Hair oils have flooded the market in the past years, particularly those containing the ''new'' wonderful argan oil. Words like elixir, miraculous and extraordinary are very freely used by brands. All promise you the ultimate hair care product that is going to transform your hair into silky heaven. Exaggerations just pour from the lips of advertisers, with such extravagant descriptions, I wouldn't be surprised if they claimed it also cures cancer. Almost every brand came out with their version, each with a more dazzling name. Just add the new marvelous argan oil and maybe mix in a few other oils to the cheap silicone based serums that have been around for years, include words like miraculous, elixir or mythic and sell it for a hefty price tag. A bit cheeky if you ask me.

Here are some of them in the 20€+ range: (from the left): Marrakesh Oil, Agadir Argan Oil, Osmo Berber Oil, Macadamia Natural Oil, Kérastase Elixir Ultime, Shu Uemura Essence Absolue, Redken All Soft Argan-6 Oil, L'Oreal Professional Mythic Oil and Orofluido Beauty Elixir.

And some cheaper drugstore versions: Lee Stafford Arganoil, Klas Argan, L'Oreal Elvive Extraordinary Oil (ingredients), Fructis Miraculous Oil (ingredients), Gliss Kur Daily Oil Elixir (ingredients), Balea Oil Repair Haaröl, Avon Advance Techniques Moroccan Argan Oil, Syoss Beauty Elixir (ingredients).

Are you  familiar with these?:

These are all silicone based hair serums that have been on the market for years. Sure they don't contain argan oil, however some of them contain other oils, like grape seed, jojoba, avocado etc. I don't recall anyone advertising them as miraculous oils.

It sounds like I all over this argan craze, but I'm not. I'm just fed up with the over-the-top advertisement. It's all about the luxurious oils and making it sound like they're the only ingredients, but they conveniently forget to include it also contains a bunch of cones, fragrances and dyes. But the truth is: Silicone serums with argan oil are brilliant. Of course, nowhere near miraculous, but really, really good (at least for my hair). I've had a lot of silicone based serums (actually all apart from two in the upper picture) and honesty, they leave much to be desired. My hair is very dry and it needs that little bit of extra help to keep it moisturised. I guess that few drops of added argan oil does the trick.

I've been using Ororfluido for two years now and I still love it. However, there is so much talk about Moroccanoil, Macadamia Natural oil, Kérastase Elixir Ultime and others that I started to wonder: Is the grass really greener over there? I ordered small bottles of the most popular brands to compare. I will do a post on each individually and then do a short recap post as a conclusion There will be seven posts in including this one and I'll post one review per day, so keep your eyes peeled. I'll have links in every review to keep it organised. I used the same hair care routine with all of them - shampoo, conditioner (drugstore one, Dove Oil Care) and heat protection- to really see the difference.
Reviews will be posted in the following order:


What is the deal with argan oil? (feel free to skip this part if you dislike geography and sciency stuff)

Thanks for reading!