Talk to anyone who’s travelled along the road from Marrakech to Essaouira and they’ll mention goats in trees. Dotted across the landscape between Marrakech, Essaouira and Agadir are thousands of squat yet mighty argan trees (argania spinosa) with twisted, gnarled trucks, its spiny branches often climbed by adventurous goats in search of a nibble of the olive-sized argan fruit. It’s quite a sight to see and one that ever fails to bring a smile to whoever notices.
Argan oil products are becoming increasingly popular in the UK yet Berber women have been cultivating argan for centuries. During a recent trip to Essaouira, Morocco, I wanted to find out more about how argan was extracted and what qualities it has. I visited Afous Argan, an argan oil cooperative 20km from Essaouira on the Route de Marrakech in the Commune Ounagham, which employs only women to produce and sell cosmetics and foods made from locally sourced argan nuts.
What I noticed from watching the Berber women work, is how time consuming and labour intensive the process to extract the oil by hand is; it takes 15 hours and 30kg of fruit to produce 1 litre of argan oil. After harvesting the fruit in late summer, the fruit is left out in the sun to dry before the outer layer is removed and the inner shell is cracked open using a stone to reveal the seed. For cosmetic use, the seeds are pressed immediately; the culinary oil they lightly roast the seeds first and yields an oil that is exceptionally rich in essential fatty acids and sterols. While the quality of Afous Argan’s food products were excellent, particularly the argan paste known as amlou and oil for cooking, the cosmetic range was less sophisticated and the facial serum I tried lacked the clarity of other brands I have tested.
Back in Marrakech I met with UK qualified Moroccan complementary and holistic therapist Souad Alaoui, her London-based family business Essence of Morocco sells ethically sourced, organic, natural and pure Moroccan beauty and spa products. When looking for argan oil for cosmetic use, Souad emphasises the importance of quality, concentration and freshness. Sourcing the company’s pure argan oil from cooperatives in the Essaouira area with regular deliveries ensure the product is sold at its peak freshness. “The packaging used for our Nourishing Argan Oil range is 100% UV protected and air tight to preserve the high quality and freshness of the oil.”
Souad adds: “What is important in any product that claims to be an argan oil product, is the position of the argan oil on the ingredients list. The further down the list the ingredient is, the less it occurs in the product. The other thing to look out for is what other ingredients are used, such as natural, synthetic, silicone etc.”
Returning to the UK all commercial argan oil brands I looked at were rather elusive as to what concentration argan oil goes into each product. It was reassuring therefore to use Essence of Morocco’s cold-pressed Nourishing Facial Argan Oil, knowing that I was getting the maximum concentration of Vitamin E, Omega 3, 6 and 9 and squalene (a natural moisturiser). I’ve been applying this lightly scented non-greasy oil to my face every evening and it seems to lock in the moisture much better than other serums. I was also impressed with Essence of Morocco’s Prickly Pear Seed Oil serum, the oil Soad tells me is painstakingly extracted from the tiny raw seeds inside the prickly pear fruit at a womens cooperative in the area of Marrakech and that it is rich in antioxidants (more than 1100mg/kg Vitamin E), essential fatty acids (up to 61%) and minerals.
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