Meet Our Artisans

Women of the argan cooperative cracking argan nuts by hand

Meet our artisans

Every product we sell is made by someone. These are the people, the places, and the hands behind Skalli Essentials.

We don't just buy from the souq and put our label on it. We drive out to the workshops and cooperatives ourselves, watch the work, ask the questions, and learn their stories. This page is what that looks like.

Mohammad and his son making m'hekkas in their workshop in Agadir. Raw clay to finished stone, start to finish.

Agadir, Morocco

The M'hekka

If you've ever used a pumice stone and your heels still felt rough after, this is why we offer the m'hekka. It's fired clay, way finer than pumice, and it gets your heels smooth without that raw feeling. Ours are made by Mohammad and his son in a small workshop in Agadir.

The process starts with the part nobody sees. Raw clay, still rough and uneven, goes through the softening machine twice before it's smooth enough to work. Skip that step and the m'hekka cracks in the oven.

Then his son takes over. He shapes each block by hand and carves the pattern into the surface, the same way his father taught him. No mold, no press. That's why no two are quite alike.

The shaped clay dries outside in the sun, then goes into the oven for 48 hours. That long, slow bake is what turns soft clay into a stone hard enough to last for years but porous enough to work on skin.

Shop the M'hekka

Mohammad shaping the clay pots, then Mariam showing how the aker fassi goes on.

Agadir, Morocco

Aker Fassi

Aker fassi is one of the oldest cosmetics in Morocco. Dried poppy petals and pomegranate rind, ground to a powder, and painted onto the inside of a small terracotta pot. You wet a fingertip or a brush, rub it on the clay, and you've got a lip and cheek stain.

The pot matters as much as the powder, so we go back to Mohammad for it. Same workshop as the m'hekka. He shapes each one by hand, then they sit out to dry.

The painting happens on our side. Our team mixes the aker fassi with water and brushes it onto each pot by hand, one at a time, in layers. That's Mariam in the video showing how it's done.

So when you open yours, you're looking at two sets of hands. Mohammad's on the clay, ours on the color.

Shop the Aker Fassi Pot

Maryam, Aicha and the women they work with, cracking argan kernels by hand outside Agadir.

Agadir, Morocco

Argan oil

Argan comes from one place on earth, and this is it. The fruit dries on the tree in the Agadir sun, then the women collect it and the work starts.

Maryam and Aicha have been doing this since they were girls. Every day, sitting on the floor with about eleven other women, cracking kernels one by one with a stone. That's it. No machines, and no shortcuts. Every drop of argan oil we use, in the bottle and in everything we make with it, went through someone's hands like this.

We asked them what the Argan tree meant to them. They replied that it sustains them and gives them purpose. It's not a job, it's their whole life, and they're proud of it.

We didn't change a thing about how they make it. We just put it in a bottle.

Argan Oil Collection