Prickly Pear Oil for the Face, Beside the Argan

In the Souss, the cactus stands where little else would dare. Its pads rise like open palms toward a white sun; along their edges ripen fruits of crimson and gold, kept behind a crown of spines. Split one open, and the sweet flesh yields its secret: seeds beyond counting, small and hard, the color of earth.

Prickly pear oil for the face is pressed from those seeds. It comes from the same land as our argan, in southwestern Morocco, and the Maison chose the two together, the way one chooses the voices of a score: for their rarity, and for what they become side by side.

What is prickly pear seed oil?

The oil of a cactus seed. Opuntia ficus-indica, the Barbary fig, lives on arid ground and very little water. Its oil, rich in linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid, and in tocopherols, the family of vitamin E, is drawn from the seeds and from them alone. Ours comes from the Souss, where it is cold-pressed.

In seeds harvested in central Morocco, Ettalibi and colleagues measured linoleic acid at 60.55% to 63.46% of the fatty acids (2021).

One ton of fruit for one liter of oil

The seeds must first be freed from the flesh, washed, dried, then pressed. Each gives up only a trace of oil. According to the CBI, the Dutch Centre for the Promotion of Imports, approximately one ton of prickly pears is needed for a single liter. Cold pressing, slow and without heat, gives less still: the review by Al-Naqeb and colleagues records lower yields for the press than for maceration (2021).

The Maison keeps to this slow way. Time is a material too.

Is prickly pear oil good for the face?

Science answers with its composition. The review by Al-Naqeb and colleagues names linoleic acid as its principal fatty acid; among its tocopherols, gamma-tocopherol dominated in a Moroccan oil studied; beta-sitosterol and campesterol lead its phytosterols (2021).

On the skin, the texture tells the rest. A dry, aerial oil, it slips into the skin as soon as it is laid on and leaves it soft, supple, weightless. The virtues of the Maison’s two oils of the Souss are gathered on the page devoted to argan and prickly pear.

Why the Maison pairs it with argan

Argan holds the fundamental note. Harvested by hand at Douar Aït Baha, on land kept by the same family for more than a hundred years, cracked between two stones, then pressed in Taroudant by a cooperative of Amazigh women, it gives each formula its depth and its satin. The fruit of the cactus answers in a higher register: drier, more aerial, born of the same arid earth.

Rare matter calls for rare company. In Paris, the Maison composes the way one writes a score: the most precious materials of one land, weighed one against the other, drop by drop, until each holds its exact place. Worn alone, a prickly pear oil for skin is light and discreet; beside argan, it finds its depth, and argan its light. This is La Juste Mesure.

In four Elixirs

Prickly pear seed oil for the face runs through every Elixir built around argan. At nightfall, it opens L’Éveil de la Lune within the Elixir Makeup Remover Oil, then returns in the Elixir Nourishing Oil Cleanser, which turns to milk under water. In the Rich Elixir Serum, it rests on the skin until dawn; in the Elixir Moisturizing Cream, it seals the morning. Each time, the same gesture: warmed between the palms, then pressed, as told in the first chapter of the Book.

One land, two oils, a single score.

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

Sources

• Al-Naqeb G. et al., Prickly Pear Seed Oil Extraction, Chemical Characterization and Potential Health Benefits, Molecules, 26(16), 5018, 2021.
• Ettalibi F. et al., Comparative Assessment of Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Prickly Pear Seed Oil from Opuntia ficus-indica and Opuntia megacantha Varieties, Journal of Food Quality, 2021.
• CBI, The European market potential for prickly pear seed oil for cosmetics, 2023.