Argan Oil: A chic French touch

Far from subsiding, the argan craze just keeps getting stronger. The latest line comes from France, and it offers not just a complete line of natural skin, hair and body care with organic ingredients, but also an exciting new product with powers of seduction. I’ll explain later.
Naturelle d’Argan, which you can find at Beauty Bar, uses Morocco’s golden oil to maximum effect. It’s the first Ecocert-ified and Cosmebio-accredited argan oil-based brand in the French market, which means “a minimum of 95 percent of all ingredients are natural in origin, and 10 percent of that is organic,” explains Celine Heuls, export manager for Asia-Pacific for Groupe Batteur, who was in town recently to launch the brand.

Groupe Batteur is a key player in the pharmaceutical industry in France, with over 100 years of expertise in manufacturing and product design (another of their brands is Algotherm). Thus they have complete control of Naturelle d’Argan’s production chain, and distribute it through 5,000 points of sale (mainly pharmacies).
What I like about the brand — in addition to their innovative products — is their ethical commitment. Sales of Naturelle d’Argan support Moroccan women who work in a cooperative called the Arganeraie. Groupe Batteur has built a building specially for them where they can work in safe conditions, complete with health clinic and a space where their children can play.

Production is handled by around 60 women working daily, depending on the season. There they break the argan kernels by hand — about 43 kilos of argan nuts go into one liter of oil — so this kind of manual labor is no joke. Despite that, the women were against mechanization because they wanted to preserve the natural, traditional process.

“It’s their primary source of income,” notes Heuls, “so it helps women become more autonomous.”
Naturelle d’Argan also helps the environment. Scientific research is focused on saving the argan tree, and cultivating argan orchards prevents the desert from encroaching on Morocco’s fertile land.
We, on the other hand, benefit from the myriad properties of this miracle oil. Rich in omega 6 and 9 fatty acids and with almost triple the vitamin E of olive oil, argan softens, protects and moisturizes, improving our skin’s elasticity and barrier function, battling free radicals, and combating aging and the early loosening of skin. Not only is Naturelle d’Argan free from parabens, silicone, and phenoxyethanol, the company also deodorizes the oil to remove its pungent nutty aroma, making their products even more of a pleasure to use. Read more ..