Why Is Prickly Pear Oil So Expensive?

February 22, 2025

Prickly pear oil, or as some may call it, the “elixir of youth,” is one of the most expensive and luxurious beauty oils you can buy. Cold-pressed from the small seeds found within the fleshy fruit of the prickly pear cactus, this oil is lauded for its myriad skincare benefits, including intense hydration, anti-aging and brightening properties. So why is it so expensive? This process is lengthy to extract as one so therefore very long involving lots of seeds for a secured export as well as an ethical sustainable export method that will provide you with the highest standard possible non-exploited labour.

Its Complex Extraction Process Cold-Pressing the Seeds

What to know: Prickly pear oil is labour-intensive and time-consuming to produce. Unlike many commercial oils that are extracted with heat or chemicals, high-quality cactus oil comes from cold-pressing. This method also preserves the oil’s nutrients, ensuring its highest potency.

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Extraction Process Steps:

It guides on Harvesting the Fruits – The fruits of prickly pear are collected by hand when ripe. This requires a lot of effort with the fruit covered in small hair-like spines that can irritate the skin.

Separation of Seeds – The pulp can be separated from the seeds, and this is often done manually to prevent damage to the seeds.

Sun-drying the Seeds – After this, the seeds are dried under the sun to lower moisture content before pressing.

Cold-Pressing – The seeds are then dried and extracted through mechanical cold-pressing. However, this method leaves a very tiny amount of oil, but the oil produced retains all its benefits.

Filtration and Bottling – The extracted oil undergoes filtration and is then stored in dark glass bottles to maintain its strength and protect against oxidation.

By contrast, while oils such as coconut or olive oil can easily be removed in great quantities, prickly pear oil requires a much slower and more sensitive process, greatly increasing its expense.

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A Huge Number of Seeds to Get a Tiny Amount of Oil

Raw Material for Prickly Pear Oil Prickly pear oil features an extremely high price mainly due to the required amount of raw material to produce very little amount of oil.

It takes about 1 million seeds to produce 1 litre of prickly pear oil.

Each prickly pear fruit has about several hundred seeds, so it takes thousands of fruits to produce one litre of oil.

The oil extraction percentage from the seeds is very rich but normally 5% or less so, to obtain an oily bottle, a lot of seeds are to be processed.

The large quantity of raw material required and the laborious extraction process make prickly pear oil one of the most expensive oils in the beauty market.

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Practices for Ethical and Sustainable Sourcing

They are also very social at work and they take pride in the extraction of prickly pear oil of high quality, the production methods are ethical and sustainable, which is part of the reason they are so expensive.

Fair Trade and Women’s Cooperatives

Many prickly pear oil makers partner with women’s cooperatives in Morocco and beyond, paying fair wages and uplifting local populations. These cooperatives have a crucial role to play in the entire production chain: picking the fruit, extracting the oil and respecting tradition.

Sustainable Harvesting

Commercial farming practices can destroy ecosystems, whereas prickly pear cacti grow in extreme, dry areas and require very little water to survive. They help reduce soil erosion and support local biodiversity. Dedicated growers never overharvest; natural resources are precious and help ensure that we can grow in the future.

Chemical-Free Production

For the best prickly pear oil should not contain synthetic chemicals, preservatives, and additives. The oils must be certified organic, meaning they were grown without pesticides or harmful fertilizers. This dedication to purity raises production costs but ensures a far superior and skin-less irritant product.

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The high cost of prickly pear oil can be attributed to the intricately labour-intensive extraction process, the sheer amount of seeds used, and its ethical and sustainable production practices. This means that people who desire it can only get it in small amounts, and because its indispensable benefits in skincare are among the best available, making it a true luxury in naturally beautiful ingredients. Ensure it's high quality, organic and ethically sourced to enjoy the benefits of prickly pear oil.

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