There's nothing quite like the feeling of having a fresh, precious, new human in your arms. A new little person that has completely stole your heart (and everything else for that matter). My baby was all of the above. An absolute joy that came with a LOT of challenges, one of them being skin eczema. Ever heard the term "smooth as a baby's bum"...well that was not exactly the case in our situation, in fact when it came to skin, we had to seriously reorient our expectations. My sweet little baby was suffering with eczema. It was not extreme, by any means, but it was, well...eczema. Red, inflamed, irritations on the suppose-to-be smooth cheeks, legs, tummy, arms, bum...basically everywhere. So, what any mother would do, I took a deep dive into what I could do to improve my baby's eczema prone skin. Well, the snowball started there...
I searched absolutely everything on google - What to do for eczema? Natural remedies for eczema, what is the best natural product for eczema? Natural creams for eczema, natural eczema cures - you name it, I searched it. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t find good options - advice on google was horrifying!! “Add a small amount of BLEACH to the bath” WHAT?!?! That’s really the advice we are giving to desperate parents? We can do better! Hopefully the fact that you’re reading this blog means you’re also looking for some decent, actually NATURAL advice!
Before we go any further, just to be clear, this is not medical advice! This blog is meant to be strictly educational and is very much my own opinion. Now that we got that out of the way, let's keep going...
First off, I talked to my naturopath briefly about it - she said it could be a host of things (most skin problems are likely multi-faceted). For a lot people, they see improvement on their babies or themselves when they eliminate certain trigger foods like dairy, eggs or gluten. My naturopath actually suggested oranges. Yes, that delicious fruit, can cause eczema in some people with sensitivities! So I cut those babies out and not long after eliminating oranges in both of our diets (breast-feeding mama), my baby’s skin started to improve.
In my search for a natural remedy, I came up pretty much empty on google…I was not settling for adding bleach to the bath, prescriptions or any other toxic option…those just didn’t sit well with me. I felt like there had to be alternative options that were actually good for skin. I found a few options, but none of them worked or they made the irritation worse. I’m usually pretty innovative when it comes to solutions to health problems (meet me IRL, I’ll talk your ear off on the latest and greatest herbs and cures). I did come up with a concoction with a wack of soothing kid-safe essential oils that did a pretty dang good job (and it smelt amazing!!). Hopefully this will be an OWN option in the future…stay tuned. But it wasn’t always that convenient to apply…we usually slathered it on as part of our bedtime routine at night before jammies….but I didn’t want oil to settle onto her clothes during the day (anyone that does laundry knows this is not the most ideal stain to work with) and she would end up feeling pretty greasy (and albeit pretty hard to hold on to).
Now insert tallow (sorry took a little bit to get here)!
I don’t remember where I finally found some info on tallow (I want to say Instagram?) and it’s amazing skin benefits, but I finally did and man was that a good day. I started to research the benefits of beef tallow and why it was actually good for skin…you can read all about that in our What is Tallow blog post. The info I found made a lot of sense so I started to look for tallow skin care options. I found some, but they all were from the US...and I’m sure you’re aware that shipping/handling/duties to get American items to Canada isn’t exactly cheep.….so (insert motivated mother) I researched like crazy and gathered the ingredients I thought would work and formulated my own. It was AMAZING - shameless brag here, I NAILED it. I started using it on myself and my kid. I was obsessed. Cue the nostalgic music, OWN Tallow Whip was born.
Tallow is rich in minerals and loaded with vitamins A, D, K, E + B12. It contains natural anti-inflammatory properties (Conjugated Linoleic Acid), Omega 7 (one of the basic building blocks of our skin), Palmitic acid to help improve the protective barrier function of skin, as well as Stearic acid which helps to repair damaged skin and improve skin’s flexibility and suppleness. Because of tallow’s complex nutrient makeup, it is incredibly healing. Tallow skincare brings a powerhouse of ingredients to the table when it comes to improving eczema, psoriasis and other skin ailments.
With eczema, tallow repairs the broken skin and calms the irritation. It speeds the healing and soothes the pain and itching. Our NUDE Whip & NUDE Balm are a great option for eczema, however, we do suggest our Tallow Better Balm over all of the others. Our Tallow Better Balm includes Calendula and Chickweed infused organic Jojoba oil which has a whole beneficial lineup of its own. Jojoba is an excellent moisturizer and it has antibacterial properties (great if your eczema has a fungal component). Jojoba’s makeup is also similar to the sebum of your skin (same with tallow) and it’s been shown to speed up wound healing. It’s another excellent ingredient for inflammatory skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. Our Tallow Better Balm has been infused with Calendula and Chickweed - both herbs sooth irritation and promote skin healing. So when we brought it all all together, we made a dang good powerhouse eczema balm. Please give our Better Balm a try, we’d love to hear how it works for you!
If you have before and after photos of the improvements that our tallow skincare has made on your skin, please send them to us! We would love to share your success with other people desperately looking for help with their skin!
