Jojoba oil, pronounced (ho-ho-ba), is a commonly used ingredient in skin care products with many skin and hair benefits.

It can be used on the face, body, and hair as a part of your daily skin care routine, and has been used for centuries. Find out why its increasingly common to see jojoba oil in skin care!

Jojoba oil, (Simmondsia chinensis), is an oil pressed from the seeds of the jojoba bush.

Unrefined jojoba oil is thick, waxy, and gold colored with a taste resembling peanuts.

Due to a high chemical resistance to temperature change and high presence of antioxidants, jojoba oil is an extremely stable oil with a long shelf life.

When jojoba oil is bleached or otherwise processed, it turns white and loses most of its antioxidant properties, but is more spreadable on skin. (1)

Jojoba is good for skin: almost all skin types can safely use jojoba oil products in their custom skin care regimen.

Jojoba oil is used in many types of skin care products for its variety of benefits.

Some of the most notable benefits of jojoba oil in skin care are:

• Analgesic
• Anti-bacterial
• Anti-inflammatory
• Anti-microbial
• Antioxidant
• Anti-viral
• Humectant
• Non-comedogenic
• Occlusive
• Shelf stable
• Wound/Scar healing

To see if the benefits of jojoba oil would compliment your custom skin care regimen, be sure to shop by your Baumann Skin Type!

Jojoba oil is found in many kinds of skin care products such as moisturizers, sunscreens, cleansers, massage oils, and anti-aging retinoid creams.

It is used in moisturizers for many of its beneficial properties, providing hydrating fatty acids to the skin, soothing inflammation, and eliminating bacteria on the skin.

Sunscreens use jojoba oil for increased UV protection due to free-radical eliminating antioxidants, and to keep the skin moisturized in the sun.

Cleansers use jojoba oil for its anti-microbial properties, helping cleansers rid your face of bacteria.

Jojoba oil also has antioxidants, which are commonly found in anti-aging creams to help with damage to the skin barrier like sun damage.

Here are some of my favorite products containing jojoba oil:

With a high concentration of wax esters and a low but extant amount of reparative fatty acids, jojoba has long been considered great for use in hair care products.

It's a glossy, waxy emollient that makes hair shine.

It will not bleach your hair if exposed to direct sunlight like lemon oil can.

Jojoba is considered a very good oil for use in hair care; it hydrates hair better than many other oils like mineral oils.

Overuse of occlusive oils like jojoba oil can lead to too much moisture on the skin, which can result in a change to the microbiome.

An allergy to jojoba oil is possible, but extremely unlikely.

There are very few reasons, if any, to avoid this ingredient in skin care.

Jojoba oil is considered extremely safe for use in skin care.

The EWG rating for jojoba oil is "1," the second best possible score after "verified."

Jojoba oil is not considered a common allergen.

It is safe for use during pregnancy, and for infant skin care. (1)

Jojoba oil is not comedogenic.

To find our if jojoba oil is right for your custom skin care regimen, take our quiz and shop by your Baumann Skin Type!

Jojoba oil has been observed to treat dry skin in many studies.⁽³⁾  It greatly impedes transepidermal water loss; keeping moisture on the skin instead of evaporating into the air. If your skin gets dry in the winter, jojoba oil is a great treatment in cold climates because it does not freeze quickly or firmly.

In addition to being an occlusive, jojoba oil is also a powerful humectant which draws moisture to the surface of the skin, smoothing skin texture and plumping fine lines.

For those reasons, jojoba oil is one of the best oils to use on dry skin.

Multiple studies over the years have shown that jojoba oil effectively treats eczema.

Eczema is a dry skin condition also known by the name atopic dermatitis.

It does so by repairing damaged skin barriers, soothing inflammation, and hydrating skin. ^(3,10,)

Jojoba oil is effective in the treatment of psoriasis. It helps control itching and decrease skin flaking.

Some studies have shown that jojoba oil has appreciable benefits for the treatment of wounds or lesions as well as damaged skin barriers (11) when combined with cholesterol and ceramides.

Similarly, jojoba oil can treat psoriatic skin, helping to alleviate redness, irritation, and dryness commonly associated with psoriasis.

Jojoba oil contains many universally beneficial qualities for skin care, and is used to treat a variety of the most common skin conditions.

There are jojoba oil products designed for the treatment of wrinkles, some kinds of hyperpigmentation, and acne.

As an anti-microbial ingredient, jojoba oil can help eliminate acne causing bacteria on the skin. (3)

Unlike some oils, jojoba oil is non-comedogenic; this means it does not itself clog pores on skin.

The anti-inflammatory properties of jojoba oil also decrease redness and irritation on clogged pores.These are some of my favorite products for oily skin that contain jojoba oil:

As both an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory ingredient, jojoba oil is used in a number of anti-aging skin care products.

Using jojoba oil alongside other anti-aging ingredients can eventually result in fewer wrinkles on the skin.

Because of those properties, jojoba oil is commonly used alongside retinoids in anti-aging products.

It can take months for anti-aging regimens to make significant differences in your wrinkles.

Jojoba oil is often found as an ingredient in skin lightening products, however it does not actually lighten skin on its own.

It is not itself a tyrosinase inhibitor nor a PAR-2 blocker.

Multiple products designed for rosacea, melasma, and PIH contain jojoba oil.

Jojoba oil does have a tiny concentration of unsaturated fatty acids, which are tyrosinase inhibitors, but far weaker than is required to actively inhibit melanin production.

For skin lightening, jojoba oil is best used alongside tyrosinase inhibitors like hexylresorcinol, or PAR-2 blockers like niacinamide.

Some great exfoliators with jojoba oil I recommend for treating dark spots are:

Jojoba oil has been used for improving hair growth across the world for centuries, and many people believe it is among the best oils for this purpose.⁽⁵⁾

One study showed that jojoba oil and some other herbal oils were effective in treating alopecia, or hair loss. ⁽⁹⁾

Despite these claims, jojoba oil is not super common in hair care products, as some other oils like coconut oil are more effective in hair care.

Jojoba oil is most often harvested and processed organically for use in skin care. (7)

Processing oils under repeated pressurization, chemical treatments, or heating can destroy the fatty acid composition of those oils.

As jojoba oils have extremely beneficial and unique fatty acid compositions, it is often found in its unrefined "golden" form.

White jojoba oil is not organic.

Organic jojoba oil is a gold color.

Golden jojoba oil is another name for unrefined jojoba oil; when extracted it holds a golden, almost honey-like color.

Golden jojoba oil is not a different product than regular jojoba oil.

When refined through multiple pressing, heating, and chemical processes, jojoba oil turns white.

It is a pressed plant extract, like essential oils are.

Jojoba oil is often called an oil because it is a transparent liquid, but really it more correctly classified as a wax because it is primarily composed of wax ester that resembles sebum produced by human skin. (3)

Wax esters are not triglycerides (fatty compounds found almost universally in oils).

Wax esters are dense saturated fatty acids combined with fatty alcohols that give jojoba oil a distinct smooth texture which is very desirable in skin care products.

Jojoba oil is the only plant species in skin care recognized to produce a liquid wax.

Jojoba oils function somewhat like saturated fats in their occlusive nature and texture, but technically wax esters are a unique category of fatty compounds.⁽⁶⁾

Jojoba oil is 98% composed of a natural wax compound called wax esters, which are fatty acids combined with fatty alcohols.

Though mostly composed of these wax esters, there are also some active fatty acids in jojoba oil: ⁽¹²⁾

• Eicosenoic acid (73.4%)
• Erusic acid (14.7%)
• Oleic acid (8.3%)

Oleic acid creates tiny perforations in the skin barrier that helps certain ingredients absorb faster into the skin, but it only comprises 8% of jojoba oil's fatty acid content so this is not a concern.

The concentration of erusic acid in jojoba oil helps it heal wounds. (1)

Jojoba oil very well might be right for your skin; it has tons of beneficial properties and very few drawbacks, if any.

That being said, not every product is right for everyone's skin, so take be sure to shop by your Baumann Skin Type to make sure you only use what's best for your custom skin care regimen.

1. Gad, H. A., Roberts, A., Hamzi, S. H., Gad, H. A., Touiss, I., Altyar, A. E., ... & Ashour, M. L. (2021). Jojoba Oil: An updated comprehensive review on chemistry, pharmaceutical uses, and toxicity. Polymers, 13(11), 1711.
2. Kramer, J.K.G.; Sauer, F.D.; Pigden, W.J. High and Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed Oils: Production, Usage, Chemistry, and Toxicological Evaluation; Academic Press: New York, NY, USA, 1983; 582p.
3. Blaak, J., & Staib, P. (2022). An updated review on efficacy and benefits of sweet almond, evening primrose and jojoba oils in skin care applications. International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 44(1), 1-9.
4. Aburjai T, Natsheh FM. Plants used in cosmetics. Phytother Res. 2003;17(9):987-1000.
5. Wisniak, J. The Chemistry and Technology of Jojoba Oil; American Oil Chemists’ Society: Champaign, IL, USA, 1987; 272p.
6. Patel, S., Nelson, D. R., & Gibbs, A. G. (2001). Chemical and physical analyses of wax ester properties. Journal of Insect Science,
7. Sandha, G. K., & Swami, V. K. (2009). Jojoba oil as an organic, shelf stable standard oil-phase base for cosmetic industry. Rasayan J Chem, 2(2), 300-306.
8. D.C Necks and M.P Doyle, Organic Chemistry, John Wiley and Sons, inc. New York, (1977)
9. Bharti, M., Shrivastav, A., Abid, M., & Khan, N. A. (2020). A Review on Hair Growth Regulator. Journal of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics, 10(5), 368-375.
10. Al-Obaidi J.R., Halabi M.F., AlKhalifah N.S., Asanar S., Al-Soqeer A.A., Attia M.F. A review on plant importance, biotechnological aspects, and cultivation challenges of jojoba plant. Biol. Res. 2017;50:25. doi: 10.1186/s40659-017-0131-x..
11. Pazyar N, Yaghoobi R. The potential anti-psoriatic effects of Jojoba extract. J Dermatolog Res. 2016;1:14–5.
12. Matsumoto Y, Ma S, Tominaga T, Yokoyama K, Kitatani K, Horikawa K, Suzuki K. Acute Effects of Transdermal Administration of Jojoba Oil on Lipid Metabolism in Mice. Medicina (Kaunas). 2019 Sep 15;55(9):594. doi: 10.3390/medicina55090594. PMID: 31540183; PMCID: PMC6780807.