At This Little Life (formerly known as, The Basic Stitch), we take pride in minimally processing our skincare products since we value keeping vitamins and fatty acids intact as much as possible. Fats, oils, butter and plant matter all have benefitial properties that can be damaged by overexposure to heat or even the container they are stored in.
Rendered with Care
Our pasture-raised, regeneratively farmed USA beef suet is dry rendered low and slow one time (occasionally a second time though this is rare), after we have removed as much of the membranes/tissues as we can to avoid a beefy scent. We render in all stainless steel and all the remainder membranes/tissues stay in the strainer above the melted, liquid tallow, not submerged in, to also help avoid a beefy scent. High quality, "unscented" tallow tends to have a buttery, almost sweet smell to it. It is still a beef product, therefore, it might on RARE occasion have a mild beef scent, though this is not a review we usually receive. If we rendered further to remove more of the scent, we would damage the fatty acids and the tallow would not be quite as beneficial. At its core, tallow is not "jam-packed" with beneficial properties, but it does have some properties that we don't want to damage with more than one render/melting.
HERE is a link to testing done by three other small businesses in collaboration; The testing shows that further "renders" and/or longer renders and/or higher temperatures damages the overall profile of fatty acids in tallow.
Herbal Infusion
We infuse all of our fats, oils and butters in house with almost all organic plant matter sourced in their native lands! Check out our INGREDIENTS blog post to learn more about why sourcing in their native lands is important. We use a low and slow method (and even some without heat!) once again since plant matter can be damaged easily. We value the beneficial properties of our products which is also why we opt for plant matter over fragrances or even essential oils. During infusion, we only use stainless steel or glass depending on the infusion method. To strain, we use stainless steel strainers and unbleached, disposable cotton cheese cloth.
We hope this gives our customers better insight on the usefulness behind refraining from over-purification and the care we take with ensuring your products remain the best quality they can be in texture, scent and properties!