Why is there argan oil in Uniqlo Heattech shirts?

October 26, 2017 8:56 PM

Chemical paranoia time: Uniqlo's Heattech garment line weirdly claims to have "incorporated argan oil" in the fabric to "retain moisture." A season ago, IIRC, it was "camellia oil." Exactly what possibly- nefarious manufacturing process is this marketing-speak for? As a wearer, should I be worried about whatever it is that Uniqlo is actually adding to their clothes?

Since customers can presumably handle their own moisturizer needs (who moisturizes their torso, anyway?), and since argan oil is an expensive ingredient, the claim feels like it must be an attempt to "spin" some part of the product or manufacture that's there for other reasons. This has been bugging me for a while, so any insights would be much appreciated!

posted by Bardolph to Shopping (10 answers total)

Sheep wool is oily. The lanolin is useful to keep moisture and bacteria from penetrating, and obviously lanolin itself is used in cosmetic moisturizers. I don't know what Uniqlo is doing, but it's not crazy to want oily clothing. People have been wearing wool for quite some time, after all. As a knitter I have lanolized finished wool garments using various wool washes because dyeing and washing can strip the wool of its natural oils, and the main reason I wear wool is to enjoy the benefits of naturally wicking and water resistant materials.
posted by xyzzy at 9:15 PM on October 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I wonder whether the oil is there to try to reduce dryness and static from winter air. I'm not really sure why you're so suspicious of it. At worst, it's a gimmick.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 11:19 PM on October 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

It seems very unlikely that this is a manoeuvre to cover up some other ingredient or process; I can't think how that would work. Most likely it's just marketing; they think customers have heard of Argan oil in fancy hair/skin products, so will think it must be great in fabric too.
posted by Segundus at 12:50 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

According to the Uniqlo website (Japanese version):
http://www.uniqlo.com/jp/tryheattech2017/

There's a section that explains that they add argan oil to make the fabric feel smoother and prevent dry skin. Additional reasons include the oil's heat retention properties and popularity as a beauty supply product. It also says argan oil has been added to the whole "Heattech Inner" product line (but not to the products for babies).

(If you would like to see the exact section on the page, scroll down to the "What is Heattech?"section with the four big squares with a Q in the top left corner. Click on the bottom right one, the one with the 4 at bottom center.)

[Disclaimer: No affiliation with Uniqlo, I don't know what their "true" reasons are or whether there's a hidden nefarious motive, etc.]
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 1:45 AM on October 27, 2017

Wool fibres are softer if you moisturise them for the same reason human hair or skin is softer if you moisturise them - it’s an animal material.
posted by chiquitita at 2:31 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Others have spoken to the reason for why oil is added to fibers. So I am coming in to add that argan oil is a natural product; it's made from the fruit of the argan tree, and has been in use in Morocco for hundreds of years. It gets used in shampoos and conditioners a lot and is undergoing a bit of a vogue right now.

Also, camellia oil is made from the seeds of the green tea plant.

Not all additives are evil chemicals.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:26 AM on October 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

If anything, it's a gimmick, not nefarious. It's a pretty good gimmick, though, in my opinion: I can personally attest that the argan-added items are freaking amazing. They do feel less staticky than other long underwear I've tried, and they're lovely and soft. My partner pretty much wore the long-sleeve shirts exclusively last winter and claimed they helped with winter-dry skin -- we did go through less moisturiser, for what it's worth. (Partner does, in fact, moisturise torso. It's dry in wintertime!)

Aloe-infused socks for softer feet are a similar gimmick-thing and have been around for a while; I suspect Uniqlo took inspiration from garments like those.
posted by halation at 4:19 AM on October 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Incidentally, camellia oil is similar to argan in terms of skin benefits, but more popular in Japan; I would assume the switch from camellia to argan happened to make the pitch more appealing to the US market, where Uniqlo has been expanding, since argan is trendier than camellia there. Some products even blend them together for hair/skin tonics. Both are safe to the point of being edible, for what it's worth.
posted by halation at 4:29 AM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

I wash my favourite woollies in Eucalan, which has lanolin in it, which is not exactly a weird thing to add to wool. Argan oil is currently trendy, so... But it's no more or less weird than a wool wash with oils or other moisturising ingredients in it -- which are common. Read up on fabric care, relax? This is kind of like thinking fabric softener is a dangerous scam. Actually, wait, I wouldn't eat Downy, but. The bottle of argan oil I have was sold for eating.

People with really dry skin moisturise their torsos! Also not weird... :-P
posted by kmennie at 6:54 AM on October 27, 2017

I think you might also be over estimating the cost of Argan oil due to how expensive it is in skin care/hair care products. They are most likely using a lower grade oil and buying in bulk direct from manufacturers, paying a severely reduced cost in comparison to these other products.

Googling I found a website that will sell me Argan oil at ~$12/lb if I buy enough, and while I'm not familiar with the specific manufacturing process used, I can't imagine they are using a lot of oil per garment. I can't imagine this is adding more than 10 cents to the cost of materials per garment.
posted by mayonnaises at 7:53 AM on October 27, 2017