Why We Use Castor Oil in Our Face Balm
When we created our Face Balm, our goal wasn’t to make a product with the longest ingredient list or the trendiest oils. We wanted to make something simple—something where every ingredient had a clear purpose.
Today, many skincare products contain dozens of ingredients. Some are included to stabilize water-based formulas, improve texture, extend shelf life, or create a particular sensory experience. Those ingredients all have their place, but we chose a different approach.
Our Face Balm is made with just two core ingredients: grass-fed beef tallow and castor oil. Our Lavender Face Balm uses that same foundation with the addition of a small amount of lavender essential oil for those who enjoy a subtle botanical scent.
People occasionally ask why we add castor oil at all. If tallow can be used as a moisturizer on its own, why not simply use pure tallow?
The answer comes down to formulation, usability, and creating a balm that feels good to use every day.
Starting With the Foundation: Grass-Fed Beef Tallow
Before we talk about castor oil, it’s worth understanding what it’s working alongside.
At Resting Beef Face, every batch begins with grass-fed Alberta beef suet, which we slowly render into tallow in-house. We don’t purchase pre-rendered tallow or private label our products. Rendering our own tallow allows us to oversee the ingredient from raw suet through to the finished tallow we use in our skincare.
If you’re new to tallow skincare, start with our guide, What Is Beef Tallow?, where we explain what tallow is, where it comes from, and how we make ours.
Tallow is naturally rich and, on its own, can be used as a simple moisturizer.
So why add anything to it?
Pure Tallow Is Simple—But Formulation Matters
One of the misconceptions about simple skincare is that fewer ingredients must mean using only one ingredient.
Sometimes that’s exactly what you want. Other times, combining a small number of carefully selected ingredients creates a product that’s simply more enjoyable to use.
When we were developing our Face Balm, we weren’t trying to create the richest or most complicated balm possible. We wanted something people could comfortably incorporate into their everyday skincare routine.
That meant finding the right balance between the natural firmness of tallow and the smooth, spreadable texture we wanted from a face balm.
We wanted a balm that would:
- glide comfortably across the skin
- soften easily with the warmth of your fingertips
- spread well when using only a small amount
- remain simple and straightforward to use
- complement the natural characteristics of tallow rather than overwhelm them
After experimenting with different formulations and ratios, we found that castor oil gave us the balance we were looking for.
What Is Castor Oil?
Castor oil is a plant-based oil pressed from the seeds of the castor plant, Ricinus communis.
Unlike many lighter cosmetic oils, castor oil has a naturally thick, viscous consistency. It’s used in a wide variety of cosmetic formulations, including balms, because of the texture and skin feel it can contribute to a finished product.
That distinctive consistency is one of the reasons it works so well in our Face Balm.
Rather than adding several different oils to change the texture of our tallow, we can use a carefully chosen amount of castor oil and keep the overall formula remarkably simple.
Why We Pair Castor Oil With Tallow
Tallow forms the foundation of our Face Balm, but rendered tallow is naturally firm—especially when temperatures are cooler.
Castor oil helps soften that firmness and creates a smoother, more spreadable finished balm.
Its naturally thick consistency also contributes glide. Instead of having to work a firm product extensively across the skin, a small amount of our Face Balm can be warmed between your fingertips and gently applied.
That’s particularly important with tallow skincare because you don’t need much.
Our goal wasn’t to make the castor oil the star of the formula. Its job is to complement the tallow and improve the overall experience of using the finished balm.

Why Not Just Use Pure Tallow?
You absolutely can use plain rendered tallow on your skin.
For us, however, creating a finished skincare product is about more than choosing a single ingredient we like. It’s also about considering how that product feels, spreads, and performs during everyday use.
Pure tallow naturally changes in firmness depending on temperature. In a cooler room, it can become quite firm. As temperatures rise, it softens.
When developing our Face Balm, we wanted to maintain the simplicity of tallow while creating a texture that was easier to scoop, warm between the fingers, and spread across the face.
Castor oil helped us achieve that without turning a simple balm into a long, complicated formulation.
We Didn’t Choose Castor Oil Because It Was Trendy
Natural skincare trends come and go.
Every year seems to bring another “must-have” oil or ingredient promising to transform your skincare routine.
That’s not how we want to formulate products at Resting Beef Face.
Instead, we ask a much simpler question:
Does this ingredient improve the product?
If the answer is yes, it earns its place.
If not, it stays out.
Castor oil wasn’t selected because it was fashionable. We chose it because, after experimenting with different formulations, it helped us achieve the texture and application experience we wanted from our Face Balm.
That philosophy guides the way we approach all of our products.
Every jar starts here. Carefully measured ingredients and small-batch craftsmanship—our Unscented Tallow Face Balm is made by hand from start to finish.
Why Not Use Other Popular Oils?
Why castor oil instead of olive oil, jojoba oil, sweet almond oil, avocado oil, or one of the many other oils commonly found in skincare?
It isn’t because those ingredients are inherently good or bad.
They’re simply different.
Every oil brings its own characteristics to a formulation. Changing the oil can change the texture, consistency, scent, spreadability, and overall feel of the finished balm.
Our goal wasn’t to create a Face Balm containing as many popular skincare oils as possible.
It was to create a balm with as few ingredients as necessary while achieving the texture and experience we wanted.
Sometimes thoughtful formulation is as much about what you leave out as what you put in.
A Formula We Continued to Refine
Something you don’t always see when looking at a finished jar of skincare is what happened before that jar existed.
Formulas rarely arrive fully developed on the first attempt.
Ours certainly didn’t.
We spent time experimenting with different ratios before arriving at the Face Balm formulation we use today.
Small adjustments made noticeable differences in how the balm spread, how it felt during application, and the overall consistency of the finished product.
Eventually, we found the balance we were looking for: tallow remains the foundation of the formula while castor oil quietly helps make the balm easier and more enjoyable to use.
Sometimes the smallest changes make the biggest difference.
The Same Philosophy Goes Into Our Lavender Face Balm
Our Lavender Face Balm starts with the same philosophy and the same tallow-and-castor-oil foundation.
The difference is the addition of a small amount of lavender essential oil for those who prefer a lightly scented option.
We intentionally keep the lavender subtle. The goal wasn’t to turn our original Face Balm into a heavily scented product, but simply to offer another option while maintaining the simplicity of the original formulation.
Whether you prefer unscented skincare or a hint of lavender, the foundation remains the same.

Simple Doesn’t Mean Accidental
Keeping an ingredient list short doesn’t mean throwing two ingredients together and calling it finished.
When you work with a small number of ingredients, every decision becomes more noticeable.
Changing one ingredient changes the formula.
Changing the ratio changes the formula.
Even a small adjustment can change how the finished product feels and behaves.
That’s why our approach to simple skincare isn’t about using the fewest ingredients simply for the sake of having a short label.
It’s about using what the product needs—and leaving out what it doesn’t.
Why Castor Oil Earned Its Place
At Resting Beef Face, we believe every ingredient should have a reason for being there.
Grass-fed beef tallow forms the foundation of our Face Balm.
Castor oil earns its place because it complements that tallow, helping us create the smooth, spreadable consistency and application experience we wanted without adding unnecessary complexity.
Two simple ingredients, each doing its job.
That’s the philosophy behind our Unscented Face Balm and the foundation of our Lavender Face Balm: thoughtfully chosen ingredients, carefully developed ratios, and small-batch products made by hand from start to finish.
If you’d like to try the formula for yourself, explore our Unscented Tallow Face Balm or Lavender Tallow Face Balm.
And if you’re just beginning to explore tallow skincare, our What Is Beef Tallow? guide is a great place to start.












