The “Naughty” Skin Care Ingredient You Absolutely Must Try! [Tallow]

[HowToBe]

While reading through this thread I remembered that in former times, before wax became widely available, tallow was used to make candles. There are quite a few recipes how to do that on the web, f.e. here:

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/forums/showthread.php?14184-Making-Tallow-Candles

M.T.

The "quick and dirty" way is to use butter. Watch this video, it's super easy: http://lifehacker.com/5986622/make-a-candle-out-of-toilet-paper-and-a-stick-of-butter

I suppose that any fat would work for burning (depending on purity), coconut oil, lard, so on, as long as you have some sort of wicking system and could get it started. Might be a good use for any cheap or evil fats one ends up with, if you can get a clean burn.

I tried some portk lard on my legs, feet and arms yesterday and the animals wouldn't leave me alone - they kept wanting to lick me!!

Haha! Animal approved!

 

[H-KQGE]

While reading through this thread I remembered that in former times, before wax became widely available, tallow was used to make candles. There are quite a few recipes how to do that on the web, f.e. here:

_http://www.wilderness-survival.net/forums/showthread.php?14184-Making-Tallow-Candles

M.T.

The "quick and dirty" way is to use butter. Watch this video, it's super easy: _http://lifehacker.com/5986622/make-a-candle-out-of-toilet-paper-and-a-stick-of-butter

I suppose that any fat would work for burning (depending on purity), coconut oil, lard, so on, as long as you have some sort of wicking system and could get it started. Might be a good use for any cheap or evil fats one ends up with, if you can get a clean burn.

Wow! A great use of "plastic" fats. I can get a humongous amount for an outrageous price too. I'm not in any hurry to have the vapour wafting around though, so tallow, lard or butter it is. Thanks for sharing that. And thanks to Minas Tirith for the previous. I liked the bit about making additions for fragrance.

I tried some portk lard on my legs, feet and arms yesterday and the animals wouldn't leave me alone - they kept wanting to lick me!!

Ahh, bless!

 

[monotonic]

Be careful. A candle made out of fat can get hot enough to catch the surface of the oil on fire. It is very neat to watch, but it might burn your house down if you try to make a candle that way.

To be fair I was using balls of paper as wicks in used aluminum tea light cups filled with old fats (including tallow). With enough surface area, the heat will conduct out of the oil fast enough to keep it from catching fire, but I would rather try something with an inherent safety mechanism.

That said, it would be useful to know of a kind of furnace or candle that could be used with about any kind of fat to heat an area and produce light, while producing minimal fumes.

 

[Minas Tirith]

Be careful. A candle made out of fat can get hot enough to catch the surface of the oil on fire.

Thanks for the warning.

I wonder how they did it in former times though, because according to Wikipedia

Tallow once was widely used to make moulded candles before more convenient wax varieties became available—and for some time after, as they continued to be a cheaper alternative. For those too poor even to avail themselves of homemade, moulded tallow candles, the "tallow dip"—a strip of burning cloth in a saucer of tallow grease—was an accessible substitute.

I guess it just burned more often ...

The Wikipedia article by the way is full of interesting titbits, f.e.

Before switching to pure vegetable oil in 1990, the McDonald's corporation cooked its French fries in a mixture of 93% beef tallow and 7% cottonseed oil.[3]

Apparently tallow can also be used for the production of biodiesel.

M.T.

 

[davey72]

Where parts of the body do you use it Meager1?

I make mine out of Deer bones, usually the ribs and the front shoulders.
I just roast them in the oven,( no water added) then let cool, until a layer of hard fat forms, remove that fat and save it, that's the tallow and it will stay hard even at room temp.
But if you clean/scrape off any of the gel or tiny bits of meat that might stick underneath the hard tallow and then freeze it, it will last indefinitely.
Then of course you can add water and seasoning and reuse those same bones for bone broth.

I have a bunch of tallow from deer in my freezer. I have been told that this is not natural for deer, but that their grazing on farmers grains gives them an abundance that i have found on the insides of their ribs. I had a feeling that i would find a use for it one day.
When making broth, i have kept the tallow that forms at the top in, and eaten it. I wonder if this is healthy?

 

[Meager1]

I`m not sure how much grain a wild deer would even eat?
I have seen them in farmers fields too, but their not eating grains, their eating grass or clover etc.
They bulk up (get fat) in this area anyway, mostly on acorns and they will of course eat sugar beet, apples, and that sort of thing, but as far as grain goes, I don`t worry about that to much.

I have seen deer come around for a hay hand out, and the people who do feed them in winter will leave out apples or hay etc, but I have never heard of a grain pile for deer.
I have eaten the tallow in soups etc, it won`t harm you in any way but I just don`t like it much. Deer have a lot of glands that need to be removed to eliminate that strong "wild taste" and if their not removed then the taste will be strongest in the fat and in the tallow, better to save it for other uses, I think.

 

[Horseofadifferentcolor]

Be careful. A candle made out of fat can get hot enough to catch the surface of the oil on fire. It is very neat to watch, but it might burn your house down if you try to make a candle that way.

To be fair I was using balls of paper as wicks in used aluminum tea light cups filled with old fats (including tallow). With enough surface area, the heat will conduct out of the oil fast enough to keep it from catching fire, but I would rather try something with an inherent safety mechanism.

That said, it would be useful to know of a kind of furnace or candle that could be used with about any kind of fat to heat an area and produce light, while producing minimal fumes.

Here is an easy idea furnace for your candles. _http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-heat-your-home-using-tea-lights-and-flower-pots-2014-1

 

[mabar]

Where parts of the body do you use it Meager1?

I make mine out of Deer bones, usually the ribs and the front shoulders.
I just roast them in the oven,( no water added) then let cool, until a layer of hard fat forms, remove that fat and save it, that's the tallow and it will stay hard even at room temp.
But if you clean/scrape off any of the gel or tiny bits of meat that might stick underneath the hard tallow and then freeze it, it will last indefinitely.
Then of course you can add water and seasoning and reuse those same bones for bone broth.

I think she was asking where on your body do you apply tallow.

Yes Heimdallr I was asking in our owns body, sorry Meager1 I was not clear.

Thankyou either way, it helps also, I can say that I was kind of a little shocked? … Deer?, deer bones?! , first thing I thought was of Bambi (¿?), I supposed I am not use to see those kind of animals as providers of meat and other humans consumption things. Then again, I thought that I could, either go to look for it (there is this market with “fancy” meats, vegetables etc., in the city), or try with tallow from the whatever available animal I may found and making it by myself, it does not sound difficult to do.

Oh! I`m sorry mabar I didn't`t answer your question.
I use it on my lips, face and, hands mostly, but you can use on heels, elbows or anywhere you want.
Even though it might sound kind of gross, it is very good for your face and neck etc.

Thanks for answering. I found more gross davey72 using, one/I need to be far beyond of our/my preconceptions. :P

Maybe not neccesqrily as a sunscreen, but i use the excess oil from my nose, and ears to lubricate my lips. Works quite well.

It has its logic, I will give it a try, once I manage to passed the “eww” mental image, though. Perhaps not with the excess oil from the ear … that would be the inner/inside wax? by accident I had taste it and it does not taste well, on the other hand I can do it with that purpose, not tasting it, not using my tongue to “moisturize” my lips because I have the bad habit of “eating” the X brand of moisturizing cocktail from suspicious ingredients.

I tried some portk lard on my legs, feet and arms yesterday and the animals wouldn't leave me alone - they kept wanting to lick me!!

Thanks for your experience, I was not considering that part, and I should, I come and go by walking, by bus, subway, etc… usually to work and there are a lot of street dogs wherever I go. I would not mind the licking, but streets dogs are usually hungry, better to not give them “delicious” smells expelling from my body.

Thanks others too for the info and experiences. :)

 

[HowToBe]

Be careful. A candle made out of fat can get hot enough to catch the surface of the oil on fire. It is very neat to watch, but it might burn your house down if you try to make a candle that way.

To be fair I was using balls of paper as wicks in used aluminum tea light cups filled with old fats (including tallow). With enough surface area, the heat will conduct out of the oil fast enough to keep it from catching fire, but I would rather try something with an inherent safety mechanism.

I imagine ordinary wax could catch fire too if it got hot enough. I've heard of wax fires where something flammable fell into the wax or was too close and caught fire, heating the wax a lot.

I'm guessing the butter candle would be inherently more safe from this since it contains water which will draw heat away as it evaporates.

Monotonic, did tallow catch fire?

 

[JGeropoulas]

Thanks for sharing, HowToBe.

Where parts of the body do you use it Meager1?, I had been using coconut oil as sunscreen and had worked quite nicely. It absorbs rather quickly and do not leaves the skin oily.

Thanks HowToBe for the info.

Coconut oil as sunscreen is great. But maybe astaxanthin can serve very well too:

Powerful Antioxidant Helps Promote Healthy Skin, both Internally and Topically

Astaxanthin—a potent antioxidant—has been found to offer a number of benefits to your skin, from acting as an internal sunscreen to developing a healthy color cast to your skin that most people find attractive—even more attractive than a regular tan. Research also suggests that astaxanthin may benefit your skin when applied topically.

In a 2001 study3 that explored the topical benefits of astaxanthin, hairless mice were exposed to UVB radiation for 18 weeks to simulate photo-aged skin. The mice that had astaxanthin applied to their skin developed fewer wrinkles compared to the control group, and had younger-appearing collagen. In fact, the collagen of the astaxanthin mice looked as if it had never been exposed to UV radiation. The researchers concluded that astaxanthin "can significantly prevent UV-induced collagen degradation, wrinkles, lipid peroxidation, sunburn, phototoxicity and photoallergy." It also reduced freckles and age spots.

One of the women on my staff creates her own moisturizer, mixing one astaxanthin capsule into about three ounces of organic virgin coconut oil. Bear in mind that pure astaxanthin is highly pigmented, so if you want to try this you’ll probably want to use rubber gloves when cutting the capsule open to avoid staining your fingers. However, while the mixture itself does have a bright carrot color to it, it doesn’t noticeably stain your skin once you apply it.
_http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/11/11/coconut-oil-for-skin.aspx

So, perhaps you could mixing astaxanthin with coconut oil or tallow for a better sunscreen?.
This astaxanthin is very interesting. It is a great antioxidant! The features are remarkable. The problem is getting the true product. That is, from the real algaes and not the synthetic ones.
And it's always interesting what Mercola says, just do not give importance when he speak about tobacco or his to much fervor for vegetables. Maybe tell some lies agreed (as a doctor) mixed with value things be the price that he must pay to the big pharma for not losing his job (or company).

Very interesting. I began accruing a stockpile of astaxanthin a year ago because it came as part of a discounted package deal containing 2 other supplements I was taking. Then I read about it's antioxidant benefits, so I began taking it 3 months ago. I had never heard of any topical use or skin benefits, but a few weeks ago, I noticed my face had a healthy glow not typical for me in winter.

I've used coconut oil topically, so adding astaxanthin sounds like a great addition.

I've read Dr. Mercola's site for a decade, and I have a lot of respect for him, even though, unfortunately, he still includes dairy and vegetables as part of a healthy diet. On the other hand, his writing seems to indicate a very sharp mind and his physical appearance seems to be the picture of health. And, to give credit where it's due, he was recommending a zero-grain diet many years before we here on the forum embraced a Paleo diet.

FWIW, my impression is that he is genuinely a good guy who just has some blind spots. I don't think he's beholding to any pharmaceutical companies because he publishes lots of articles exposing their schemes and has no advertising on his site for their products.

 

[monotonic]

Yes, tallow does catch on fire like I described, and I edited that into my post late.

Water isn't a good thing. Yes, I've tried that too! It begins to boil under the oil, so you have scalding oil splattering everywhere. Not unlike when you're cooking something really greasy on high heat.

I've been thinking of a reservoir system which would automatically adjust the layers of water and oil and give the water a separate surface to the air, so that convection can bring heat to the exposed water instead of it building up under the oil and causing boiling. The automatic level adjustment would mean a long-life wick, and you could use a fairly large wick for more output.

There is also the possibility that the water is stored in a sealed reservoir, where steam generation causes the water level to rise against the wick, so it would automatically adjust the flame until the oil ran out. Furthermore, the water would never evaporate, as long as the steam found equilibrium in the water reservoir rather than through the oil.

I have to admit I'm curious what would happen with the constant convection of oil and water across each other, and how oxidation processes will occur. The steam regulation would maintain the temperature at exactly 100C. I could test different antioxidants, for instance rosemary or oregano extracts. Maybe it could even be a device to measure the quality of fats?

It sounds like such an awesome experiment, and would actually be pretty simple to set up using common household items.

 

[Iarrthoir Firinne]

Thanks for your experience, I was not considering that part, and I should, I come and go by walking, by bus, subway, etc… usually to work and there are a lot of street dogs wherever I go. I would not mind the licking, but streets dogs are usually hungry, better to not give them “delicious” smells expelling from my body.

Hi Mabar

:) I wouldn't worry too much - they come running when I first apply it but it absorbs really quickly. I'm really enjoying using it.

 

[davey72]

Thanks for answering. I found more gross davey72 using, one/I need to be far beyond of our/my preconceptions. :P

Maybe not neccesqrily as a sunscreen, but i use the excess oil from my nose, and ears to lubricate my lips. Works quite well.

It has its logic, I will give it a try, once I manage to passed the “eww” mental image, though. Perhaps not with the excess oil from the ear … that would be the inner/inside wax? by accident I had taste it and it does not taste well, on the other hand I can do it with that purpose, not tasting it, not using my tongue to “moisturize” my lips because I have the bad habit of “eating” the X brand of moisturizing cocktail from suspicious ingredients.

Haha. I wasn't necessarily meaning the wax, but my skin gets oily in a lot of places, including the ears.

Meger1, the deer in our area definitely eat grains. The farmers around here love to have hunters on their land, as they can be a nuisance to the grains, and hay bails.

As for using tallow for a candle, what about using the Inuit type of thing that they burn blubber with?

 

[monotonic]

As for using tallow for a candle, what about using the Inuit type of thing that they burn blubber with?

Do you mean this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudlik

It has a relatively large surface area and is a big rock. If it DID catch fire, it might be safely contained in the thick rock basin, as long as the water content of the oil was low (else, spitfire!). If you left it burning high overnight and the morning was warm, I would begin to worry. Remember that these were used in igloos!

EDIT: look how much these things cost: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Qulliq
I suppose you could carve your own though...

My main warning is for making fat candles with those tiny aluminum tea light cups. The surface area and quantity of oil to heat is small enough that they can catch fire. The risk is even greater if you use a non-metallic container which may crack due to heat stress. Larger, wider containers are best because they have the most surface area to dissipate heat. A thick container with "wings" may be best because there will be a large surface area without having a large volume of oil in case of a fire. If you need it for more than light, you will need a larger wick size and that makes it dangerous as well.

After looking at historical oil lamp pictures, I'm wondering if there was something special about my experiments with the tealights which caused my results.

 

[Meager1]

I have a couple of these and they do the job, nothing fancy, but they do throw a fair amount of light.
I suppose you could easily do away with the glass jar and use a stone mortar and pestle base instead.

https://www.lehmans.com/p-423-merry-corliss-cabin-olive-oil-lamp.aspx