Our journey to where we are now, with a collection of botanically-infused tallow skincare products, started a few years ago, in 2021. With 3 children between us (all under the age of 4) we began a long process of learning, trial & error, growth, and commitment to providing clean skincare for our family and now, to yours.
Amy and her family raise a few steers each year and when it came time to harvest, she noticed how much of the animal goes to waste, and how, in our modern world, we are only drawn to the "good cuts;” the common cuts like tender steaks and roasts. She noticed organ meats, collagen-rich bones and suet fat were often discarded without a second thought. This common practice overlooks some of the most valuable aspects of a bovine harvest. This led to a deep dive, researching how best to use these gifts of the harvest.
One day, she called me to say, “I’m going to make tallow.” I responded by saying that's wonderful, I have heard it is great to cook with. She told me, yes, it’s great for culinary use and she had also started making it for skin care formulas for her family. That sent me on a deep dive of my own. Soon, we were learning everything we could about rendering suet into tallow and formulating our own products.
We spent time researching essential oils and their benefits, as well as their risks. Ultimately, using essential oils just did not fit our business model of sustainability and utilizing local ingredients whenever possible. This led us to using plant botanicals over essential oils. We try to use as many bio-regional plant botanicals as we can, many of which we have grown or foraged ourselves.
This takes more time, effort and planning than simply using essential oils, but we truly believe this has allowed us to create grass-fed, pasture-raised tallow skincare that is safe and gentle enough for the entire family, from head to toe. These plant botanicals in our tallow skincare lend a light scent, as well as beneficial properties of each individual plant.
Multiple renders, formulations, trials, errors, a house move, a summer spent in a trailer and countless trips on the highway back and forth with little children, 78 Acre Woods was created.
Amy and I live nearly two hours apart, which as you can imagine has created a challenge or two when running a product-based business. There have been numerous situations where one of us had something the other needed to either make the products, stock stores or ship. Which led to frustration and the need to create better systems and organization. We have a pretty good system set up now, although the odd time we will get home from visiting each other and realize we forgot something. Shipping things to each other isn't uncommon, either!
Amy and her family live on 78 acres and this name is a bit of a play on 100 Acre Woods from Winnie the Pooh, stories we both loved as children.
We launched our Alberta grass-fed tallow skincare products in a time when tallow for skincare in Canada was uncommon. For the past few years, Amy and I have spent time sharing about tallow and why we intentionally chose tallow as the base of our business.
Creating these products is a labor of love in the truest sense; from rendering the suet, to foraging, growing and drying the herbs; mindfully sourcing ingredients and packaging; to shipping them to your homes. We truly believe we have crafted beautiful, non-toxic skincare for Canadian families to use and love, just as we do for our own families!
Our hope is that you try our Alberta grass-fed, botanical tallow skincare and fall in love with it for your family as well.
