Emu Oil Benefits: What The Research Shows (And What It Doesn't)

Emu Oil Benefits: What The Research Shows (And What It Doesn't)

Emu oil benefits are real but modest. It is a soft, oleic-rich animal fat that moisturizes well, and its best human evidence is a single 126-person trial where it reduced itching, redness and flaking, though not as well as the standard pharmacy creams it was tested against. The louder claims (hair regrowth, joint relief, "transdermal" delivery) lean on mouse studies and marketing copy. As a plain moisturizer, emu oil earns its keep. As a miracle, it doesn't.

Full disclosure before we go further: we sell beef tallow, not emu oil. That makes us an interested party, so every number below comes from a published paper you can open yourself, and one section ends with the bird beating the cow. We'll get there.

What emu oil is, and what's actually in it

It is rendered fat from the emu, the big flightless Australian bird. The fat gets melted down, filtered and refined into a pale, creamy oil that people rub on dry skin, scalps, cuticles and sore knees. Same basic idea as tallow or lard. Different animal.

A 2022 analysis in the journal Nutrients ran emu oil through gas chromatography and found eight fatty acids. Four of them do nearly all the work: oleic acid at about 46%, palmitic acid at about 26%, linoleic acid at 14%, and stearic acid (the 18-carbon saturated fat) at about 9%. Roughly 64% of the oil is unsaturated, which is why it stays soft and spreads easily instead of setting hard in the jar.

Bar chart of emu oil fatty acid composition: oleic acid 45.8%, palmitic acid 25.7%, linoleic acid 14%, stearic acid 9.1%
Nearly half of emu oil is oleic acid, which is why it feels rich and spreads so easily.

That profile explains most of what emu oil does on skin. Oleic acid makes an oil feel rich and slippery. Linoleic acid is the fatty acid your own barrier lipids are built around, and 14% is a respectable share for an animal fat. Nothing exotic is going on here, and that's fine. Good moisturizers are usually boring chemistry.

Sellers also love to mention the antioxidants. The same paper measured them: about 6 milligrams of carotenoids per kilogram of oil. Per kilogram. In the dab that goes on your face, that's a rounding error, so don't pay extra for it.

Emu oil benefits for skin: what has been tested on people

Does emu oil moisturize?

Yes, and this is the least controversial thing about it. The study everyone quotes is a 1996 pilot by Zemtsov and colleagues in the Australasian Journal of Dermatology: eleven volunteers, double-blind, emu oil against mineral oil. People preferred the emu oil for texture and feel, and it scored better on moisturizing and on clogging pores less. Then comes the sentence the product pages leave out. With only eleven subjects, the differences were not statistically significant. It's a promising pilot that nobody followed up properly in almost thirty years.

What is the best human study on emu oil?

A 2013 randomized trial in the Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, and it's a decent one. Researchers enrolled 126 people with seborrheic dermatitis and ran a split-face design for 30 days: emu oil on the right side, and on the left either clotrimazole or hydrocortisone, two creams doctors routinely reach for. All three improved itching, redness and scaling. But both standard creams beat emu oil on scaling, and hydrocortisone beat it on itching. On redness, emu oil roughly matched clotrimazole.

The authors called it "a potentially useful agent" that was "less effective" than the usual options. Read that the way it's written. Emu oil did something measurable on irritated skin, and it still came third out of three. If your skin problem has a medical name, see a dermatologist first and treat any oil, ours included, as the comfort layer on top.

Checklist of emu oil benefits for skin showing which claims have human evidence and which rest on mouse studies
The strongest human result still had emu oil finishing behind both standard creams.

Is emu oil good for burns?

The honest answer is "in mice, sort of, eventually." A 2016 study in Dermatology Research and Practice applied emu oil twice a day to superficial second-degree burns on 32 mice. Early on, it slowed things down: the inflammatory stage dragged on longer than in untreated animals. Later, the emu oil group showed better keratinization of the new skin and more collagen.

So even the favorable study says don't rush it onto a fresh burn. Cool water first, and a doctor for anything bigger than a minor kitchen mishap. Rich fats are for later, once skin has closed and just feels tight and dry.

Hair, joints and "transdermal" claims

Does emu oil regrow hair?

There's no good human trial showing that it does. The claim traces back to animal work, including that same burn study, where treated mice grew more hair follicles around the edges of the injury. Interesting! Also: mice, recovering from burns. That is a long way from a thinning hairline. As a scalp oil, emu oil can soften dry, flaky skin and make hair feel less brittle, which is pleasant and worth a few dollars. Just don't buy it expecting new growth.

Does emu oil penetrate deeper than other oils?

This one started as a guess. The 1996 pilot authors speculated that emu oil's high share of monounsaturated fat might help it slip through the outer skin layer, and pharmaceutical labs have since experimented with it as a carrier for drugs in carefully engineered formulas. None of that shows a plain jar of emu oil delivers anything to your joints or "deep tissue." Oleic-rich oils do sink in quickly and leave less shine, and you can feel that for yourself. Most of the transdermal talk beyond it comes from sales pages.

What about emu oil capsules?

Most published work on emu oil taken by mouth is in rats, largely gut-inflammation models, plus a toxicology study that found no acute toxicity in animals. That's a safety signal, and it doesn't amount to a reason to take it. We make skincare, so we'll stay in our lane. Ask your doctor before adding any supplement.

Emu oil vs beef tallow: the honest comparison

On paper they're cousins. Both are animal fats led by oleic and palmitic acid. A 2024 scoping review of tallow in Cureus lists tallow's main fatty acids in the order oleic, palmitic, stearic, and credits it with hydrating and moisturizing properties. Stearic acid is the firm one, which is why tallow sets into a balm while emu oil stays closer to a soft cream.

Now the part that costs us something. That same tallow review says plainly that there are significant research gaps, and we agree with it. Tallow has no 126-person randomized trial. Emu oil does. If you score the two purely on published human studies, the bird beats the cow, and anyone telling you tallow is "proven" to outperform emu oil is making it up. Nobody has run that head-to-head.

We also won't claim either fat is a copy of your skin's own oil. Human sebum carries wax esters and squalene that no rendered animal fat contains. That's the reason our Original tallow moisturizer includes jojoba, which is technically a liquid wax, alongside the tallow. If you want the longer version of that argument, we wrote up how tallow compares with human sebum and why grass-fed tallow works on skin.

So why did we pick the cow? Practical reasons, mostly. Grass-fed tallow is a byproduct of cattle already being raised for food, the supply is steady, and its firmness lets us make a water-free balm that holds its shape in a tin. Tallow also carries small amounts of fat-soluble vitamins, which we covered in our guide to vitamins A, D, E and K in tallow. None of that makes emu oil bad. If you already own a jar and your skin likes it, keep using it.

How to try emu oil without wasting money

Read the label before anything else. A product called "emu oil cream" can be mostly water and thickener with a splash of the namesake, so look for a short ingredient list with emu oil at or near the top. Remember it is an animal product, so it's off the table if you keep a vegan routine. Then run a fair test.

Patch test on your inner arm for a day or two, because any new fat can irritate some skin. Apply a few drops to damp skin after washing, since rich oils hold water in better than they add it. And give it 30 days before you judge, the same window the one solid human trial used. If nothing has changed by then, it isn't going to.

Three steps for trying emu oil on skin: patch test for one to two days, apply to damp skin daily, judge results at 30 days
Thirty days is the window the best human trial used, so it's a reasonable deadline for your own.

Stop if you see redness, stinging or new bumps. People whose skin clogs easily should go lightest of all: oleic-heavy oils, this one and tallow both, suit dry skin better than breakout-prone skin. The same rules apply to a tallow moisturizer, for what it's worth.

Quick answers

What is emu oil good for?

Mostly moisturizing. It is a soft animal fat, about 46% oleic acid, that spreads easily and leaves dry skin feeling comfortable. One 126-person trial also found it reduced itching, redness and flaking, though standard pharmacy creams did better.

Is emu oil good for your face?

For dry or tight-feeling skin, it can be. A small 1996 pilot found people preferred it to mineral oil and that it clogged pores less, but with eleven subjects the results weren't statistically significant. If your skin is breakout-prone, patch test and use very little.

Does emu oil help hair growth?

No human trial shows that it regrows hair. The claim comes from mouse studies, where treated animals grew more follicles around burn injuries. It can soften a dry scalp and make hair feel less brittle, and that's about where the evidence stops.

Are there emu oil side effects?

Problems on skin appear to be uncommon, and the 1996 pilot reported no irritation. Any new fat can still bother some people, so patch test first and stop if you see redness, stinging or new bumps. Ask your doctor before taking it as a supplement.

Is emu oil better than beef tallow?

Nobody has tested them head to head. Both are animal fats led by oleic and palmitic acid. Emu oil has the larger human trial, while tallow is firmer, so it works as a water-free balm. Pick on texture, sourcing and how your own skin responds.

How long does emu oil take to work?

Softness shows up the first day, like any rich moisturizer. For anything beyond that, give it 30 days, which is how long the best human trial ran. If you see no difference by then, more time is unlikely to change it.

Curious about the cow instead?

Our Original moisturizer is grass-fed beef tallow with shea, cocoa butter and jojoba. Eleven ingredients, no water, a light vanilla note, hand-poured in small batches. A pea-sized amount covers your whole face. It doesn't have a 126-person trial behind it either, and we'd rather tell you that than pretend.

See the Original tallow moisturizer

Sources

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