Is Jojoba Oil Good for Sensitive Skin?

Let’s get this out of the way: it’s pronounced ho-HO-buh, not joe-joe-buh—just want to make sure we’re all on the same page before getting into the details of this beautiful, natural oil! We use jojoba in many of our natural skincare products, and love its velvety texture, the way it softens your skin, and its beautiful golden glow. In fact, if you told me I could only apply one oil to my skin for the rest of my life (please don’t?), I might choose jojoba oil. 

What is Jojoba Oil?

Jojoba oil is technically a liquid wax—more on that later, but I’ll use both oil and wax in this article, although the latter is the correct classification. It is the oil contained in the seeds of the Simmondsia chinensis shrub, native to the Sonoran desert in California, Arizona, and Mexico. It takes four to five years for the “shrub” to be fully grown, at which point it’s 7-10 feet high and can live for decades. The female plants bear the pods that contain the seeds that contain the oil. Each seed, roughly the size of a large coffee bean, is made up of about 50% oil, which can be extracted using a hydraulic press, a solvent, or both. (Our jojoba oil is certified organic, cold-pressed, filtered but unrefined, and does not contain solvent residues.)

Jojoba oil is actually a liquid wax, and—are you ready for this?—its discovery may have helped save the sperm whale (Moby Dick!) from extinction. (This is a diversion, but stick with me because this is a crazy story!) Sperm whale oil, high in wax esters, was once a critical component in transmission fluid, and was prized for its shelf stability and heat resistance; it retained its lubricating properties even at very high temperatures, which made it useful in various mechanical settings. Fortunately for Moby and his friends, the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1972, making it illegal to kill sperm whales for their oil. But that left the automotive industry in a pickle, as other oils didn’t stand up to the pressure and heat inside a transmission. In fact, transmission failures increased eight-fold within a few years, thanks to the dwindling supply of sperm whale oil.

Enter “The Jojoba,” as it was referred to in a 1975 New York Times article, detailing how the unique chemical structure of jojoba oil among plants was almost identical to the composition of sperm whale oil. While production and harvesting costs ended up being too exorbitant to allow large scale operations at the time, jojoba oil did help bridge the gap between the use of sperm whale oil and the invention of synthetic lubricants in the early 1990s. Now, most transmissions use synthetic lubricant, and the bulk of jojoba oil produced worldwide is used in the personal care and medical industries. 

How is Jojoba Oil Extracted?

Historically, native people ground the seeds and/or roasted them to extract and use the oil. Today, jojoba seeds are placed in a large drum and pressed, usually using hydraulic pressure, to extract the oil, which is collected in a container. The crushed seeds are often pressed a second time to extract as much as possible from the batch. From there, the oil can be filtered to remove any small particles, and used in its unrefined state, which is how we use it in our products. Some suppliers go on to use solvents or heat to try to extract more oil from the seeds, but the yield is low after the second pressing, and there is a risk of solvent contamination, as well as the possibility that the structure of the oil will be changed. 

Benefits of Jojoba Oil for Sensitive Skin

Native populations of the Sonoran regions have long used jojoba oil for skin and hair, and for medicinal purposes like healing wounds or infections. Because of the high wax ester concentration in jojoba oil, it tends to stay in the outermost layers of the skin, where it can help repair the skin’s barrier function, which is often damaged when you have sensitive skin. Wax esters are also present in the natural sebum our skin creates, so jojoba oil may feel like slightly less of a foreign substance to sensitive skin and be less likely to clog pores and cause breakouts than other oils. Jojoba oil has also been shown to have significant anti-inflammatory activity, which makes it especially suitable for sensitive skin, where inflammation is often present. Jojoba oil is rich in vitamins A, D, and E, and is very resistant to oxidation, giving it a very long shelf life.

The main benefits of jojoba oil for sensitive skin are as follows:

In short, if you’re wondering whether jojoba oil is safe for sensitive skin, the answer is yes, jojoba oil definitely has a place in any skin care routine for sensitive skin.

How to Use Jojoba Oil for Sensitive Skin

Probably the easiest way to use jojoba oil is to purchase a high-quality, certified-organic, cold–pressed jojoba oil and apply it directly to wet skin. This is the simplest version of a jojoba oil skincare routine. As with any oil or wax, jojoba does not contain any water, and is not, therefore, hydrating. When you apply an oil to wet skin, however, you are creating an emulsion that provides both hydration and helps seal in that hydration. We explain this concept in detail in our blog post about the benefits of body oil.

If you’re not the DIY type, but you still want to enjoy natural skincare for sensitive skin that includes jojoba oil, check out the Osmia products below, all of which contain jojoba oil:

• Rosemary Scalp Oil: This formula has a large percentage of jojoba oil to help reduce hair breakage and support healthy hair growth. It also contains organic rosemary essential oil, which has also been shown to support healthy hair growth. 

• Osmia Body Oil: Our core body oils all contain a high percentage of organic jojoba oil, which works beautifully with organic borage seed oil to help restore optimal barrier function to your skin. 

• Restore Facial Serum: Jojoba oil plays a critical role in helping reduce inflammation in this healing oil serum. 

• Osmia Body Mousse: We love incorporating jojoba to achieve the perfect texture in this whipped body mousse. It’s unlike any other body butter you’ve tried. 

• Purely Simple Face Cream: A small dose of jojoba oil seals in the powerful hydration provided by organic aloe juice in our best-selling face cream.  

Hope this helps you understand why jojoba oil is one of our favorite oils (again, technically a wax) for sensitive skin! Email us at help@osmiaskincare.com with any questions!

With love, and a healthy sperm whale population, 

Resources:

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1975/05/15/issue.html

https://magazine.washington.edu/feature/the-innovation-file-solving-a-whale-of-a-problem/

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-11-27-me-839-story.html

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8197201/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10855461/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11541506/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5796020/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140196318317257