Shereene IdrissBoard Certified Derm, Founder and Chief Nerd

Beef Tallow Skincare: A Derm’s Take Part 1 #shorts

3 Dec 2024 · 1 min

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1:02

A short YouTube monologue by dermatologist Shereene Idriss discussing beef tallow for skincare. The speaker defines beef tallow, describes its appearance and fatty-acid composition (≈45% oleic acid/omega‑9; ≈2–3% linoleic acid), and gives a pragmatic clinical view: oleic-rich tallow may help people with very dry or dehydrated skin by reducing transepidermal water loss, but it has limitations and is not a miracle cure.

Questions this video answers

About 45%

About 2–3%

Chapters

Beef tallow is blowing up right now and dermatologists don't want you to know about it. One minute we're all vegan and cruelty free, and the next minute we're rubbing beef fat all over our faces. I'm a dermatologist, and yes, I do want you to know about beef tallow. Why? Because not everything is a miracle. And yes, even miracles have drawbacks. First, what is it? It comes from this mammal. When you make it, it looks like this. One might think it looks like a flan or custard, but no, it's just fat, 45% of which is oleic acid, also known as omega 9. And that is important for you guys to remember because that comes into the negatives. And just 2 to 3% of it is linoleic acid, which is also important for you to remember because that is bad. But oleic acid has a lot of good properties for the right candidate. If you are somebody who is really dry or dehydrated and you're not lacking naturally in linoleic acid in your skin or oleic acid can help not only minimize trans epidermal water loss, hold on to hydration, it can help.