Elbows! To a young person in the “not a girl, not yet a woman” phase of life, the idea that my elbows might need tending to had not even occurred to me. I examined the pointy bends of my arms and, to my horror, discovered that my elbows were, in fact, dry. At this time, for me, any physical flaw was a possible point of weakness upon which the vultures of mean girls would feed. And so the ritual began. Every single day, immediately after drying off from the shower, I slathered myself from collarbones to heels in the best moisturizer I could afford—never skimping on my elbows.
Over the intervening decades, I have tried a large number of creams, balms, butters, and oils. In my search for the perfect elbow emollient, I’ve endured feeling greasy, shiny, slippery, and sticky. I’ve dried out, broken out, and thrown out. The lotions my dermatologist recommended felt clinical. Pure cocoa butter smelled amazing but left me slick for hours.
And then my mother (now a grandmother herself) sent me a jar of Josie Maran Whipped Argan Oil Body Butter.
This supremely spreadable whipped body butter elevates a mundane daily hydration habit. But it will cost you.
It’s unlikely that skin has a soulmate, but if it did, this stuff would be mine. I have what can be described as combination skin. My arms and legs get dry. My belly and chest are sensitive. And well into my 30s, if I used lotion on my back, it would break out. For a while, I would use different products on the various segments of my body, trying to appease whatever epidermis deities ruled my Franken-skin type. Somehow, this whipped argan magic made every part happy.
The Josie Maran Whipped Argan Oil Body Butter comes in a refillable glass tub. Hannah Rimm/NYT Wirecutter
The cream is rich but not greasy. It doesn’t immediately disappear into my skin like more-watery lotions. It is smooth and protective, absorbing over a few minutes, ensuring an all-day hydrated state. This is key as I live in Los Angeles, a literal desert, where air humidity can dip as low as 6% to 10%, and on any given afternoon, the temperature can shoot up by 25 degrees. You have to be prepared for arid conditions and a sudden need for tank tops and shorts.
I am always ready. On those dry winter days when a single carpet shuffle means door knobs or handshakes come with an electric zap, I am never itchy, never ashy. And I am soft. Oh my word, my skin is so soft that on multiple occasions, someone has placed a hand on my arm and literally commented on my skin texture. Seriously.
The Josie Maran body butter is available in several scents, and though I’ve dabbled in the vanilla varieties (currently, there are three), I generally stick with the unscented version. Unlike other “unscented” creams, which lack added fragrance but still have some ingredients with an odor, this body butter genuinely smells like nothing. You might appreciate that, especially if you’re sensitive to smells like I am. The malodorous clash of an unharmonious shampoo, body wash, and body lotion bouquet gives me a headache. Though I prefer unscented, none of the Josie Maran formulations caused my noggin a whiff of distress.
Even my lotion-averse elementary-age son likes it. When he plays outside and gets chapped skin on his cheeks, nose, and chin, the whipped body butter is the only thing he will tolerate. He says that the other lotions I have tried on him—all labeled as “gentle,” “for babies,” or “sensitive skin”—sting. Yet the Josie Maran body butter heals his redness within a few days. (I guess we’re related.)
Now, I cannot promise that every person who uses Josie Maran’s Whipped Argan Oil Body Butter will have my experience. Bodies are diverse and particular, and the skin I’ve inherited plays a role in the mysterious alchemy that occurs when I slather on this specific body butter. I’ve tried other Josie Maran argan oil concoctions, like the Argan Infinity Intensive Creamy Oil and Argan Milk Intensive Hydrating Body Renewal Serum; they were both fine products, but my Goldilocks body deemed them respectively too greasy and too lightweight.
Though this isn’t an inexpensive body butter, I only need to apply it once a day, with occasional reapplication after handwashing. Despite this, I only go through a few 6-ounce jars a year, and the newly available refill pouches contain 13.5 ounces—over two jars worth of body butter.
It might seem strange to get wistful over a container of body butter. But each day, as I add that purposeful extra dab of lotion, I think of the origin of the action and smile. Simple yet sage advice that I plan to share in my later years.
My grandmother lived to be 105 years old. Her elbows always looked fantastic.
This article was edited by Hannah Rimm and Maxine Builder.
