Moroccanoil

Moroccanoil is a hair- and body-care company built around argan oil, the plant oil that gives the brand its name. Despite that name, it is not a Moroccan house: Wikipedia classifies it as an Israeli cosmetics company headquartered in New York City [6], while its co-founder traces the business itself to Montreal, Canada [7]. The brand sells in more than 85 countries, mostly to professional salons, and reported around 750 million US dollars in revenue in 2025.

The company's roots and its public founding date sit a few years apart, and the brand documents both. The underlying product first appeared in 2003, when Israeli hairdresser Mike Sabag began selling an argan-oil treatment to salons in the Tel Aviv area, running the venture with his brother Erik. The name "Moroccanoil," and the brand as it is now known, dates to 2008, when Carmen and Ofer Tal bought the company and launched it commercially [6].

The brand's origin story turns on a chance discovery. According to a co-founder interview, Carmen Tal, a Montreal salon owner, was visiting Israel when a hairdresser introduced her to an argan-oil treatment after she declined a haircut to repair colour-damaged hair. She took two bottles home and, in her words, "noticed a dramatic difference" [7]. Her husband, Ofer Tal, travelled to Israel, met the people manufacturing the product, and secured North American distribution; the couple bought the company in 2008.

That history is why the brand's geography is genuinely mixed rather than simply mislabelled. The original product and much of its manufacturing are Israeli — Wikipedia notes production facilities in Israel, Italy and North America — and the corporate headquarters is in New York. Carmen Tal, however, describes the brand itself as having been "born in Canada," started in Montreal [7]. The "Moroccan" in the name points to the argan tree's native region, not to where the company was founded.

Moroccanoil grew from a single hair treatment into a multi-category range. The first product, the Moroccanoil Treatment, expanded into shampoos, conditioners, hairsprays and styling products, with a professional hair-colour line alongside the retail range. A body-care line followed in 2016, and the company introduced fragrances in 2021.

Its visibility widened through entertainment sponsorship. Since 2020, Moroccanoil has been the "presenting partner" of the Eurovision Song Contest, a partnership renewed for the 2026 contest [6]. By the company's own later figures, the business reached roughly 750 million US dollars in revenue and 826 employees as of May 2025.

Carmen and Ofer Tal acquired the original Tel Aviv company in 2008 and built it into the Moroccanoil brand. The company is privately held; no parent company is recorded in the available sources.

Moroccanoil positions itself as a specialist in argan-oil-infused beauty. According to the company, its products are unified by a single rule — argan oil appears in every formula — and it describes its purpose as creating "luxurious beauty products that inspire confidence and empower individuality" [1]. The brand frames its work around three stated promises: "Uncompromising on Care," "Inspiring a Beautiful World" and "Celebrating Our Roots," the last a reference to its long-standing salon relationships. Its public tagline calls it the "Global Leader in Argan Oil-Infused Beauty" [2].

Distribution reflects that salon orientation. The company sells mostly business-to-business to beauty salons — around 85,000 of them as of January 2020 — though it has more recently expanded direct-to-consumer sales, particularly through travel retail and duty-free shops [6].

The brand's defining product is the original Moroccanoil Treatment, an argan-oil hair oil that the company calls its "eternal best seller" and describes as having been "named the #1 hair oil brand in the US" [1]. Beyond the original treatment, formulations draw on a small set of recurring ingredients the company lists as argan oil, squalane, hyaluronic acid and Vitamin C.

Argan oil itself is the brand's central material. The company says it sources cold-pressed oil from argan trees in their native region and points to a high concentration of antioxidants, Vitamin E (tocopherols) and fatty acids such as oleic and linoleic acid. It cites studies suggesting the oil may help protect hair from breakage during heat styling, reduce split ends, and limit damage during colouring [4]. Moroccanoil also markets a proprietary technology it calls ArganID, which the company says infuses argan oil into the hair's cortex to seal in moisture, used in its colour-care range [4].

Moroccanoil frames its environmental messaging around what it terms "conscious luxury," spanning ingredients and packaging, alongside a stated aim to reduce the impact of its operations [3]. On the community side, the company partners with Oceana, an international ocean-conservation organisation, pledging ongoing donations and awareness support for its campaigns [5]. On animal testing, the brand states that it is PETA-certified cruelty-free.

Moroccanoil's ties to Israel have drawn criticism directed at the European Broadcasting Union over the brand's Eurovision Song Contest presenting-partnership [6].

Moroccanoil is an active, global brand. It distributes in more than 85 countries, reported roughly 750 million US dollars in revenue in 2025, and renewed its Eurovision partnership for the 2026 contest.