Why tallow? At Vellum St, we don't believe you should put anything on your skin that you wouldn't put in your mouth. All of our tallow based soaps, balms, salts, and candles are made from high quality, food grade ingredients, locally & organically sourced, often from the kitchens of local restaurants & farms in the form of upcycled material that would normally be considered waste. Tallow is rich in the same types of lipids found in youthful, vibrant skin, and is chock full of of vitamins A, D, E & K. The fatty acids in tallow are much closer in molecular structure (and therefore, more bioavailable) to the oils our own skin produces than are the plant oils more commonly used in skin care products. Aside from its multitude of glorious skin benefits, using tallow from animals raised on small, local, regenerative agricultural focused farms, pastured & humanely raised, is one of the most eco conscious ways we can source ingredients. Large scale farming of crops such as palm, soy, and even coconut, strip the soil of nutrients and decimate native animal habits and ecosystems. By putting the tallow from these operations to good use, we are helping to maximize energy spent on production, using every last bit with the ultimate goal of little to no waste. Food production is a difficult job, and we are very thankful to the farms, processors, animals, and plants who contribute to providing for us, and wish to honor them by appreciating and utilizing every last bit we can. By sourcing locally as much as possible, we eliminate the immense waste produced with packaging and shipping ingredients to us across land and sea. With nothing added that doesn't have a beneficial purpose for your skin, you can be assured you're getting a top notch product, thoughtfully crafted & scientifically executed, that's suds of fun!

As a chef interested in both nutrition and food sustainability, it wasn't long before Vellum St soap maker/mayhem slayer Melissa Lynn Torre started paying attention to not only what she put IN her body, but also ON it. So many commercially available soaps & skin care products today are formulated with ingredients you would never eat, so why slather them on your skin, which, like your digestive system, absorbs everything you put on it?! After a growing interest & extensive research, Melissa discovered a slew of ingredients, many of which were leftover/excess ingredients in her cafe Cookie Confidential's own kitchen, that held numerous benefits for the skin, most notable, tallow. Not long after, Melissa stepped away from the world of pastry and private cheffing, and into the world of upcycled skincare. Creating products that are comprised of nothing that doesn't directly benefit skin health, along with being able to put to good use many food "scraps" that were once headed for the trash bin in many commercial kitchens, led Melissa to an exciting new venture that combined her love of food & creating in the kitchen with her desire to improve nutrition and food sustainability.