Made in Asheville, NC
Auntie Chelle’s Tallow Balm
An open jar of Auntie Chelle's Tallow Balm held in a hand, with a dried rosebud and lavender on top
A travel tin of Tallow Balm resting in a rosemary bush
A jar of Tallow Balm beside a bunch of dried flowers
A whole batch of Tallow Balm jars seen from above
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Herbal infused

Tallow Balm

$40

Grass-fed beef tallow, rendered on my own stove for a full twenty-four hours and infused with calendula, rosemary, lavender and chamomile. Five ingredients. Nothing in it you couldn’t name, and nothing in it I wouldn’t hand to a friend.

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What’s in it

Five ingredients, and that is the whole list

  1. One

    Grass-fed beef tallow

    It starts as suet — the fat that sits around the cow’s kidneys — from my butcher down the road, who gets it from a farm in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I render it low and slow for twenty-four hours and strain it twice through cloth until it’s clean and white. Suet is nutrient dense: vitamins A, D, E, K and B12, plus linoleic acid.

  2. Two

    Calendula

    The skin-loving herb we reach for when things feel dry, tender, or in need of a little extra care. Calendula has a long tradition of use in herbal skincare and is loved for helping support the skin’s natural renewal process.

  3. Three

    Rosemary

    More than a kitchen herb. Rosemary has been used for generations in traditional skin preparations — naturally cleansing, antioxidant-rich, and a beautiful aromatic addition to the balm.

  4. Four

    Lavender

    Lavender has earned its place in the herbal cabinet. It’s traditionally used to calm irritated-feeling skin, and its gentle floral aroma makes putting the balm on feel like a tiny moment of care.

  5. Five

    Chamomile

    Gentle enough for sensitive-feeling skin and deeply comforting when things feel dry or irritated. Chamomile is traditionally treasured for its soothing qualities, which makes it a natural companion to rich, nourishing tallow.

Nothing else

No water, no fillers, no fragrance oil

There’s no water in this balm, which means it needs no emulsifier and no preservative to hold it together. There’s no fragrance oil either — what you smell is the herbs themselves, and it’s soft. If a longer ingredient list is what you’re after, this isn’t the jar for you.

How to use it

A little goes a long way

Warm a small amount between your fingers and massage it into dry, irritated, or thirsty skin, wherever it’s needed. It makes a beautiful everyday moisturizer for face and body. A little goes a long way — one jar typically lasts a season and is naturally shelf stable.

What is tallow?

Beef suet, rendered low and slow for twenty-four hours

Tallow starts as suet — the fat that surrounds the cow’s kidneys — cooked gently for a full day until it becomes clarified. Suet is nutrient dense: vitamins A, D, E, K and B12, plus linoleic acid. Once rendered, I infuse it with my signature herbal blend, and it turns into a soothing balm.

Tallow is close in makeup to what our own skin already produces, which is a large part of why it sinks in the way it does instead of sitting on top. It’s also what people used long before there was an aisle for this sort of thing.

Looking down into an open jar of Tallow Balm, pale gold with lavender buds and a rosebud on top
In the kitchen

How a batch comes together

One
Render

Beef suet from a farm in the WNC mountains, cooked low and slow for twenty-four hours until it’s clean, white tallow, then strained twice through cloth.

Two
Infuse

Calendula, rosemary, lavender and chamomile from an Asheville co-op, weighed out and steeped into the warm tallow for a full day. Never a pre-made extract.

Three
Jar by hand

Poured, capped and labelled at my kitchen table in batches small enough to keep an eye on — about thirty jars at a time.

Good to know

Living with a jar of tallow balm

It softens in the heat

Tallow goes soft in a warm room and firms back up when it cools. That’s the balm behaving normally, not going off. Keep it out of a sunny window and it’ll keep its texture.

It smells like herbs

Faintly. There’s no fragrance oil in it, so what you get is rosemary and lavender at the edge of the room, not across it. The scent fades on the skin within a few minutes.

Go gently the first time

Everyone’s skin is their own. If yours runs sensitive, try a little on the inside of your arm and give it a day before you put it on your face.

Local pickup & delivery

Rather skip the shipping?

If you’re in the Asheville area, message me and we’ll arrange a pickup — or I’ll drop it off if you’re close by. No shipping cost, no waiting on the post office. I’m at markets now and then too; I’ll post market locations on Instagram.

Arrange a pickup Asheville & nearby
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Also on the shelf
Dry Shampoo

Arrowroot and cocoa with rosemary and lavender essential oil. Four ingredients in a little glass jar, for the mornings you’d rather not wash your hair.

Have a look
Five ingredients, nothing you can’t name

Try a jar from this batch

Batches are small on purpose. When one sells out I render another.

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