Would you put pork fat on your face?
I’ve started using a moisturizer that most people would describe as…gross. After trying it, I say it’s gross and fabulous.
I’ve always had very sensitive skin. On my face, my skin expresses it’s tender nature by being dry, scaly, patchy, and red in most places…and breaking out in all the others.
I had this idea that the 30s would be a sweet spot between acne and wrinkles, and instead I’ve learned that, like a Venn Diagram of skin woes, you get both! Bonus!
Anyway, in past lives I’ve tried all kinds of skin remedies, natural and artificial, to soothe and moisturize my skin. (You can read more about my realization that I was being lied to about skin care products here.) My quest for normal skin (I’m not looking for flawless, here, just simultaneously non-patchy and non-cystic) has taken me from drug-store acid-based acne fighters to expensive department store specialty under eye wrinkle cream to prescription hard core zit cream and daily antibiotics.
Slumping Towards Lower Maintenance
Looking back only two constants held true. 1) The more I did to my skin, the worse it got. 2) Whenever I was wrist deep in animal fat (making lard, skimming tallow, etc.) my hands became soft and lost their deeply abused look…at least temporarily.
After the birth of my second child, hygiene fatigue combined with frugality and I started doing less and less “maintenance” for my appearance – haircuts happen on about an annual basis and the idea of browsing aisles for the perfect combination-skin calming cream when I still don’t get a daily shower is just laughable.
I took up oil cleansing, and liked it. The almond oil I used to wipe off the day’s grime really did the trick, and was cheap compared to things marketed as cosmetics, but the oil went rancid in my warm bathroom pretty quickly.
I tried coconut oil, which many people adore. The solidity of the coconut oil at room temperature required hand-rubbing to soften the oil enough to make it usable. More than this, the coconut oil I tried burned the skin on my face. This is, as far as I can tell, pretty unusual. If you love your coconut oil I’m not knocking it, just saying it didn’t work out for me.
The coconut oil experiment led to the following internal debate:
“Coconut oil is kinda like vegetarian lard. People love coconut oil, but I love lard. I could moisturize with lard.”
“That would be really gross.”
“But pigs are really close to people. Remember, there was that super creepy CSI episode where the pig is used to study the -”
“Um…stop. This is getting grosser by the second. You have terrible powers of persuasion.”
“Well, my point is, if pigs are similar in their body make-up to people, then doesn’t it make sense that pork fat would work well as a people moisturizer?”
“You’re going to do this pork-turizer thing no matter what I say, aren’t you?”
“Oh, I am so trying this.”
“Please don’t ever mention that CSI episode again.”
And so, tentatively, I dabbed a bit of clean (not yet used in the kitchen) lard onto my cheek.
Homemade Gross vs. Industrial Gross
So, ok, lard has a bad rap. I get why the idea of smearing pork fat on your skin might put people off. But consider what you probably already put on your skin if you use a standard suite of soaps, moisturizers and cosmetics.
Heavily-used fast food deep-fat frier oil (almost certainly GMO and partially-hydrogenated) is recycled for soap and make-up, and rendered animal fats and their derivatives are common in pretty much every conceivable skin or cosmetic product you might put on your face.
And the stuff that goes to the rendering plant where that fat comes from? That’s the stuff that’s not good enough for pink slime, know what I mean? It doesn’t meet even the bare minimum legal standards for human consumption. (If it did, it’d be in a hot dog, not lipgloss.) In fact, if you’re not actively seeking out vegan skin care products, you probably don’t just rub animal fat on your face…you rub industrial waste animal fat on your face.
Now, please don’t take this as judgement. I have some industrial waste animal fat lipstick in my bathroom cabinet right now. I bring this unpleasantness up to make the point that you are very likely already rubbing “gross” animal fats or their derivatives on your skin.
In contrast, the lard I’m rubbing on my cheeks is rendered in my own kitchen from the unprocessed fatback of humanely raised pigs that had a good life and one bad day. Unlike the fats used extensively in commercial soaps, moisturizers and make-up, the lard I use came from the fat of one animal, not whatever combination of road kill and dead zoo creature happened to get thrown into the rendering vat that day.
There now, doesn’t some nice home-rendered kitchen lard moisturizer seem downright Happy Hippie compared to all that? I’ve been rendering lard for quite awhile for cooking, and it seems to me that it can’t be that weird to put something on my skin that I’m already willing to eat.
Does It Work?
Other than a vague and short-lived porcine smell, my lard moisturizer is great. It leaves a thin sheen that absorbs into my skin quickly. I was already accustomed to the temporary residual shine left from oil cleansing, so the degree of greasiness from the lard doesn’t phase me at all.
At room temperature the lard is creamy and easy to rub in, and it takes very, very little to moisturize my entire face.
I’ve had no reaction to the lard, and actually it feels downright soothing on the skin. And since I’ve started smearing pork fat on my face my skin just looks better. The big dry patches are gone and my skin feels genuinely smooth. I haven’t had a problem with break-out or pore clogging. Quite frankly, I’m not sure I can think of a downside.
Would you ever use animal fat as a moisturizer?
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No. And Wow. I find myself sitting here at not even 7am, now contemplating the use of pork fat as a moisturizer. Lets put that in the “Things that I never thought would occur to me” column.
You make a mean pro-lard argument.
I can tell everyone it works and makes sense DNA the protein value is very high amino acids and loaded with vitamins B complex and more. I absolutely love it I’m on my third day and wow better than getting fat fillers face looks fuller smoother and healthy fresh and younger. I now prefer Bacon Fat on my face.:)
Can’t say that I’ve ever thought of using lard as a moisturizer. I also suffer from the cruel combination of aging skin and acne here in my mid 30s. A few months ago, after a particularly unpleasant breakout I read about using diluted raw apple cider vinegar as a toner (might be a little harsh on your skin but you can adjust how diluted it is so that it can be more gentle). I now use it each night sometimes followed by argan oil, sometimes not, and my skin has been doing so much better. I don’t think it does anything for the aging but the acne is so much better. Argan oil as a moisturizer has worked quite nicely and hasn’t led to any additional breakouts. I do have to use sunscreen on my face each day since I have a history of melanoma so I am still tied to the man for that, but I am looking for a nice skin and planet friendly option for that.
try a cannabis/coconut baking oil. It is definitely psychoactive and for making potent edibles
but…
It’s great on your skin, and although u might feel sort of more alert, you don’t get high from it. I believe it blocks UV. Try it out. You could also use Cannabis in butter, I suppose, or lard, for that matter
You are quite the colonial. Women of colonial Williamsburg used ‘rose balm’ made with hog lard as a moisturizer!
i would love to know where to buy some pure pork lard…. seeing as how i dont have pigs…
is there a good source to purchase from???
Yes – try a local butcher nearest you. They usually sell rendered lard for a great bargain! It’s not hydrogenated and oh sooo good for you!
Well, in Hungary we are using a lot of old natural things as face skin improving material…if you have a dry face skin you can use a good egg-yolk with some drops of lemon and some drops of extra virgin olive oil…it is very good. If you have a dray hair,
you can even use as a balm for your hair the extra virgin olive oil…since all the shampoos and balms are full of chemicals (you can easily get skin or other types of cancer)..
You can buy shelf stable lard in the oil ans shortening area of any grocery.
It is usually hydrogenated and processed to death in the grocery store. Find a farmer, get lard from a butcher, render it yourself. It is not hard–you need a crock pot, a sieve, and a canning jar. Find directions on the internet. This is a lost art.
Loved your blog on this, btw!
You may want to try ghee as a moisturizer — it’s been working for my itchy, dry skin very well. Like lard, it has a long history of external use as well as internal.
Sure, I’ll try anything once! I currently use a blend of coconut, olive, and vitamin e oils with a couple drops of tea tree.
Several years ago I watched an expose (can’t remember which show) about how well anti-aging creams work. They compared the uber-expensive department store creams to the drug store creams. They’re conclusion: none work and you might as well be putting (wait for it…) LARD on your face. They didn’t actually evaluate whether lard would work though.
I would try it. I’ve been trying to detox my life ever since reading “Breast” and learning about how pourous our bodies really are. Even the “good” products found in the natural health aisle have chemicals I don’t recognize on the ingredient list. Now to find some lard… It is not big here in NW New York yet.
If I had dry flaky skin, I would most definitely give lard a try. For most of my life, I have had the opposite problem, my skin is way oily, and I sweat (like a pig, hah!) at the drop of a hat. I think you’re brilliant for just using something that seems to be working. You make a great case for it. I have no qualms whatsoever about it. And I love, “a good life and one bad day.”
Hi Alison, I think you should try oil (or lard) cleansing. It is very good for people with any skin type. The body is very good at compensating when it recognizes a lack. When we use soap products on our face, we remove the natural oils that need to be there and our bodies often overproduce to compensate. I’ve only been oil cleansing for a short time now and my complexion has completely even out and my acne is almost nonexistant! There are different oils that can be used for different skin types. I haven’t yet tried lard–one day, maybe–but I use a mix of apricot kernel oil and castor oil. Castor oil on it’s own is considered drying. Sometimes after washing my face with oil I have to reapply a little, because my face feels a bit dry. Give it a try! I wouldn’t be surprised if it tamed the excess oil production!
I had mild acne and coconut oil worked for me…like Erin said, oil cleansing is actually good for oily siin (and other skin types).
I found this article while I was wondering if I might use duck fat on my contact allergy dermatitis (allergic to my engagement ring, thanks white gold). I’d definitely give it a go, I hear shearers have the softest hands thanks to the lanolin in the wool.
Kitty…can’t comment on duck fat for the face but I am of Polish descent and they swear that duck and goose fat applied to the chest then a warm cloth on top is the best cure for chest colds.
I have super sensitive skin and virtually could not apply anything to my face. I started with almond oil and oh it felt so good. I applied morning and night and talked (a lot of talking) my 25 year daughter in trying it. She loves it now because not only is her face soft but her face cleared up and she very seldom experiences a break out. I am still using the oil but have discovered a natural skin line that I can use on my face “Essensa” from France. Sold only thru certain spas in the States or online thru their distribution centre in New York. I LOVE their products, they are mainly a combination of various oils and plant extracts. My skin hasn’t felt this good since my 30’s. It’s expensive but if it’s the only product I can use I don’t even mind paying the $$$
I don’t see any reason not to use it, especially if it works! I am REALLY lucky to have pretty cooperative skin even in my mid 30’s so I don’t have to do much to it, but I may try this as a moisturizer (ya know…early and often!). I may look around some of my local shops and see if any of the butchers have “responsibly collected” lard, since we don’t go through enough meat to render my own.
I’m now having a similar internal debate based on this post. Unfortunately, I don’t have ready access to local, happy-pig lard, and have yet to render my own. Once I get over that hurdle though… Stop it!
Want to see something amazing? Rub extra pork fat on your face and then wipe away the excess with a white cloth/napkin/kleenex. It works really well at removing all the grime.
Want to see something even more amazing? Smooth some lard on half your face before you go to bed. Look in the magnifying mirror in the morning. Be amazed. =D
I have skin just like yours. anywhere it’s not flaking and being dry it’s breaking out. I have about 1 good skin week per month. I’m 33 and I thought for sure the breakouts would stop by now. I’ve mainly been managing this with scrubbing and tons of moisturizer and aloe vera gel. My skin is so sensitive that any “acne” product is too harsh. Lately I’ve been just rinsing with water in the shower & using aloe & jojoba oil. At the moment that seems to work-but I’d definitely try this. I’ve tried millions of products (ok, that may be an exaggeration but definitely hundreds) so 1 more natural one couldn’t hurt.
So are you No-Poo, too? (have stopped using commercial shampoos?)
I would consider using lard, if I felt like I needed it. I used to have very flaky skin and breakouts, and fixed it all literally by doing *nothing*. Most days I *wash* my face with warm water and exfoliate with a towel. I wear very scant amounts of mineral makeup most days (just to cover red spots), and take off eye makeup with baby oil. I use a vegetable soap around my mouth to clean off food or on my whole face about once a week. It got so much better after I realized my skin could take care of itself without my help.
I would definitely consider trying homemade lard moisturizer IF I hadn’t wasted so many years figuring out my skin. Now that I have an effective routine (based on Ayurvedic medicine) I’m not bold enough to dabble around. I wash with a chickpea flour and powdered milk paste (face hummus), tone with a cooled green tea spray, and moisturize with almond oil. And I kinda love that if I was trapped on a desert island I could sustain myself with this!
I admire your experimental fortitude- looking forward to reading about more homemade body products!
First, want to make this very clear, I love reading your blog, and I will continue because it is always interesting and intelligent. BUT it is topics like this that make me wonder if anyone out there in blogosphere know of a similar blog that is based in the northern midwest states and is vegetarian/vegan leaning.
I am all for doing want you need to do with meat, raising meat, eating meat in a humane way. It just is not something that we use. In that vein I would like to find same thinking blog and would greatly appreciate all your help in locating one, especially as I said also in the northern
states…N Minnesota or N Wisconsin would be great. We have such a different climate that though I enjoy reading your gardening escapades they do not really lend well to what I can do here. We had frost 3 weeks ago…traditional planting around here is between Mother’s Day and Memorial Day. Seeds can go in earlier.
Thanks for any and all answers!
You might want to skip tomorrow’s post. 😉 Sorry, I don’t know of a blog that focuses on your area. I’m sure if you google around there’s a north midwest veggie writer out there. If not, maybe you should become one 🙂
Elizabeth, I’m in the Midwest too, so I sympathize about the gardening zone discrepancy. Have you read http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/ ?
Amy I did check out that blog. She is in Southwest Michigan which is actually a quite different zone than us. We lived there for a couple years when we were first married. Much milder. They have lots of fruit, blueberries, grapes, cherries. We order our blueberries from a farmer there…soon he will bring his truck load over here and we will have blueberries for canning and freezing.
Sorry for the late response, I am just now reading this post. There’s a Weston A Price Foundation YahooGroup (or there was a few years ago) that is a WONDERFUL resource for traditional foods and nutrition and based in MN… the Twin Cities, I think. Go to the YahooGroups.com homepage and search “WAPF MN” without the quotes, that should return the group. WAPF is very meat oriented, but as I recall (I was subscribed for years) however the helpful people on that list are very likely to know of resources for your area and in my experience very unlikely to judge you for your preference for Veg Lifestyle. You might also look in N MI, which should be similar and in areas around Traverse City, they are VERY active in sustainable ag and so should have a few blogs there. Be hard to beat this one tho…. but I do understand your climate issues.
Go for it. I accidentally used a sheep lard lipgloss because there was fat from the lamb meat in my soup and after I ate it I had wonderfully smooth lips and realized it was the fat from the lamb! You can probably scent it with something too like lavender?
When making bone broth soup from whole chicken carcass after a roast chicken dinner 🙂 I discovered the next morning, after digging into the overnight simmered soup pot to scoop out and discard the carcas/bones that the chicken fat made my aged hands SOOOO young and soft looking. So i thought it was worth a try on my face! And now whenever i can get it, i put cooked chicken fat skimmed from soup or gravy on my face and neck. Could the cooked chicken fat be the prized ingredient COLLAGEN that IS in facial products for aging skin ?? minus the awful additives like benzenes and parabens and propalyne glycol…. ALSO i discovered olive oil and coconut oil work well too, but chicken fat seems more amazing, though i have lacked the discipline to keep at it every day for a few weeks to give it a fair test….
“.. not whatever combination of road kill and dead zoo creature happened to get thrown into the rendering vat that day.”
So, I initially took a little offense to the jab towards dead zoo creatures, but this is me being persnickety (and I otherwise love this post). In my experience, zoo animals are considerably cleaner and generally better fed than most domestic pets. They definitely shouldn’t be lumped in the same category as roadkill. I’m biased from having worked for a few PNW zoos and having seen the care given to the animals, from the produce and grain brought in all the way up to the veterinary hospital. I know that most zoo animals in Washington are cremated, or their remains are donated to museums. But Washington isn’t everywhere.
I’ll admit that once I did some research I found that zoo animals across the country are often rendered down into a usable product for commercial use. (Here’s a text-only explanation of LA County procedures: http://animalcare.lacounty.gov/cms1_031226.pdf)
One excerpt from the LA document I really dislike hearing: “… levels of pentobarbital residue were found to be so low that the CVM concluded that “it is highly unlikely a dog consuming dry dog food will experience any adverse affects from exposures to the low levels of pentobarbital.”
This basically says that residual amounts of animal euthanasia solution can be found in the rendered product, a product that is often used in dog food, or cosmetics. That’s.. that’s not really okay with me. And it’s not really okay with me to be rubbing that on my face. Hmmm.
Yeah…it’s pretty much worse than you think it could be, when you start looking at it, isn’t it? Thanks for that link. I’m going to be better about keeping my toddler out of the cat food, too…
What a great idea. My husband went out yesterday to get some lard from the store and immediately put it back. It had so many chemicals and unknown ingredients. He ended up getting straight up uncured pork fat from our butcher. We still have to render it, but I’d rather render the fat than have a block of putrid chemical laden lard.
I’m glad you have a source for pork fat. The only way we’ll get humanely raised pork is to grow them ourselves. We’re just not ready for that.
Makes sense! When I’m on bacon baking duty at work my hands are super soft afterwards. I would probably add a little essential oil for scent, or maybe steep dried flowers in the liquid lard, then strain before letting it harden. If I ever render my own lard I’ll save a little to try this!
I’m also in my (later) middle thirties and the skin on my face is worse than ever before. Well, until I started the anti-inflammatory eating. I’m not sure if it’s the result of less grains, dairy, soy or veggie oils, but my skin is looking great. I’ve had a few people comment on my glow (some of which I credit to a nice tan, I always look better in summer). Whatever is doing it, I’ll take it!
Awesome. I love it. And I’m totally gonna try it. Also – your debate is… jest perfect. Hehe.
Awesome sauce. I started making my own massage oil/moisturizer years ago and it keeps my face in good stead, but I have been looking for something for my hands that works. Thanks!
Great idea. Lard from a happy pig would have vitamin D too.
I think this is a very natural thing to do and there is anecdotal evidence culturally. I make pure tallow soaps and find it hard to convince people that tallow is the best moisturiser hands down. My husband and I would not use anything else now and our skin has never been better
Why the heck not? Soap was (has been?) made with animal fats for, oh, forever, so it would make no sense to shun pork fat moisturizer on the grounds that it’s weird to put animal fat on your skin. If I had a source of happy pig fat here, I would be using it for pretty much everything.
(As a pork-related side note: my husband and I went to a restaurant here in St. John’s, Newfoundland, that focuses on local ingredients, and they serve their bread with a little mason jar of warmed pork fat and molasses for dipping – obviously the molasses isn’t local, but it’s a traditional food here because we used to send salt cod to Jamaica in exchange for molasses and rum. Anyway, bread + warm pork fat and molasses = heaven.)
I’m with you! I started getting pretty bad breakouts and was told the only thing to cure it was in a tube from the pharmacy. Turns out my skin just really hates coconut oil and that was the #1 ingredient in the soaps I was making at the time. My soap recipe is now Lard and olive oil (which I affectionately call “Bastille”, bastard castille) with tea tree oil followed up with witch hazel toner. Done and done.
But Tanya is 100% correct it’s hard to convince other people that animal tallow is good for their skin. I think of it this way, it’s closer to the natural oils my skin makes and it’s one more way to use “all of the buffalo”.
I use olive oil as eye make up remover, and raw egg yolk as a face mask, and they both work great. If I ever find my skin needing to be moisturized, (I have the opposite problem at this point) I may try lard……I do rub it on my elbows while I’m processing it, and it does the trick. Your comment about the faint porky smell reminds me of a passage in Margaret Atwood”s ‘The Year of the Flood’ where a woman has a sheep hair wig surgically implanted and loves it except for a ‘faint muttony smell’ when it got wet.
Brilliant. Would I? If I needed it and could get a humanely raised pig, most certainly. Great post.
All I can say is my dog would freaking LOVE it if I slathered lard on my face.
Both gluten and dairy consumption can cause all of the conditions you mention. After removing these 2 food groups, my skin stopped breaking out and I no longer experience dry, flaky skin. Many other symptoms (too numerous to list) also disappeared.
Great idea. This never occured to me. I buy LUSH moisturisers because I know they’re ethical as well as efficacious and I can get them non-plastic packaged, but this is something I’d like to give a try also.
BTW, have had really good luck with my chemical-sensitive, psoriasis- and dermatitis-ridden skin 😛 since I stopped using facial cleansers with soap in them and flouride toothpaste.
Do you know how many times my husband has told me how sexy I would be if I rubbed bacon all over myself??
In most of African homes is a bottle of pork lard. It has been used for years. In 1991 and later years I mixed it with coconut oil as my baby oil. Its result was ever best . An hrs ago i recommended the mixers since the daughter has 4 pimples reappearance every month. I recommended lemon wash but a final kick out with my old mixers.
great stuff, I recently made soap from my home kill pig and the fat is so nice Iv been rubbing it on my hands and thinking this would be good on my face, so now I shall go home and use it on my face with confidence. Also I no longer use commercial toothpaste but i make a tooth powder from bi carb soda, pepperment oil and stevia-for a touch a sweetness and my teeth have never been whiter, I also nolonger use shampoo instead i use my home made pig soap and it does a wonderful job on my curly hair.There are just to many nasty chemicals in our day to day products so getting back to basics is the only way to go. My motto Keep it simple!
Hi Donna wOuld you mind sharing how you make the pig soap.? I have curly very dry hair and have tried just about everything Thank you Cathie ,
Even though people obviously consume meat they have a weird aversion to putting animal products on their skin. I’ve deliberately had to make my handmade soaps vegetarian due to this fact though I’d have loved to be able to use locally produced tallow in my recipes.
I would, but the oil cleansing method and coconut oil works fine for me.
Great post! I’ve gone through the same thinking process a week ago and decided to try pork fat as my only facial cream and it is great. At the moment, we have high temperatures in this part of Europe and i was i affraid i would have breakouts but i has been fine.
A handful of years ago I had a cat with severe chronic skin irritation (he was horribly allergic to fleas, apparently). Almost his entire face ended up covered with huge scabs. Poor baby.
I massaged his face with lard. Mostly because I wasn’t sure how good for him it would be to regularly clean off (and consume) Vaseline, lotion or vegetable based oils. He absolutely loved it, leaning into the massage and purring, and although the vet was pretty sure that cat would recover from such severe scarring with bald spots, his fur grew back thick and healthy.
I would absolutely use lard on my own skin, but I prefer coconut oil and raw shea butter for their smells.
Sure. Goose fat is even lighter and more pleasant, though.
Enjoying your blog and wanted to say thanks for the excellent idea. We raise our own pastured pigs and I rendered lard from their fat last year. My husband has psoriasis and I’m going to get him to try some of our lard on his patches to see if that helps.
Yes! I have used chicken fat on my hands! Laughingly, I have also seen a tv star cook talk about chicken fat for your skin also!
I like the point you made- you’re already eating it, why not put it on your face? I’m vegetarian so I wouldn’t, but I’m always slightly amused at meat eaters who get grossed out by animal stuff… And as far as the pork smell, I’m sure a few drops of essential oil will clear that right up!! Way to problem solve!
Well, I’ve not used pork fat on my face yet, but I might. I have used Lanolin on my breasts while breastfeeding. And Lanolin (wool grease) is justa yellow waxy substance secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals. Lanolin’s role in nature is to protect wool and skin against the ravages of climate and the environment. If it’s good for the sheep, it’s good enough for me!
~Lisa
Tijeras, NM
I love skin care products you can eat! I use the oil cleansing method (olive/castor) and it’s marvelous. Between oil cleansing and eating low carb and ridiculously high fat my skin is looking and feeling better than it has in a decade. Dry elbows are history, haven’t used body lotion in months and I think my wrinkles are actually reversing. Eating tons of saturated fat does my body good! Why not spread it on the outside too?
People who raise emu for meat render the oil and employ it in the production on skin care products.
I’ve used it with great results; it does help heal some skin problems and conditions. And it’s a wonderful all-around skin moisturizer.
BTW, I’m allergic to jojoba. Has anyone else had a bad reaction to it?
If you guys didn’t know, Pork Fat is really good for burns, if you don’t want the burning scars on you forever then you should start applying the pork fat on the affected area (after it healed a little bit) and you will minimize the scar.
I love lard for skin care. I decided to try it when I figured out that lard soap was the only thing my face and hands liked! And I find the lard soap and also the lard cream to be slightly firming on my skin as well as moisturizing. I eat a paleo diet so this seemed a logical thing to do! The only problem I have is that my home-rendered lard still smells piggy on my skin even with EO’s and so right now I’m using grocery store lard… but it works just as well… hope I don’t die 😉
oh and using scented lard for the oil cleansing method works great! feels like a satiny, smooth cold cream but not as greasy (surprise!) as my home-made cold creams that contained plant oils!!!
Hi!
I love the lard moisturiser! Lard makes great soaps. Duck fat too.
I just don’t really like the smell of the lard on its own and for the moisturiser I do a 80/20 lard / cocoa butter mix and it smells of chocolate!
Great post, I just inadvertently used lard to moisturise my hands while baking (rubbing lard into flour) and really liked it! I am not sure I want the porky stuff on my face as my hands do smell a bit sausagey. Also I don’t have a pig farm, but the way you describe it makes me wish I did…
Thank you!
I’m a bit late on this but we render lard from our pastured piggies and tallow from pastured beef. After using coconut oil we started using lard a few months ago and LOVE LOVE LOVE beef tallow. I usually use it plain but a few drops of essential oil can make it pretty as well. I love it for my baby and toddler as well since I know there are zero chemicals and they can eat it for a dose of vitamins and good fats and I dont have to worry about all the hormone disruptor