Why I went back to basics with skincare
The more I learn about skin, hormones, and how our bodies actually work, the more I find myself stripping things back. Not adding more products, more steps, more miracle ingredients.…
I was never this crunchy.
I used to use whatever beauty products were on sale. Not much phased about what is in it, as long as it fulfilled its function. When I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia instead of looking what I was allowing into and onto my body I was taking chronic medication to ease the symptoms.
Eventually, I felt like the medication had its own side effects and decided to wean myself off of it and changed my lifestyle which helped ease my fibromyalgia, but this lead me to using expensive upper tier beauty products that I put on my Christmas wish list once a year and contained seed oils (which feels great, but isn’t so great for your hormones and skin long term).
A few years later my chronic allergies and infertility arose like Icarus. After four specialists and western medical solutions that just exposed me to more chemicals and artificial hormones, I said enough is enough. Ping ponging between doctors and medicine had me questioning the system and what true health should be.
And that is when a friend referred me to wellness coach, Jacqui, who is now a great friend of mine. She helped me educate and empower myself. Helped me understand what is in the food and products we consumed. Helped me understand what my body needed in a holistic way. I have always been interested in health and wellness and had a good basic understanding, but she made me realise how little I knew and how much there is to learn! And man have I been learning since.
Three months after Jacqui came into my life we conceived our first born.
By then I have reduced our toxin exposure, took food as medicine and changed my exercise.
This pregnancy was a breeze. We had our dream home birth and a very healthy baby boy came into this world.
Since birth he had a skin condition on his arms, like little tiny pimples that the midwife said should go away on it’s own, but two years in and it was still there. My husband Noel also struggles with eczema so we assumed it must be hereditary, but nothing we did helped their skins.
So I went even more crunchy and started studying natural skincare, the gut relation to skin and what actually benefits our skin and this is how our tallow soap was born. It’s easy to forget that skincare was once simple. Before laboratories and synthetic fragrances, people cared for their skin with whole, natural ingredients that came straight from nature.
Edible, safe and whole ingredients.
Our skin absorbs so much more than people realise and although it is designed to protect us it also absorbs many molecular substances. It reflected in my husband and sons skin too, something in our environment was causing eczema in their skins too.
Here is what I learned and why we use tallow:
Rediscovering an old ritual
Tallow soap isn’t a trend. It’s something our farmer ancestors used for generations because it was effective, gentle, and made with what was available — whole, nutrient-rich animal fats.
Tallow is rendered grass-fed beef fat.
When I first learned just how nourishing tallow is for the skin, I was genuinely surprised. It contains the same kinds of lipids and fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E & K) that our skin naturally needs to stay soft, resilient, and healthy.
It made me wonder: why did we ever move away from this?
More skin nourishment & less toxin exposure
With my journey into slow living, holistic nourishment, and mindful self-care deepened I realised how little beauty products out there are truly toxin free and nourishing to your skin. Don’t let the label saying “hydrating/nourishing/moisturizing” fool you.
Even “gentle” or “natural” soaps often contain synthetic fragrances, nasty preservatives, detergents that strip the skin barrier and cheap seed & soybean oils that don’t support skin health. I wanted something purer, something closer to nature, something that worked with the skin instead of against it and something WAY less overpackaged. Something I am not buying with my eyes, but with my health in mind.
Sensitive, dry, overreactive skin
I used all the organic, baby safe products in our home for my son and husband and still their skin was really unhappy. And that is when I decided enough is enough, I am making my own soap. Even some of the tallow-based products out there contain palm oil or essential oils and an already agitated skin needs ingredients that will support healing properly.
Creating Something Honest, Simple & Clean
Nourish to Nurture started with wanting to help women and mothers find true health through simple natural intuitive living and with this making tallow soap became part of a bigger philosophy:
Why we add calendula flowers
One of the things I love most about making our soap is combining ingredients that have stood the test of time.
Calendula has been used for centuries to soothe and support the skin. It’s known for its calming properties and is often used for dry, sensitive, or irritated skin. Because both my husband and son struggled with skin irritation, I wanted an ingredient that would gently support the skin’s natural healing process without adding unnecessary chemicals or fragrances.
Combined with nutrient-rich tallow, calendula creates a simple but powerful partnership — nourishing, calming, and supportive for all skin types.
There is something grounding about creating a product slowly and intentionally.
Something really raw and beautiful about producing skincare that honours both traditional wisdom and modern understanding of skin health.
It also allowed me to offer something I truly believe in — a cleanser that nourishes rather than strips, supports rather than overwhelms, and reminds us that natural living can be both simple and luxurious.
Our tallow soap is more than just a product for me, it is a return to real ingredients, proper nourishment, simple self-care and a lifestyle aligned with nature.
My hope is that when you use it, you feel that intention too.
We started making tallow soap because you deserve better.
You deserve true health.
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