Winter, your skin, and how to make the most of it.

Winter Skin & the Old-Fashioned Comfort of Tallow

There is something beautiful about winter in the Garden Route. Cold mornings, woodsmoke in the air, mist settling over the mountains and that wonderful excuse to pull on another jersey and stay close to the fire.

Our skin, however, doesn’t always love winter quite as much as we do.

Cold air, wind, indoor heating and long hot showers can leave skin feeling tight, rough and thirsty. Hands begin to crack, lips become dry, heels need a little more attention and even skin that is normally quite happy can suddenly start asking for something richer.

At Cypress Hill Tallow Co., this is the season when tallow truly comes into its own.

Why Tallow Feels So Good in Winter

Long before bathroom cabinets were filled with complicated lotions, animal fats and botanical oils were used to protect skin from the elements.

Tallow makes a beautifully rich base for skincare. Rather than creating a light lotion that seems to disappear moments after applying it, our tallow balms and creams leave the skin feeling nourished, softened and protected.

And because a little goes a surprisingly long way, winter is the perfect time to massage a small amount into slightly damp skin after a bath or shower and allow it to melt in slowly.

Meet the Winter Cabinet

For everyday face and body moisture, Venus is a lovely place to begin — soft, comforting and made for skin that simply needs a little extra nourishment.

For mature, weathered or particularly thirsty skin, there is Aurora Regenerate Repair Cream, one of the richer members of our botanical cabinet.

And when winter calls for something wonderfully indulgent, our new Empress and Emperor Body Balms were made for exactly that sort of ritual.

The Empress is soft, floral, exotic and feminine — a luxurious balm to massage into arms, shoulders, legs and those winter-dry areas that need a little more love.

The Emperor takes a warmer, earthier path. Grounded, masculine and quietly luxurious, it carries the feeling of an old apothecary cabinet, worn leather and winter woods.

For those who prefer things completely simple, there is always Kaalgat — our uncomplicated, unscented tallow option.

Don’t Forget the Forgotten Bits

Winter dryness has a habit of finding the places we forget about.

Heels, elbows, knees, cuticles and hands often need something heavier than our everyday moisturiser. Healing Soles was created especially for hardworking, dry feet, while our tallow balms can be worked into rough elbows and hands before bed.

And lips deserve their own little winter ritual too. Our Cucumber & Spearmint Lip Balm is small enough to keep close at hand when cold air starts taking its toll.

Winter Hair Needs a Little Simplicity Too

Skin isn't the only thing that can feel the change of season.

Our Tallow Hair Shampoo Bar is one of the newest additions to Cypress Hill — a return to a simpler, traditional way of washing the hair and scalp, without a bathroom shelf full of unnecessary bottles.

Like so many of our products, it grew from the same question we ask when creating almost everything at Cypress Hill:

Can we make this simpler?

A Slower Kind of Skincare

Perhaps that is what we love most about winter.

It invites us to slow down.

To warm a little balm between our palms. To massage it into cold hands. To take care of cracked heels before climbing into bed. To choose one beautiful jar that does its job instead of ten complicated bottles promising miracles.

Our products are handmade in small batches here in the Garden Route, using traditional tallow alongside carefully chosen oils and botanicals.

Nothing terribly complicated.

Just good, old-fashioned nourishment for skin that has to live in the real world — through sunshine, wind, rain, mountain air and chilly winter mornings.

Stay warm. Stay wild. And give your winter skin a little tallow love.

Cypress Hill Tallow Co.
Handmade in the Garden Route, South Africa