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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Melanie, a guide at Chelsea Physic Garden, London, England says:
A most interesting and useful article as I have started rendering my own pork fat – which by the way for all you people in the States, costs £6 a kilo in my butcher!
Who has tried scenting the rendered pork lard with rose petals/violets/lavender? I believe this was the traditional method for creating scented face creams.
I found your post as I researched about putting animal fat on the skin. I have a very “difficult skin” like you do (although your picture shows a great complexion), and coconut oil didn’t agree with me either. A few days ago, I just glanced at my beef tallow jar and the idea of trying it popped into my head. It actually feels great too! My skin is very thin and dry, especially under the eyes. The tallow felt very protective. Today I tried adding an essentiual oil from Corsica.
It made me curious to try mutton tallow as well, and why not lard.
Now I want to make a body mosturizer….
I’ve use bacon fat as moisturizer, and sometimes ghee. We are animals, I may be pushing the logic, but I think it absorbs easier and better than vegetable fat and nut oils and strange chemicals in tiny jars with too much packaging sold for lots of money. People find it odd, but in the end, who doesn’t like the smell of bacon? and vanilla is my favorite scent, so in general I’m pretty edible smelling 🙂
i dont have the first clue about how to render pork fat, except maybe the fat after cooking bacon. I really want to try it tho! so do you know any brand or place to get lard that is clean? also does it even go rancid? like could i use bacon fat and leave it on the counter and it would stay good?
It very much makes sense to me to only use things on the skin that one can eat so even before reading this I tried lard on hands and face and find it is wonderful! I use it after patting on some aloe. Absorbs after a bit and the skin is glowingly nice, soft – wrinkles seem to disappear. Both olive oil and coconut oil seem fine for a bit but then tend to dry my skin too much.
My husband is the underweight equivalent of extreme obese (i.e. life-threatening) and I came upon lard in my search for bringing him back to health. It has only been a few weeks but we both feel it just might be the answer.
I’ve heard of this but never tried it. Seems to be very positive reactions from the comments here. I’m going to give it a try, it has to be better then the synthetic ingrediants in commercial lotions.
Some Japanese people use horse lard for any kind of ailments, such as burn, eczema, dry skin, insect bites, etc. Packaged “horse oil” products are sold as cosmetic products. I use horse oil, and it works wonder for me.
Oh my gosh. I just rendered my first batch of pork fat today, from my first sustainably raised, non-corn, non-soy, non GMO, etc. pig purchased from a local farm. All went well, and as I was pouring the lard into mason jars, I thought to myself, “hmmmm, I think I read somewhere that animal fat was good for your skin”. I went through a few seconds of further thought like “the vitamin A and D content must be good for skin, right?” So, I poured a little into the palm of my hand and rubbed it on my face and neck, immediately after which I had a mini-panic attack and realized I must have surely lost my mind!!! So I googled “pork fat as face cream”, and thankfully found your wonderful post and webpage!! Thank you for the reassurance!!! I plan to spend the rest of my evening reading your site for more hints and tips! I have to admit I was also slightly worried that my dogs might try to eat my face off, or at the very least lick me to death, but for anyone else with this worry all was fine and they seemed not to even notice – too bad for them!
I love lard cleansing cream. I live in the desert and make soap as a pasttime. When I had some left over melted lard, I made it into a cleansing cream to die for. Drops of a stronger EO took care of the piggy smell to it. I used ylang ylang. 1/2 c. melted lard, 2 tablespoons of soy wax – melt together. Blend 1/4 c. boiling water with 1/4 t. borax. Cool to an equal temp, blen together and pour into an 8 ounce flat side wire jelly jar. Its’ the same recipe I formerly used olive oil.
WOW! Yea! Good info., and yes I would use pig fat on my face. In fact I am rendering some beef fat as I write this for tallow to use in my soap making, face cream, balms, & whatever. For 13 years I’ve been making my own soap and always have used vegetable oils, but now I’m going to try tallow. I already also make my own face cream and would use NOTHING else. I get irritated at all the marketing, lying and promises of perfection….and we just fall for it…..I better not get on the ‘ol soap box! Thank you for posting Erica.
Nice post. My high school Chem 2 students and I discovered in the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics that lard and human depot fat have the same fatty acid composition. They loved making Granny’s Old Timey Lye Soap with lard in chemistry lab.
I recently ran out of my expensive prescription cream for my eczema face patches. One weekend morning I was frying up some bacon when a big flake of eye brow dandruff fell into my glasses and stuck there blurring my vision. I don’t know what possessed me other than to keep any flakes from falling into the pan, but I swiped my finger in the bacon grease and rubbed it on my eyebrows and lo and behold but if it didn’t seem to moisten and soften the redness! It doesn’t seem to work as well as the expensive RX cream. The flakes were still there the next day. But maybe for some people this would work! And so much cheaper!
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yES, IT IS A FANTASTIC MOISTURISER! MY SKIN WAS DRY BUT SINCE I STARTED USING PORK LARD, THE DRYNESS IS ALL GONE!! TO ADD ON ITS AFFORDABLE!
Like some others folks here, I just happened to be making bacon and had a bout of dry skin at the time (I have eczema). Since my last flare up, my use of cortisone really dried out my skin in an effort to rid me of it. Naturally, that skin is now really dry, or at least dries faster than it did before. I was cooking bacon for a bacon and spinach salad when I decided fat is essentially an oil so why not try rubbing it on the dry bits? So far, it feels much more long lasting than conventional lotions for me and hopefully it seeps deeper and helps that new layer of baby skin cells break through finally. I actually found this blog by googling bacon fat and skin care because, like some other folks, I thought I must be nuts putting bacon fat on me!
I am very, VERY sensitive to all things cosmetic. I have huge problems with anything petroleum and also with bee’s wax (not that common an allergy). Years ago I began using just plain lard. I can also use coconut oil, but it’s too light for me, really. My husband has used coconut oil for many years. I now use lard most of the time. I render my own not only for quality, but out of concern for animal welfare. When I go to the massage therapist, I carry my own jar of lard. It can be scented just like any other cream or oil… with a few drops of your favorite Essential Oil, my favorite is plain old lavender. For a vegan alternative, when I lived in Greece decades ago, many of the women with the most beautiful skin there used only olive oil for all cosmetic moisturizer needs including removing makeup and for tanning (it was ages ago.)
I ran across this blog thread researching whether anyone else had used goose grease for moisturizer. Turns out that one can buy a couple of ounces for $18–or, you can buy a goose, cook it and (except the vegans here, of course) eat it–and KEEP the rendered fat. I found out by accident years ago that goose grease does not dry and crack, but is absorbed into the skin and cleared up my dry, cracked hands in winter. Now that I’m older and EVERYTHING is drying out, I wanted to do a little research before finding myself a goose. Done. I’ll try lard also for comparison, but if you have a goose, don’t throw away the grease/fat/uh, moisturizer sounds so much better doesn’t it…
My grandparents also used goose drippings (fat rendered during cooking) for a bread-spread, like butter. Same for beef marrow. As an aside, duck fat makes the best fried potatoes! More to the subject of this discussion, I suspect duck fat would be very similar to goose also, both for cooking and for moisturizer although I have never used it as such. “Moisturizer” does indeed sound far more socially acceptable to the modern ear, but I am loathe to use it because it strikes me that it’s being PC solely and only to spare squeamish modern feelings… strikes me as being far too disingenuous, and not the least, very disrespectful to the animal from whom we have derived the product.
Incidentally, this linguistic gymnastics has been going on for hundreds of years. That’s why we eat Pork (derived from the French) instead of Pig (Old English), Beef rather than Cow (same derivations,) etc. Although, back then it was more about sounding upper-class and presumably educated, rather than sparing anyone’s feelings.
I didn’t read all the comments since there are so many, but I wanted to add a couple thoughts. I have been using beef tallow for night cream for about a year and the results are nice, however, it has a grainier consistency than lard. I’ve rendered my own leaf lard for 6 years but didn’t think of using it on my face. Now I will.
And that brings up the other comment I wanted to make. You say you use fatback for the lard you render. Have you ever tried leaf lard? It’s the fat around a pig’s internal organs and is the purest, whitest, least porky fat on it’s entire fat body. Ask for leaf lard from a mobile slaughter/butcher and see what you think. Pastured piggies only of course.
I have not tried lard for moisturizer but a few months ago after chewing on my cuticles for years I was desperate to find something that would stay on my fingers long enough to actually heal the skin. I’m not hoping for hand model, just no open sores into which lemon and salt get in the kitchen. And that is the thing. I cook a lot so my hands are in water a lot.
After finding an article on the Weston Price Foundation website I tried making beef tallow salve. I used just a bit of avocado oil to loosen it up and then some essential oil (just in case…) Wow! It works so well to heal my hands and it even stays on my hands through several handwashings. It is not greasy at all and sinks right into my skin. Yes, it needs a bit of rubbing to warm it but this is a small price for such a great product. I’ve now started using it on my face and my middle-aged skin is starting to really glow. I’m now wondering if I want to put a bit of lard in my next batch since you are certainly correct about pigs being closer to us. I’ve also considered experimenting with goose fat. I’ll never buy commercial moisturizers again.
Does this really work?
I’m ready to put a product on the market that’s all natural, if indeed it works.
I’ll put 1million into it, every woman deserves to have it at a low cost..
I’m all about encouraging women everywhere to be beautiful and feel better about themselves.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Trish Ziglar Tompkins
832-405-5983
Coming late to the conversation…but yes, I would do it! Actually was googling lard body cream when I found this…. after someone in one of my groups mentioned how much she loves her cream made from tallow. I have no source of tallow but a great source of lard from a small local farm.
Maybe pork oil helps our skin, because we have similar genetic characteristics. I know this is weird, here it is in the Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2515969/Humans-evolved-female-chimpanzee-mated-pig-Extraordinary-claim-American-geneticist.html
Hi – interesting article. How do you store this? I assume you’d have to refrigerate it to avoid spoilage but you say you use it at room temp? Thanks
I have Lupus. For years I have been told its dermatitis and nothing can be done. I had rashes around my eyes, nose, lips etc. Funny story one year my neighbour decided to raise couple of pigs. It was good year for plums and pears and apples and harvest was good in general and those piggies ate nothing but healthy greens and spend all year outside. Pigs place was just near the retirement home and one day a lady was saying as I was passing by throwing piggies some plums and apples; Oh those piggies would make such lovely hand cream!
To make it short. I paid double money to buy half of that pig. I rendered lard and leaf lard. It smelled really nice. I added some plants extracts. It cured me from Lupus!
I use it ever since and I will never again buy facial or any other cream. I mix lard with good home pressed olive oil to make body lotion and I add salt to make body peeling. It work wonders.
Interesting Katja. All the crazy diseases and ailments we now get have to be due to the dizzy turn our diet took since the sixties. Keep listening to your body and you will continue to do well.
Hi All!
I’m a vegetarian, but my husband is a meat eater…
He eats the cow, and I use the fat for soap and body lotion. I haven’t used lard, yet…there’s something about pigs – yes, they are close to us, and so intelligent, that I feel like a cannibal, using pig products. This from a Hindu upbringing, where you would think the other way around!! LOL. But I wear leather shoes, and believe in using every part of an animal that has sacrificed for you.
My skin has been uber-brilliant, using tallow. I’ll never go back. It’s cleared up my husband’s constant dermatitis issues as well.
I was also googling lard vs tallow for hand softening when I ended up here. I too am detoxing my life in body products and food. I have been using a body butter mix from Scratch Mommy for about seven months now, mostly using it on my face and it has helped the dry skin tremendously. I tried olive oil for over a year but it was not enough. Then I tried coconut oil for a few months and it was drying or even causing tiny bumps around the chin. But coconut blended with other oils like cocoa butter, almond oil, jojoba seems to work better. I did just buy lard the other day after reading about tallow for hands somewhere. I was able to find lard easily but not tallow. I would like to make it smell better. I may try rendering it and add essential oil. I believe I will try it on my face also.
Yes, I see that my shelf stable lard is hydrogenated and bht, bha added. Ok, I’m still learning. Not what, feed it to the birds?
bht is a toxin (liver/kidneys/lungs) …I would not feed it too anything. I buy my leaf lard at the farmer’s market…pure luck that I found a source already rendered last year. If that fails there’s always rendering it yourself. No doubt there are online sources if you don’t mind the extra expense.
Great idea, really. But the best way to feed your skin is to get enough healthy oils in your die. And no, polyunsaturated fats aren’t the real deal. We need all the poly we need from pigs, poultry and fish and a little olive. There’s even some in naturally raised bovine. Going back to grandma’s recipe book is the way to health after sixty years of propaganda begun by Ancel Keys in the 50s, and thanks to Ancel, we have become a vey sick and fat world.
Now I’m a guy and really rarely look in the mirror (hitting sixty, some things lose their draw) but if the skin is the mirror to one’s health, I do get complements on my healthy looking skin. My sister and her husband cut all the fat off anything they cook and that is obvious just looking at their hands, necks and thin skin faces. But who listens when the medical professions rant agains fat and tout carbs? I basically follow a ketogenic diet as I suffer mood swings and weight gain if I so much as have some popcorn or a sandwich from even a quality bread. So the path wasn’t difficult to chose.
I was using coconut oil or almond for my eczema and these oils are quickly absorbed into the skin, but the oink oil does a better job for the eczema areas as they have been kept pretty much at bay for the year I have been rubbing the areas with lard.
I do like that you mentioned rendering one’s own lard. Tis simple. I use the water method and then freeze it in parchment paper in sealer jars. The horrid bleached white stuff I wouldn’t use in or outside my body. If you can find a good butcher (if you can’t try finding a Chinese grocery) render your own and see a glorious improvement in your health.
For those with taboos against hogs, bovine is a good way to go. I don’t render beef fat. I just dice it up and toss into my pan and once the oil has seeped out, I begin cooing what every I desire and the crunchy bovine bits are scrumptious. Chicken, I don’t think I would want to try that on my skin. Somehow I think chicken fat might not be good for one unless it is cooked and eaten, and even then, only taken for the tummy (inside, not out).
Our world is changing. I believe Sweden just recently revised its food guide and has gone low carb, and higher fat, moderate protein. Sixty years on high carbs has rendered the world fat and unhealthy. About time we told the doctors to do some studying on the matter of fat and health. But then, their incomes come from the ill, not the healthy.
Thanks a lot for sharing this information.
I now use pork fat as a morning mask and it is a great moisturizer.
As a retinol mask i sometime switch to fermented cod liver oil.
By comparaison my bacon morning face rub smells delicious. 🙂
I am 65 and have been in the business world for, wait, too much information. Let’s just say I have been around. My passion is science, chemistry, and food, using all of these to make my life happier, healthier and less complicated. I make and use lard in my soap. I haven’t bought shampoo or conditioner in years. My hairdresser wants me to sell my soap in her salon right next to all the bottled junk. She can’t believe the condition of my hair. I travel extensively and never have bottles of stuff in my luggage. One bar of soap does it all. My family and friends all stand in line on soap making day. Do I buy makeup, you betcha. Wish I didn’t have to, but, well you know. Do I use commercial antiperspirant, not in this lifetime. I don’t consider myself a pioneer woman, or necessarily a tree huger. I hate waste and love to experiment.
I say you are on to something here girl. Keep on keeping on and let us know your next great thing.
I rendered beef fat to make a tallow cleanser yesterday. I mixed it with olive oil and a little glycerin. I liked the way my skin felt after….and my cats definitely liked the way it tasted. I finally had to lock them out of the bedroom. 😉
A guy here, so not super concerned about my appearance, but since switching to a high-fat diet to support my endurance cycling hobby, I definitely need skin moisturizer a LOT less.
So I believe it 🙂
One of these days I will go to the trouble of finding humane fat back and rendering lard, but for right now I’m relying on bulk olive oil for nearly all of my cooking.
i am so HAPPY I found you! Humorous blog in this reality… And I’m trying your recipe today! Meloni
Yes…huge fan of pastured lard as a moisturizer. I dabbled back into coconut oil every now and then but it really doesn’t work as well–and especially not in the winter. Soul sisters!
Yes! Finally something about skin rubbing.
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I recently starting using beef tallow on my skin … the best moisturizer ever!!! Beats anything and everything I’ve ever tried for my dry skin. I used it for both face and body but mostly face. Cured my daughter’s eczema … works great on diaper rash, sunburn, keratosis pilaris (those bumps on the back of the arms), keeps my feet really soft, and on and on. It only has 3 ingredients … tallow, olive oil, and essential oils.
I ordered mine online (already made) but when I run out, I will either make my own from rendered suet OR I will buy plain tallow from Wellness Meats and see what I can whip up in my own kitchen.
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Thanks for the article. I was actually going through the whole “should I use lard on my skin” “no that’s gross” routine too. and decided to google “is pig fat good for your skin” and found this 🙂 I’ll give it a try!
My husband told me that he and his boss had met this 45 year old woman at work and she had beautiful skin. He said he would have believed it if she’d said she was 20. She told them that she had grown up on a pig farm. And she ate pig and lard EVERYDAY while she was growing up. And I already know healthy fat is wonderful for your skin but that’s what got me to thinking maybe I could eat my healthy pig fat AND put it on my face and have skin like hers in my 40’s!
I live in southwest France where we cook with loads of duck fat! Duck fat has all sorts of benefits it you can get hold of it – including lowering cholesterol. In fact, people from the Gers region here – who consume alot of ‘confit’ and ‘magret’ de canard, are reputed to have one of the lowest cardiovascular disease rates in the western world.
Anyway, all this to say that I too rub duck fat onto my hands on a regular basis, with the most amazing results! My hands are amazingly soft and look about 20 years younger, and the fat has a definite matifying effect.
Hadn’t considered using it on my face, but your blog about pork fat has inspired me to try. I’ll let you know what happens!
Just one word of caution tho’, I would be careful to use organic fat if possible. Fat in general is renowned for storing toxins!
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