Organic Argan Oil - Premium Quality
Our Argan Oil
BASICS
WHAT IS ARGAN OIL?
Argan tree (Argania Spinosa), also called the “tree of life”, grows only in a very few places in the world. Perhaps the best possible climate and soil for argan tree exist in Tamanar region in Morocco. Argan nuts used in our argan oil are from the organic argan fields in Tamanar region. The international organic certifier, Ecocert, controls these argan fields together with the organic authorities of Morocco.
Argan tree produces nuts and argan oil is pressed from the kernels of argan nuts. Locals traditionally call argan oil as “liquid gold” based on its many benefits for both external and internal use.
BENEFITS OF ORGANIC ARGAN OIL IN SKIN CARE
Argan oil has a long tradition for use in skin care in Northern Africa and now during the last 10 years, argan oil has become extremely popular in the US and Europe as well. Argan oil suits for all skin types and it can be applied for face, body, and hair. Oil can be used directly to the skin or it can be mixed together with conditioner or face water.
The high amount of antioxidants in the argan oil help to reduce the negative effects of pollution and UV-rays to the skin. Vitamin E and essential fatty acids help to reduce the effects of free radicals in skin cells and at the same time, they make skin stronger and more elastic.
This oil is especially effective for dry and mature skin types. Organic argan oil has also been used to help relieve sunburn, scars and acne.
HOW OUR ARGAN OIL IS PRODUCED?
1 - Argan nuts are handpicked
Our argan nuts are manually handpicked from the tree during July-August when they are ripe (yellow-orange color) and their nutrient levels are high. Machine picking is not used as it is very important to pick only the highest quality nuts in order to produce the highest quality oil.
Hand picking is also very important in order to ensure the sustainable farming of argan trees. Also in order to provide the best quality argan oil, nuts that have fallen down from the tree by itself are not used. Because our nuts are hand picked from the tree, the aroma of our argan oil is mild and pleasent.
2 - Nuts are dryed & cracked
After picking, the nuts are sun-dried for around two months. After drying, the nuts can finally be cracked and the precious kernels collected from inside of the nut.
The nut is cracked by hand using the traditional stone tools. Machine cracking is not used as machines cannot recognize bad quality nut from good quality nut AND machines also would crush the kernel to tiny pieces – which would lead to inferior quality due to the fast oxidation process of the crushed kernel.
3 - Cold-pressing & Filtering
In the next step, the kernels are first cold pressed using high-quality machines. The temperature does not exceed +36 degrees Celsius at any point of the pressing process. The facilities are controlled and supervised by the international organic certifier Ecocert.
Finally, the oil is gently filtered four times by using organic grade filters. Filtration removes the potential natural impurities from the cold pressed oil. NOTE: We do not apply active carbon filtering to remove the aroma of argan oil because we consider that this process would slightly lower the quality of the skincare properties of our oil.
4 - Bottling and Packing
In the last step, the argan oil is delivered to Finland and bottled and packed in our modern, clean, high-quality premises. The oil is bottled in high-quality brown amber glass bottles which optimally preserve the precious skincare properties of argan oil.
One more special aspect in our oil is that the cracking of the argan nuts, removal of the kernels and cold pressing happens only after we provide order to our supplier. Oil is not stored in advance and thus we can ensure that our oil is the freshest oil possible.
QUALITY
WHY DO WE CALL IT PREMIUM?
We have given the title Premium to our organic argan oil. Due to the production method, our oil has received the highest Triple Extra Virgin -grade (Grade 1).
This top-class argan oil has the following properties:
1) Peroxide value has to be less than 5 % meg O2/kg
Peroxide value is considered to be the best indicator to tell the quality and the potential rancidity of the fatty acids. The lower the value, the better the oil. In comparison, the normal Extra Virgin argan oil has a peroxide value of 10-15% meg O2/kg.
2) Free fatty acids value (oleic acid, Omega 9) has to be less than 0.50%
This value states the amount of rapidly oxidized free fatty acids from all of the fatty acids. In comparison, the normal Extra Virgin argan oil has the free fatty acids value of 0.65-0.80%.
Both of these values are measured and analyzed for each production batch run by an accredited laboratory.
Triple Extra Virgin
Peroxide value 0-5%
Free fatty acids (FFA) 0,10-0,50%
Double Extra Virgin
Peroxide value 5-10%
FFA 0,50-0,65%
Extra Virgin
Peroxide value 10-15%
FFA 0,65-0,80%
Virgin
Peroxide value 15-20%
FFA 0,80-1,50%
SOCIAL ASPECT
ARGAN OIL AND THE SOCIAL ASPECT
In addition to not make any compromises in argan oil quality, we find it utmost important that the whole growing, picking and cracking process chain works as ethically and in a socially responsible way as possible.
Argan kernels that are used in our argan oil are provided by the Berber women co-operatives from the Tamanar region in Morocco, Women hand pick, sort, dry and crack the argan nuts and remove the precious argan kernels. Their work is of particular importance when the highest quality argan oil is produced.
These co-operatives have an extremely important role in improving the social status of local women and providing work in areas where traditionally it has been difficult for women to find work. The co-operative that provides us the argan kernels employs currently about 150 women and they are constantly employing more women.