Argan OilHighly Sustainable But Also

Versatile Used for hair, skin, nails and delicious to eat!

Argan (Argania spinosa) oil can be used for cosmetics or food.  There are some differences, however.   The oil for cosmetic use is technically edible (after all, it’s organic with no additives) but it would have no real taste or aroma.  For the argan that is eaten, berber women insert an extra step before grinding the kernals by roasting them in a clay dish, which releases a nutty aroma and taste.

Argan (Argania spinosa) oil

In Morocco, argan oil is used very widely in cooking, especially by  Berbers. Across Morocco, argan oil is a treasured delicacy, but more accessible to Berbers because the trees are grown in their region (the same as people in Maine treasure their lobsters but can get them more cheaply).  Foreign demand, ironically, while providing jobs to Berbers, has also driven up the price and made it a costly item for Moroccans. 

Argan oil in Cooking

In terms of cooking, argan is commonly served next to olive oil for dipping bread, used in salad dressing, and mixed into cooked oatmeal and especially couscous, our national dish.  My mother’s couscous with argan takes 2 hours to make and has no resemblance to the boxed couscous on grocery shelves in the U.S.!

Argan oil in Cooking

Regarding sustainability, Berber women used the nuts for cosmetics and food for centuries, but also habitually cut down the argan trees for firewood.  In the past 15 years argan rose in popularity in Europe and elsewhere for cosmetic use.  Once Berbers realized that harvesting nuts for cosmetic production was more profitable, and ultimately more sustainable than destroying the trees for wood, they transitioned to maintaining healthy argan trees for continuous nut harvesting.  As an illustration, one of my aunts who lives in the Atlas Mountains, far from any villages and supplies, lives on a tract of land of hundreds of acres, occupied by argan trees.Argan oil for

Cosmetics

In the past, the prospect of collecting the argan nuts from the rocky mountainous terrain, loading them onto packs for mule transport, then breaking the nuts,  (and roasting them if for eating), grinding them, extracting the oil, and bottling it was very arduous and time-consuming; one liter took her about 30-35 hours to make.  She would then walk a long distance with the oil to barter in the village for other needed supplies.  Thus, argan oil didn’t develop into a “big business”  for the Berber women who produced it, until recently. Berber

Women in Business

Now, however, because of foreign popularity, Berber women have organized themselves to create small but sustainable businesses.  The needs of running a business has motivated them to increase their reading, writing, and math literacy, and enabled them to afford to educate their children. The women can also now afford to buy gas for cooking and no longer cut down the trees because nurturing the trees and nuts is more sustainable.

Berber Women in Business

The Moroccan government has also recognized the benefit of argan to Berber women and the economy and has begun planting new argan trees to compensate for past tree destruction and to prevent desertification.  As with almost any other product, the old-fashioned way of production, while labor-intensive, is the only proper way to create genuine argan oil.

Argan oil in Economy

Sheer Argan’s argan oil is 100% organic and pure. Nothing is added – or subtracted – because doing so would reduce the natural beauty and health-enhancing properties of our argan oil. It’s all you need: Sheer Argan’s argan oil for your skin, hair and nails.

E-mail Us at: info@sheerargan.comto reach the SheerArgan, Direct Sales