Olive vs avocado in CP

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Saintlysoaper

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Does anyone think that avocado oil offers enough in terms of unique properties to be worth substituting for some of the olive oil in CP? I see that avocado has a bit more palmitic and less oleic but overall they seem close enough that I wonder if it's worth me trying it.
 
Some years ago, I was formulating a facial soap recipe and did a blind test with a half dozen different recipes and I think there were 16 testers. The testers had no idea what was in the soaps, and I was thinking that the castile or maybe the bastile would be the favorite, but the overwhelming winner was the one with about 7% avocado oil. Avocado is nice!
 
Thanks to all. Seems it would be worth my while trying it after all. Very interesting to note that testers could detect a difference at just 7%, I was thinking of adding around 20%!
 
I can always detect a soap that has olive oil in it. It is not my favorite oil because it always feels sticky even with a long cure to me. With avocado I do not get that feel so I use it at 15 - 20% in most of my soaps. Normally I use HO Sunflower or Safflower as a replacement for OO. There are people highly allergic to avocado so it is not in all my soaps. I have a decent source for avocado, although it is not cheap, approx $130 for 5 gallons (35 lbs), it is cheaper than purchasing the small bottles of avocado oil. It is my favorite oil :)
 
That's interesting Carolyn, i have loved sunflower oil in my soaps but I have not had any high oleic so I've had to keep it fairly low. I think I'll look into that. Doesn't high oleic from any source contribute to bar slime though?
 
I haven't soaped enough to really know the difference but I like both so far. I might just make a soap using 45-50% of each oil to see. It'll give me a chance to use some shea butter.
 
I like avocado in my soap not much though, 5 % is not a lot but it makes the difference, I can notice it
I had some feedback and people really like the ones with avocado oil
 
It might just be my imagination, but it seems like avocado makes my lather a little bit creamier than if I use sweet almond or sunflower oils. If I use avocado, I'll usually use it around 5% or a bit more. It makes for a lovely addition!
 
I had a recipe that called for 10% S.Almond oil and was out of so I subbed it with Avocado and have not looked back since. It is really conditioning.
 
Avocado has a higher amount of "unsaponifiables", which helps to make it so nice (well, IMO anyway) - these don't show up in a fatty acid profile. I think it's definitely worth subbing some olive with it!
 
I think I will definitely sub 10% of my olive oil for the avocado and see how I like the difference!
 
Avocado Oil

Absolutely not. Avocado oil left DOS in my soap and I have stopped using it every since
 
I regularly use avocado oil at about 20%. Never had a problem with DOS.

Everyone's recipes, storage conditions, ans supplier of oils is different. Carolyn has DOS problems with lard - most other people don't. It is just something we have to try out ourselves and see if it is going to work for us.
 
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