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The verdict up front: Traverse Bay Bath and Body beef tallow is the best value option for DIY soap, candles, and homemade skincare formulas. At 32 oz for under $20, the per-ounce cost crushes every other tallow product on the market. It’s deodorized, so it won’t give your candles or soaps a beefy smell. The trade-off? It’s not grass-fed and it’s not marketed for direct skincare use. If you want a ready-to-use moisturizer, look elsewhere. If you want affordable, workable tallow for crafting, this is the one to buy.
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What Is Traverse Bay Beef Tallow?
Traverse Bay Bath and Body sells a 32-ounce (2 lb) tub of deodorized beef tallow designed specifically for DIY and crafting applications. This isn’t a finished skincare product or a cooking fat. It’s a raw material — rendered, filtered, and deodorized tallow meant to be an ingredient in your own creations.
The deodorizing process removes the characteristic beefy smell that raw tallow carries. This matters enormously for soap and candle makers. Nobody wants their lavender candle to smell like a steakhouse.
Key specs:
- Size: 32 oz (2 lbs)
- Type: Deodorized beef tallow
- Source: Not specified as grass-fed
- Processing: Rendered and deodorized
- Best for: Soap making, candle making, DIY balm and lotion bases
- Not ideal for: Direct skin application, cooking
Testing for Soap Making
I used Traverse Bay tallow as the primary fat in three different cold-process soap batches. Here’s what I found.
Trace time was excellent. Tallow soaps reach trace faster than pure olive oil recipes, and Traverse Bay performed exactly as expected. I hit light trace within 3-4 minutes using a stick blender, which is right in the sweet spot for cold process. This gives you enough working time to add fragrance oils, colorants, or swirl patterns before the batter thickens too much.
The bar quality impressed me. Tallow produces a hard, long-lasting bar with a creamy, stable lather. My test bars (70% tallow, 20% coconut oil, 10% olive oil) cured for four weeks and came out dense, smooth, and white. The lather was rich without being overly bubbly — more of a creamy, lotion-like foam.
No beefy smell in the finished product. This was my biggest concern, and Traverse Bay’s deodorizing process handled it. My finished soaps smelled only of the essential oils I added. Even the unscented test bar had no animal odor at all.
Unmolding was easy. Tallow soaps harden faster than all-vegetable recipes. I unmolded at 24 hours with clean edges and no sticking. Olive oil-heavy soaps often need 48-72 hours.
If you’re new to soap making with tallow, our guide on how to use beef tallow in homemade soaps and balms walks through the full process, including lye calculations and recipes.
My Go-To Tallow Soap Recipe
This is the basic recipe I tested with Traverse Bay:
- 70% beef tallow (Traverse Bay)
- 20% coconut oil (for lather and cleansing)
- 10% olive oil (for conditioning)
- Lye (NaOH) calculated at 5% superfat
- Essential oils added at light trace (optional)
Run every recipe through a lye calculator before making it. Superfat percentages and lye amounts change based on your specific oil weights.
Testing for Candle Making
Tallow candles have a long history — they were the standard before paraffin wax existed. I made a batch of container candles and a batch of taper-style candles using Traverse Bay tallow.
Burn quality was good but not perfect. Tallow candles burn with a warm, steady flame. The light has a slightly softer, more yellow tone compared to soy or beeswax candles. I found the burn time comparable to soy wax in similar-sized containers.
Scent throw is moderate. Tallow holds fragrance oils reasonably well, but it doesn’t project scent as aggressively as soy wax. If you want a candle that fills a room, you’ll need to increase your fragrance load or blend tallow with beeswax. I got the best results at about 8-10% fragrance oil by weight.
No beefy smell when burning. Again, the deodorizing pays off. My test candles smelled clean, carrying only the added fragrance. One unscented candle had a very faint, almost sweet background note — not unpleasant, and definitely not beefy.
Texture and appearance need work. Pure tallow candles have a rougher surface than soy or paraffin. They can develop small air pockets and aren’t as glossy. Blending with about 20% beeswax improves the appearance significantly and helps with scent throw too.
For a detailed walkthrough of the full candle-making process, including wick sizing and pour temperatures, see our step-by-step tallow candle guide.
Tallow Candle Tips
- Pour temperature: 140-150 degrees F for container candles
- Add fragrance at: 135-140 degrees F
- Wick size: Go one size up from what you’d use for soy wax
- Blend suggestion: 80% tallow / 20% beeswax for better appearance and scent throw
- Cure time: Let candles cure 3-5 days before burning for best results
Testing as a DIY Balm Base
This is where Traverse Bay gets interesting for skincare enthusiasts who want to make their own products at a fraction of retail cost.
I used it as the tallow base in a simple whipped body butter recipe: 1 cup melted tallow, 1/3 cup jojoba oil, 10 drops lavender essential oil, whipped to a fluffy consistency.
The resulting balm was functional. It spread well, absorbed reasonably, and moisturized effectively. I used it on my hands and arms for a week.
But it’s not the same as grass-fed tallow. I need to be straight about this. Traverse Bay doesn’t specify grass-fed sourcing, which means the nutrient profile — particularly the levels of vitamins A, D, E, and K, plus CLA — is likely lower than what you’d get from a grass-fed product. For a deeper dive into why this matters, our guide on grass-fed vs. grain-fed tallow covers the differences in detail.
For body use, it works fine. Hands, elbows, feet, general body moisture — Traverse Bay handles these applications well when formulated into a balm. For facial skincare where you want maximum nutrient density, I’d spend more on a grass-fed base or buy a finished product like Amallow{rel=“sponsored”}.
Simple DIY Tallow Balm Recipe
- 1 cup Traverse Bay beef tallow (melted gently)
- 1/3 cup carrier oil (jojoba, sweet almond, or olive)
- 10-15 drops essential oil (optional)
- Melt tallow, mix in carrier oil, cool to semi-solid, whip with hand mixer for 5-10 minutes
- Store in glass jars in a cool, dark place
What About Cooking?
I know you’re wondering, so I’ll address it. Can you cook with Traverse Bay tallow? Technically, yes. It’s rendered beef fat, and people have been cooking with tallow for centuries.
However, I wouldn’t recommend it as your primary cooking tallow. The deodorizing process strips some of the natural flavor that makes tallow great for frying and searing. You’d be paying for processing that removes the very thing you want in a cooking fat.
If you need cooking tallow, look for products specifically sold for culinary use — undeodorized, food-grade, and ideally grass-fed. Traverse Bay’s sweet spot is crafting, and that’s where your money is best spent.
The Real Cons
Not grass-fed. The sourcing isn’t specified, which almost certainly means conventional beef. For soap and candles, this doesn’t matter at all. For skincare formulas, you’re getting less nutrient density than grass-fed alternatives.
Not food-grade marketed. While it’s still rendered beef tallow, the product is positioned for bath and body use. If cooking is your goal, buy a product designed for it.
The tub packaging is basic. You get a simple plastic container. It works, but it’s not resealable in a way that keeps the tallow perfectly fresh long-term. I’d recommend transferring unused portions to glass mason jars if you’re not using it all at once.
Texture varies slightly between batches. I’ve ordered Traverse Bay three times now. The color ranged from pure white to very pale cream, and the firmness varied slightly. This is normal for natural animal fats and doesn’t affect performance, but it’s worth mentioning if you expect industrial-level consistency.
32 oz is a lot if you’re just experimenting. If you’re making your first batch of soap ever, you’ll have a lot of tallow left over. That’s not necessarily bad — it stores well — but it is a commitment. Tallow keeps for months at room temperature and over a year in the fridge, so you’ll use it eventually.
Price and Value Comparison
This is where Traverse Bay dominates. Let’s compare cost per ounce:
| Product | Size | Approx. Price | Cost Per Oz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traverse Bay | 32 oz | ~$18 | ~$0.56 |
| Typical grass-fed tallow (bulk) | 16 oz | ~$20 | ~$1.25 |
| Finished tallow balm (retail) | 4 oz | ~$15-22 | ~$3.75-5.50 |
At roughly $0.56 per ounce, Traverse Bay is the cheapest way to get quality rendered tallow for projects. You’d spend 2-3x more on grass-fed alternatives, and 6-10x more on finished retail balms.
For DIY makers producing multiple bars of soap or a batch of candles, this pricing makes the hobby economically viable. A single 32 oz tub gives you enough tallow for approximately:
- 8-10 bars of cold-process soap (at 70% tallow recipes)
- 6-8 container candles (8 oz containers)
- 8-10 jars of whipped body butter (4 oz jars)
Who Should Buy Traverse Bay
This is for you if:
- You make soap and want an affordable, high-performing tallow base
- You’re experimenting with tallow candles
- You create DIY balms, lotions, or body butters
- You want bulk tallow at the lowest possible cost per ounce
- You need deodorized tallow for scented products
This is NOT for you if:
- You want a ready-to-use skincare product (buy Amallow{rel=“sponsored”} instead)
- You need grass-fed tallow for maximum nutrient density
- You want cooking tallow (look for food-grade, undeodorized options)
- You’re only making a single small project and don’t need 32 oz
The Bottom Line
Traverse Bay beef tallow is the undisputed value champion for DIY tallow projects. The deodorized formula works brilliantly for soap, performs well in candles, and serves as a capable base for homemade skincare formulas. At under $20 for 32 ounces, nothing else comes close on price.
The limitations are real but predictable. It’s not grass-fed, it’s not optimized for cooking, and the basic packaging could be better. But for its intended purpose — giving DIY makers a clean, workable, affordable tallow base — it nails every requirement.
If you’re making soap, candles, or DIY balms with any regularity, Traverse Bay should be your default tallow supply.
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