Carrier Oils Compared: Stability, Skin Barrier and Allergens
If a recipe says "any carrier oil," the carrier is being treated as filler, and in a skin blend it is 98% or more of what goes on your skin. Two differences matter far more than the marketing names: how fast an oil goes rancid, which tracks how polyunsaturated it is, and whether it is a triglyceride oil at all, because jojoba is not. A third commonly repeated difference, the comedogenic rating, rests on weak evidence. We sell no carrier oils, so this comparison is about choosing well from any supplier.
Amyris Essential Oil
Our own Amyris Essential Oil, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.
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Shop Now →Why a carrier matters more than the essential oil in it
At the 0.5% to 2% dilution on our shop page, an essential oil is a small share of the finished blend and the rest is the carrier. Tisserand's published ranges run from 0.2% to 1% for reaction-prone skin, 0.5% to 1.2% for the face and 1% to 3% for body oils (Tisserand Institute, dilution article), so at most 99.8% of a blend is carrier. Any problem you attribute to "the oil" can come from the carrier: oxidised oil that has gone off, a nut allergy, or an oil that behaves badly on the skin barrier. The broader skin-care framework is in our essential oils in skincare guide.
The numbers that separate carriers
A 2026 study by Fagoaga and colleagues measured the oxidative stability of rosehip, sunflower, olive and jojoba oils by the Rancimat method, which ages the oil with heated air (here 373 K, about 100 C) and records how many hours pass before oxidation products appear. The results ranked jojoba first, then olive, sunflower and rosehip, and the authors report that the ranking correlated with polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) levels. The composition figures in the table are the manufacturer-provided values the paper lists, so a different bottle will differ (Fagoaga et al., Antioxidants, 2026).
| Oil | Saturated % | Monounsaturated % | Polyunsaturated % | Induction period (hours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jojoba | 2.0 | 97.0 | 1.0 | 39.80 |
| Olive | 14.0 | 69.0 | 9.2 | 27.50 |
| Sunflower | 13.0 | 27.0 | 60.0 | 10.39 |
| Rosehip | 7.2 | 20.4 | 72.0 | 4.45 |
What this does and does not say: the hours are an accelerated heat test, not months on a shelf, and we will not convert them into a shelf life, because we found no source that does. The ranking is the useful part. Rosehip, at 72% PUFA, reached its end point in about a ninth of the time jojoba took. Reasoning from that ranking, a high-PUFA oil is the one to buy in a small bottle, keep cool and dark, and finish quickly, and a high-PUFA oil is a poor base for a blend you plan to keep for a year.
Jojoba is also not like the others in composition. A 2022 study in BPB Reports describes it as mainly liquid wax monoesters, and found it the most resistant to autoxidation of the three oils it compared (jojoba, olive oil and squalene) (BPB Reports, 2022). The same study found that stability varied among crude jojoba oils from different companies, countries and years, so "jojoba" does not guarantee a number.
Other oils, with the composition figures we could source
A 2017 review of topical plant oils by Lin, Zhong and Santiago gives fatty acid ranges for some oils people ask about (Lin et al., Int J Mol Sci, 2017):
- Coconut: lauric acid 49%, myristic 18%, linoleic 2%, oleic 6%. That is mostly saturated fat, and the review gives no oxidation test for it. Our sources are for virgin coconut oil, so we cannot say how the "fractionated" kind compares.
- Avocado: linoleic 6.1% to 22.9% and oleic 31.8% to 69.6%, a wide range that again means bottle-to-bottle variation.
- Safflower: roughly 70% linoleic and 10% oleic, so on the Fagoaga logic a short-lived oil.
- Argan: about 80% monounsaturated and 20% saturated fatty acids.
- Sweet almond and grapeseed: we could not open a source with composition figures for these two, so we give none. Almond oil, the review notes, stays mostly on the skin surface without deep penetration into the upper stratum corneum (citing Patzelt et al., 2012).
What the skin-barrier literature says, and where it cuts against popular advice
The same review reports on studies of oils applied to skin. It describes a 2013 study by Danby and colleagues in which olive oil, which is mainly oleic acid, had a detrimental effect on skin barrier function in adult volunteers with and without atopic dermatitis, while sunflower seed oil preserved stratum corneum integrity and improved hydration. It also notes a small 2016 neonatal pilot (Cooke et al.) in which olive and sunflower oil showed no differences in water loss, hydration or pH. Olive oil is among the most common DIY defaults, so this is a real disagreement with common advice, between studies of different ages and populations, and not a settled verdict. Our position, reasoning from it: where you have a choice, olive oil is not the first carrier to pick for repeated leave-on use on the face, and anyone with eczema should ask a dermatologist before using any plant oil.
The review rates jojoba as helping barrier function, attributing this to its wax esters, but gives no study design for that claim, and says only "possible effect" for almond oil. We do not claim any carrier improves a skin condition.
Comedogenicity: why we do not publish a rating column
Many carrier charts include a 0 to 5 comedogenic number. The method behind the best-known lists is the rabbit ear assay, and a 1982 review in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology by Frank said it had "many problems in performance" and "the absence of correlation with experience in the human" (Frank, 1982). In 2006 Draelos and DiNardo tested finished products on the upper backs of six people for four weeks and concluded that "finished products using comedogenic ingredients are not necessarily comedogenic," while noting that only a finite number of products could be analysed (Draelos & DiNardo, 2006). Six people is a small study, but together these say a single-ingredient number does not reliably predict what a finished product does on a face. If you are prone to breakouts, see a dermatologist, and introduce any new oil on a small area first.
Nut and seed allergy: what the label will and will not tell you
The FDA's nine major food allergens include tree nuts, peanuts and, since the FASTER Act took effect on January 1, 2023, sesame. The FDA also says cosmetics are not covered by its major food allergen labelling requirements (FDA, Food Allergies). So a bottle of sweet almond or sesame oil sold for skin is not bound to carry the declaration you would see on food. If anyone who will touch the finished oil has a tree-nut, peanut or sesame allergy, use a different base and ask an allergist about any plant oil you are unsure of. A tree-nut allergy is a reason to pick jojoba or another non-nut base, but only an allergist can say what is safe for a particular person.
How to choose, by what you are making
- A blend you will keep for months (beard oil, roller bottles): favour the low-PUFA end of the stability ranking. Jojoba tops the measured list. See the beard oil formula.
- A body oil made in a small batch: a higher-linoleic oil such as sunflower is workable if you make 50 to 100 mL at a time and use it up; see the body oil recipes.
- Massage or large-area use: see the massage oil post for dilution by area.
- Reaction-prone skin: choose the lowest band of Tisserand's table (0.2% to 1%) or leave the essential oil out and use the carrier alone.
Whatever you buy, write the purchase date on the bottle, store it cool and away from light, and discard any oil that smells sharp, like old crayons or paint, rather than faintly nutty or neutral. That smell test is our practical reasoning from the oxidation research above, not a published standard.
Our oil is pure undiluted amyris, and the dilution arithmetic for it is on the dilution chart and in our amyris skin-use guide. The carriers are for you to source, with the stability, allergy and barrier caveats above in mind.
Amyris Essential Oil
Amyris Essential Oil from our own shop, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.
From $20.99
Shop Now →Sources & Further Reading
- Fagoaga C et al., 2026. Oxidative stability and kinetics of oxidation of rosehip, sunflower, olive and jojoba oils. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- BPB Reports, 2022. Study of jojoba oil autoxidation and oxidative stability of crude jojoba oils. jstage.jst.go.jp
- Lin TK, Zhong L, Santiago JL, 2017. Anti-inflammatory and skin barrier repair effects of topical application of some plant oils. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Frank SB, 1982. Is the rabbit ear model, in its present state, prophetic of acnegenicity? em-consulte.com
- Draelos ZD, DiNardo JC, 2006. A re-evaluation of the comedogenicity concept. em-consulte.com
- FDA, undated page, read October 2026. Food allergies. fda.gov
- Tisserand Institute, undated page, read October 2026. Dilution. tisserandinstitute.org