Know Exactly What Touches Your Family’s Skin

Tallow based, essential oil free skincare created by mothers who value community wisdom over self-sufficiency, natural cycles over trends, and authentic lives over idealized aesthetics

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78 acres of inspiration

Our name, 78 Acre Woods, is a nod to the land that started it all—Amy's 78-acre property, where we forage for so many of our botanical ingredients. Like the Hundred Acre Wood from Winnie the Pooh, the land is full of places to explore, things to find, and quiet places of reflection. “The Trees” is our favourite spot where the diverse ecosystem often rewards us with rose hips, nettles, and lots of memories made with our children. Now Kim and her family have their own piece of woods as well. Nestled in Alberta’s boreal forest, Kim and her boys walk the trails of their land, foraging for herbs and flowers for our products

Our grounding principles

  • Intentionality

    Natural cycles over trends

    Every step—rendering the tallow, foraging herbs thoughtfully so we don't over-harvest, growing and drying plants, infusing them in tallow over multiple days, sourcing the most sustainable packaging we can find—it's all done with care and intention. Nothing in our process is rushed or overlooked because what we choose matters.

  • Resourcefulness

    Inspired by the land and real life

    Less is often more. We find beauty and potential in the plants we grow and forage. By transforming overlooked ingredients like beef suet into slow skincare, we are able to honour the bovine that nourishes our bodies further by using more of theirs.

  • Simplicity

    Because not everyone has time for a 10 step skincare routine 

    As busy mothers ourselves, we believe simplicity brings freedom. Rather than needing separate products for hands, face, diaper rash, and dry elbows, our formulations are designed to work effectively across many uses, saving you time, money, and bathroom counter space.

  • Community

    Going back to our roots

    We’re the moms who love to forage, will render the tallow, and infuse it over multiple days so you can do all the other DIY things you want to try without worrying about what’s in your products. We celebrate traditional wisdom where neighbours support each other through their unique skills and contributions, each doing what they do best.

We started 78 Acre Woods because we want to make the most of every resource the land offers

As sisters, both of us have always cared about where our food comes from, animal husbandry, and what goes into growing food locally. That same mindfulness naturally extends to what we put on our skin. 

After time, testing, and many failed trials, we landed on three essential oil free and tallow based formulations that we used daily for ourselves and our children. We decided to share our findings with more families, so we launched 78 Acre Woods in August 2022. Since then, we’ve grown our collection to include salves, lip balms, a hair oil, and our beloved face and body whips. 

We never expected such positive feedback from women and mothers, hearing how our gentle skincare has helped their families in so many ways. This became our "why".

It’s always been about more than just [pasture raised, essential oil free] skincare

We carefully choose whole herbs and flowers to infuse into our tallow for the real benefits they bring to your skin. Living on our rural properties, we're grateful to have gardens and wild spaces to grow and forage many of these plants ourselves. 

Every product we make is a true labour of love, from rendering the suet and foraging or growing the herbs, to carefully sourcing every ingredient and sending each order off to your home. 

What truly matters is creating something we trust enough to use on our own kids, and hearing from parents who tell us our products finally helped their little one's eczema, rash, or sensitive skin after trying everything else. 

We make these products for our families first. That's how we know we can feel good about sharing them with yours.

A bit about us...

  • Last-minute dinner:

    breakfast for dinner

  • Current creative outlet:

    Kim: sewing, gardening, and reading a good book 

    Amy: writing poetry, sharing photography, gardening, and reading a good book

    Together: learning more about what the land, animals and plants have to offer us and translating that to our tallow skincare creations

  • Always in the freezer:

    Banana chocolate chip muffins, tallow, homemade broths and soups.

  • Probably talking about:

    Tallow, good quality food, caring for mothers, gardening, local businesses, farming.

  • Will find us:

    Outside with our kids, foraging or in the garden

Looking for the fine print?

Here's what we use in our essential oil free skincare and where it comes from

Grass Fed, Pasture Raised Alberta Tallow

The foundation of everything we create. We source our grass-fed suet from small family farms within an hour's drive of our homes, where the cattle graze freely on Alberta's prairie grasses. We personally render this tallow in small batches, transforming what might otherwise be discarded into something new: deeply nourishing skincare.

Cold Pressed, Unrefined Jojoba Oil

The perfect oil to complement our tallow, jojoba is similar to our skin's natural sebum. Unlike many oils that sit on the surface of the skin, jojoba penetrates deeply without clogging pores. We source only cold-pressed, unrefined oil to preserve its complete nutritional profile.

Central Alberta Beeswax

Our beeswax comes straight from the happy bees at Gull Lake Honey, a short drive from Kim’s home. The raw, unbleached beeswax we use provides structure to our salves while adding skin-protecting benefits. When you open a tin of our salve, you're experiencing Alberta wildflowers transformed first by bees, then by our formulations.

Organic Herbs & Botanicals

This is where our products come alive. Many of our herbs are foraged directly from our properties—the spruce tips, rose hips, yarrow, and nettles we gather ourselves with our children, teaching them the names and properties of each plant as we carefully harvest. For herbs we can't grow or forage, we work with local Canadian farms that bring the best of Alberta's botanical diversity to your skin.

Our Packaging

We use glass and recyclable packaging wherever possible, allowing for easy reuse. The amber glass jars ensure your product is protected from the light, helping preserve the quality of the tallow inside. We don’t include any plastic in our product packaging because we’re committed to eco-friendly, sustainable business practices.  

  • Amy’s favourite product

    The Betty

  • Kim’s favourite product

    The Flora
BRING HOME NATURE'S BOUNTY