Another look at a top selling Amazon.com beauty product…
Moroccan Oil Hair Treatment has been in the top 100 Amazon.com beauty products for almost two years! (It’s currently ranked as the 17th best seller.) It’s obvious that people really love this product; let’s look at the label to see exactly what it is they like so much. (Hint: it doesn’t actually have anything to do with Morocco.)
Moroccan Oil Hair Treatment ingredients
Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone, Cyclomethicone
These three silicones are what make this product work (as opposed to the small amount of argan oil that it contains.) The “cyclo” ‘cones are volatile which means they evaporate. They are used as a carrier for dimethicone which is what is really smoothing and conditioning your hair. The cyclo’s distribute easily through your hair, depositing a thin coating of dimethicone. Then *poof* they disappear. There are many other hair treatments that use similar ingredients so you can find cheaper products that do the same thing as Moroccan Oil.
Butylphenyl Methyl Propional
This is a little sneaky: this ingredient is really the primary fragrance in the product. By listing this ingredient by its chemical name and by listing a “fragrance supplement” lower in the ingredients (see below) I guess it makes this product look like its fragrance free. I’m not really sure why they would list it this way.
Argania Spinoza Kernel Oil (Aragan Oil)
This is the “magic” ingredient that this product is famous for (and named after) but it’s used at very low levels.
Linseed (Linum Usitatissimum) Extract
I’m not sure why they added this additional extract. It won’t add any benefit at low levels.
Fragrance Supplement
Again with the sneakiness.
D & C Yellow 11, D & C Red 17
These dyes are added to give the product a golden color so it looks more like “real” Argan oil. (The silicones which make up the bulk of the product have no color.)
Coumarin, Benzyl Benzoate, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone
These chemicals are listed because they are known allergens that are contained in the fragrance.
If you’d like to buy Moroccan Oil Hair Treatment 