Natural Belly Balm For Pregnant Women | Tallow & Lard Stretch Mark Cream Recipe

A powerful DIY recipe for an all-natural belly balm to help you combat stretch marks and itching during pregnancy. Tallow, lard, and cocoa butter are all you need for this luxurious belly cream. The end-result smells like chocolate and supports optimal skin health during your pregnancy. Safe to use on your baby too after he or she comes!

There are a lot of toxic and cheap skincare ingredients out there masquerading as luxury with the absurd price point to match the false marketing. This seems to be especially true for any product aimed at pregnant women and their children. While I'm not against (and use) commercial skincare products, I've found that the best and most powerful ingredients that have made a significant difference n my skin have come from natural animal-derived products like tallow and lard.

This DIY recipe for a belly balm to help you combat stretch marks and itching during pregnancy combines tallow and lard with cocoa butter to make for a rich, chocolate-scented belly cream that helps to nourish and protect your skin. I normally use this during the winter as an all-over body butter, but for these summer months, I have relegated this rich lotion to my growing belly and breasts only.

If you find that it is too rich for daytime use, keep it to the evenings before bedtime. I use it morning and night.

See Also: 

Whipped Tallow Body Butter

What Causes Stretch Marks?

Most people get stretch marks, women and the overweight/obese in particularly are affected.

Stretch marks during puberty and pregnancy are very common even if you're at a healthy weight or slightly under.

Rapid stretching of the skin causes the marks to appear on your skin. Too much of the stress hormone cortisone can cause them to appear. Using certain medications can also cause stretch marks; corticosteroid creams, lotions, and pills for example as they decrease the skin's ability to stretch.

How Do I Get Rid of Stretch Marks?

Once you have stretch marks, there is often very little that can be done.

Newer stretch marks are reddish-purple tinged (striae rubra) and they are far easier to treat. The reddish-purple colour indicates blood vessels are present under the skin. The presence of these blood vessels allows red stretch marks to be far more responsive to treatment over the white stretch marks that appear later on.

White stretch marks (striae alba) are faded, older marks and they are unfortunately more difficult to treat or get rid of. The blood vessels have narrowed at this point, making it hard to stimulate natural collagen production.

Talk to a dermatologist for more invasive procedures involving lasers and microneedling.

Can Stretch Marks in Pregnancy Be Prevented?

The science on this is unclear.

We can't say for certain exactly why some women get stretch marks and others do not.

The root cause may be genetic, dietary, happenstance etc. but no one can say 100% which leaves us guessing and experimenting on ourselves.

Will this lotion (or any lotion at any price point) stop you from getting stretch marks? Unlikely. But it certainly can't hurt and might help, even if minimally. It definitely will help alleviate the itching that comes from stretch marks and a growing belly.

You don't want to scratch your itchy belly skin as that can make stretch marks worse on top of damaging your skin.

My approach to preventing stretch marks has been two-fold: this homemade lard, tallow, and cocoa butter lotion and a diet rich in collagen foods.

From The Inside Out: Foods That Help Prevent Stretch Marks

Collagen is the most abundant protein in the skin, making up 75-80% of it. Collagen and elastin are responsible for warding off wrinkles and fine lines. Over time, the environment and ageing reduce your body's ability to produce collagen.

There has been some incredible research conducted lately showing how collagen supplementation helps to reverse the deeper wrinkles that form with age. It is also likely that collagen will benefit your skin when it comes to preventing stretch marks.

I take 4 tablespoons of unflavoured, powdered collagen daily on top of eating a diet rich in this powerful ingredient.

Collagen is only found in animal foods like skin, bones, cartilage, and the tougher cuts of meat like necks, Osso Bucco, shank etc.

The easiest way to introduce more collagen into your diet is by making long-simmered bone broths and having some soup daily — our grandmothers were right.

See Also:

How I'm Following an Ancestral Health Weston Price Diet for Pregnancy and Nursing | What I Eat In a Day Pregnant

Easy Collagen-Rich Recipes

Raw Kefir Smoothie With Berries, Collagen & Egg Yolks

Raw Milk Ice Cream Made With Pure Grass-Fed Cream | Maple Pecan Ice Cream

Hot Spiced Milk + Collagen (Bulletproof Milk?)

Powdered Collagen Brands

I buy the big 20 lbs bags of powdered collagen from Great Lakes. This is the most economical way I have found for the amount I take.

If you can't afford powdered collagen or even find it  — just make real soup from bones!

Great Lakes Gelatin Collagen Hydrolysate 

Cod Liver Oil

Another powerful ingredient in skincare is cod liver oil.

This can be controversial for pregnancy (in the west anyways) but I take it daily.

I only recommend cod liver oil that has had no synthetic Vitamin A added as that can be an issue during pregnancy, and in general. Synthetic Vitamin A is nasty stuff.

Rosita Cod Liver Oil

Benefits of Tallow & Lard For Skin

Tallow and lard are rendered animal fats, primarily from pigs and cattle, but also sheep and wild game.

These traditional animal-sourced ingredients have been used since before written history in various skincare and healing concoctions.

Sadly they fell out of favour but in the last few years, many people have been rediscovering the power of natural animal fats like lard and tallow.

Grass-fed/pastured tallow and lard, in particular, are rich sources of vitamins and other skin beneficial ingredients.

Sourcing Grass-Fed & Pastured Tallow & Lard

It's now easier than ever to find grass-fed/pastured sources of healthy animal fats. Since I cook primarily with tallow and lard, I always have some on hand.

Talk to your butcher or local farmer first if you can.

Benefits of Cocoa Butter For Skin

Cocoa butter is high in fatty acids making it an amazing skin hydrator and nourisher which can improve elasticity. The fat in cocoa butter forms a protective barrier over skin to hold in moisture.

Cocoa butter is also rich in natural plant compounds called phytochemicals. These substances may improve blood flow to the skin and slow skin aging by protecting against damage from the sun’s harmful UV rays.

Sourcing Cocoa Butter Ethically

Sourcing cocoa butter from an ethical source can be a nightmare.

Your best bet is to avoid cocoa butter from any African country as chocolate production on that continent is a huge driver in modern slavery, including child slavery.

And while the Fair Trade logo and program is generally a good one, it can fall apart in practice in Africa, so it's not always a good indicator that "fair trade" has actually been conducted.

This is a vast and complicated issue. A heartbreaking one fraught with human suffering where none of the big chocolate companies are doing anything to make worthwhile changes. One you feel powerless against.

As far as I've been able to ascertain, sourcing cocoa butter from other parts of the world is your best bet.

Or leaving the cocoa butter out completely.

If you want the finished cream to smell like chocolate, you need to buy unrefined cocoa butter.

Here are my top picks for ethically sourced cocoa butter:

USA Shoppers

Mary Tylor Naturals Raw Unrefined, Non-Deodorized, Organic Cocoa Butter (Dominican Republic)

 Raw Organic Cocoa Butter Wafers Wild Foods (Peru)

Cocoa Butter by Sky Organics (16 oz) Pure Unrefined Raw Cocoa Butter (Ecuador)

Nuvia Organics Cocoa Butter - 100% USDA Certified Organic, Raw Unrefined Pressed Wafers, Food Grade (Peru)

Canadian Shoppers

Organic Traditions Cacao Butter (Peru)

Ecoideas Organic Cacao Butter (Ecuador)

Mary Tylor Naturals Raw Unrefined, Non-Deodorized, Organic Cocoa Butter (Dominican Republic)

Amson Naturals 100% Pure & Natural Organic, Non-Deodorized, Food Grade Cocoa Butter (Peru)

Why I Don't Add Essential Oils To My Homemade Skincare Recipes

They're not always safe, necessary, or even beneficial.

I'm speaking generally here of course.

The reality of essential oils is that they are often pro-ageing, can cause cellular death, do nothing for the efficacy of the finished product, and essential oils can be dangerous if not used properly.

For pregnancy especially, not all essential oils are deemed safe so I would rather err on the side of caution.

And if you plan on using this for your baby on your breasts while nursing, please don't add any essential oils to the finished product as it can be very dangerous for your delicate newborn.

Essential oils mostly just smell nice when added to body lotions, and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, natural products like unrefined cocoa butter also smell amazing while being completely safe for your skin during pregnancy.

I love essential oils in my soaps where they make up very little of the finished product, and some, of course, can be healing for certain conditions.

This homemade lotion will smell like chocolate, not at all like lard or tallow, as long as you use unrefined cocoa butter.

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