Argan Oil, Virgin, Cold Pressed and Organic

Argan Oil, Virgin, Cold Pressed and OrganicOrganic cold pressed Moroccan Argan Oil for skin and hair. The ultimate moisturiser for face, neck, hair, hands and nails. Fast absorbing. Organic Argan Oil anti ageing moisturiser for skin, hair and nails. High in antioxidants and vitamin E, it reduces wrinkles, pigmentation, dry skin and regulates other skin issues. Our pure organic Argan oil is suitable for all skin types including sensitive skin and trouble prone skin. Fast absorbing, easy to

Organic cold pressed Moroccan Argan Oil for skin and hair. The ultimate moisturiser for face, neck, hair, hands and nails. Fast absorbing.

Organic Argan Oil anti-ageing moisturiser for skin, hair and nails. High in antioxidants and vitamin E, it reduces wrinkles, pigmentation, dry skin and regulates other skin issues. Our pure organic Argan oil is suitable for all skin types including sensitive skin and trouble prone skin. Fast absorbing, easy to spread and low aroma.

Our pure organic Argan oil gives immediate improvements starting from the moment you use it. The effects cumulate with continued usage. Only tiny amounts are needed so the usage is very economical.

INGREDIENTS 

Argania Spinosa L.
Pure virgin, organic cold pressed Argan Oil. Nothing else is added and nothing is taken away.

Where does Argan oil come from?

Our Argan oil comes from the traditional source, the UNESCO protected Argan forest in southern Morocco. The biosphere covers over 2.5 million hectares and give home to protected desert lynx and rare barbary sheep. The Argan trees are drought adapted and play a vital role in preventing the encroachment of the Sahara desert.

Our oil is produced by a female led cooperative, which belong to a union of 22 cooperatives, the UCFA (Union of Womens’ Argan Oil Collectives). Do please read about the ethical production of our Argan oil and how it actively protects the environment, further below. Unfortunately, we do not produce any types of cosmetic grade oils of this calibre in the UK.

Why is Argan oil special? – Some of the properties of Argan oil

Because the Argan tree is adapted to desert conditions, to withstand desiccation, heat stress then sudden floods, the tree must have a strong immune system. Many of the nutrients the plant makes are stored in its oil bearing seed kernels: Argan oil is high in antioxidants which help to preserve the youthfulness of the skin, rich in tocopherols or Vitamin E which helps to retain moisture in the skin, prevent cell damage by fighting free-radicals and help against hyperpigmentation; High carotenoids, Argan oil helps to protect from the sun; squalene which acts as a skin barrier, keeping the skin hydrated, supple and with a lovely smooth texture and it is rich in oleic acid enabling the oil to penetrate deeply into the skin. Beside, Argan oil is rich in schottenol and spinasterol, plant based sterols, which are very powerful anti-inflammatories. Overall, Argan oil is like a superfood for the skin, hair and nails!

Argan oil benefits:

Organic Argan oil for skin

Everyday anti-aging moisturizing of the face, neck, hands and nails.
Supports the elastin and collagen structure of the skin - vital in post menopausal women (see explanation at the bottom of the page)
Can be used anywhere on the body.
To protect against the elements, wind, sun etc.
To reduce the appearance of stretch marks
Improve the appearance of scar tissue
Highly recommended for reducing the appearance of scaring after chickenpox
A nourishing eye make-up remover (Argan oil is excellent at removing mascara from eyelashes), but wash over afterwards with rose water on a sponge to remove any oily traces.
Use instead of night cream
For dry skin, use instead of moisturiser
Minimizing liver spots and hyper-pigmentation, melasma
Long lasting protection
Helps to protect collagen, the protein which gives the skin good structure, helping to prevent sagging and giving the skin a plump, youthful look.
Improves elasticity of the skin.
For moisturizing and protecting all skin types, including
Sensitive skin, ageing skin, psoriasis, eczema and acne prone skin
Dry patches as well as oily patches - Argan oil regulates oil gland and sebum production
T-zone to balance oil and moisture levels in the skin
Naturally antibacterial and antifungal
The delicate facial and neck skin – the Argan oil is totally non-comedogenic – that is it doesn’t block the pores.
Argan oil is easy to spread and penetrates rapidly into the skin.

Argan oil for hair

Strengthens hair when used as a scalp treatment and helps to prevent a dry itchy scalp
Rub-in hair conditioner for dry ends
A finishing oil to calm frizzy or flyaway hair
Helps to protect the hair from sun damage
Gives instant shine to hair
To improve the condition of hair damaged by heat (such as curlers and tongs and hair dryers), and chemicals such as hair products and hair dyes.
Argan oil makes wonderful beard and moustache oil too!

Argan oil for nails

To strengthen nails, reducing snagging and splitting.
To soften cuticles preventing peeling of the cuticles and to aid in pushing the cuticles back.
To provide a healthy sheen to the finger nails.

How to use Argan oil on the skin

To moisturize with Argan oil - Rub the oil between the palms of the hands and massage into the face, neck, hands and nails once or twice daily.

To remove make up with Argan oil - Place one drop on a tiny piece of cloth to delicately remove eye make up. Then wipe over with a soft facial sponge wetted with floral water, such as our organic rose water to remove any remaining traces of Argan oil.

How to use Argan oil on the hair

There are several ways to apply the Argan oil to the hair and scalp – find out which one works for you…are you trying to improve the condition or the ends of the hair, or reduce frizz and static, treat heat and chemical damaged hair to produce shine all over, or care for the scalp?

To apply Argan oil to the ends of the hair - Rub a drop or two through the ends of the hair where it is dry, damaged, split or static using the finger tips.

To apply Argan oil to the whole head of hair, rub a drop between the palms of the hands and apply by hand by teasing it through the hair, or glide the hands gently over the hair.

Or use the hands to wipe a drop or two onto the bristles a boar bristle brush and brush through the hair, starting from underneath the hair, before finishing on the surface of the hair.
Or use the hands to apply a tiny amount of Argan oil onto the tines of a horn or wooden comb and comb through the hair. You can get better coverage if you do this while the hair is still slightly damp.

To apply to the scalp to pre-treat a dry flaky scalp before washing the hair – pour about ½ teaspoon of oil into the palm of the hand and use the other hand to massage the oil directly into the scalp. Leave in for an hour or even overnight before washing the hair. As typical foaming shampoos and conventional hair products, even hair conditioner can lead to an itchy scalp, we recommend washing the hair with rhassoul clay or if the hair is oily or greasy with an extract made from our plant based organic soapnuts.

How to use Argan oil on the nails

Rub a drop into the finger and toe nails as well as the cuticles daily.
Be sure to apply it to the nails after bathing, showering, swimming.
Apply to the nails or after doing washing up or household cleaning (make sure that any detergent has been rinsed from the hands and nails first)

If your nails need more moisturization, try our Argan Lip Balm which also contains gum arabica and beeswax.

How to make sunscreen using Argan oil and cosmetic blue indigo - Blue Argan Sunscreen.

Normal sunscreens are very harmful to aquatic life and devastating for coral reefs. The solution? Make your own nature and skin friendly Argan oil sunscreen.  Just combine a tiny amount of the blue indigo powder with the Argan oil shake the bottle! Shake the bottle before each use. It is best to use a set of measures to get the tiny amount of indigo required.
You will see that to make 50ml or blue Argan sunscreen I have used 1/4 teaspoon measure, but this is less than half full! So in fact I used about 1/9th of a teaspoon! Please do have a look at the video.

Tip, pour the indigo through a dry funnel - then pour the Argan oil through the funnel.
Please note, you will not have tested the sun protection factor of your homemade  blue Argan oil, so you will need to test the effectiveness on your own skin. It is best to carry your blue Argan oil with you in case you need to reapply it. You can find the cosmetic blue indigo on this link and the 5g jar of cosmetic indigo powder is plenty to get started. You might also like to try the indigo as a natural laundry whitener!

How is Argan oil made?

The process starts by harvesting only the ripe fruits which are gathered directly from the tree and sun-dried. At that point, the outer pulp is removed from the nut-like inner cases, which protect the seed kernels. There is no easy way to open the hard case - they are cracked by Berber women between two stones (a hammer stone and stone anvil) in the time mannered tradition, revealing several kernels. The kernels are then meticulously sorted by quality and only the healthiest oil bearing kernels are cold-pressed in a hydraulic press. It takes the combined harvest of 6-7 trees to create 1 litre of precious oil. We never buy Argan oil which is hand pressed, because the hand pressed oil has a very strong, rather unpleasant aroma and it doesn’t keep well. You can be sure that our organic argan oil is from the current harvest and that it is quality controlled from harvest to bottling.

Storage

Store away from light in a glass container at less than 18˚C.
We do not recommend refrigerating argan oil as it can cause the oil to separate
Keep the container tightly closed when not in use
Argan oil has a mild nutty, fruity aroma. We ensure that the fruits are collected from the trees directly and not from the ground. We never use kernels which have been eaten by goats as this would produce an oil with an unpleasant aroma and it would not keep well.

Sizes available

Buy Moroccan Argan Oil in:

30ml Retail size in glass bottle with a metal cap
50ml Retail size in glass bottle with a metal cap
100ml Retail size in glass bottle with a metal cap

Each size is a also available with a glass pipette. These are made from tempered glass with a silicon-rubber teat. By holding the glass tube in the bottle and squeezing and releasing the teat, you can remove a small amount of Argan oil from the bottle. Lift the pipette from the bottle, then gently squeeze the teat to release the Argan oil drop by drop. To avoid contamination, do not let the teat touch the skin. Replace the pipette back on the bottle and screw it back in place.

Ethics in using Argan oil

Organic: Argan oil from UCFA is safety assessed, certified organic and fair trade by Ecocert. By avoiding the use of agricultural chemicals we not only attain a pure argan oil product, safer for the workers and as consumers, safe for all skin types, but we also protect the land, water, air from unnecessary pollution.
Protecting land and nature: Produced from trees protected by the Moroccan law and by UNESCO.  Argan trees only thrive in Morocco. The forest reserve is also IGP (protected Geographical Indication) certified by AMIGHA. Only Moroccan grown trees produce authentic argan oil. The Argan forest helps prevent encroachment from the Sahara desert and helps to consolidate fragile mountain soils.
Produced by a female lead cooperative: Our oil is produced by a female led cooperative, part of a union of 22 cooperatives, the UCFA (Union of Womens’ Argan Oil Collectives) which is self governed by women.
Fairly traded: No longer do the argan oil producers just selling the seeds as a cash crop to large corporations, over the last decades, the female cooperatives have taken control of the whole production process from tree planting and care, harvesting, seed extraction, pressing, organic certification and marketing. Their whole emphasis is on sustainability and consistency of quality. They are in control of all of the working conditions and of their pricing structure.
Social and gender equality: It has meant over the years that the women have gained literacy and transferable business skills - they also run charitable scheme to combat poverty in their reserve. Thanks to argan oil production women and their communities are lifted out of poverty and they have a secure future.
Sustainability: The oil is not pressed by hand in this cooperative – The yield of this precious oil is about 50% greater when pressed by machine, and the oil, rare as it is becomes somewhat more available for the export market. Machine press oil maintains its freshness for much longer and has a lighter aroma. As noted earlier, the argan cooperatives, continue to planting of new argan trees to assure the future of argan oil production.

WARNING

Nut allergy sufferers are advised to consult their doctor before using Argan Oil.
As with any new product, users should conduct a patch test before starting wide scale usage.

Packaging

This organic virgin cold pressed Argan oil is provided in amber glass bottles. Although it means that the postage costs are higher, oils maintain their optimal quality in glass. Not enough research has been conducted on how oils react when stored in plastic, but there is no doubt that the oil degrades in plastic and may become contaminated as the plastic degrades. Even an amber bottle allows some light penetration, so unless you intend to use up the oil quickly, then please store your bottle in a dark cupboard where there is a stable room temperature. Saying all of this, Argan Oil is known for its ability to be stored for a long time. 

Research

A scientific article showing how argan oil reduces melanin https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3723062/

A scientific article showing how argan oil prevents skin aging in post menopausal women, by replacing the function of estrogen: Boucetta, K. Q., Charrouf, Z., Aguenaou, H., Derouiche, A., & Bensouda, Y. (2015). The effect of dietary and/or cosmetic argan oil on postmenopausal skin elasticity. Clinical interventions in aging, 10, 339–349. https://doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S71684 Here is the part of the conclusion where they are discussing what is in the argan oil to have this antiaging effect. Please note the post menopausal ladies in the study also consumed edible argan oil, but it is still an incisive result, "The synergistic antioxidant effect of vitamin E and ferulic acid plays a key role in the maintenance of skin elasticity through the decline in collagen and elastic fibers degradation in response to MMP inhibition activity. That may help to protect postmenopausal women against the high levels of ROS implied in the acceleration of skin aging that takes place in age-related estrogen loss."