How we make Talo Malo: small batches in Clydebank, Scotland

No factory, no robots, no mystery. Talo Malo is made in small batches in our own unit in Clydebank, Scotland, by me, Bobby, with Vito (9, the boss) supervising. Here's how a jar of The Original gets made.

It started in the living room

Before there was a unit, there was a sofa. The first batches were made at home, and plenty of them went in the bin. It took 23 batches to get a balm we were happy with, especially on smell and texture. The full story is here.

Step 1: weigh everything

Every ingredient is weighed, not measured by volume, because oils don't all weigh the same and measuring jugs drift. Grass-fed beef tallow, olive squalane, Golden Jojoba Oil and candelilla wax. Four ingredients, each weighed into its own container before anything gets warm.

Step 2: melt it gently

Everything goes into the melter together and is warmed slowly until it's fully liquid. Not too hot: tallow doesn't like being cooked. We check the temperature with a probe in the middle of the mix, because the dial on a machine isn't always honest.

Step 3: stir, don't whisk

We stir gently with a paddle until there are no flecks of wax left. Never whisked. Whisking pumps air in, and our balm is poured, not whipped. That's why it's firm in the jar and softens in your fingers.

Step 4: pour by hand

Once it's cooled a little, every jar is filled by hand, a tray at a time, into amber glass jars. We stir between rounds so nothing separates, wipe every rim, and check the weight of a jar every so often to make sure you're getting what you paid for.

Step 5: let it set slowly

The jars are left to set at room temperature, away from draughts. No fridge, no freezer. Rushing it makes the balm grainy or cracked, so we leave it to cool slowly, often overnight.

Step 6: lid, seal, batch code

Once it's fully set, every jar gets its lid and a heat-sealed foil seal, so you know nobody's been in it before you. Every jar has a batch code, so if you ever have a question about your jar, we can trace exactly which batch it came from.

Step 7: we keep a jar back

From every batch, we keep one sealed jar and check its smell and colour over the following months. If anything ever changes, we'll know about it before you do.

Why small batches?

Because we can keep an eye on every one. Small batches mean we notice if something's off, we can tweak things, and the balm you get hasn't been sitting in a warehouse for a year.

Come and see us

We share bits of the making on TikTok and Instagram, usually with Vito pointing out what Dad did wrong. Want to try a jar? Get The Original, made in Clydebank, Scotland, with our 60-day guarantee.