Here at DaisyFields, our hens lay beautiful eggs. We scramble them, bake them into bread, and sell them by the dozen. It had honestly never occurred to us to put them on our faces.

Then we met a farm family in Texas who does exactly that (more on them in a minute). It got us wondering what Great-Grandma reached for when her hands cracked open every January. Hint: it wasn't anything with an ingredient list she'd need a chemistry degree to read.

It was in her pantry, the barn, and the garden. Eggs. Honey. Good animal fat. A few cheerful flowers. A handful of small farms are still making skincare that way, and we've found two we're proud to carry. So pour yourself a cup of something warm, and let's take a little tour of the old farmhouse medicine cabinet.

A Little Farmhouse History

Before skincare came in tubes from the drugstore, it came from the kitchen. A farm wife who brushed her wrist against the woodstove reached for the honey crock. She kept a jar of marigold salve on the shelf. (That's calendula, the sunny orange flower that reigns in our own farm garden. You'll find it in three of the products below.) And the fat rendered on butchering day went two places: into the soap kettle, and into the little tin of balm by the back door for chapped hands.

Soap-making wasn't a hobby. It was just another chore, somewhere between putting up tomatoes and darning socks.

Some of us never quite stopped. Here at DaisyFields, we still do all three. Canning season is just wrapping up, and it has kept LeeAnn hopping for weeks. Once winter settles in, the darning basket comes out by the fire. And the soap? More on that in a minute.

Meet the Makers

We're picky about what goes on our store shelves. We carry things we actually use, made by people we'd happily have over for coffee. These two families passed the test.

**Urban Farm Collection** **(Texas).** Their motto is "Plants heal. Animals nourish." Four words, and they sum up this whole post. They keep their own flock of pastured hens, gather the eggs themselves, and freeze-dry the yolks for their Golden Yolk line. Yes, really. Everything is made in small batches with fresh herbs, tallow, beeswax, and cold-pressed oils.

White Sparrow Farmacy (Idaho). The Mason family makes their tallow balm in a general store built in 1884 by their pioneer relatives. They restored the old store in 2019 and began making balm there in 2023. Each jar is grass-fed tallow, olive oil, honey, and beeswax, with a little essential oil for scent. That's it. We like a short ingredient list almost as much as we like a good story behind it.

The Routine: Wash, Nourish, Seal It In

Grandma did not have a twelve-step routine. Grandma barely had a two-step routine. Three steps is plenty, and you don't even need all three every day, much less twice a day.

Step 1: Wash

For hands and body: DaisyFields farm soap. We make our soap right here on the farm, in small batches, the old cold-process way. Every bar starts with olive, coconut, and sunflower oils and shea butter, scented with essential oils or natural fragrance. Some bars get herbs and flowers from our own garden. Some get sea salt or oatmeal for a gentle scrub. Then each batch sits and cures for weeks before it's ready, which teaches a person patience whether she wants it or not.

A few favorites: Rosemary-Thyme, straight out of the herb bed. The Herbal Citrus Scrub, with sage, sea salt, and oatmeal. And the brand-new Lavender-Verbena Sea Salt Scrub. These are honest, hard-working bars for the kitchen sink, the mudroom, and the shower after barn chores.

For your face, reach for something a little fancier, made especially for faces:

Golden Yolk Soap (Urban Farm Collection). Tallow, whole eggs, raw honey, carrot juice, and turmeric, made into a creamy bar you can use from face to toes. Yes, there are actual eggs in it. We checked.
Golden Hour Oil Cleanse (Urban Farm Collection). For days with makeup or sunscreen. It uses the old oil-cleansing trick: massage it into a dry face, lay a warm, damp washcloth over it, and wipe it all away. It's castor and jojoba oils infused with egg yolk, calendula, hibiscus, turmeric, and frankincense, and it has no essential oils, so it's a good pick for sensitive noses.

Step 2: Nourish

A few drops of serum on slightly damp skin, morning, night, or both.

Golden Yolk Serum (Urban Farm Collection). Their very first product and still an all-around favorite. Jojoba oil infused with calendula and marshmallow root, plus grass-fed tallow, those freeze-dried yolks, and vitamin E. Rich, but it soaks right in. We like the version with frankincense and helichrysum essential oils.
Meadow Serum (Urban Farm Collection). A whole herb garden in one little bottle: calendula, marshmallow root, myrrh, lemon balm, horsetail, and turmeric, slowly steeped in jojoba. It feels lighter, smells green and herbal, and is naturally emerald green. If you're a plant person, this one's yours.

Step 3: Seal It In

Finish with a White Sparrow tallow balm. It's thick and rich, so start small: a pea-sized dab for your face, a bit more for hands, elbows, and heels. We carry four scents:

**Citrus Bouquet**, bright and cheerful for gray mornings
**Lavender & Honey**, soft and calming at bedtime
**English Garden**, a limited edition, so don't dawdle
**Old Reliable**, woodsy evergreen with lavender and rosemary. It's sold as a men's balm, but nobody's checking IDs at the register.

What the Science Says (We Looked It Up)

We love tradition. We also like to know what we're talking about before we go recommending things to our neighbors. So we did some reading.

Honey: Grandma was right. A Cochrane review, about as trusted as medical research gets, found high-quality evidence that honey dressings heal partial-thickness burns roughly 4 to 5 days faster than conventional dressings. (That's medical-grade honey under a doctor's care. A real burn still means a real doctor, not a trip to the pantry.)

Calendula: also right. The European Medicines Agency recognizes calendula as a traditional remedy for minor skin inflammation and to help small cuts and scrapes heal.

Tallow: the jury's still out. Here's where we'll be honest with you. There are no proper clinical trials on tallow for skin yet, and some dermatologists say its popularity has gotten ahead of the science. Others caution that it can be too heavy for oily or acne-prone skin. What tallow does have is a few thousand years of chapped farm hands on its side, plus some very loyal fans, including us. Our advice: if your skin runs dry, give it a try. If it runs oily or breaks out easily, start small, on your hands or elbows first.

The fine print: these are skincare products, not medicine. They aren't meant to diagnose, treat, or cure anything. If you have a skin condition, please talk with your doctor.

Which One Is for Me?

Dry or mature skin: Golden Yolk Serum, topped with a tallow balm at night.
Sensitive skin or a sensitive nose: Golden Hour Oil Cleanse and/or Golden Yolk Soap. Neither one has any essential oils.
You wear makeup most days: Golden Hour Oil Cleanse. It takes off mascara without a fight.
You're a plant person: Meadow Serum, no question.
Hard-working hands: A DaisyFields soap bar at the sink, then Old Reliable. See below.
Stuck for a gift: One of our soaps plus a tallow balm makes a lovely little pair, and nobody has to know it took you two minutes.

A Field Report from Dave's Hands

Dave's hands spend their days in flour, then in hot water, then back in flour. In his spare time, they're caked in garden dirt or greasy from fixing the tractor. By October they look like they've been sanded. So he has volunteered (been volunteered?) to put Old Reliable to the test: wash with farm soap, rub in a little balm, repeat.

We sat him down for a full review. His official verdict, in its entirety: "Yes, I like it. It's nice." Then, after a thoughtful pause, “Can I keep this one?” From a man of few words, we'll take that as a glowing endorsement. The jar has not been seen on the shelf since.

Where to Find Them

Everything in this post is waiting for you in our Farm Market, online and in the farm store. Order by 5:00 PM and your order will be ready for pickup at the farm the next day. And if you'd rather smell the soaps before you choose (we don't blame you), stop by. We'll put the kettle on.

Here's to soft hands, simple ingredients, and the good sense of the people who came before us.

Warmly, LeeAnn & Dave

Natural Skincare, Straight from Grandma’s Washstand