Bryan Vander Dussen spent years as a dairy farmer before shifting to selling farm-raised beef. In the past year, he and his wife have been making another transition: cooking up recipes in their kitchen that turn organ fat from his animals into tallow balm that buyers are eager to slather on their skin.

One of the tricky parts is coming up with formulas that don’t smell like pot roast.

“You see it everywhere, so we were like, ‘Why don’t we do this?’” he says. “Some of the feedback is, ‘We don’t want to smell like beef’, so we add things like lavender and wild orange to kind of counter that potential beef smell.”

From moisturisers made with beef tallow to salmon sperm facials, consumers have become more interested in animal-based skincare products in recent years. Promoted as natural alternatives to synthetics, they are gaining popularity across social media and high-end spas as well as at farmers’ markets and in home kitchens.

Some experts connect the products’ rise to an increased focus on the health impact of chemicals.