Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Because of the many complaints in Amazon reviews about the quality of various argan oils, I decided that the only way I'd know which brand was worth buying was to do a test of the highest-rated brands--Premium Natural, Kate Blanc, Cliganic, and Acure (photo 1). The way I set this up was to pour about one tablespoon of each product onto a white ceramic plate and place the plates in a well-lit (for color assessment), well-ventilated (no extraneous smells) area (photo 2). All four products were evaluated for color (it should be noticably yellow), fragrance (it should be a distinct nutty fragrance), and freshness (no rancid taste), as those were the categories about which there were the most complaints in the reviews. Note that these were all qualitative assessments, not quantitative ones--I didn't use any special measuring equipment or take them to a lab for chemical analysis. The primary assessment was done by my wife. She has worked with essential oils for many years, mixing up her own products from carrier oil and concentrated essential oils--her familiarity with oils came in handy during the freshness assessment. She also has an acute sense of smell (which I don't). She also doesn't use argan oil all that much, probably only 2-3 times a year, so she has no favorite and even isn't at all aware of the popular brands. The three assessments were conducted as follows: Color: Each sample was rated on a scale of 1 (no color) to 10 (strongly noticeable yellow color) while being examined in strong, balanced, white light (2 LED lamps, about 4' above the samples and separated by about 6' on a line above and parallel to the samples). Fragrance: Each sample was rated on a scale of 1 (no noticeable scent) to 10 (easily noticeable, distinctly nutty scent); my wife cleansed her olfactory sense after each sample by inhaling the scent of fresh-ground coffee (a technique used when evaluating the bouquet of wines, she tells me). Freshness: Each sample was rated as either fresh or rancid, without using a scale (so just a binary rating), by tasting a small amount off of a fingertip (using a different finger for each oil and cleansing the palate with lemon water between samples). The samples were not labeled, so my wife did not know which sample was which brand. I also didn't disclose to her the four brands being tested, so as to not set any expectations for her. Here are the results: Color: Premium Natural (photo 3) - 6 Kate Blanc (photo 4) - 10 Cliganic (photo 5) - 2 Acure (photo 6) - 1 (Side-by-side comparison in photo 7) Fragrance: Premium Natural - 6 Kate Blanc - 10 Cliganic - 1 Acure - 2 Freshness: Premium Natural - fresh Kate Blanc - fresh Cliganic - fresh Acure - fresh Summary: The winner was easily Kate Blanc, though Premium Natural was a non-unreasonable second place. My wife's comment on the Cliganic and Acure products was that they were probably overly-diluted with carrier oil, to the point that there was, at best, minimal argan oil in either product. Again, let me stress that these results reflect my wife's qualitative assessments (though I happen to agree with her on the color assessments), and should not be taken as scientific proof of product quality for any of the four products examined.