Moroccan skin care: five families of materials and what each is for

Jamal Bellakhdar spent nearly forty years recording what Morocco uses for care. The latest edition of his book, from 2023, runs to two volumes and 1,376 pages.

It holds 1,118 plants, minerals and materials of animal and other origin, with their names in French, Arabic and Amazigh and a list of the jobs they do: in the kitchen, for beauty, in a craft, with the flock, and now and then in magic.

Moroccan skin care grew out of household knowledge of exactly this kind.

A book of 1,376 pages would struggle to fit on a bathroom shelf. The shelf needs five families of materials: argan and the oils, prickly pear, hammam washing, nila, and the red. For each, three things are worth knowing: where it comes from, what it is for, and which day of the week it belongs to.

Argan and the oils

The first family is the oils. At their head is argan, which people in south-western Morocco have used for at least a thousand years.

On the skin, argan oil works as an emollient: it softens and smooths it. That is why it comes at the end of a routine, a few drops on the face, on dry skin on the body or on the ends of the hair. The word, the tree and the hand mill are all in the guide to argan oil.

Prickly pear, the young oil

The second family is younger. The prickly pear reached Morocco from Mexico centuries ago, and oil has been pressed from its seeds only in the last few decades.

Prickly pear seed oil is rich in linoleic acid, which helps the skin hold on to its water, and it goes into face care. How a Mexican cactus became a Moroccan oil is told in the piece on prickly pear seed oil for the face.

The hammam: soap, glove and clay

The third family is washing, and it has a building of its own.

In the hammam, three things clean the skin. Beldi is a soft olive-oil soap. The kessa is a rough glove. Ghassoul is a clay from the bed of a lake that no longer exists.

This is the weekly wash, with its own order and its own pace. The hammam room by room, and how to bring it under your own shower, are in the piece on Moroccan soap and the hammam.

Nila for the weekly mask

The fourth family belongs above all to the south. Nila is the Moroccan name for indigo, and towards the Sahara it goes onto clothing and onto the skin.

On this map the families sometimes meet: in the south, nila goes into the hammam mixed with black soap. In face care it is a weekly thing, and it goes into a mask. How one word for dark blue travelled from Sanskrit to Morocco is in the piece what is blue nila.

Red for cheeks and lips

The fifth family is the only one that colours. It is also the only one with no fixed day: you wear it when you feel like it.

The red for the cheeks is known today as aker fassi. Its story, from Fez to the weddings, is in the piece what is aker fassi.

Why Moroccan skin care works

Put the five families side by side and the logic shows.

First, in care each family has its own job. When the jobs do not overlap, you do not need many things.

Second, oil or cream follows washing. Whatever softness the wash carries off, an emollient gives back.

Third, the stronger things come less often: the glove once a week and the mask once or twice, while a drop of oil can go on every day. How much of each is enough is the subject of how much cream to put on your face.

Fourth, these materials are known. Most of them have been used in Morocco long enough for people to know which is for what, how much of it you need and when.

Today our products carry that knowledge. We source our ingredients from more than 160 women's cooperatives across Morocco, and Moroccan labs make the products.

How the five families fit into a week

In the bathroom, the map comes down to a few habits.

• Every day, face. One to three drops of argan oil as the last step. Or AFOULKI, our face cream, where the first two families meet: argan oil and prickly pear seed oil. One light press of the pump in the morning lasts until evening.
• Every day, body. In the shower, ALJIG, a wash with glycerin and argan oil. After the shower, on dry or damp skin, ANU, a body milk with argan oil and shea butter. Both smell of orange blossom.
• Once or twice a week, face. TIFAWT, a mask with Blue Nila and prickly pear seed oil. A thin layer on a clean face, away from the eyes, for ten to fifteen minutes, then rinse with water. The skin is very soft afterwards.
• Once or twice a week, body. A longer wash: a few minutes under a warm shower, then TAFUKT, a scrub with coffee and argan oil. The skin stays soft for up to three days.

Each of these habits asks for very little product, so the bottles and jars last. The whole week fits into a few minutes a day and one longer evening.

If you are just starting

The easiest way in is one family at a time.

• If your face feels dry after washing, start with oil. For the first week, one drop of argan oil a day on a slightly damp face is enough.
• If you like one quiet evening a week, start with the mask or the scrub and give them the same day, Sunday for instance.
• If you want one thing for every morning, take the cream and leave the oil for later.
• If the skin on your body is dry, start with a body milk after the shower.

Add the next family once the last one has become a habit. Within a month you will know what your skin likes.

How to find them on a label

On an ingredient list, the materials on this map appear under their Latin names. Three are worth remembering:

• Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil: argan oil, from the kernel of the fruit.
• Opuntia Ficus-Indica Seed Oil: prickly pear seed oil.
• Indigofera Tinctoria Leaf Powder: nila, the powdered indigo leaf.

The full ingredient lists of our products, with every Latin name, are on the ingredients page.

You can try each of these products at our shop in Sarajevo City Center.

Bellakhdar needed two volumes for 1,118 materials.

For your shelf, the fingers of one hand are enough.