- Established
- 2022
- People behind the brand
- Ryan Porter
- Based in
- Pegswood, Northumberland
- Craft
- Small-batch skincare
The Local’s perspective
Skincare with tallow at its centre
Fat Cow puts beef tallow on the bathroom shelf. Based in Pegswood, Northumberland, Ryan Porter’s business makes creams and balms in small batches around this once-unlikely skincare ingredient.
The story
Eight kilos of beef fat and a kitchen experiment
Ryan’s first batch began with about eight kilos of beef fat. He rendered it in slow cookers in his kitchen while his partner was at work, then mixed the tallow with jojoba oil. The first formula had just two ingredients.
He wanted to find another use for beef fat and make skincare with shorter ingredient lists. Those experiments became Fat Cow, which launched in October 2022.
The people
Ryan Porter, with farming in the picture
Ryan also uses Fat Cow’s audience to give British farmers a platform, sharing a closer look at their working lives through the brand’s social channels. Alongside making skincare, he wants the people behind British farming to be heard.
Inside the making
From tallow to the finished jar
The business now buys its tallow already rendered from a specialist British supplier. The team in Northumberland takes that prepared ingredient and makes the finished skincare in small batches.
The Unscented Sensitive Skin Balm combines tallow with refined shea butter, jojoba seed oil and beeswax. The Unscented Face Cream brings together tallow and almond oil. In the production photograph, cream is being dispensed into individual jars.
The Local’s note
Our selection
We like the directness of Fat Cow: the name, the ingredient at the centre of the range and Ryan’s plain-spoken explanation of what he wants to make. There’s a clear point of view here, carried through from the branding to the short recipes.
I’ve been using Fat Cow’s face cream and have really enjoyed it. It’s one I’m pleased to have on the bathroom shelf.
A sense of place
Pegswood, Northumberland
In Northumberland, the team turns prepared tallow from a specialist British supplier into small batches of creams and balms. Pegswood is the business’s base for that work.
