Argan oil: what’s so special about it, exactly?

An oil you find in shampoos, creams, serums, balms… and, in Morocco, on the plate, spread on bread. An oil with its own tree, its own cultural heritage and its own legends of goats perched in the branches.

Argan oil is so well known that we end up no longer asking what’s special about it. So we’re presenting it the way we know it: what tradition and science say about it, and what we like about it. And how it compares to our Abyssinian oil, which we love too.

What is argan oil?

Argan oil comes from the almonds hidden inside the pits of the fruit of the argan tree (Argania spinosa). It’s a tree endemic to southwestern Morocco (endemic = growing only in that place), which can live about 200 years and withstands drought and extreme heat. Its forest, the arganeraie, has been a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 1998. The name argan comes from the Berber word for the tree.

To get the oil, the fruits have to be harvested, dried, stripped of their pulp, the pits cracked, the almonds sorted, ground, then pressed. It’s a long process. We come back to this in the next section.

And yes, about the goats: they really do climb the trees to eat the fruit, and they spread the seeds by spitting them out. That said, many of the scenes of perched goats you see in tourist spots are staged.

Knowledge passed down from generation to generation

Before being a serum ingredient, argan oil is above all deeply tied to a culture and a history. In 2014, UNESCO inscribed “argan, practices and know-how concerning the argan tree” on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. That covers the traditional methods of extracting the oil, its uses, the pharmacopoeia and the making of the tools.

These methods are mostly practiced by Berber (Amazigh) women, and more rarely by men. The gestures are passed down by imitation, from mother to daughter, from a young age. The tools are simple: river pebbles serve as hammer and anvil to crack the pits.

It’s used for cooking, for remedies and for care. The oil is given as a wedding gift and shows up in festive dishes. Amlou, for example, is a spread made with argan oil, almonds and peanuts, sometimes sweetened with honey. There are even mentions of argan in medieval Arabic pharmacological texts.

What’s in it

Argan oil is about 80% unsaturated fatty acids. Two dominate: oleic acid (43 to 49%, the same one found in olive oil) and linoleic acid (29 to 36%). The rest is mostly saturated fatty acids (palmitic and stearic).

Linoleic acid is particularly interesting because it’s a so-called “essential” fatty acid: our body can’t make it itself. The skin uses it to build ceramides, lipids that act like cement between the cells of the top layer and help retain water. The ceramide that contains linoleic acid is present in smaller amounts in dry skin.

The oil also contains, in small amounts, vitamin E (mostly gamma-tocopherol according to analyses of Moroccan oils, but proportions vary depending on the source), polyphenols and sterols. Among these sterols, schottenol and spinasterol are typical of argan: they’re even used to check that an oil is authentic.

And Abyssinian oil, then?

On our product pages, we sometimes call Abyssinian oil our “Canadian argan.” It’s a way of saying it holds the same place in a routine: a light oil we love for its feel. But the two aren’t made the same way. We tell you all about Abyssinian oil in our article on Abyssinian oil right here. Here’s the side-by-side summary.

Both have their place, and they share the same VIP bouncer lead. Argan has a long history, well-documented human know-how and a few studies going for it. Abyssinian oil has a light, dry feel we adore, a shorter historical track record for sure, but it grows in Canada. You can very well have both on your shelf.

How to use it, and where to put it

Our organic argan oil comes from Morocco, from a certified organic supplier, and is available in 55 ml and 125 ml. It’s a virgin oil: it has a strong natural scent, which we warn you about up front (some people love it, others less so).

A few ideas: one or two drops in your palm, applied to your face while it’s still damp after your routine. A few drops in your cream to make it more enveloping. A little on the ends of your hair. As with any oil, start small, then adjust to what your skin likes.

Our product page also presents it as an alternative to sweet almond oil. And if you prefer a drier, lighter feel, there’s our Abyssinian oil.

To learn more

• UNESCO. Argan, practices and know-how concerning the argan tree. Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, 2014.
• Boucetta K.Q. et al. (2014). Skin hydration in postmenopausal women: argan oil benefit with oral and/or topical use. Menopause Review, 13(5).
• Boucetta K.Q. et al. (2015). The effect of dietary and/or cosmetic argan oil on postmenopausal skin elasticity. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 10, 339-349.
• Baumann L. Update on argan oil. Dermatology, review article on composition, uses and studies.
• Exploring the Impact of Extraction Methods on the Nutritional and Sensory Profiles of Argan Oil from Mostaganem Kernels, for the sterols and the authenticity of the oil.
• Argan (Wikipedia), for the tree, the goats and traditional uses.

• Taguchi K. et al. (1999). Enhancement of Propylene Glycol Distribution in the Skin by High Purity cis-Unsaturated Fatty Acids with Different Alkyl Chain Lengths Having Different Double Bond Position. Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin, 22(4), 407-411.
• Naik A. et al. (1995). Mechanism of oleic acid-induced skin penetration enhancement in vivo in humans. Journal of Controlled Release, 37(3), 299-306.