How to Use Argan Oil on Your Face, a Gesture from the Souss

Before she could walk, our founder already knew its scent. Her grandmother warmed the oil between her palms and laid it on the child’s face, a gesture older than any formula.

To learn how to use argan oil on your face, begin where the gesture was born: at Douar Aït Baha, in the Souss-Massa, where one family has kept the same argan grove for more than a hundred years. The fruit is gathered by hand between June and August, the nuts cracked between two stones, and the oil cold-pressed in Taroudant by a cooperative of Amazigh women.

How much argan oil should you use on your face?

Very little. A small pool in the hollow of one palm veils the whole face and throat. Argan oil is rich in tocopherols, a form of vitamin E, and in oleic and linoleic acids. A light layer, well warmed, melts into the skin with more grace than a generous one.

How to apply argan oil to your face

Pour the oil into your palm, then rub both hands together until it turns warm and its note of hazelnut rises. Press your palms flat against your cheeks, your forehead, your chin, then your throat, and hold them there for a breath. Press rather than rub: the skin drinks it in. Close with slow strokes along the jaw, always upward.

How often to use argan oil on your face

Morning and evening. At Maison AQAY Paris, argan follows the rose mist at dawn, in L’Étoile de l’Aube, and closes L’Éveil de la Lune after the double cleanse. Twice a day, the same gesture, until the hands know it by heart.

Can you leave argan oil on your face overnight?

Yes. In the evening, the oil is the last gesture before sleep and remains on the skin all night. Laid on after the double cleanse, it lets the skin rest; on waking, it feels supple and nourished.

Argan oil before or after moisturizer?

Before. The oil meets clean skin first, and the cream follows to close the morning. The full order of gestures, from dawn to night, has its own chapter in the Journal.

Why argan belongs to the face

In our family, argan has always belonged to the face. Endemic to southwestern Morocco, the argan tree can stand for two centuries. Each harvest of the Maison is analyzed in the laboratory, then numbered, before it enters the Elixir formulas, where it meets prickly pear seed oil. It is the Rich Elixir Serum that carries this gesture most purely.

Warm, press, breathe. The Souss rests in the palm of the hand.

Maison AQAY Paris. Single-estate argan skincare, formulated in Paris.

Sources

• Orwa C. et al., Agroforestree Database 4.0: Argania spinosa, World Agroforestry Centre, 2009.
• Sabiri et al., Forests, 2023.
• El Kebbaj R. et al., Antioxidants, 13(3), 344, 2024.