stirring. You’ll need to be fairly diligent with the stirring at first, but once the mixture has thickened up a bit and is uniform you can switch to stirring occasionally. Once the outside of the glass measuring cup is just warm to the touch (40°C or cooler, if you have a thermometer) we’re ready to proceed.

Now it’s time to incorporate our cool down ingredients. Because cool down ingredients are typically present at very low amounts you’ll need to use an accurate scale—preferably one accurate to 0.01g. As these more accurate scales tend to have fairly low (100–200g) maximum weights you won’t be able to put the entire batch of lotion on that scale without blowing it out. So—grab a smaller dish. Add a scoop or two of lotion, and then weigh the cool down ingredients into that, using the more accurate scale. Stir to thoroughly incorporate, and then stir all of that back into the master batch of lotion. Doing it this way minimizes the amount of cool down ingredients lost to the secondary container.

If you have a pH meter it’s a good idea to check the pH of the lotion to ensure it’s in the good-for-skin (and our preservative) 4.5–5.5 range. When made as written, it should land in the 5–5.5 range thanks to the Optiphen™ Plus pulling the pH down a bit.

Package it in a pump-top bottle or squeeze tube.

Use like you’d use any hand lotion. Enjoy!

Shelf Life & Storage

Because this lotion contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. With good manufacturing practice and proper preservation, this formulation should last at least a year. Even with a preservative, this project may eventually spoil as our kitchens are not sterile laboratories, so in the event you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.

Substitutions

As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the formulation, you will get a different final product than I did.

• As I’ve provided this formulation in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams, this formulation will make 100g (roughly 3.3 oz).
• To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
• You can swap the glycerin for Propanediol 1,3.
• You can swap 20–30% of the distilled water for aloe vera juice or a hydrosol.
• You could use a different complete emulsifying wax like Emulsifying Wax NF, Olivem 1000, BTMS-25, or BTMS-50 instead of Ritamulse SCG.
• You can use a soft plant based butter like shea, mango, or murumuru instead of the tallow (though this does rather defeat the point of making a tallow lotion!).
• You can substitute another lightweight oil, linoleic-acid rich oil like safflower or grapeseed instead of sunflower seed oil.
• If you’re like to use a different preservative, please review this FAQ and this chart. Liquid Germall™ Plus (at 0.5%) would be my top recommendation, especially if you’re new to working with preservatives.
• If you’d like to use a different essential oil, please read this.

Troubleshooting

You’d like it to be thicker

Swap 2–3% of the sunflower oil for Cetyl Alcohol or Cetearyl Alcohol. Keep in mind it will thicken a bit for the first couple days after you make it, so don’t judge its viscosity too soon!