Remarkably gentle skincare from the wild south of New Zealand.
Deer are part of the landscape here. Farmed across the open country of the South Island and roaming wild through forests and high country, they are both a valued resource and, in the wrong numbers, a considerable problem.
Wild deer are an introduced species. Left unchecked, they browse native seedlings and forest undergrowth, changing the composition of the bush and making it harder for our forests to regenerate. Managing their numbers is necessary conservation work. But a deer removed from the wild is also an animal, and we believe it should be valued as one.
That means making good use of what it provides.
Most of the tallow we use at Veren comes from farmed New Zealand deer, giving us the quality and consistency we need to make beautiful skincare. A smaller amount comes from wild-harvested deer, recovered as part of the ongoing work to manage wild populations. Together, these sources allow us to take an overlooked part of the animal and turn it into something useful.
This matters because deer are naturally lean. Tallow is not abundant, and it would be far easier for this small amount of fat to be discarded during processing. We go to some effort to recover it, render it carefully and make the most of every batch. Not because waste is fashionable to talk about, but because using the whole animal simply feels like the right thing to do.
It is a small act of respect: for the life of the animal, for the people who farm and harvest it, and for the landscape it comes from.
There is a practical value in it, too. When wild-harvested deer can become food and useful products, there is greater reason to recover them rather than leave a valuable resource in the hills. That value helps support the people and systems involved in responsible population management, work that reduces browsing pressure and gives native plants, birds and forests more room to thrive.
We are not pretending that a jar of balm will solve a conservation problem. It won’t. But we do believe businesses can make thoughtful choices about what they use, what they waste and what they give value to.
For Veren, that choice is deer tallow: a remarkably nourishing ingredient from an animal already farmed for food or removed from the wild as part of population management. We pair it with carefully chosen botanical oils and keep our formulations simple, creating gentle care for sensitive skin with very little fuss.
Wild and farmed. Resource and responsibility. Something once overlooked, put to good use.
Simple, really.