Humans Join the Trail of Udder Ointment Enthusiasts : Cosmetics: Bag Balm and other cow products are big sellers among dry-skinned bipeds. Firms ruminate on the reasons.

Janice Qualkenbush coats her face each night with a product that promises to soothe chapped udders and windburned muzzles. The ointment is intended for cows.

Qualkenbush, a beautician, says Bag Balm softens dry skin and even appears to reduce wrinkles. She also uses it to smooth rough spots on her hands.

Once a secret of farming families, Bag Balm and other bovine products are gaining a wider following. Much of the sales growth in the last three to four years has come from people buying balms to use on themselves, manufacturers and retailers say.

“We used to go through a case of Bag Balm a month and now we go through one weekly,” said Connie Murray, a clerk at Red Barn Feed in Tarzana. One customer uses udder balm to treat diaper rash, she said.

The ointments have long been used on dairy cows to ease or prevent irritation. They are rich in lanolin or petrolatum and often contain a mild antiseptic.

Dermatologists say the balms contain many of the same ingredients found in conventional skin creams and are safe for people. Beverly Hills dermatologist Dr. Peter Koppleman recommends that his patients using Acutane, an anti-acne drug, use udder balm to relieve dry lips, a side effect of the treatment.

“At first they look at me like I’m nuts,” Koppleman said. But among patients who try the balm, he said, “the feedback is all positive.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not regulate veterinary products, meaning the “agency can’t vouch for their safety when applied to humans,” FDA spokesman Brad Stone said. “That said, we are not getting a lot of complaints about these products.”

The ointments are produced by a handful of companies, many of them privately held. Though sales figures aren’t available, people in the industry say Bag Balm, manufactured by Dairy Assn. of Vermont Co., is the best-selling product.

Manufacturers and distributors are hard-pressed to explain why overall demand is growing. The products are advertised mostly in farming magazines and labeled for animal use only.

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Gerald Celente, editor of New York-based Trend Journal, attributed the popularity of the balms in part to a relentless “search for the fountain of youth.”

“When people hear something has a cosmetic benefit, they’ll try to get their hands on it quick,” he said.

Celente said the balms also have a certain appeal as an old-time, natural remedy. “They are perceived as tried and true, unadulterated,” he said. “They’ve withstood the test of time.”

Though udder balms may cost twice as much as some private-label skin lotions, their price, about 48 cents an ounce, compares favorably to such better-known brands as Eucerin or Pacquin, which may cost $1 or more an ounce.

To accommodate the growing consumer market, manufacturers in the last four to five years have packaged udder balms in pocket-size containers.

“They are handier to carry,” said John Norris, president of Dairy Assn. of Vermont. The balms traditionally have been sold in tubes or tubs.

Udder balms aren’t the only farmyard concoction to catch on with consumers. More and more people are using horse shampoos on their hair and hoof treatments on their fingernails, for example. One horse shampoo, Mane ‘N Tail, is now widely available in drugstores.

“There is just this big demand for animal health products,” said Phil Meyers, vice president of Georgia-based Summit Industries, a maker of ointments for cows and horses. Meyers said sales of those ointments have swelled by 20% this year.

Though sold mostly through feed stores, udder balms are also beginning to turn up in mainstream outlets, including Sav-on Drugs and Longs Drugs. The balms can also be purchased by mail order from such firms as the Vermont Country Store.

Lori Hernandez sells Bag Balm to customers at her beauty salon in Helendale, north of San Bernardino.

“Some customers are like, ‘My goodness!’ But they try it,” Hernandez says. “A little dab really softens cracked feet.”

At USPC Wesco, a wholesaler in Los Angeles, sales of Bag Balm to Southern California drugstores have increased sevenfold since March. It now outsells some well-known brands distributed by Wesco, such as Pond’s Cold Cream, says Mary Johnson, health and beauty aid buyer.

“It is unusual to see a product move like that,” Johnson said.

Such growth has prompted one company to concoct an udder balm for people only. Mike Guy, president of Crystal Springs Pharmaceuticals in Fredonia, Wis., said he based his Aunt Irma’s Udder Balm on a bovine formula used by a local pharmaceutical cooperative in the early 1900s. The chief difference is that Aunt Irma’s does not contain oxyquinoline, an antiseptic found in most udder balms.

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Guy said his balm is registered with the FDA as a cosmetic and labeled for human use. He declined to give sales figures but said results from the first six months are promising.

The maker of Bag Balm took a similar tack about 20 years ago, packaging its bovine product as Vello Balm and selling it as a cosmetic.

“It didn’t go, just like the Edsel car,” said Norris, president of Dairy Assn. of Vermont. “People said they wanted Bag Balm. So we dropped it.”