As I was making my yearly batch of DIY sunscreen, I thought I’d add my all time favorite skincare ingredient. If you’re a tallow fan like I am, you’ll want to know how to make tallow sunscreen.
Tallow sunscreen
I am obsessed with tallow for skincare. My all time favorite skincare product is tallow balm, and I show how to make it here. I also have a tallow lotion recipe here.
Tallow is actually a centuries old skincare product, but recently it has been gaining popularity. I decided to take my DIY natural sunscreen recipe and make it even better.
Why do I love tallow? Tallow is overflowing with an abundance of skin friendly nutrients, including fat soluble vitamins and antioxidants. I talk all about the benefits of tallow for skin care here.
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Why put tallow in sunscreen?
Since tallow has such amazing skin benefits, I knew it would be the perfect ingredient for my homemade sunscreen. Tallow from 100% grass fed, grass finished cattle contains a wider array of skin beneficial nutrients than any plant based oil.
I like adding it to my sunscreen recipe because I want all of those fat soluble vitamins and antioxidants. They are amazing at preventing and protecting from sun damage.
If you’re looking for the best ever DIY face moisturizer, check out my tallow face cream recipe here.
What kind of tallow is best?
My favorite tallow is from 100% grass fed, grass finished cattle, because it is the richest in beneficial nutrients. If you have tallow from grass fed cattle that were fed some grain, it is still a pretty good choice.
For this recipe, you can use straight tallow, or tallow balm. If you use tallow balm, the finished sunscreen will have a little bit of a softer consistency, but that’s totally fine.
All of the ingredients are by weight, not volume. This makes it easier, because you don’t have to melt anything just to measure it. If you need to make your own tallow, I show how to render tallow here.
Tallow sunscreen recipe directions
Ingredients:
- 1 oz. beeswax
- 2 oz. tallow or tallow balm
- 2 oz. virgin coconut oil
- 3 oz. liquid oil, such as carrot seed, argan, jojoba, or olive, or a combination
- 2 oz. non nano zinc oxide
Instructions:
- Weigh all ingredients and put them in the top of a double boiler.
- When all ingredients are melted, mix well with a whisk.
- Allow mixture to cool slightly.
- When mixture just starts to thicken but is still pourable, put in storage container. I like using glass jars or silicone tubes.
- Allow to solidify the rest of the way.
Why make your own sunscreen?
Commercial sunscreens contain lots of toxic ingredients, including chemicals that are hormone disruptors, can cause brain damage, nerve damage, and prenatal harm. Some research even indicates that some ingredients in commercial sunscreens could promote skin cancer (source).
By making sunscreen yourself, you can avoid all of those sketchy ingredients. You’re in complete control of all of the ingredients, so you can use safe, natural ones. And when you make it yourself, you can even add tallow!
Sunscreen controversy
There are a lot of different opinions out there when it comes to using sunscreen. It can be overwhelming!
Which sunscreen is better: homemade or store bought? Does homemade sunscreen work? Which zinc oxide is okay to use? Should we even use sunscreen at all?
Whew. Let’s take a second to calm down and breathe, and then I’ll explain what we’ve decided to do.
After researching the whole situation, we’ve decided to let our bare skin get a responsible amount of sunlight, because sunlight on skin is very healthy! I’ll talk more in a second about what we do to protect our skin from sun damage, from the inside out.
By responsible, I mean avoiding the most extreme sun exposure, and using shade and clothing to shield from sunburns. That’s our strategy most of the time.
Every now and then, like when on vacation, for example, we’ll find ourselves in a situation where we are in the sun longer than normal, and at a risk for getting sunburned. In those times, we use our homemade tallow sunscreen.
I make sure to use only non nano zinc oxide. That way, the particles are supposed to be large enough to not be absorbed into the bloodstream (source).
We’ve been using our homemade sunscreen for years, and it works great. It protects us from sunburn every single time. I love that it is safe enough for very young children to use.
How we protect our skin from sun damage
What you eat is everything. Interestingly, I read about the fact that when a person eats inflammatory industrial seed oils, also known as vegetables oils, these toxic and often rancid oils can react with the sun’s rays as one of the causes of skin cancer (source).
Here are some of the ways we protect our skin from sun damage:
- Eating antioxidant rich animal foods with abundant fat soluble vitamins, such as fats from organic, pasture raised animals
- Avoiding toxic, inflammatory industrial seed oils
- Using responsible sun exposure to allow our skin to build a healthy tan gradually
- Nourishing our skin on a regular basis with tallow balm
If you want an amazing exfoliator for feet, you’ll want to know how to make a homemade foot scrub with tallow. I also have a luxurious and super hydrating DIY shaving cream with tallow in it.
Another way I love to use tallow is as a deep conditioning treatment for my hair. Read all about how I use tallow for hair here.
More nutrient dense skincare
Tallow skin care: the complete guide
How do you like to use tallow?
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As I was making my yearly batch of DIY sunscreen, I thought I'd add my all time favorite skincare ingredient. If you're a tallow fan like I am, you'll want to know how to make tallow sunscreen. All ingredients are by weight. Tallow Sunscreen
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Is carrot seed oil an essential oil? I’m having a hard time finding a bottle that’s big enough to use in this recipe.
I like this one: https://amzn.to/38KTJpi
Hi! If you get just tallow, do you have to do anything to it? Or does it have to be a balm to make this recipe?
It depends how soft or hard the tallow is. If it’s soft enough to be easily spreadable, you’re good to go. If it’s hard tallow that isn’t easy to spread, you’ll want to make balm (mix some liquid oil into it).
This recipe is fantastic thank you! What is the shelf life of this sunscreen?
Thank you! Since it has no water, I find the shelf life is around 6 months to one year 🙂
Hi! Can I leave out or sub the coconut oil? I’m allergic to coconut oil 🙁
Yes! I would add more liquid oil instead 🙂
Hi there! Any pointers to make it more viscous for the silicone squeeze tube? I’ve found it to be quite solid. Maybe reducing the wax content or increasing the liquid oil? Any thoughts there?
Increasing the liquid oil can help 🙂
Hi, I love your site and have been making your toothpaste recipe for a few months with great success so thank you for that!
I’m about to make this recipe but really want to understand why there are so many scientists and dermatologists on YouTube trying to say you shouldn’t make your own sunscreen. Is it just because you can’t measure the SPF and also they aren’t weighing the cost benefit of the chemicals in the sunscreens vs the other diseases you could get from those?
Thank you! That is such a great question, and one I’ve often wondered myself! I have some theories, but nothing concrete 😉 All I know for sure is that we’ve been using this for years and it works really well. Since the individual ingredients do have measurable SPF, when combined, this sunscreen should have an SPF of at least 30, according to my research. I love being in control of the safe, natural ingredients, and I love that it always does a great job protecting our skin from any sunburn whatsoever. Hope this helps 🙂
Have you found this to be water resistant at all?
Yes! For us it is water resistant for at least 2 hours 🙂
could you whip this into a butter?
Yes, I think that’s a great idea!
Hi! I LOVE your recipes! I am wondering if you have tried a sunscreen using at least 50% tallow in it. What, besides the tallow and zinc oxide are necessary for this recipe to work? Thanks for sharing your passion.
Thank you so much! I haven’t tried that yet, but it’s a great idea! The liquid oils (especially argan and carrot seed) as well as the coconut oil have SPF properties as well 🙂
Hi there! A relative had skin cancer on her nose and says she has to use 50 spf, any recommendations on how to making it higher spf? Thank you!
Great question! I’m not sure, you could try increasing the amount of zinc and make sure you’re using argan and carrot seed oils instead of olive oil. I hope that helps!
What spf is it???
With these ingredients, it should be at least 30 🙂
Hello! Thank you for sharing these wonderful tallow recipes. Literally, they have saved my granddaughter much agony and kept her from having to use as much steroids for her eczema.
Lately, when I have been processing tallow, after following your method for two times rendering with water, there’s a LOT of what looks like little bb’s on the bottom of the hardened tallow (between the tallow and the water in the bowl). It’s grainy and doesn’t seem to be like the rest of the tallow cake. Any idea if it’s operator error, do I need to render longer, lower temperature, higher temperature? Today’s batch has a good amount of grainy texture and I am wondering why. Please, if you have insight, please help!
Hello, I’m happy to try and help! I’m so glad it’s been helpful for your granddaughter, that is wonderful. I have seen that sometimes on the tallow I render. That part of the tallow cake is probably the impurities mixed with the lower quality fat. You can scrape it all off and not use it for your tallow recipes. Wild bird or chickens love to eat it. As far as the grainy texture, trim fat will often have a softer, grainy texture to it, while leaf fat is nice and hard and smooth. To get rid of the grainy texture, try chilling your liquid tallow or tallow balm very quickly in the freezer. That will often help the texture be smoother. Hope that helps!