Jojoba oil for acne: what one mask study found

One study has tested jojoba oil on acne-prone skin in people, and the oil was inside a clay mask. 194 people sent in diaries, and the study had no comparison group, so it cannot show what the oil did. No controlled trial of jojoba oil alone on acne was found. This page is part of Skinli's guide to home remedies for acne.

Skinli gives general education and is not a doctor. For this page, Skinli read the published summaries (abstracts) of the studies and parts of two full reviews. No source read for this guide gives a way to use jojoba oil on acne, so this page gives none.

Jojoba oil is a liquid wax

Jojoba oil is a wax in liquid form. A 2013 review explains: "The jojoba plant produces esters of long-chain alcohols and fatty acids (waxes) as a seed lipid energy reserve." In plain words, the seed stores its energy as wax. A 2021 review puts the wax at 98 percent of the oil.

A 2017 review of plant oils adds that jojoba oil is stable and resists breaking down, and that it "is widely used in cosmetic formulas such as sunscreens and moisturizers."

The one study in people: a clay mask with jojoba oil

Researchers in Berlin published the study in 2012. Its summary reports the following.

Feature	What the summary says
Design	"Open, prospective, observational pilot study". People got written instructions and questionnaires "without direct contact with the study physician"
What people did	"For 6 weeks, they applied the masks 2-3 times per week."
Who took part	"194 participants (192 female, 2 male", with an average age of 32.3 years, returned questionnaires and diaries
Who was counted	"133 of these participants returned complete and precise lesion counts". A lesion is a spot or pimple
Result	"A 54% mean reduction in total lesion count was observed after 6 weeks of treatment with clay facial mask."
Authors' conclusion	"preliminary evidence that healing clay jojoba oil facial masks can be effective treatment for lesioned skin and mild acne vulgaris."

That result has four limits:

• No comparison group. Nobody used a mask without jojoba oil, or no mask. The study cannot separate the mask from time or from other products people used.
• Self-counted spots. People counted their own spots at home and mailed the numbers in. 61 of the 194 did not return usable counts.
• Clay was in the mask too. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) lists clay as a mask ingredient for oily or acne-prone skin: "Clay, like kaolin or bentonite, to help absorb oil and soothe irritation." The study cannot say which ingredient did what. Skinli's guide to face masks for blackheads covers clay masks.
• No funding line. The summary does not say who paid.

The AAD also sets a limit on masks in general: "dermatologists say facial masks can't replace treatment for diseases and conditions such as eczema or acne."

What two reviews claim, and the data they leave out

Two reviews say jojoba oil helps acne.

The 2021 review says: "Miwa gave the scientific evidence of its use as anti-acne in 1973, who clinically examined the wax on patients suffering from acne vulgaris." It gives no size, design or result for that work, and the searches run for this guide did not find the 1973 paper on PubMed. The same review explains how the wax is meant to work: "Its properties as a liquid wax allow the dissolution of sebum deposits within hair follicles". Sebum is the skin's own oil. No data come with that statement.

The review also describes a benzoyl peroxide gel made with jojoba oil, and says "the study resulted in a significant reduction in skin irritation and dryness caused by benzoyl peroxide." The drug in that gel was benzoyl peroxide, and the review gives no figures.

The 2017 review says: "The high content of wax esters makes jojoba oil a good repair option for dermatoses with altered skin barriers, such as seborrheic dermatitis, eczematous dermatitis, AD, and acne". Dermatoses are skin conditions, AD is atopic dermatitis, a type of eczema, and a skin barrier is the outer layer of the skin. The sentence cites one reference and gives no trial result.

On safety, the 2021 review says: "Patch tests on humans did not reveal allergic reactions except in hyperallergic people." It gives no numbers for those tests.

Jojoba oil for dry skin, and the advice for acne-prone skin

The AAD names jojoba oil on a page about dry skin. It says: "Look for a cream or ointment that contains one or more of the following ingredients:" and jojoba oil is the first of nine on the list. That page does not mention acne.

For skin with acne, the advice is different:

• NICE, which writes the acne guideline for England, tells people with acne to "avoid oil-based and comedogenic preparations". Comedogenic means able to clog pores.
• The AAD's page on oily skin says: "DO choose skin care products that are labeled "oil free" and "noncomedogenic.""
• MedlinePlus adds: "Remember that products that say they are noncomedogenic might still cause acne in you personally."

No source read for this guide gives jojoba oil a pore-clogging rating, so this page prints none. The guide on how to choose a moisturizer for acne-prone skin covers the labels to look for.

One more point for people who use acne medicine: the 2013 review says jojoba "enhances the absorption of topical drugs", which means drugs put on the skin. No source read here says what that does to an acne treatment used with it. The page on castor oil for acne reports the same open question for that oil.

What the AAD, the NHS and the FDA rule support, and when to see a doctor

For a pimple, the AAD says: "Choose a product that contains one of these acne-fighting active ingredients: adapalene, azelaic acid, benzoyl peroxide, or salicylic acid." The NHS says to "try acne treatments you put on your skin such as salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide". The FDA rule for acne drugs sold without a prescription lists benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, sulfur, and sulfur combined with resorcinol, and no plant oil or wax. The AAD's acne pages name a maker of prescription acne drugs as their supporter.

The AAD says of a new product: "Apply the product to a test spot twice daily for seven to 10 days." If the skin reacts, it says to "gently wash the product off as soon as possible, and don't use it again."

The NHS says to see a GP, which is a family doctor, if "you've tried treating it yourself but it's not getting better", or if "you have lots of spots, or the spots are deep, painful or causing scars". The AAD says to see a dermatologist when acne has not cleared with treatment you can buy without a prescription.