The Story Behind Our Products

HandRooted Skincare began long before the first jar of tallow balm was ever poured. 

It began on a small 180-acre family farm tucked into the rolling hills of Wisconsin’s Driftless Region — a place where hard work still matters, old barns still stand proudly, and generations of history live in the soil itself. 

This is not a hobby farm built for social media pictures. This is a real working farm. It has been in my wife’s family for over 100 years, making it a true century farm. Every barn, shed, machine shop, and even the farmhouse itself was built by my wife’s grandfather with his own two hands. Everywhere you look on this farm, you can still see the fingerprints of a man who believed in building things to last. 

Years later, my father-in-law took over the farm and made a decision that most people around him thought was crazy at the time: he chose to transition the farm to organic farming over 30 years ago — long before “organic” became trendy grocery store marketing. 

The process was not easy. 

Switching away from conventional farming practices came with major risks, financial strain, and years of learning curves. Some cattle were lost during the transition as the herd adjusted away from the chemicals, additives, and vaccine-heavy conventional system that had become normal throughout modern agriculture. Most people would have turned back. 

He didn’t. 

Instead, he kept learning, adapting, and pushing forward because he believed there had to be a better and healthier way to raise animals. 

Today, he raises a small herd of around 20–30 cattle that live peaceful lives grazing the valleys and hillsides of the Driftless Region. They are grass-fed, organically raised, and cared for with an incredible level of attention and respect. Even now, while working a full-time job outside the farm, he continues to pour everything he has into keeping the farm alive — often running on only a few hours of sleep each night. 

This farm is not built on convenience. It is built on sacrifice, grit, and pride. 

Ironically, before I met my wife, the family had never even considered keeping the beef fat after processing. Like many farms, tallow was simply overlooked. 

But after diving deep into the history of traditional living, old-world cooking, and ancestral skincare, I realized something people had forgotten: our ancestors used tallow for generations because it worked. 

Not because it was trendy. Not because influencers told them to. Because it was practical, nourishing, natural, and effective. 

So we started saving the tallow and learning everything we could about how to properly render and use it. That simple decision eventually became HandRooted Skincare. 

My wife took the idea and absolutely ran with it. 

My wife spent countless hours researching ingredients, studying traditional skincare methods, testing recipes, and carefully creating products that stayed true to our values: simple ingredients, natural sources, and quality over hype. Tallow already contains an incredible amount of skin-supporting nutrients on its own, but when blended with carefully selected organic oils and essential oils, something special happened. 

The result was skincare that actually felt different. 

Not overloaded with chemicals. Not filled with synthetic fragrances. Just simple, honest ingredients made with intention. 

Every jar we make carries a piece of this farm with it — the long nights, the hard work, the generations of craftsmanship, and the belief that natural living still matters. 

We are proud of our tallow because we know exactly where it comes from. We know the farmer. We know the cattle. We know the fields they graze. And we know the hands that made it. 

That matters to us. 

And we believe it should matter to you too.