Is there a particular type of fat which the body prefers to use for the skin-surface?
I don't know, but I ate much of my fat from meat as a child, but I burned terrible. The meat was cooked. I ate marrow with beef and veal bones. I ate fat with steak. I ate chicken fat spread on bread. I also got terrible acne. Lay people thought I had ... gosh knows what ... whatever the worst skin plague was they could think of or chicken pox 24/7/365.
Later I was vegan. My skin change then came within a month. I got my fat from nuts or seeds, whole grains and sometimes olive oil. I still got some bad burns. I also got like plugs of wax from time to time in various pores. There was a time there I was getting the wax things in my limbs. My nutrition was very poor then. I only remember eating fruit then, so I guess that's not a testimony of any fat. The last years of my vegan-hood my skin had orange oil pouring from it and felt burning, tight and dry.
On raw grass grazed butter for most of my fat, my skin stopped being alien fluorescent orange, stopped being blotchy, stopping feeling opposite strange odd temperatures all at the same time, stopped feeling too tight, stopped burning and started feeling like it did when I was a small child before dentistry, felt good. My skin change here also happened in a month.
I try raw coconut fat, EVOO, suet, marrow etc from time to time. I burn with EVOO, although I know some ppl swear by it. Raw coconut oil makes my skin soft but can break out my face. I know people who swear by it to use as a topical sunscreen. Suet, I guess that's good, but strange. I think fresh marrow works pretty well. Raw cream and butter I think are tops for me, and maybe deep cold water fish.
I've read of people using lard on their skin, and finding it very helpful. Generally I didn't use anything on my skin till a couple of days ago. I did use sunscreen when I burned. A few days ago, to the exposed areas only, I've been applying a cream that's a mixture of raw butter, raw coconut and a few other herbs. People like the smell and puppies love the taste. It's supposed to make a difference in the skin in twenty-four hours. It looks shiny/oily when I put it on. Otherwise, I notice no difference.