Why are people smearing beef fat on their face?
It's Been a Minute
NPR
4.6 • 8.8K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
According to Pew Research Center, 79% of New Year's resolutions are about one thing: health. It's Been a Minute is kicking off 2025 with a little series called "new year, new me." We're getting into some of the big questions and cultural confusion around our health and wellness.
For our final installment, we're getting into a new skincare trend: using beef tallow as a moisturizer. That's right – beef fat rendered from suet is one of the trends du jour. Brittany Luse sits down with Marie Claire senior beauty editor Samantha Holender and beauty journalist Jennifer Sullivan to understand why the beef tallow trend has taken off, what it says about what we value in our skin care, and whether we should be using beef tallow at all.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Usher, Yo-Yo Ma, Boy Genius, Shaka Khan, Billy Elish, Weird Owl, |
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| 0:16.9 | Unsigned musicians can find out more and see the official rules at NPR.org slash tiny desk contest. |
| 0:26.5 | Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. |
| 0:44.0 | Yeah. culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. It's 2025, baby. |
| 0:46.6 | And a lot of us are getting started on our New Year's resolutions. |
| 0:52.5 | And according to Pew, 79% of New Year's resolutions are about one thing. |
| 0:59.9 | Health. |
| 1:01.6 | But there are so many different aspects to our health. |
| 1:04.8 | And it's hard to separate fact, fiction, and fad. |
| 1:08.1 | We're kicking off 2025 with a little series called New Year, New Me. We're getting |
| 1:13.7 | into some of the big questions and cultural confusion around our health and wellness. |
| 1:21.9 | This week for our final installment of New Year, New Me, we're diving into a new skincare trend that truly |
| 1:29.9 | astounded me. Beef tallow. It's basically beef fat that's been rendered down from Sueet, |
| 1:37.9 | and I've been seeing videos of people slathering it on their faces. I use one product and one product only, and that is beef tallow. |
| 1:46.0 | You can't eat your skin care? |
| 1:48.0 | You should not be putting it on your face. |
| 1:50.0 | Now, I wasn't sure if it was just me seeing this, |
| 1:53.0 | so I went out on the street to see what the public knows about beef tallow as skincare, |
| 1:58.0 | and whether they try it. |
| 2:00.0 | Have you heard of this trend of people moisturizing their faces with beef tallow? |
... |
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