What to buy in Marrakech?

[Destinysdaughter]

I'm off to Marrakech soon, wondered if anyone had any tips for beauty products to buy or lovely clothes, bags etc? Any advice gratefully received! 😀❤️

Leather! Although good LORD the smell of the tanneries...

I went bananas on my first trip there and bought a shedload of babouches (leather slippers) in different styles and colours...realistically you can only wear one pair at a time

My friend bought a lovely leather holdall but never used it because of the smell. It didn’t bother me too much but once he’d clocked it, he couldn’t ignore it.

I also bought lovely pottery, blankets and silver jewellery.

The leather is good. It is a bit smelly but the smell does disappear after a while.

Argan oil! The pure unroasted stuff for hair and skin.

Check out the Ensemble Artisanal to see goods being made and buy direct from the craftworkers if you don't want to haggle and be hassled in the souq. I bought a great classic tan leather bag there, and they have all sorts of crafts: woodwork, leather, metalwork, jewellery etc and a cafe.
m.facebook.com/ensembleartisanalmarrakech

I loved getting lost in the souq as well though. You can always check prices at the Ensemble as a guide then haggle in the markets to try to pay less...

Thanks all! Will def get some pure Argan oil as a lot of the stuff over here seems to be full of silicones. May give the tanneries a miss...😀

We went in December and had to buy another suitcase to get all the things we bought back it’s worth going for a look around the tanneries, our guide gave us bunches of mint leaves to hold to our noses for the smell, but it wasn’t that bad. We bought lots of textiles, the woven cactus silks are beautiful, a few leather pouffes, babouche slippers, scarves and tons of Argan oil, perfumes, a beautiful rug, a few intricately inlaid wooden boxes, some cotton shirts/pjs and a robe... the list goes on. It’s worth having a look online before you go and finding the cooperative sellers (there are a few women’s cooperatives that we went to for this reason) so you can guarantee the people who made the products get a fair price. We didn’t bother haggling too much as the initial prices we were offered were still cheap compared to what you’d pay in the UK (I collect rugs so had a good idea of how much I was willing to pay) but a lot of people assumed DP was Moroccan so that may have been in our favour! Most of the sellers gave us gifts for toddler DD, some little babouche slippers, a wooden camel, they were very child friendly and lovely with her.