Moroccan styling cream is a popular hair care product designed to condition, hydrate, and tame frizzy hair. This leave-in, moisture-rich cream creates a soft, natural feel, making it a favorite among those seeking manageable and healthy-looking hair.
Key Ingredients and Their Benefits
Let's delve into the key ingredients found in Moroccan styling cream and their respective benefits:
Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream
Aqua/Water/Eau (H2O)
The most common skincare ingredient of all is good old water, aka H2O. The water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized, meaning that almost all the mineral ions inside it are removed.
Dimethicone
A silicone fluid that gives a nonoily, easy-to-spread emolliency to the formulas. It is also used as a water repellent additive and to reduce the tackiness and stickiness of other ingredients.
Cetearyl Alcohol
An extremely common multitasker ingredient that gives your skin a nice soft feel (emollient) and gives body to creams and lotions. It also helps to stabilize oil-water mixes (emulsions), though it does not function as an emulsifier in itself. It’s a so-called fatty alcohol, a mix of cetyl and stearyl alcohol, other two emollient fatty alcohols. Though chemically speaking, it is alcohol (as in, it has an -OH group in its molecule), its properties are totally different from the properties of low molecular weight or drying alcohols such as denat. alcohol.
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Argania Spinosa (Argan) Kernel Oil
When it comes to cosmetic oils and hype, argan oil is for sure leading the way. Dubbed as the "liquid gold of Morocco", we have to admit we have some trouble determining why this oil enjoys such a special miracle status. Argan oil comes from the kernel of the argan fruit that comes from the argan tree that grows only in Morocco. The tree is slow growing and getting the oil is a hard job. The traditional process is that the ripe argan fruits fall from the tree, then goats eat them up and poop out the seeds. The seeds are collected and smashed with a stone to get the kernels inside. This part is the hard one as the seeds have extremely hard shells. Once the kernels are obtained, the oil is pressed out from them (the kernels contain about 50% oil). As for skincare, argan oil is loaded with lots of skin goodies (but so are many other plant oils): it contains 80% nourishing and moisturizing unsaturated fatty acids, mainly oleic (38-50%), linoleic (28-38%) and palmitic (10-18%). Thanks to all the above goodness in argan oil, it can greatly nourish and moisturize the skin and hair. It's also claimed to be able to neutralize collagen-damaging free radicals, help reduce scars, and revitalize and improve skin elasticity.
Behentrimonium Chloride
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Phenoxyethanol
It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben. It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic. Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too.
Glyceryl Stearate SE
Chemically speaking, it is the attachment of a glycerin molecule to the fatty acid called stearic acid. It can be produced from most vegetable oils (in oils three fatty acid molecules are attached to glycerin instead of just one like here) in a pretty simple, "green" process that is similar to soap making. It's readily biodegradable. It also occurs naturally in our body and is used as a food additive. It's often paired with glyceryl stearate - the two together form a super effective emulsifier duo that's salt and acid tolerant and works over a wide pH range.
Caprylyl Glycol
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
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Isopropyl Alcohol
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Chlorphenesin
It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. It’s not a strong one and doesn’t really work against bacteria, but more against mold and yeast. To do that it has to break down to its active form, sorbic acid. For that to happen, there has to be water in the product and the right pH value (pH 3-4). But even if everything is right, it’s not enough on its own. If you see potassium sorbate yo...
Citric Acid
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Parfum/Fragrance
Exactly what it sounds: nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice. If you are someone who likes to know what you put on your face then fragrance is not your best friend - there's no way to know what’s really in it. Also, if your skin is sensitive, fragrance is again not your best friend. It’s the number one cause of contact allergy to cosmetics. It’s definitely a smart thing to avoid with sensitive skin (and fragrance of any type - natural is just as allergic as synthetic, if not worse!).
CI 15985 (Yellow 6)
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
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How to Use Moroccan Styling Cream
- Apply 1-2 pumps of Moroccanoil® Hydrating Styling Cream to damp or dry hair from mid-length to ends.
- Blow-dry and style as usual or allow hair to dry naturally.
- For very thick, unmanageable, or frizzy hair, mix 1-2 pumps with a few drops of Moroccanoil Treatment to tame and condition.
Additional Information
Some hairdressers have issues with products that contain silicone. They feel it can build up in your hair and eventually ‘coat’ it, preventing other more hydrating ingredients from getting into the shaft. While this is true, it’s nothing a good clarifying shampoo can’t fix. If you use a lot of silicone-based products, simply give your hair a good ‘detox’ once a week and you should be just fine. In the long run, silicones can really help a girl out and do a lot more good by helping to prevent things like ‘breakage’ from trying to brush a tangly, knotty mane. On top of this, silicones can also help protect your hair from heat damage.
This product has the same silky texture and vaguely ‘musk mint’ scent as Moroccanoil’s regular treatment, but you’ll feel the difference immediately in that it’s much, much lighter and ‘thinner’ feeling. Before, when I used ‘regular’ Moroccanoil, I had to be careful about only using a few drops… with this baby I can squeeze out a big fat pump and smear it through my hair with wild abandon. (Well, semi-wild abandon anyway… I’m still too scared to get it near my roots…)
I do this while my hair’s still wet and then, once it’s been blow dried, I can FEEL I’ve used the product. My hair’s got that nice, ‘slippy’ satin-y feel you get to enjoy after your hair dresser’s used her super fancy ultra deep conditioning treatment on your locks.
Whether this is because my hair’s sucked up a ton of miraculous argan oil or simply gussied up in silicone, I can’t tell. All I know is that I like it.
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tags: #Moroccan
