Pure Argan Oil: Is that product really pure?

I'm tempted to call this post: "What does Argan Oil for cosmetic use have to do with breakfast?" But I'll just stick with the original as written above.

Everywhere you turn in the beauty aisle you're now seeing the words "Argan Oil". Are all of these products created equal? Of course not. A lot of people ask us what the difference is between our product here at Saadia Organics and the ones they see in their hair salon, for example. Well, for starters, our product is 100% pure, unadulterated Argan Oil. Anything you'll see in a hair salon will most likely have at least a dozen other ingredients besides "Argania spinosa kernel oil" on the label. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so. We all need shampoo, for example, and it doesn't hurt to use one with a bit of Argan Oil in it. (Just try to choose one that is free of sulphates, parabens and other nasties.)

At Saadia Organics, we often put it this way. "Those products are blueberry waffles. (Ranging from ones you'd get in a 4 diamond restaurant to the ones you'd find in your grocery store's freezer.) Our product is JUST the blueberries." So that makes sense, doesn't it? All products containing a bit of Argan Oil are not created equal. Read the labels.

But what if you only want the 'blueberries'? Just the pure stuff? The real thing? That's when it gets a bit trickier. Here. Have a glass of OJ to go with those waffles while I explain.

You know that not all orange juice is created equal. There are some good options to buy at the grocery store. I like some of the ones in cartons in the refrigerated section well enough. How about the stuff in juice boxes? Meh. No thanks. How about the stuff from concentrate in the cans in the freezer aisle? Not my favourite either. But how about when you're in sunny Florida? Or in Morocco? You look overhead and see that there are gorgeously ripe oranges weighing down the branches of the trees. I know you'd want to pick some. And of course, as it's so hot, you're very thirsty. Fortunately, you carry a Swiss Army knife and a chilled glass in your bag. So you sit down with those marvellously sweet, heavy oranges. Slicing them open and squeezing the juice right into the frosty goblet. What on earth tastes better than that? Nothing.

So what are we? Is Saadia Organics Argan Oil the juice box? The chilled carton? The can of concentrate? We are proud to say that we are none of these. We are the freshly squeezed.

I don't know much about how the various types of orange juice are manufactured. But I do know a fair bit about how how Argan Oil is manufactured. Let's start with our method. The 'freshly squeezed' method, if you will.

First you want the Argan fruit harvested in a gentle way from a goat-free farm. Goats find nothing tastier than Argan fruit and are willing to scale (and break!) the trees in order to do so.

Then, you want the oil to be produced by hand. Cold pressing using only a stone quern is the way that Berber women have been doing it for centuries. We are happy that Saadia and her team get to do this in privacy (which Moroccan women appreciate) and away from the tourist's eyes and cameras in the co-ops.

Other methods use machinery. Some even use chemical solvents to pull the oil out of the kernels. Many brands of "100% Pure Argan Oil" put their oil through a deodorizing process. That process requires heating the oil to over 400 degrees farenheit for 30-60 minutes. I don't want to even think about how many nutrients would be lost from the salad I had for dinner last night if I were to heat it to that temperature for an hour! Argan Oil is no different. You want this precious oil in it's purest, most natural state. Some of its best properties are lost in order to get rid of its natural, light, green, nutty, slightly olive-ish scent.

So we leave our oil alone. And we see the results. Just recently, my daughter reacted very badly to a cleaning product. (She was determined to help with the dishes last Thursday night, and some of the cleaning product was left over in a sponge in the sink.) She's a tough little gal and the rash that developed actually made her cry. Immediately she begged for some of Grandma Saadia's Argan Oil to put on it. It soothed her pain immediately. The next morning, angry, dry, scaly, red, eczema-like patches were on her hands. So we started putting Argan Oil on several times a day. A few days later, it was like the incident hadn't even taken place. And we really don't think too many products could do the magic that Grandma Saadia's does!

If you have any questions about our product or want to share any of your success stories, please leave a comment below!