Is jojoba oil comedogenic? A liquid wax graded 0–2

Jojoba oil is not on the published comedogenic list this site uses. In the 1989 rabbit-ear tests behind such lists it was graded 0 to 2 on a 0–5 scale, with a footnote that results depended on the source of the raw material. The 3 that circulates belongs to sulfated jojoba oil, a modified material.

This page covers what jojoba oil is, the names it takes on a label, where each number comes from, why the fungal-acne rule still flags it, and what a grade from 1989 can and cannot tell you.

What jojoba oil is, and why chemists call it a wax

Jojoba oil is pressed from the seed of the desert shrub Simmondsia chinensis, and chemically it is a liquid wax. A 2021 review puts it at almost 98% waxes — esters joining a long fatty acid to a long alcohol, mostly C20 and C22 — with few of the triglycerides that make up ordinary seed oils.

That structure is why jojoba behaves differently from the plant oils around it on a label. Human sebum is itself about a quarter wax esters: a 2009 review gives 26% wax esters, 12% squalene and 57.5% triglycerides and fatty acids. Jojoba resembles one fraction of sebum, not the whole of it.

The table holds one inconsistency worth printing plainly. A rule reading the end of a parsed name flags Hydrogenated Jojoba Oil and passes Jojoba Esters, although both come from the same seed. That is a limit of matching by name, not a judgement about either material.

Where jojoba oil sits on comedogenic tables

Jojoba oil was graded 0 to 2 for comedogenicity and 0 for irritancy in James Fulton’s 1989 table, one of the sources comedogenic lists trace back to. The grade carries an asterisk, and the footnote says results depend on the source of the raw material.

Fulton also filed jojoba oil under waxes rather than oils: it sits in section IV of the table, beside candelilla, carnauba and beeswax, while the plant oils have a section of their own.

The paper explains how to read its own numbers. A grade of 0 to 1 is not considered significant, 2 to 3 is borderline, and only 4 to 5 counts as positive. Each material was tested at a 9-to-1 dilution in propylene glycol, and Fulton names the model’s main weakness himself: its extreme sensitivity.

No FDA, EU or other regulator certifies comedogenic lists, and published versions disagree on individual materials. How comedogenic ratings are produced sets out the rabbit-ear assay and why a number from it moves with concentration.

Where the 3 comes from

The 3 attached to jojoba on many lists belongs to sulfated jojoba oil, and that is the only jojoba entry in this site’s pore-clogging reference. Fulton’s discussion gives the reason: wax chains seemed too long to penetrate unless the wax was modified, as in sulfated jojoba oil.

Two jojoba numbers circulate and they describe two materials. The 0–2 belongs to the oil sold as jojoba; the 3 belongs to a chemically modified version of it.

The same passage adds that some commercial jojoba preparations were more comedogenic than others, which is what the footnote on the 0–2 records. The pore-clogging ingredients checker prints the full list beside the tool, so the sulfated entry and its rating can be read directly.

Why the fungal acne rule still flags jojoba

Jojoba oil is flagged by the Malassezia rule this site publishes, for two reasons that happen to agree. The plant-oil pattern matches any parsed name ending in Oil, and jojoba’s acids and alcohols are mostly C20 and C22 — inside the C11 to C24 range the rule treats as usable.

The flag is a rule match rather than a finding. No study cited on this page tested whether Malassezia can use a wax ester, and the fungal acne checker prints its rule in full so the reasoning can be checked. Squalane is the lipid that rule holds out by name.

What a 1989 grade cannot tell you

A comedogenic grade describes one material tested on its own, and a finished product is a different thing. Human testing of finished products found that products made with comedogenic ingredients are not necessarily comedogenic themselves, which limits what any single grade can say about a bottle.

What this page will not tell you

This page reports published grades and what the checkers on this site do with them. It does not say whether jojoba oil will suit your skin, and it gives no verdict on any named product. A dermatologist is the right person for persistent breakouts, and the other skincare ingredient guides cover the materials jojoba is usually blended with.