I was given a bottle of organic argan oil from Morocco recently and was inspired to play with it this morning.<\/p>\n
I researched argan oil briefly and found a 7-point checklist for determining if the oil is authentic. Considering how much this oil is touted and the price, I thought this was prudent. I went through the list and compared this oil to that list and it seems to be a quality oil. The characteristics all appear on mark for argan oil:
\n1. The ingredients: Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil. One simple ingredient is good.
\n2. The bottle is dark amber glass. Also good.
\n3. The price is reasonable (about $30 for 4 ounces). Good quality argan oil is obtained by hand from the unroasted fruit\/nut (for cosmetic use). It shouldn’t be cheap, but it doesn’t need to cost a fortune, either.
\n[The argan oil used for eating is roasted to improve flavor and is easier to produce, so the cost is lower. Many of the skin and hair benefits are lost in this process.]
\n4. The scent is distinct and will vary by season and by crop. The bottle I have has a mild, but distinct scent. This is good, as an indicator of quality and for me specifically. \ud83d\ude09
\n5. The texture is smooth and silky. Good.
\n6. The sediment is slight and leaves the oil looking slightly cloudy. Good.
\n7. The result is a mildly scented pure oil that felt amazingly nice to rub into my skin. I am excited to play with this oil even more now.<\/p>\n
What I’ve done so far:
\n~ I put one drop in the palm of my hand and rubbed my hands together. It was absorbed readily and quickly. Quite unique for pure oils and I liked it!
\n~ I rubbed one drop into my fingernails and cuticles. It took a few minutes to be absorbed and felt silky and luscious, not sticky or heavy.
\n~ Since argan oil is particularly good for skin and hair, I whipped up a couple treatments:<\/p>\n
For an emotionally grounding silky facial oil, I used 1 teaspoon argan oil and added 1 drop vetiver [Vetiveria zizanoides] essential oil, 1 drop frankincense [Boswellia carteri] essential oil, and 1 drop geranium [Pelargonium graveolens] essential oil. I’m wearing it as a perfume oil and I love it!
\nUPDATE: Before heading out for the long weekend, I added 1 teaspoon herb-infused almond oil (herbs: calendula, chamomile, and roses) and 1\/2 teaspoon grapeseed oil (plain). I used this face serum day and night after cleansing (disposable wipes with water — we were camping and already had these) and toning (rosewater on cotton ball). The face cleansing towelettes were dried out and needed extra water to do anything. They felt like they were cleaning, but really the rosewater on a cotton ball pulled up more dirt! When applying the face serum, I put one drop on my ring fingers (spread between them) and massaged it around my eyes (on bones around eye socket) and then continued with the rest of my face and throat. I used more at night and less during the day. It felt silky and fabulous going on and my skin had a lovely scent with a grounding effect. After two days of working outdoors building a shed and archery range at camp in the hot days and cold nights, my face feels amazingly soft and supple.<\/p>\n
For a luxurious hair and scalp treatment, I used 1 teaspoon argan oil and added 1 drop rosemary [Rosmarinus officinalis] essential oil, 1 drop cedarwood [Cedrus atlantica] essential oil, and 1 drop yarrow [Achillea millefolium] essential oil. At first, I did not care for the scent of this, but I didn’t make it to smell good. I made it for stimulating hair growth.
\nUPDATE: Upon returning from our work-camp weekend, my daughter asked to do an oil hair treatment. I poured the above teaspoon of oil into a tiny dish and added 1 teaspoon rosemary-infused olive oil. She massaged both teaspoons of oil into her scalp and hair and left it on for a few hours with her hair clipped up. She washed it out with our one bottle of “ordinary” shampoo and it came out easily. Her hair and scalp felt great afterwards!<\/p>\n
I used the clean-up oil from each of the above recipes on my feet (after pouring into small labeled glass bottles). I am slightly amazed at how fast the oil was absorbed by my skin. If you have played with pure oils before, you know most oils sit on top of the skin for awhile. Argan soaks in quickly and does not feel greasy or slippery. This quality will come in handy for certain applications. This also means it makes a lousy massage oil.<\/p>\n
I also put one drop of each recipe above on each wrist (one recipe per wrist) to test the scents. I really, really LOVE the first one — immediately and still (over three hours later)! The second one didn’t really appeal to me at first, but has grown on me over the last three hours. It has softened nicely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was given a bottle of organic argan oil from Morocco recently and was inspired to play with it this morning. I researched argan oil briefly and found a 7-point checklist for determining if the oil is authentic. Considering how much this oil is touted and the price, I thought this was prudent. I went … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-karin","4":"post-128","6":"format-standard","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karinrose.sdroses.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karinrose.sdroses.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karinrose.sdroses.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karinrose.sdroses.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karinrose.sdroses.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/karinrose.sdroses.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131,"href":"https:\/\/karinrose.sdroses.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karinrose.sdroses.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karinrose.sdroses.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karinrose.sdroses.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}