Cowface Beauty – 100% organic tallow and non-toxic ingredients
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Cowface Beauty is a luxury skin and haircare brand with a distinctive ethos: 100% non-toxic, Cosmos certified organic products free from all parabens, SLS, sulphates, synthetics. Founder Lisa Reed suffered chronic acne in her youth before later developing the rare hyper thyroidism during midlife. After debilitating effects from these conditions, endless doctor consultations and mammograms, she began to connect the conditions to her topical beauty regime. Miraculously curing herself and balancing her hormones through her own formulas, Lisa began Cowface beauty formulated from 100% natural non-toxic ingredients and locally and ethically sourced tallow. I caught up with her to hear about building the Cowface Beauty brand from the ground up and her passion to support women through their life challenges with ingredient education.
‘My approach to skincare is very much informed by growing up watching my mother doing a very simple daily routine – the cleanse, tone, moisturise approach still informs me,’ muses Lisa, ‘so I have become shocked by the beauty industry today and the unachievable anti-ageing messaging being thrown at women of all demographics.’
Like many teens Lisa, now 52 years, suffered acne issues but hers was so extreme she couldn’t even leave the house and as was the way back then she was put on a heavy daily dose of antibiotics for around five years. Lisa explains ‘it had long-lasting effects on my skin I didn’t even realise till later. My skin became very sensitive and the barrier was so damaged whatever luxury brands I spent money on later were just sabotaging it further.’ Later in life at 45 years, Lisa was diagnosed with hyper thyroidism, ‘it came out of nowhere, I began to be too tired to get out of bed and doctors said I might have to remove my thyroid, which I couldn’t contend with – it was terrifying as the thyroid doesn’t just control the hormones but most of the body.’
After tests and a thermal breast examination revealed extreme stress and toxicity in the body, Lisa decided to take matters into her own hands: with thorough research she began to notice the extent of parabens and synthetics in her everyday products and the consumer greenwashing. She explains, ‘a product is technically allowed 1.1% of what I would describe as ‘dodgy’ ingredients so with all these young girls today being encouraged to do 10 step daily routines, you could be sending over 100 toxic chemicals into your skin at that level and those toxins get stored up in the bloodstream going directly to the hormones.’ I started by stripping back to just the purest ingredients I could find being ghia butter and olive oil before discovering the benefits of tallow dating back to ancient civilisations where it was used for wound healing.
In 2021 after months of formula testing, the first product launched, Cow Face Whipped Tallow Moisturiser: a lightly texture moisturiser made from 100% pure (beef) tallow (sourced locally from Pembrokeshire), cold pressed organic castor oil, organic Pembrokeshire raw honey, and pure essential oils of sweet orange, jasmine, and frankincense. Lisa comments, ‘a lot of companies just pour tallow into a jar but we whip ourselves so it creates more air and the texture is lighter for women’s skin particularly if they are going to layer it underneath makeup.’
Tallow has become topical as a skincare ingredient and I am intrigued to find out more since much controversy towards it seems to lie in a mindset that it is used on foods rather than skin. Lisa agrees, ‘the mindset definitely is that it is something for potatoes and I think it is mainly the smell of it that concerns people,’ she continues, ‘we know exactly where our tallow is coming from (100% pure organic grassfed tallow created locally to me in Pembrokeshire) there is no cruelty to animals, it is basically a bi product of animals and otherwise it would go to waste.’ The interest in tallow as a skincare ingredient has come from it being completely natural, ‘our own body recognises it as it is bio identical to human sebum,’ it is full of omega 9, oleic acid, rich fatty acids, fat soluble vitamins.’ Lisa explains her tallow skincare formulas are designed to reach deep into the skin epidermis, ‘castor oil is the most penetrating of all oils reaching three layers deep into the skin and it pulls down the tallow and other essential oils with it which is why consumers using our products notice such quick results.’ Indeed, miraculously after Lisa began only using her own formulations and cut out all of the brand skin and beauty products on her shelves her hyper thyroidism and skin concerns have all cleared up.
As a sensitive skin sufferer prone to eczema, rosacea and inflammation particularly due to stress and somewhat the harsh UV in London, I have been fascinated by the beauty industry discussions around tallow. The Cowface Beauty textures are easy on the skin surface; I have been using the Supreme Skin Cleansing Oil and Revitalising Toner as well as the Whipped Tallow Moisturiser. To begin with the smell is overwhelming: with the Cowface beauty products it is softened down by the essential oil smells though. Lisa explains, ‘the more you try and render down tallow to get rid of the smell, the more you lose the good stuff.’ I am particularly enjoying the toner as in the past I have taken toners out of my routine because I was finding them too stripping. This light texture I carry in my bag and use a little like a floral water too – it comprises vegetable glycerine, organic rosewater, pure clove leaf essential oil and is hugely revitalising for dull, tired skin and balances PH levels for anti-inflammation as well as being a skin prep for a moisturiser or serum on top.
It’s really refreshing to find a brand that is so openly transparent and trustworthy: all the products are waterless so there is no need for preservatives in them. All the ingredients are sourced as locally to the founder’s homeplace as possible which has enabled the brand to be inherently transparent through its supply chain from the get-go.
What are the future plans for Cowface Beauty?
‘New products will be developed from customer demand rather than for the sake of something new to sell.’ The next launch will be a 100% non-toxic shower gel and also a baby product range.
Lisa concludes: ‘I haven’t started the business as a huge money-making venture but as a passion for supporting women, enabling them to understand what they are putting on their skin so they don’t have to suffer like I did.’