Okay, let's talk about something that used to stress me out way more than it should have.

You look up tallow skincare, you see the word comedogenic, and suddenly you're spiraling. Tallow clogs pores. Tallow causes breakouts. Do not put tallow on your face. I get it. I was there too.

But here's the thing. I grew up in Brazil. We don't really do that kind of stress. You sit with your friends, you feel the sun on your face, you use what works and you move on. So let me break this down for you the way I would explain it to a friend on the beach. Relaxed. No drama. Just the facts.

First, what does comedogenic even mean?

Comedogenic comes from the Latin comedo, meaning a blocked pore. It simply describes whether an ingredient has the potential to clog your pores and cause breakouts. There is a scale from 0 to 5. Zero means no problem. Five means big problem. The higher the number, the more likely it is to block your follicles.

Simple enough, right? Now here is where it gets interesting.

Where this scale actually came from

In 1972, yes 1972, a dermatologist named Albert Kligman created a method to test comedogenicity. The test involved applying substances to the inner ear canal of albino rabbits and counting blocked pores after two weeks. From this he built the 0 to 5 scale that the entire skincare industry still uses today.

This rabbit ear model is the foundation of every comedogenic rating you find online. Every single one. Including the ratings people use to say tallow is bad for your skin.

Can we just sit with that for a second? A rabbit's ear. In 1972. That is what's controlling the conversation about what you put on your face today.

Rabbit skin is not human skin. Rabbit follicles are larger, more sensitive to irritation, and respond completely differently to the same substances than human facial skin does. What causes a blocked pore in a rabbit ear canal does not reliably tell you what happens on your face. It never did.

So where does tallow actually land?

Grass-fed tallow rates between 2 and 3 on the comedogenic scale. That is the moderate range. You know what else sits in that moderate range? Several silicones and synthetic emollients found in the conventional moisturisers that get called non-comedogenic without a second thought.

Nobody talks about that part. The ingredients that replaced tallow in mainstream skincare often rate exactly the same, or higher, on the very scale being used to criticise tallow. Make it make sense.

What the actual research says

A 2006 re-evaluation in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology looked directly at this and found something important: products using ingredients with moderate comedogenic ratings are not necessarily comedogenic in a complete formula. How an isolated ingredient behaves in a rabbit ear has nothing to do with how a finished product behaves on your skin. Context matters more than the number.

Then in 2025 JAAD Reviews went even further. The rabbit ear assay showed inconsistent results when applied to human skin. And here is the part that got me. The term non-comedogenic has no legal definition. No regulatory backing. Any brand can print it on a label without proving a single thing. So that moisturiser sitting in your bathroom proudly labeled non-comedogenic? Nobody checked.

What this means for Balm do Sol

We made Balm do Sol with grass-fed tallow at 38 percent of the formula alongside four Brazilian botanicals and non-nano zinc oxide. We chose tallow because its fatty acid profile is remarkably similar to human sebum, the oil your skin naturally produces. When an ingredient already speaks your skin's language it tends to work with it rather than against it.

A 2024 study in Cureus confirmed tallow's high dermal affinity and low irritancy potential in the first formal scoping review dedicated entirely to tallow's compatibility with human skin.

We read all of this before we made a single jar. The comedogenic fear, when you trace it all the way back, rests on a rabbit ear test from over fifty years ago that dermatology has been quietly questioning for decades.

So next time someone tells you tallow clogs pores, ask them where they heard that. Chances are it goes back to 1972. And a rabbit.

Pele viva. Skin alive. Now go enjoy the sun. 🌞