Fractionated coconut oil or jojoba: which carrier oil should you use?

Fractionated coconut oil runs 27 to 33 mPa s and stays clear to -5 C; jojoba is thicker and sets at 9 C. Spread, stability and cold for roll-ons and lip oils.

Use fractionated coconut oil for a perfume roll-on, and jojoba for a lip oil or a solid perfume. Fractionated coconut oil, sold under the ingredient name caprylic/capric triglyceride, is the thinner of the two at 27 to 33 mPa s at 20 C on BASF's specification for its Myritol 318. It stays clear down to a cloud point of -5 C or below. Jojoba was measured at 37.7 mPa s in one study and 50 cP at 25 C in another, and its freezing point is 9 C, so a bottle left in a winter coat can cloud or set. On stability both are far ahead of ordinary plant oils, for different reasons. Fractionated coconut oil has almost no double bonds to oxidise, with an iodine value of 0.5 at most. Jojoba has an iodine value of 81 but has passed every oxidation test it has been put through. And none of this applies to the "liquid coconut oil" sold for cooking, which is a different product.

• Viscosity: FCO 27-33 mPa s at 20 C
• Jojoba: 37.7 mPa s; 50 cP at 25 C
• Cloud point FCO: max -5 C
• Jojoba freezing point: 9 C
• Iodine value: FCO max 0.5, jojoba 81
• FCO spreading: about 550 mm2/10 min

The two carriers, measured side by side

The pages that rank for this comparison are a product database, two machine generated comparison pages from the same site, an ingredient decoder, a retailer's product listing and a handful of short blogs, and they describe feel and skin type rather than measurements. The table below collects the measurements from a supplier's technical information, two Cosmetic Ingredient Review safety assessments, an oxidation study on twenty jojoba oils and two sets of Metrohm Rancimat results. Each row names its source, and figures from different laboratories are not strictly comparable.

Three rows decide most choices: viscosity, cold behaviour and the stability rows. The rest of this page works through each one, and then sets out which carrier suits which product. Each material on its own is covered on the coconut oil and jojoba oil ingredient pages.

Three things called coconut oil

The search for this comparison exists because three different products are sold as some kind of coconut oil, and only one of them is the carrier that roll-on recipes mean.

Coconut oil itself (INCI Cocos nucifera oil, virgin or refined) is a fat that is solid in a cool room and about half lauric acid. It contributes hardness to a balm and none of the properties in the table above. The detail is on the coconut oil page.

Fractionated coconut oil is caprylic/capric triglyceride, and the word "fractionated" undersells how far it is from the oil it came from. The CIR's final amended report on triglycerides describes the process: caprylic/capric triglyceride "is manufactured by hydrolyzing coconut oil, removing the free glycerin, and separating the medium chain length fatty acids by fractional distillation. The acids are then blended in the proper ratio and re-esterified with glycerine." So the fats are split, a narrow cut of the acids is distilled out, and new triglycerides are built from them. It is a made molecule, not the liquid part of coconut oil poured off. BASF gives the result for its own grade as C8 to C10 in a ratio of about 70 to 30, and names the raw material as "coconut / palm kernel oil, glycerine". A bottle labelled fractionated coconut oil may therefore contain no coconut at all, which matters if you sell a product as palm free, as set out in palm free balm.

"Liquid coconut oil" sold for cooking is a third product. Nutiva's version, for example, says that "we remove the fats that solidify at room temperature", lists its ingredient as "Organic Coconut Oil", and gives no fatty acid breakdown. It does not say caprylic/capric triglyceride anywhere, so nothing in BASF's figures can be assumed to apply to it, and this page has no measurement of its viscosity, cloud point or stability. If a recipe calls for fractionated coconut oil, check the label for the INCI name. Where kitchen oils do and do not work in skin products is covered in kitchen oils in balms.

Which is thinner, and which spreads further

Viscosity. BASF specifies Myritol 318 at 27 to 33 mPa s at 20 C, measured with a Hoeppler falling ball viscometer. For jojoba the CIR quotes two figures: 37.7 mPa s from a rheological analysis by Esquisabel and colleagues, with no temperature stated in the report, and 50 cP at 25 C in Habashy's table of physical properties. (One mPa s and one centipoise are the same unit.) Oils thin as they warm, so jojoba's 50 cP at the higher temperature of 25 C, against fractionated coconut oil's 33 mPa s at most at 20 C, is the wider of the two gaps it could be. On either jojoba figure, fractionated coconut oil is the thinner liquid. These are different laboratories and methods, so the ratio is not precise, but the direction is.

In a roll-on, thinner means the ball turns freely and lays down a lighter line. In a lip oil, thicker means the film stays where you put it a little longer before it runs into the corners of the mouth. That is the case for the split verdict at the top of this page.

Spreading. BASF calls Myritol 318 a "traditional, medium spreading emollient" with a spreading value of about 550 mm2 per 10 minutes. That puts fractionated coconut oil in the medium band of the site's scale, 500 to 999, alongside most liquid seed oils, rather than with the fast esters above 1000. The bands are explained in balm texture science. If you want a carrier that spreads and vanishes fast, fractionated coconut oil is not the fastest option; the light esters in cosmetic esters, such as coco-caprylate, sit well above it. None of the sources on this page gives a spreading value for jojoba, so this page does not rank the two on spreading.

Cold: why roll-ons favour fractionated coconut oil

This is the row with the clearest practical consequence. BASF gives Myritol 318 a cloud point of -5.0 C at most, meaning the liquid stays clear down to at least that temperature. The CIR's table for jojoba, from Habashy, gives a freezing point of 9 C.

Nine degrees is not cold. A car overnight in autumn, a coat pocket in winter, a parcel in an unheated sorting depot or a fridge door will all go below it. Jojoba in a roll-on bottle can then cloud or set, and the ball will not carry a thickened or partly solid oil the way it carries a clear one. It recovers when warmed, but the person who bought it finds a cloudy bottle first. Fractionated coconut oil, on its specification, has fourteen degrees more margin than jojoba's freezing point. The squalane comparison makes the same point against jojoba, and suggests a fridge door test you can run on any carrier, in squalane against jojoba oil.

In a solid perfume the same row hardly matters. The product is held solid by 20 to 30 percent wax anyway, and jojoba setting a little firmer in the cold changes the stick, not whether it works. The site's solid perfume formula uses jojoba as its carrier for that reason.

Which lasts longer: specification against measurement

Both carriers are stable, which is why both are recommended for perfume work. But the evidence for each is a different kind of evidence, and the competing pages blur the two.

Fractionated coconut oil: almost nothing to oxidise

Rancidity starts at double bonds in fatty chains, and especially at the carbon between two double bonds in linoleic acid; the chemistry is set out in rancidity and oxidation. Caprylic and capric acids are saturated. BASF's specification puts the iodine value, the standard measure of how much unsaturation an oil carries, at 0.5 g per 100 g at most. The CIR quotes an older "iodine number 5" for the ingredient and says it "indicates very little unsaturated material present". The only known impurities, in the CIR's words, are "approximately 300 ppm free fatty acids and as much as 0.2% glycerin".

That is a strong case from chemistry, but it is a specification, not an ageing test. None of the sources found for this page reports a Rancimat induction time, a peroxide value after storage, or any other oxidation measurement for caprylic/capric triglyceride. BASF's own number is a shelf life of 18 months in sealed original containers stored between 0 and 30 C, with no antioxidant, preservative or solvent added. That is shorter than the two to three years often quoted for fractionated coconut oil. An 18 month supplier date is a guarantee, not a measured point of failure, so it does not prove the material spoils at 19 months. It is the documented figure, though, and the one to plan a best-before date around unless your own supplier gives a longer one in writing.

Jojoba: unsaturated, and still the most stable oil in most tests

Jojoba is not saturated. Its iodine value is 81 in Habashy's table, and its chains are mainly C20 and C22 monounsaturates. What it lacks is polyunsaturation and a glycerol backbone, and the CIR says it "is not easily oxidized and remains chemically unchanged for years".

Unlike fractionated coconut oil, jojoba has been tested. In Metrohm's table of more than fifty cosmetic raw materials, published through AZoM in 2020, three unrefined jojoba oils resisted forced oxidation at 120 C for 23.73, 24.33 and 25.01 hours and a refined jojoba for 16.26. In the same table at the same temperature, sweet almond oils ran 1.47 to 3.10 hours and argan 5.56 to 7.14. Tsuchimoto and colleagues, writing in BPB Reports in 2022, held twenty jojoba oils at 60 C and measured the days until each had gained 0.5 percent in weight. Crude jojoba lasted 51.3 to 220.0 days. That is longer than the 23 other oils measured by the same method, "including almond, argan, corn, cotton seed, and sunflower seed oils", which ran 1.0 to 29.0 days. Refined jojoba lasted longest of all, at 228.7 days. Two of the three authors direct Simmond Co., a jojoba supplier, and the paper declares it.

The two tests disagree about refining. At 120 C in Metrohm's table, refined jojoba was the least stable jojoba. At 60 C in Tsuchimoto's study, refined jojoba was the most stable. Neither source explains the other, and each tested one refined sample. What they agree on is that jojoba, refined or not, outlasts the common triglyceride oils.

Storage showed up in the jojoba data. The crude jojoba with the shortest induction period, 51.3 days, was the one bought in 2017 "and stored in a translucent plastic bottle for four years", while the others were bought in 2021 "or stored in amber glass bottles or stainless-steel tanks". The paper reports that contrast without testing the bottle as a variable, but it is a reason to keep stock of either carrier in amber glass, full and cool.

The 76 hour coconut figure, and why it does not belong here

One number gets quoted for coconut oil's stability: 76.05 hours, from Metrohm's application note AN-R-029 on cosmetic and pharmaceutical raw materials. The note lists "Coconut oil, org." at 76.05 hours, a mean of four determinations with a standard deviation of 0.79. It does not give the test temperature for that row; it says only that the method runs "at a constant temperature between 100–180 °C".

Metrohm's larger table on AZoM fills the gap, and it complicates the figure. It lists "Coconut oil, org." twice: 76.05 hours at 160 C, and 1.70 hours at 120 C. A hotter test normally gives a shorter time. That is what the same table shows wherever it tests one material twice: jojoba at 23.73 hours at 120 C and 4.18 at 140 C, refined mango butter at 11.15 hours at 120 C and 5.14 at 130 C. The table does not explain why its two coconut rows run the other way, and this page does not guess.

Whatever the reason, neither row helps with this comparison. Both are whole coconut oil, the lauric fat, not caprylic/capric triglyceride. The 76.05 hours was run at 160 C, forty degrees hotter than every jojoba row it might be set against, so it says nothing about fractionated coconut oil against jojoba. Quoting 76 hours as proof that fractionated coconut oil outlasts jojoba is wrong on both counts: the material and the temperature.

Weight, volume and fragrance arithmetic

Roll-ons are filled by volume and fragrance limits are set by weight, and here the two carriers differ more than most people expect. BASF gives Myritol 318 a density of 0.945 to 0.949 g/cm3 at 20 C. Habashy's table gives jojoba a specific gravity of 0.87 at 15 C. Fractionated coconut oil is about 9 percent heavier for the same volume.

The gap is small enough that nobody will smell it. But a recipe written in millilitres for one carrier and made with the other moves the fragrance percentage by about 9 percent of itself. That matters only when a material's IFRA limit for the product category is close to the level you are using. The limit that governs is the one on the fragrance's IFRA certificate, or the published standard for each essential oil, worked through in fragrance allergen labelling. Weigh the fragrance rather than counting drops, and do the conversion in the essential oil dilution calculator.

Alcohol. BASF lists Myritol 318 as "very soluble" in ethyl alcohol and practically insoluble in water. None of the sources here states jojoba's solubility in alcohol, so if a roll-on or spray blend contains some perfumer's alcohol, fractionated coconut oil is the carrier with documented behaviour. Test the actual mix before filling bottles.

Skin tolerance, and where each is already used

Fractionated coconut oil. The CIR's final amended report on triglycerides, released in February 2018, summarises earlier human data: undiluted caprylic/capric triglyceride "was not irritating when tested using groups of 12 (21-day patch test), or 40", and "it was not an irritant or sensitizer in 128" subjects in a Draize repeated insult patch test. It was the most frequently used of the 51 triglycerides in the report, in 6000 cosmetic formulations in 2017 against 763 in 2003. The highest reported leave-on concentration was 95.6 percent, in face and neck products, and up to 83.3 percent in eye lotions. The panel concluded the triglycerides it reviewed are safe as used.

Jojoba. The CIR's 2008 report states that "in clinical tests, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil was neither a significant dermal irritant, nor a sensitizer", that it was not phototoxic, and that it is used at up to 100 percent in body and hand creams. Its 2007 use tables list jojoba seed oil in 110 lipsticks, at 1 to 46 percent, and in perfumes at 5 percent.

Neither report records a problem with either carrier on human skin. In a perfume product the allergy risk worth planning around is the fragrance. The allergens and the citrus phototoxicity that go with essential oils are covered in essential oil allergy and photosensitivity.

Which carrier for which product

Roll-ons. Fractionated coconut oil is the better default. It stays liquid at any temperature a bag is likely to see. It is not strictly odourless or colourless either: BASF describes its grade as "clear, slightly yellowish" with a "characteristic odor". If you prefer jojoba for its feel, refined grades are paler than the bright yellow crude oil, but none of these sources reports a different freezing point for refined jojoba, so plan for the same 9 C. Before you commit to a bottle, check that the plastic of the ball fitment survives the fragrance: terpene-rich blends attack some polymers, as described in tubes cracking or crazing.

Lip oils. Jojoba gives the fuller film, and the CIR's lipstick figures show it is already used heavily on lips. Fractionated coconut oil can thin it if the oil feels heavy, and the blend will fall between the two viscosities. For shine, the site's lip formulas rely on castor oil and gloss polymers rather than on either carrier, as in the lip gloss balm formula and gloss polymers.

Solid perfume. Jojoba is the site's default and the measured choice. Fractionated coconut oil works too, and the site's solid perfume page notes a slightly thinner set. In a wax base the bigger risk to the scent is the pour temperature and the wax absorbing top notes, covered in scent fades in balm.

Buying. Ask for the specification sheet of the lot. For fractionated coconut oil, look for the INCI name, the iodine value and the supplier's shelf life, and for the raw material source if palm matters to you. For jojoba, ask whether it is crude, deodorised or refined, and for its peroxide value. More on what to ask is in sourcing ingredients.

What these numbers do not settle

One grade of fractionated coconut oil. Every figure for it on this page, apart from the CIR's, is BASF's for Myritol 318. Other suppliers blend the C8 and C10 acids in other ratios, and their viscosity, cloud point and spreading value will differ. Your supplier's sheet outranks this table for the lot you buy.

Jojoba's physical figures come from older literature. The viscosity, freezing point, density and iodine value are from studies quoted in the CIR's 2008 report, not from a current supplier specification, and jojoba varies with seed maturity, location and climate, as that report notes.

No head to head stability test. No source found for this page ran both carriers through the same oxidation test, and no source reports an oxidation measurement of any kind for caprylic/capric triglyceride. The stability comparison here is a specification against measurements, and should be read as one.

No feel panel. Nobody in these sources compared the two on skin or lips for slip, gloss, absorption or afterfeel. The spreading value covers one carrier only. If feel decides your product, run a blind test of the two, as described in sensory testing.

Reviewed and updated 14 October 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will fix and log it.