Olive oil vs avocado oil in soap
Avocado oil behaves much like olive oil with a little more palmitic and palmitoleic acid, and on its own it comes within four points of olive oil for hardness, conditioning and lather. The difference is the lye. Its published saponification value runs from 170 to 202 mg KOH/g, and the calculator uses the middle, 186, which is 2.1 % below olive oil’s. Unrefined avocado oil sits in the lower half of that band and refined oil in the upper, so at a large share a point of extra superfat covers the spread.
Olive Oil (virgin / refined / olive oil) Avocado Oil Compare them with other oils
The published figures
| Olive oil | Avocado oil | |
|---|---|---|
| Saponification value, mg KOH/g | 184–196 | 170–202 |
| Used by the calculator, mg KOH/g | 190.0 (midpoint) | 186.0 (midpoint) |
| SAP for NaOH, g/g | 0.1354 | 0.1326 |
| Iodine value, g I₂/100 g | 75–94 | 75–95 |
| INS (SAP − IV) | 106 | 101 |
| Melting point, °C | — | — |
| Unsaponifiable matter, % | ≤ 1.5 | ≤ 2 |
| Name on a soap label | Sodium Olivate | Sodium Avocadoate |
Each oil alone
| Olive oil | Avocado oil | Usual range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 17 | 18 | 29–54 |
| Cleansing | 0 | 0 | 12–22 |
| Conditioning | 82 | 78 | 44–69 |
| Bubbly lather | 0 | 0 | 14–46 |
| Creamy lather | 17 | 18 | 16–48 |
A single oil’s hardness, cleansing and the rest are the same sums the calculator shows for a recipe, applied to that one oil. They explain what the oil brings to a blend; they do not predict how a soap of only that oil would feel.
Swapping one for the other
Gram for gram, avocado oil takes 2.1 % less lye than olive oil. For a kilogram of oil at a 5 % superfat, that is 128.7 g of sodium hydroxide for olive oil and 126.0 g for avocado oil.
In the bar below, where it is 45 % of the oils, weigh the lye for one and put in the other without recalculating, and the superfat moves:
| Lye weighed for | Oil used | Superfat |
|---|---|---|
| Olive oil | Avocado oil | 4.2 %recalculate |
| Avocado oil | Olive oil | 5.8 %recalculate |
The superfat is the share of the oils the lye leaves unsaponified, planned here at 5 %; below zero, there is more lye than the oils can take. Put the oil you actually have in the lye calculator and it works out the lye for that oil.
The same bar with either
The bar: 45 % of the one or the other, at a 5 % superfat, for 1,000 g of oils. The rest: 25 % coconut oil, 25 % shea butter, and 5 % castor oil.
| With olive oil | With avocado oil | Usual range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sodium hydroxide, g | 138.4 | 137.2 | |
| Hardness | 39 | 40 | 29–54 |
| Cleansing | 17 | 17 | 12–22 |
| Conditioning | 57 | 56 | 44–69 |
| Bubbly lather | 21 | 21 | 14–46 |
| Creamy lather | 26 | 27 | 16–48 |
| Iodine value | 58 | 58 | 41–70 |
| INS | 147 | 145 | 136–165 |
| Linoleic and linolenic acid, % | 8.1 | 9.5 |
Fatty-acid profile
| Fatty acid | Olive oil | Avocado oil | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palmitic acid | C16:0 | 13.8 (7.5–20) | 15.0 (5–25) |
| Palmitoleic acid | C16:1 | 1.9 (0.3–3.5) | 6.5 (1–12) |
| Stearic acid | C18:0 | 2.8 (0.5–5) | 3.0 (≤ 3) |
| Oleic acid | C18:1 | 69.0 (55–83) | 62.0 (50–74) |
| Linoleic acid | C18:2 | 12.3 (3.5–21) | 13.0 (6–20) |
| α-Linolenic acid | C18:3 n-3 | 0.6 (0–1.2) | 3.0 (≤ 3) |
The figure the calculator uses for each oil, as a percentage of its fatty acids, with the published range in brackets.
Recipes with olive oil
- Castile brine bar 100 % of the oils
- Castile soap 100 % of the oils
- Liquid castile soap 100 % of the oils
- Nablus-style olive oil soap 100 % of the oils
- Savon noir, olive soft soap 100 % of the oils
- Greek olive bar 90 % of the oils
Recipes with avocado oil
- Avocado and cucumber bar 25 % of the oils
- Rice bran and avocado bar 25 % of the oils
- French green clay facial bar 20 % of the oils
- Dead Sea mud facial bar 15 % of the oils
- Luxury bar 15 % of the oils
- Unscented shampoo bar 15 % of the oils
Guides
Other comparisons
Where these numbers come from
Olive Oil (virgin / refined / olive oil)
Section 3 fatty-acid composition (GC, % total FA) is mandatory. Appendix 3 'Chemical and physical characteristics' (relative density 0.910-0.916, saponification value, iodine value (Wijs), unsaponifiable matter) is ADVISORY. C18:3 limit left open in this print (footnote 3: national limits may remain pending IOOC survey).
JP XVIII 'Olive Oil': acid value NMT 1.0; saponification value 186-194; unsaponifiable matters NMT 1.5 %; iodine value 79-88; specific gravity 0.908-0.914.
Ph. Eur. 12 'Olive oil, refined' fatty-acid limits, including linolenic acid max 1.2 %: the source of the record's linolenic range, which CXS 33 leaves open.
Avocado Oil
Internet Archive capture (2 August 2026) of the FAO file, which is Cloudflare-gated directly; the capture is gzip-encoded. Table A2 (crude oils; advisory): avocado oil relative density 0.910-0.920 (20 C), refractive index (ND 40 C) 1.458-1.470, saponification value 170-202 mg KOH/g, iodine value 78-95, unsaponifiable matter 19.0 g/kg. Table 1: C14:0 ND-0.3, C16:0 11.0-26.0, C16:1 4.0-17.1, C17:0 ND-0.3, C17:1 ND-0.1, C18:0 0.1-1.3, C18:1 42.0-75.0, C18:2 7.8-19.0, C18:3 0.5-2.1, C20:0 ND-0.7, C20:1 ND-0.3, C22:0 ND-0.5, C24:0 ND-0.2, C24:1 ND-0.2 %. Read with pdftotext -table.