Our Story
Perpetua Remedies came about as a result of my search for a product that would heal and nourish my skin. Every winter, my hands got so dry that my skin would crack and bleed, and I had many itchy patches on my arms, legs, and torso. I tried so many creams, lotions, and balms over the years. All of them had clean, organic ingredients and were plant-based, but none of them worked very well for me. In January 2021, I heard about tallow balm for the first time and wondered if it would help. I bought a jar to try it out. The improvement in my skin was immediate and dramatic. I went from having painfully dry hands and itchy dry patches all over my body to baby-soft, moisturized skin almost overnight - in the middle of winter, no less! I set out to make a tallow balm that had all the healing properties of tallow but did not have that “beefy” smell. I tried a number of different combinations and ingredients over the span of a year before settling on a recipe I love.
What is tallow and why should I use it on my body?
Tallow is rendered beef fat. The highest quality tallow comes from suet, the fat found around the kidneys of the cow. Suet contains many nutrients (as long as the cows are grass-fed on a chemical-free farm and not administered any hormones or antibiotics). Tallow is hard, white and waxy at room temperature and turns yellow when melted.
Tallow rendered from grass-fed cattle provides the following nutrients: Vitamins A, D, K, E and B12, Choline, and CLA. Tallow is rich in fatty acids, including oleic, palmitoleic, stearic, and linoleic that help form the lipids that keep skin protected and moisturized. It improves moisture and treats dryness. It helps increase skin’s flexibility and ability to heal.
About our name and logo:
The woman on our logo is Saint Perpetua. She was a Roman noblewoman who was martyred in 203 for refusing to recant her faith in Christ. She is the patron saint of cows. She had visions while in prison of her brother who has ulcers on his face. In her vision, the sores were healed and he was drinking from a cup of water that never ran out.
Our logo is a wood block print carved by Tyler Delong of Eremos Workshop.
Our Ingredients
Selecting local farms and reputable companies for our ingredients is the most important part of the tallow balm-making process. Utmost thought and care was given to each ingredient and its source.
Tallow: Perpetua Remedies tallow is sourced from Kremer Family Farm in Yorkshire, Ohio. It is a chemical-free farm; the cows are ethically raised, 100% grass-fed and are not administered any hormones or antibiotics. I render the suet into tallow in small batches to ensure quality from start to finish. The suet is rendered at an extremely low heat to ensure maximum retention of nutrients in the finished product.
Beeswax: our beeswax is sourced from Stillwater Valley Apiary in Englewood, Ohio. They use organic practices in the management of their honeybees.
Cacao butter: we use Navitas Organics Cacao butter. It is non-GMO and fair trade certified. Cacao butter is the cold pressed oil of cacao beans, which contain flavonoid and polyphenol antioxidants and are rich in nutrients like magnesium, copper, potassium, and calcium. Cacao butter has anti-inflammatory properties and contains oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids that help combat damaging free radicals. It can help repair damaged skin and the polyphenols in cacao butter have been linked with increased skin elasticity.
Botanicals & Herbs: most come from Mountain Rose Herbs, with a few from Frontier co-op. All herbs used in Perpetua Remedies products are organic.
Essential oils: We use DoTERRA oils and Rocky Mountain Oils. Both companies use GC/MS and third-party lab tests to verify the purity and quality of their oils. Detailed information about DoTERRA practices can be found here. RMO practices can be found here.
