Moroccan Argan Oil

Moroccan argan oil! Hmmmm, you ask, What does Moroccan argan oil have to do with Seven Remarkable People? The short answer is, absolutely nothing, per se. Whoa, there's a reason! The morning got away from me. Just too many moving parts.

So, probably on Monday, I'll write about my next Remarkable Person. In the meantime, though, I'd like to share with you what I've learned about argan oil: It works. (And if you already know this, please excuse my enthusiasm!)

I've got really dry skin and am always on the look-out for a cream or oil that does more than just glob on the surface. Well, about a month ago, I found a travel article about a goat and berry bushes and the argan nut that caught my attention.

In Morocco and parts of Egypt, there's a goat that thrives on the argan berry. The black goats jump, almost fly, into the rather large, rough-looking bush and eat the berries. (See photo, right.) The goats excrete the nuts. North African Berbers collect the nuts, clean them, then pulverize the nut to obtain the oil. This process, which has been on-going for long centuries, remains as it was in today's Morocco, where tourists and locals can buy the oil in small village shops or from vendors. For the commercial market, machines clean and pulverize the nuts. However, the product remains organic. And First Cold Press is best.

After reading the article, I thought back to a beautiful little container of oil I'd bought in Italy a couple of years ago. I'd wandered into a small, but pricey, boutique on a side street in Grado, and thinking I was sampling a scent, sprayed my wrist lightly. Instead, of a perfumed mist, though, a blob of oil splattered my wrist. And this turned out to be a stroke of good luck. After massaging my hands, the oil felt light, then lighter, and disappeared into a silky, really nice feeling. I bought the little jar.

But I couldn't open the jar and travel with it ... those airline rules ... so returned home, tucked the jar in my cabinet and forgot about it. After I read the argan/goat article, I raced for the jar, brought it to the pharmacist to check that the content hadn't spoiled (it hadn't), and began using the product. A week later, I couldn't believe my hands were actually mine. And I'm convinced a couple of crows feet have disappeared. (Humor me!)

Knowing I'd eventually run out,I ordered more from Amazon. (There's a variety product names.) Only $32.00 for 100ml (free shipping). What arrived is from Morocco and the same quality I purchased in Italy, at half the price for double the amount (I poured some of the new oil in the pretty little jar that turned out to be very expensive.) Next up: Shampoo.

Oh, almost forgot...when my argan oil arrived, I excitedly showed the bottle to my husband -- and was about to tell him how the oil came to be -- when he said, "Oh, that's the oil from that nut that a goat craps out." When we lived in Egypt, he saw these goats in some of the more remote villages.