What Is Pine Tar?

Pine tar is a dark, thick material made by slowly heating resin-rich pine wood with very little oxygen. This process, called dry distillation or pyrolysis, transforms the wood and its natural resin into a complex blend of resin acids and their derivatives, phenolic compounds, and other aromatic wood compounds.

It is not raw pine sap, pine gum rosin, pine essential oil, or coal tar. Rosin is the solid resinous material left after the volatile portion of pine resin is removed. Essential oil is the concentrated volatile portion captured through distillation. Pine tar is created by heating the wood itself, which gives it its deep color and unmistakable smoky, earthy, forest scent.

We use cosmetic-grade pine tar in Tallow Pine Tar Soap, adding it to tallow during the cold-process soapmaking method. It gives the finished bar its naturally dark color and bold smell without added fragrance or essential oils, while bringing the resinous chemistry that made pine tar a classic soap ingredient.

Traditional Use and Cultural History

Pine tar has deep roots in northern European forest and maritime life. Archaeological work in Sweden shows that tar production grew from small household pits into large forest operations during the Viking Age, likely alongside the rising demand for ships and sails. Tar protected wooden hulls, rigging, rope, buildings, tools, and other materials exposed to water and weather. It later became one of Sweden’s most important exports.

Its skin use is ancient too. A dermatology review traces medicinal pine tar back more than two thousand years to Hippocrates. Over time, it became part of European preparations for itchy, rough, scaly, and inflamed skin and remained especially well known in routines for eczema, psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis, and the scalp. It also earned a lasting place in traditional hoof care.

That combination of practical and topical use is part of what makes pine tar so distinctive. It was never valued as a delicate perfume. It was valued as a strong, useful material with a character all its own.

What Happens During Saponification?

Soapmaking changes both the tallow and the pine tar. The tallow’s triglycerides react with sodium hydroxide to become soap and naturally formed glycerin. Pine tar contains resin acids that can react with the same alkali to form sodium resinates, a type of rosin soap that becomes part of the finished bar.

Some of pine tar’s lightest volatile compounds can soften or fade during mixing and cure, while its dark color, smoky scent, and heavier resinous character remain easy to recognize. Other compounds may be altered by heat and high pH, so the cured soap is not chemically identical to pine tar in the jar.

That transformation is exactly what I want from this ingredient. The pine tar is worked into a finished, rinse-off soap rather than simply sitting on the skin as raw tar. Pine-tar bars, bath products, gels, and shampoos also have a long place in the dermatology literature, so the cleansing format itself has real precedent.

Why We Love It

It Has Human Research for Eczema-Prone, Itchy Skin

In a 2022 investigator-blinded crossover trial, 21 children with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis used a pine-tar bath oil for one month and its vehicle for another, with a washout month between them. The pine-tar period improved total SCORAD and the patient-reported POEM score. The per-protocol analysis also found improvements in itch, extent, and intensity.

The researchers also found lower Staphylococcus aureus colonization and lower IgE after the pine-tar period, and the bath oil was well accepted. This was a bath preparation rather than our soap, but I find it especially useful because it studied pine tar in a real rinse-off bathing routine, not only in a laboratory dish.

It Has Anti-Inflammatory and Antipruritic Evidence

An earlier study treated separate areas on the backs of six people with atopic eczema using 10 percent pine tar ointment, a topical corticosteroid, or the ointment base. Pine tar and the corticosteroid both strongly reduced the cellular signs of allergic inflammation measured after an allergen challenge. It was a very small study, but it gives the ingredient’s old reputation for calming itch and inflammation a valuable human connection.

A 2024 laboratory study adds another fascinating clue. Researchers separated a pine pyrolysis bio-oil and found a portion with anti-IL-17 activity in human keratinocytes. IL-17 is an important inflammatory pathway in psoriasis. This did not test a finished topical product, but it helps explain why pine-derived tars continue to interest researchers studying inflamed and scaly skin.

It Shows Antibacterial and Antifungal Activity

Pine tar’s old antiseptic reputation has support from more than one direction. Research summarized in the dermatology literature connects its bacteriostatic activity with resin acids and its antifungal activity with several other identified compounds. In laboratory testing, pine tar has also inhibited multiple bacterial species.

The most skin-relevant findings are especially interesting. The childhood eczema trial found reduced Staphylococcus aureus colonization, while an older pine-tar shampoo study reported activity against Pityrosporum ovale, now classified among Malassezia yeasts associated with dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis. These findings help explain why pine tar has stayed closely connected with cleansing and scalp-care traditions.

It Has Encouraging Wound-Repair Research

A 2024 study made a stable cream with one percent Pinus nigra tar and tested it in a rat excision-wound model. The pine-tar cream reduced wound area, increased hydroxyproline, which is associated with collagen in healing tissue, and improved several tissue and oxidative-stress measures compared with untreated wounds and the plain cream base.

This was an animal study using a leave-on cream, not a soap bar, but I still find it exciting as evidence for pine tar as a whole ingredient. It gives modern support to a material that people have kept near damaged and difficult skin for generations.

Quick Answers

Is pine tar the same as pine resin or pine gum rosin?

No. Pine resin is produced by the living tree, and pine gum rosin is the solid resinous portion left after turpentine is removed. Pine tar is made by heating resin-rich pine wood with little oxygen. They share some related resin chemistry, but they are different ingredients.

Is pine tar the same as coal tar?

No. Pine tar comes from pine wood, while coal tar comes from coal. Their chemistry is different. In one comparison discussed in the dermatology review, a modern topical pine-tar product contained far lower levels of the eight measured polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons than the coal-tar preparations tested. That result belongs to the tested product, but it is a useful reminder that the two materials should not be treated as interchangeable.

Can pine tar soap help eczema, psoriasis, or itchy skin?

Pine tar has a long topical history around all three, and the best human trial found improvements in eczema severity and patient-reported symptoms with a pine-tar bath oil. There is also early research relevant to itch, allergic inflammation, and the IL-17 pathway involved in psoriasis. Our bar is a rinse-off soap, and I value it as a thoughtful cleansing option within these skin-care routines.

Is pine tar antibacterial or antifungal?

It has both antibacterial and antifungal evidence. Resin acids have been connected with bacteriostatic activity, specific pine-tar compounds have shown antifungal activity, and human studies have reported changes involving Staphylococcus aureus and a dandruff-associated yeast. I find that especially interesting in a traditional cleansing ingredient and one more reason pine tar has held its place for so long.

Why does pine tar soap smell smoky?

The smell comes from pine tar itself. Heating pine wood creates a complex blend of volatile and semi-volatile compounds with smoky, resinous, leathery, and forest-like notes. Our Tallow Pine Tar Soap contains no essential oils or synthetic fragrance to cover that natural character.

Is pine tar soap suitable for sensitive skin?

Pine tar has been used for sensitive and reactive-feeling skin for a very long time, and the modern topical preparations studied have generally been well tolerated. It is also a strong, distinctive material, so beginning with a small area is a simple way to learn how your own skin responds.

Independence sale!

Pine Tar