Shearling scores 76 out of 100 for wearer health on Toxome's fiber scale, where 100 is cleanest, the same as plain wool. The fleece is wool, but the skin under it is usually chrome-tanned, and brands rarely say so. A stated vegetable, wet-white or chrome-free tannage, or OEKO-TEX Leather Standard certification, raises it to 90. Sheepskin should never go under a sleeping baby.
What is shearling?
Shearling is a sheepskin or lambskin tanned with the wool still attached, then clipped to an even depth and combed. In the US, the FTC lets a seller call it Shearling Lamb only when the skin has been sheared and combed. Sheepskin is the broader word for any wool-on pelt, and the trade uses lambskin and sheepskin loosely, so the word on a label doesn't promise the animal's age. This page covers all of them, because they're one material under different names.
Sheepskin has a hospital life too. Australia publishes a standard for medical sheepskins, AS 4480.1, and in a randomized trial of 441 hospital patients, those lying on one developed new pressure ulcers at about half the rate of patients on standard care. Those skins are built to that standard and to survive hot hospital laundry, so the result doesn't carry over to a fashion coat.
How shearling is made
The skin is a byproduct of sheep raised for meat.
Washed, degreased and pickled with the wool still on. Most lanolin comes out.
Chrome, wet-white or vegetable. This step sets the score, and labels rarely name it.
Oils soften the skin. Some, as they oxidize, can turn chromium III into chromium VI.
The fleece is clipped even and combed. Mouton is also straightened and heat-set.
Ask how it was tanned. A named clean tannage takes it from 76 to 90.
The raw skin comes from sheep raised for meat. Leather is limed and stripped of its hair, but a sheepskin keeps its wool, so the whole pelt is washed, degreased and pickled with the fleece on. Degreasing removes most of the lanolin.
Then comes tanning, the step that sets this score. Most skins are chrome-tanned with chromium III salts, the same chemistry as most leather. Wet-white tanning uses aldehydes instead and is chrome-free. Vegetable tanning uses bark tannins and is rarer for wool-on skins. Brands seldom say which one they used.
After tanning, oils soften the skin, a step called fatliquoring. Leather research ties some of those oils, as they oxidize with heat or light, to chromium III turning into chromium VI over time. The fleece is then sheared to an even pile and combed, and for mouton it's chemically straightened and heat-set. The outside is buffed to suede or coated to a smooth nappa face, and the wool and skin may be dyed.
Not all shearling is the same
Every name below is a tanned sheep or lamb pelt with the wool on. Only two have a legal meaning in the US. Shearling Lamb means sheared and combed. Mouton Lamb means sheared, straightened, chemically treated and heat-set for a moisture-repellent finish, which makes it the one name that admits a chemical finish by definition. The rest are trade words. Toscana is a long, silky-haired lamb. Mongolian and curly lamb are fur-trade categories for long, wavy or curly pelts, not breeds. Double-face means the pelt is worn suede side out and fleece side in, with no lining.
Is shearling safe to wear?
The fleece is wool, so it scores like wool. The open question is the skin it grows from. Chromium VI is the best-documented hazard of chrome-tanned leather, and the EU caps it at 3 mg/kg in leather that touches skin. Chromium III matters too: in a three-week use test, 4 of 10 chromium-allergic volunteers reacted to a chrome-tanned leather bracelet that released mostly chromium III.
We found no study measuring chromium in the wool side of a chrome-tanned sheepskin, so we can't tell you how much reaches you through the fleece. Exposure runs highest where contact is warm, long and sweaty: slippers, boots, and the collar and cuffs of a coat. Lanolin is wool's other known allergen, and nobody has published how much is left in finished shearling.
One rule has nothing to do with chemistry. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises that soft materials such as sheepskins shouldn't be placed under a sleeping infant, and Red Nose, Australia's safe-sleep authority, says never to put a sheepskin under the bottom sheet because it makes the sleep surface too soft. Keep sheepskin out of the crib.
- Wool where you feel it The side against you is wool fleece, a natural protein fiber with no plastic in it.
- Warm without a lining Double-face shearling is skin and fleece in one piece, so a coat doesn't need a polyester lining or synthetic fill.
- Clean versions exist Vegetable-tanned and wet-white shearling skip chrome, and OEKO-TEX Leather Standard tests the finished leather for chromium VI.
- A proven medical use Medical-grade sheepskins about halved new pressure ulcers in a hospital trial of 441 patients.
Shearling scores 76 by default, the same as plain wool, because most brands don't say how the skin was tanned and most skins are chrome-tanned. A stated clean tannage (vegetable-tanned, chrome-free or wet-white) or OEKO-TEX Leather Standard certification raises it to 90. Leather Working Group and ECO2L ratings don't move the score: both audit a tannery's environmental performance, and neither tests the finished product for residues. Faux shearling is a synthetic pile and scores as the plastic it's made of. See the full method.
Doing this check on every product page yourself is the tedious part. The Toxome Chrome extension reads the composition for you while you shop, so you see whether something is shearling (and what else is in it) before you buy, not after it arrives.
How to care for shearling
Shop Shearling
Shearling, answered
Shearling is a sheepskin or lambskin tanned with the wool still on, then sheared to an even pile and combed. In the US, Shearling Lamb is a legal name that means exactly that. Sheepskin, lambskin and Toscana are the same kind of pelt under other names.
In material, yes. Every shearling is a sheepskin. Shearling tells you the wool was clipped even and combed, while sheepskin can mean any wool-on pelt, including long, uncut fleece.
The wool isn't the concern. The tannage is: most sheepskins are chrome-tanned, and chromium can set off a skin rash in people allergic to it. We found no data on how much chromium reaches you through the fleece. Vegetable-tanned, wet-white or OEKO-TEX Leather Standard certified shearling is the cleaner pick, and Toxome scores it 90.
Not as bedding. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against placing sheepskins under a sleeping infant, and Red Nose says never to put one under the bottom sheet, because it softens the sleep surface.
For wearer health, no. Faux shearling is a plastic pile, usually polyester or acrylic, and it sheds microfibers in the wash. Toxome scores it as the synthetic it's made of, well below real shearling.
For US labeling, yes. The Fur Products Labeling Act defines fur as any animal skin with hair, fleece or fur fibers attached, and the FTC sets the name Shearling Lamb in its fur rules. California's fur sales ban, by contrast, exempts shearling.
- 16 CFR 301.9: Mouton Lamb and Shearling Lamb · US Code of Federal Regulations (FTC)
- 15 U.S.C. § 69: Fur Products Labeling Act definitions · US Code
- Chromium(III) release from chromium-tanned leather elicits allergic contact dermatitis: a use test study · Contact Dermatitis (Hedberg et al., 2018)
- Regulation (EU) No 301/2014: chromium VI in leather articles · EUR-Lex
- The influence of chromium supplied by tanning and wet finishing processes on the formation of Cr(VI) in leather · Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering (Fuck et al., 2011)
- AAP updates recommendations on SIDS (2005) · American Family Physician
- Safe bedding: is the bedding safe? · Red Nose Australia
- Preventing pressure ulcers with the Australian Medical Sheepskin: an open-label randomised controlled trial · Medical Journal of Australia
- OEKO-TEX Leather Standard · OEKO-TEX
- California becomes first state in the nation to ban fur (AB 44) · Office of Assemblymember Laura Friedman
The health score reflects wearer health only and mirrors the Toxome app. This guide is educational and is not medical advice.