Jojoba oil is made by extracting the liquid wax from the seeds of the jojoba shrub, a desert plant native to the American Southwest and Mexico. The process moves through several stages: harvesting ripe seeds, drying and cleaning them, pressing or using solvents to pull the oil out, then refining the crude oil into the clear, odorless product sold for cosmetics and skincare. What makes jojoba unusual is that the “oil” is technically a liquid wax ester, which is why it resists going rancid far longer than true vegetable oils.
Where Jojoba Seeds Come From
The jojoba shrub (Simmondsia chinensis) grows wild across the Sonoran Desert, from southern California through Arizona and into Baja California and Sonora, Mexico. It thrives in harsh conditions: well-drained, coarse, sandy soils and temperatures that regularly hit 109 to 114°F. The plant can survive on less than 4 inches of annual rainfall, though it produces seeds most reliably where rainfall reaches 12 to 18 inches per year. Growth and flowering are tightly linked to winter and spring rains, and drought is the single biggest factor that prevents flower buds from forming.
Deep soil moisture early in the year, or from the previous fall, is critical for maximum seed development. Summer rains can help fill out maturing seeds and extend their ripening window. Most commercial jojoba today comes from cultivated plantations in arid regions around the world, including Israel, Argentina, Peru, and Australia, though the plant’s native range remains an important source.
Harvesting the Seeds
Jojoba seeds naturally fall to the ground once they mature, which opens two basic harvesting strategies: picking them by hand just before they drop, or collecting them from the ground after they fall.
Hand harvesting is slow. One worker picks about 5 pounds of raw nuts per hour, and those freshly picked seeds contain roughly 50% moisture. After drying and cleaning, that 5 pounds shrinks to about 1.7 pounds of usable seed. For large-scale operations, plantations with leveled, lightly compacted soil can use mechanical sweepers or suction harvesters similar to those used for almonds and walnuts. In sandy or powdery soil where machines struggle, growers sometimes spread plastic netting beneath the bushes to catch falling seeds.
Jojoba’s naturally low, bushy growth habit makes mechanical harvesting more difficult than it would be with a tree crop. Breeding and pruning programs have worked to develop more tree-like growth forms that are compatible with existing nut harvesting equipment.
Drying and Cleaning
Once harvested, the seeds need to be dried promptly to prevent mold and fermentation. Seeds are spread in thin layers, no more than about an inch deep, on racks or screens where air can circulate around them. They’re turned frequently to ensure even drying. Air movement over the seeds speeds the process. The goal is to bring moisture content down to a level that allows clean mechanical extraction, typically around 4%, without overheating the seeds. Keeping seeds cool during this stage is important because heat can degrade the wax esters before extraction even begins.
After drying, the seeds go through cleaning to remove debris, empty hulls, and any material that would contaminate the oil.
Extracting the Oil
There are two main ways to get the oil out of dried jojoba seeds: mechanical pressing and solvent extraction. Most commercial production uses one or both.
Mechanical Pressing
In mechanical pressing, dried seeds (preheated to around 80 to 90°F) are fed through a screw press that crushes them under high pressure. This squeezes out the liquid wax. At roughly 4% moisture content, a single pressing yields about 31% oil by total seed weight. That leaves a significant amount of oil still trapped in the leftover seed meal, between 17 and 20%. A second pressing can recover more, but mechanical methods alone don’t capture everything.
Cold-pressed jojoba oil, the type most valued in skincare, is produced at lower temperatures to preserve the oil’s natural color, nutrients, and composition. It comes out golden yellow with a mild, slightly nutty scent.
Solvent Extraction
To capture nearly all the oil, producers follow pressing with solvent extraction (called leaching). The pressed seed meal is washed with a solvent, most commonly hexane, which dissolves the remaining wax. The solvent is then evaporated off through distillation, leaving behind the oil. Combining pressing and solvent extraction recovers about 50% oil by seed weight, essentially all the wax the seed contains. Hexane, petroleum ether, and benzene all achieve similar yields, though hexane is the industry standard because of its efficiency and relatively straightforward removal.
Trace amounts of solvent can remain in the oil even after distillation, which slightly affects certain physical properties like pour point and flash point. A second distillation step removes nearly all residual solvent. Solvent-extracted oil is typically destined for industrial applications or further refining rather than direct use on skin.
Refining Crude Oil Into Cosmetic Grade
Crude jojoba oil straight from extraction has a strong golden color, some natural odor, and may contain pigments, phospholipids, and traces of free fatty acids. Refining transforms it into the clear, nearly odorless product used in cosmetics. The process involves several stages.
Bleaching
Bleaching removes colored pigments (carotenoids and chlorophylls), peroxides, and residual impurities. The crude oil is mixed with bleaching clays or activated carbon under vacuum at temperatures between 176 and 248°F for 20 to 40 minutes. This strips the deep golden color down to a pale yellow or nearly colorless liquid.
Winterization
Jojoba’s wax ester structure means it can develop a cloudy, hazy appearance at cooler temperatures as dissolved waxes crystallize. Winterization (also called dewaxing) addresses this. The bleached oil is first heated to about 131°F to make sure it’s fully liquid, then slowly cooled to around 50 to 59°F and held at that temperature for several hours. The heavier wax fractions crystallize out and are filtered away, leaving a clear liquid that stays transparent even in cold conditions.
Deodorization
The final refining step is deodorization, a vacuum steam distillation process. Steam is injected through the oil while it’s heated to between 356 and 464°F under very high vacuum (2 to 8 mmHg). This strips out volatile compounds, including the aldehydes, ketones, and short-chain fatty acids responsible for off-flavors and odors. It also removes remaining carotenoids and any trace contaminants. The result is a neutral-smelling, light-colored oil ready for cosmetic formulation.
Not all jojoba oil goes through every refining step. Unrefined jojoba oil skips bleaching and deodorization, retaining its golden color and mild natural scent. Many skincare users prefer it this way, believing the unprocessed version retains more of the plant’s original beneficial compounds.
Why Jojoba Oil Lasts So Long
Unlike true vegetable oils such as olive or sunflower, jojoba is a liquid wax ester. This molecular structure makes it extremely resistant to oxidation. Where most carrier oils gradually turn rancid as their fatty acids break down, jojoba oil remains stable for years when stored properly. Unrefined, non-decolorized jojoba oil is particularly long-lasting. Ideal storage is below 50°F, but even at room temperature it outlasts nearly every other oil used in skincare.
This stability is one reason jojoba is so widely used as a carrier oil for essential oil blends and cosmetic formulations. It won’t degrade the products it’s mixed into, and it doesn’t require the synthetic preservatives that shorter-lived oils often need.
Grades and Certifications
Jojoba oil is sold in several forms depending on how much processing it undergoes. Golden jojoba oil is unrefined or lightly filtered, retaining its natural color and scent. Clear jojoba oil has been fully refined, bleached, and deodorized. Both are used in cosmetics, though golden is more common in natural skincare lines.
There is no formal “purity grade” system specific to jojoba oil, but producers may carry certifications like USDA Certified Organic, ISO quality management certification, or FDA facility registration. Organic certification means the jojoba was grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers and processed without prohibited chemicals. For consumers, the most meaningful distinction is between cold-pressed unrefined oil (minimal processing, more bioactive compounds) and fully refined oil (neutral color and scent, longer cosmetic shelf life, fewer potential allergens).