Interesting research
Wax Esters
INCI: Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Jojoba Esters · also jojoba oil, liquid wax, vernix-type lipids
Long-chain esters, chemically distinct from the triglycerides in most plant oils. They are the dominant lipid class in vernix caseosa, the coating a newborn arrives in, and in human sebum. Jojoba oil is the best available plant source.
Why it is here
The rest of the vernix playbook, minus the newborn. They give the cream its cushion and seal without the film a heavy oil leaves behind.
Vernix is a natural barrier cream: roughly a tenth wax esters, with ceramides, cholesterol and free fatty acids alongside, and a very high water content held inside corneocytes. Wax esters give it a spreadable, semi-solid character that neither pure occlusives nor pure lipid mixtures reproduce. In practice they sit on the surface, cut water loss and give a cream its cushion without the greasy film a heavy triglyceride oil leaves.
The receipts
A ceramide-containing vernix caseosa based formulation accelerated barrier recovery after tape stripping; untreated sites drifted toward shorter mean ceramide chain length and more ceramide subclass AS, and treatment diminished those changes.
Applying a vernix caseosa based formulation accelerates skin barrier repair by modulating lipid biosynthesis. Journal of Lipid Research, 2018. controlled human study, n = healthy volunteers, four skin sites each, tracked over 16 days. PMID 29217624
Vernix and a petrolatum-based cream both produced greater barrier repair than no occlusion in the pig model, and in adults vernix yielded greater recovery than full occlusion and was comparable to the petrolatum and oil-in-water creams.
Epidermal barrier treatments based on vernix caseosa. Skin Pharmacology and Physiology, 2011. in vivo animal and human, n = minipig laser-ablation model plus tape-stripped adult volar skin. PMID 21822033
Jojoba is described as the main biological source of wax esters, produced as long-chain alcohol and fatty acid esters, with reported anti-inflammatory activity and roles in moisturizers, sunscreens, wound healing and enhancing absorption of topical drugs.
Jojoba in dermatology: a succinct review. Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia, 2013. review. PMID 24442052
In practice
- Typical use
- 1 to 10 percent jojoba oil in a barrier cream, for cushion and surface seal. Vernix itself is roughly 10 percent wax esters by lipid weight, which is the reference point rather than a target.
- Keep apart from
- Nothing. Wax esters are inert and are used as much for texture as for function.
- Cautions
- None notable. Jojoba is a rare sensitizer. It is a liquid wax rather than a triglyceride, so it does not go rancid the way most plant oils do.
Questions people ask
What is vernix and why copy it?
Vernix caseosa is the white coating a baby is born in: wax esters, ceramides, cholesterol, free fatty acids and a large amount of water held inside cells. It is the only barrier cream that evolution shipped. Formulations built on its lipid pattern accelerated barrier recovery after tape stripping in healthy volunteers over 16 days.
Is jojoba oil actually an oil?
Technically no. It is a liquid wax, made of long-chain esters rather than the triglycerides in olive, sunflower or almond oil. That is why it does not oxidize the way seed oils do, and why it is chemically closer to human sebum. The distinction is not pedantry: it changes how it behaves on skin.
Is this the same as the beads in the cleanser?
Same plant, different physical form and different purpose. The beads are hydrogenated jojoba wax shaped into spheres and suspended for looks. In the barrier cream, the wax esters are liquid and doing structural work: surface seal, cushion and a lipid class the barrier already contains.