Another year of so many beautiful blessings, memories, sunrises, sunsets, stargazing, being silly, endless love and cuddles. All with YOU.
Grateful for every morning we’re blessed to have another day on this earth with each other. You still do what I thought to be the impossible… and that’s to make me love you more and more every day 🥰
I love you so much! Happy 4 year anniversary… even though every day feels this special with you.
@John Scavone
Veterans Day means a lot to us.
When we started Born To Be Free, we chose that name for a reason. The freedoms we enjoy today exist because of the brave men and women who stepped up to serve our country, often putting their own lives and families on hold to protect ours.
To every veteran who has served, and every family who has sacrificed alongside them, thank you.
We're incredibly grateful. 🇺🇸
As a small token of our appreciation, enjoy 15% off your order today only with code PROUDTOBEFREE.
Here’s me filling up lip butter jars 💋
Did you know we carry six flavors?
Cinnamon Spice (seasonal, and gone in a couple short weeks)
Coconut Vanilla
Vanilla Bean
Sweet Almond
Sweet Peppermint (it’s almost peppermint season 🎄)
Grapefruit Lemon
Honestly I love filling these way more than the lip balm tubes. A lot more room for error 😅
Want to try our five year-round staples? The Tallow Lip Butter Set is $67.99, usually $85. That’s 20% off 🤍
Suet vs trim 🥩 John’s showing you the difference
Suet (leaf fat) sits around the kidneys. It’s firm, dry and crumbly, and it renders into a harder, whiter tallow with a very mild scent
Trim is the fat cut away from the rest of the animal, like around the muscles and under the hide. It’s softer and more pliable, and it renders into a slightly softer tallow
We use mostly suet, with just a little trim in our body butters to get that soft, airy, buttery texture everyone loves 🤍
All of it comes from regeneratively raised, grass-fed cattle and is rendered by our rancher
Did you know there was a difference?
This is our idea of face food 💙 Here’s what goes into our Hydrating Face Butter, and what each ingredient brings to the jar:
🥩 Grass-fed beef tallow: contains some of the same fatty acids found in your skin’s natural oils, helping soften and condition dry skin. A little goes a long way.
🌰 Nilotica shea butter: adds rich conditioning, helping skin feel softer and smoother.
🐝 Beeswax: creates a protective layer that helps keep moisture from escaping.
🍯 Manuka honey: a natural humectant, meaning it attracts and holds moisture.
💙 Blue Tansy: contains naturally blue chamazulene and brings a sweet, herbal aroma. That beautiful color isn’t added dye.
🌿 Frankincense: gives the blend its warm, resinous scent, adding depth without toxic fragrance.
🌸 Geranium: brings a soft, rosy floral note that rounds out the herbal oils.
🍊 Grapefruit: adds a bright, fresh citrus finish to balance the richer aromas.
The butters and wax help soften skin and hold onto moisture. The essential oils bring their own distinct aromas.
Rare, tender, and juicy. Exactly how we like our steak 🥩
Did you know cooking can reduce some heat-sensitive B vitamins?
How do you like yours cooked?
We dance for every order. Big or small. It’s kinda our thing
But the really big ones? Extra oomph. John’s still going 😂📦
This is what Friday looks like from the outside
What it looks like on our side: cash tied up in jars, labels still warm from the printer, boxes stacked on the kitchen counter, product in the oven
Year 3. Still packing every order ourselves before the weekend hits
Ever opened your tallow butter and found little grains? 🤔
Here’s why. Tallow is a mix of saturated and unsaturated fats, and each one sets at a different temperature. When it cools slowly or warms up and cools again, the saturated fats firm up on their own and form those tiny crystals.
That’s why we fully melt, cool quickly and whip ours as it sets. It keeps every jar smooth, fluffy and buttery 🧈
If your jar ever does turn grainy, don’t toss it! Here’s a quick fix. Set the sealed jar in warm water for about 15 minutes, then stir it with a clean finger or a spoon. Those grains smooth right back out 🙌
Our favorite free medicine 🌿☀️
Bare feet on the earth and sun on our skin, no prescription needed. A few minutes outside every day goes a long way.
Why we love grounding (earthing):
🌱 It helps calm inflammation
😴 Better sleep for a lot of people
🧘♀️ Helps us feel calmer and less stressed
⚡ Reconnects us to the earth's natural charge
Why we love vitamin D from the sun:
💪 Supports a strong immune system
🦴 Helps keep bones strong
☀️ Boosts mood and energy, especially as the days get shorter
🌀 Helps set your body's natural rhythm
God gave us the sun and the earth for a reason. Get outside, take your shoes off and soak it in 🤍
Every jiu jitsu wife knows the rule: no kisses until the gym is washed off 😂
Ringworm and staph live on the mats, so the soap comes before the kiss 🧼
Our tallow soap gets you clean without leaving your skin tight and dry
POV: you’re whipping up 100+ jars of our best-selling Sweet Almond Body Butter 🤍
Small batches, whipped by hand, one jar at a time. It smells just like fresh pignoli cookies 😋
Except this one is actually good for your skin & good for the soul
Grab yours before this batch is gone 👉
Born To Be Free
Sweet Almond Body ButterTallow Lotion – for Deep Hydration
Sweet Almond Body Butter with sweet almond oil for rich, nourishing hydration. This creamy body butter soothes dry skin, leaving it soft, smooth, &...
People ask us all the time why we openly share who our rancher is. “Aren’t you worried another brand will steal him?” 🤔
Honestly? No.
The Wenger family at Redbanks Farm raises some of the most beautiful grass-fed cattle in the Shenandoah Valley, and their tallow is unbelievable. We WANT them to succeed. A rising tide lifts all boats 🌊
When you surround yourself with good people, you don’t operate from fear. You build real relationships, you show up for each other, and loyalty takes care of itself 🤝
Know your farmer. Know your tallow. Know what you’re putting on your skin.
Sweet chili wings 😋
No costumes, no candy… just 200 soap bars & 190 Hydrating Face Butters 🎃😂
This is what Halloween looks like when you’re a small family business. Every bar cut by hand & every jar filled by us, right here at home
Made with grass fed tallow from Redbanks Farm 🧡
Thank you for supporting real small businesses, it means more than you know
Bringing our tallow soap to trace 🧼
This is where the magic (and the chemistry) happens 👇
We melt down 100% grass fed beef suet & slowly mix it with lye water. Lye is what turns fat into soap. It’s called saponification, and by the time your bar is cured there’s no lye left, just gentle, nourishing soap
“Trace” is the moment the oils & lye water fully emulsify & thicken, like a light pudding. When you drizzle some across the top it leaves a little trail behind
And it’s time sensitive ⏳
Once it hits trace we have to work fast. Add the essential oils, pour into molds & smooth the tops before it sets up on us. Wait too long & it gets thick & clumpy in the pot
Then it cures for weeks so every bar comes out hard, long lasting & gentle on your skin 🧡
Small batch. Made by hand. No synthetic fragrance, no mystery ingredients
Born To Be Free
Sweet Almond Tallow Soap Bar - Soap for Sensitive Skin
Sweet Almond Tallow Soap Bar enriched with sweet almond oil & tallow for gentle, nourishing care. This bar soothes, hydrates, & softens, ideal for ...
That’s what I’m talking about 😋
Suet vs trim fat 🐄
John breaks it down 👇
Suet is the fat around the kidneys & it’s more nutrient dense. It’s also a lot firmer
That’s why we use 100% suet in our soaps & lip balms
But in a body butter, pure suet gets hard & dense instead of soft & whipped. So we add a little trim fat to give you the buttery texture everyone loves while keeping it mostly suet 😋 (best of both worlds)
So many brands brag about “100% suet” like it’s a flex
What actually matters is where your tallow comes from
If it’s clean, grass fed & from a farm you can name, tallow is king 👑
Don’t get caught up in the small stuff
Ours comes from Redbanks Farm in the Shenandoah Valley 🧡
