Jojoba Oil

Wax esters against triglycerides

Almond, coconut, olive and argan are triglyceride oils: three fatty acids attached to a glycerol backbone. Jojoba is not built that way at all. Its molecules are long chain fatty acids bonded to long chain alcohols, which is the same architecture as the wax esters that make up a substantial share of human sebum. It is the closest common plant material to what skin already produces, and that is a structural fact rather than a marketing comparison.

• Different molecule, different behavior. It spreads and sits like something the skin recognizes rather than something added on top.
• It absorbs without feeling greasy. A lighter finish than a triglyceride oil of comparable weight.
• Non-fragrant by nature. Refined jojoba is close to odorless, which is why it can carry a strong scent without arguing with it.

Why it does not go rancid

Triglyceride oils go off because the double bonds in their unsaturated fatty acids react with oxygen, which is what makes an old bottle of nut oil smell like paint. Jojoba has very few of those reactive sites, so the same process barely gets started. A bottle stays usable for years where an equivalent almond or grapeseed oil would have turned within one, and that stability is the reason it appears so often in products that sit on a shelf for months before they are opened.

• Oxidation is the mechanism. Fewer double bonds means fewer places for oxygen to attack.
• It extends what it is mixed into. A butter carrying jojoba ages better than the same butter without it.
• Cold turns it solid. It clouds and thickens below about 50 degrees Fahrenheit and clears again at room temperature with no harm done.

Where it turns up on this shelf

The products here that carry it fall into a few groups doing different jobs. In each case the jojoba is a supporting material rather than the headline, which is exactly what it is good at.

• In the whipped butters. It thins a heavy fat enough to spread, without making it feel oily; the format itself is covered on the whipped body butter page.
• In the sugar scrubs. Here it is the suspending liquid that keeps the grains from packing solid in the jar.
• In a body oil. The format where it is close to the main event rather than a component.
• Often beside shea. The pairing is deliberate, since the pair sits at opposite ends of the weight scale from shea butter.

Getting the most out of a bottle

Two habits get considerably more from a bottle than any amount of it does on its own, and both follow from the same property. A wax ester seals rather than soaks, so it does its best work over water that is already on the skin, and it spreads much further than people expect it to.

• Apply to damp skin. Straight out of the shower is the highest value moment, because there is water at the surface for it to hold in place.
• A few drops covers an arm. It goes further than a triglyceride oil, and most people use far more than they need.
• Thin layer first, heavy layer second. Under a butter it disappears completely; over one it sits on top, so the heavier fat goes on last.
• It earns its place on cuticles and hair ends. The same stability and low odor that suit a formula suit those two jobs.
• One thing it will not do. It does not change how much oil skin produces; the resemblance to sebum is structural and stops there.