Where Our Tallow Starts

It is easy to look at a jar of tallow balm and assume the story begins there.

A label. A scent. A little glass jar on your bathroom counter. Maybe a product that somehow made its way into your purse, car, nightstand, and every other place you keep things you swear you are going to use later.

But the part we care most about happens well before any of that.

Our tallow comes from Brenneman Farms in Jay County, Indiana. They raise their cattle on pasture from start to finish, with room to roam rather than confinement conditions. Their pastures and forage are organically managed without chemical fertilizers or herbicides, and their cattle are raised without added hormones, steroids, or fed antibiotics.

That list is not decoration. It is our standard, and it is why we can tell you exactly where the main ingredient in our products comes from.

Because tallow is not a tiny supporting character in what we make. It is the foundation.

A lot of beauty products are built from long ingredient lists because they need preservatives, emulsifiers, stabilizers, or a whole cast of ingredients to do what they are supposed to do.

But Bare is different by design.

When the main ingredient is tallow, the source is not an afterthought. It is the beginning of the conversation. We want to know how the cattle were raised, what their day-to-day life looked like, and who is behind the farm. We want an answer more useful than "from a supplier somewhere."

Brenneman Farms is family-run, and their operation is rooted in the rolling hills of Jay County. In the summer, the cattle graze pasture. In the winter, they have fresh bedding in the barns. Their farm is not a vague sourcing story we borrowed for a label. It is a real place, with real people raising the animals and tending the land.

That kind of transparency matters to us.

Not because we think you need a full dissertation before buying a balm. You do not. Skincare should not require a clipboard, a chemistry degree, and a mild identity crisis in the aisle at Target.

But we do think you deserve to know what you are putting on your skin, especially when a product is built around one ingredient as much as ours are.

"Grass-fed" is one of those blanket phrases brands know people will trust. So is "natural." Both can be technically true while telling you almost nothing useful. Most people have never been given a reason to question them, and that is exactly why the blanket language works.

Grass-fed alone is not enough information for me. Was the animal pasture-raised and grass-finished from start to finish? Was it confined? Were the pastures managed with chemical fertilizers or herbicides? Can the brand name the farm?

Those are not fussy questions. They are the standard behind every jar we make.

We chose Brenneman Farms because their values around animal care, pasture-based raising, and openness line up with the kind of company we are building. We are small enough to care where things come from, and honestly, we would rather stay that way than pretend the details do not matter once a product looks pretty in a jar.

That does not mean every product has to come with a farm essay attached. It does mean we will keep being clear about what is in ours and where it began.

The jar is the part you see.

The source is the part we want you to know.

Jaimie Rae, Founder
Bare Tallow Co.