Jojoba oil is extracted by pressing the seeds of the jojoba plant, which contain roughly 50 to 54% oil by weight. That’s an exceptionally high oil content compared to most oilseeds, which makes jojoba a productive crop but doesn’t make extraction simple. The seeds are extremely hard, and the “oil” is technically a liquid wax ester rather than a true oil, giving it unique properties that require specific handling. Here’s what the full process looks like, from harvest to finished product, and what’s realistic to do at home.
Why Jojoba “Oil” Isn’t Really an Oil
What we call jojoba oil is actually a liquid wax. Most plant oils are triglycerides (three fatty acids attached to a glycerol backbone), but jojoba produces wax esters: long-chain fatty acids bonded to long-chain fatty alcohols, with carbon chains ranging from 38 to 44 carbons long. This structure is the reason jojoba feels different from other plant oils on the skin, why it resists going rancid, and why it became the primary plant-based replacement for sperm whale oil after the global ban on whaling. It also means jojoba behaves slightly differently during extraction and storage than a typical seed oil like sunflower or olive.
Harvesting and Preparing the Seeds
Jojoba is a desert shrub native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Seeds are most commonly collected by raking or vacuuming them off the ground after they drop naturally from the plant. For smaller harvests, you can beat the branches over a container or hand-strip the seeds while they’re still slightly green, at what’s called the “hard-dough” stage.
Seeds picked green need to dry in a shady, well-ventilated area before pressing. Fully mature seeds that have dropped naturally are already dry enough to process. Either way, the seeds should be cleaned of debris, dirt, and any damaged or moldy specimens before moving to extraction.
Cold Pressing: The Standard Method
Cold pressing is the most common way to produce jojoba oil, both commercially and on a smaller scale. The process has a few key steps.
First, the seeds are cracked into several pieces (typically 6 to 10 fragments per seed) and then flattened into thin flakes, around 0.025 inches thick. Flaking dramatically increases the surface area, which allows more oil to escape during pressing. The feed is gently preheated to around 80 to 90°F, warm enough to help the wax flow but cool enough to preserve its natural antioxidants and keep it classified as “cold pressed.”
The flakes are then loaded into a hydraulic press or screw press and subjected to sustained high pressure. In pilot-scale operations, this means something like 4,400 pounds of ram pressure held for about 50 minutes. Commercial screw presses (expeller presses) work continuously, feeding flaked seeds through a barrel where a rotating screw generates enormous pressure. The liquid wax streams out through small openings in the barrel while the solid seed cake is pushed out the end.
A single pressing doesn’t extract all the oil. The leftover seed cake still contains a meaningful amount of wax, which is why commercial producers sometimes run the cake through a second pressing or use solvent extraction to capture the remainder.
Refining the Raw Oil
What comes out of the press is crude jojoba oil: golden-yellow, with a mild nutty smell and fine seed particles suspended in it. For cosmetic or skincare use, this crude oil goes through several refining steps.
The first step is simple filtration to remove seed fragments and sediment. After that, the oil is typically passed over activated carbon or activated clay to remove color (a process called bleaching, though no chemical bleach is involved). Steam injection or vacuum distillation at low temperatures (below 140°F) removes volatile compounds responsible for odor. The result is a nearly colorless, odorless refined jojoba oil.
There’s an important tradeoff here. Crude jojoba oil contains natural antioxidants, specifically several forms of tocopherol (vitamin E), that give it exceptional resistance to rancidity. Refining and bleaching strip out many of these antioxidants. So while refined oil looks and smells cleaner, it’s actually less stable over time than the golden crude version. This is worth knowing if you’re choosing between crude and refined jojoba for a product with a long shelf life.
Can You Press Jojoba Oil at Home?
It’s technically possible, but not easy. Jojoba seeds are harder than most oilseeds, so a small tabletop oil press designed for softer seeds like sunflower or flax may struggle or produce very low yields. A manual hydraulic press with enough force can work. Some DIY approaches use a homemade cold press built from threaded rod, steel pipe, large washers, and nuts, though welding skills help.
The main challenges are the sheer pressure required to crack jojoba’s tough seed structure, the need to flake the seeds thin enough for efficient extraction, and the relatively small yield you’ll get without industrial equipment. Even with the seeds containing over 50% oil, a home press will leave a lot of that wax behind in the cake. If you have access to jojoba seeds and want to experiment, pre-cracking and flaking the seeds as thin as possible before pressing will improve your results significantly.
For most people, buying cold-pressed jojoba oil and using it as a base for custom blends is far more practical than pressing it from scratch.
Making Herb-Infused Jojoba Oil
If your goal is to “make” a jojoba oil product rather than extract raw oil from seeds, herb infusions are straightforward and effective. Jojoba’s stability makes it an excellent carrier oil for pulling beneficial compounds out of dried herbs. There are three common approaches.
Solar infusion is the gentlest method. Fill a glass jar with dried herbs (always dried, never fresh, since moisture promotes mold), cover them completely with jojoba oil, seal the jar, and set it in a sunny spot for 2 to 4 weeks. Shake it every few days. The sun’s warmth slowly extracts the herbal compounds into the oil. Strain through cheesecloth when the infusion period is done.
Hot infusion speeds things up. Place dried herbs and jojoba oil in a double boiler or a jar set in a pot of water, and heat gently for several hours. Keep the temperature low to avoid damaging heat-sensitive compounds in the herbs or the oil’s natural antioxidants. Let it cool, then strain.
Cold infusion works the same as solar infusion but in a cool, dark place. It takes longer (often 4 to 6 weeks) but avoids any heat exposure. This method preserves the most delicate herbal compounds.
Store your finished infused oil in a dark glass bottle away from light and heat. Jojoba’s natural resistance to oxidation gives infused products a longer shelf life than infusions made with most other carrier oils.
Storage and Shelf Life
Pure, unrefined jojoba oil has one of the longest shelf lives of any plant-based oil. Its wax ester structure doesn’t break down the way triglyceride oils do, and the natural tocopherols act as built-in antioxidants. Stored in a cool, dark place in a sealed container, unrefined jojoba oil can last for years without going rancid. Refined jojoba oil, with many of its antioxidants removed during processing, is less resilient and should be used within a year or two. If your jojoba oil develops an off smell or changes color significantly, it has started to degrade and should be replaced.