How to Make Avocado Oil

Co-authored by Alicia Ramos

Last Updated: July 14, 2024 Approved

Avocado oil is made by extracting the oil from ripe avocados, and has a number of uses, ranging from cooking and frying to use in hair and skin treatments. Because store-bought avocado oil is often quite expensive, it’s often more economical to prepare the oil at home. Extracting the oil is quite easy, and depending on the method of extraction, you may be left with mashed avocado, perfect for use in baking or in making fresh guacamole!

Making Your Own Avocado Oil

To extract avocado oil using a simple process, simply make an avocado paste, then mash the paste against cheese cloth to squeeze and strain out all of the oil. You may have to do this more than once to get all of the oil out. Then you can store the oil in a sealed container.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Extracting the Oil Through Cooking

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Wash twelve avocados and cut each one in half around the pit. Use the knife to cut in a scooping motion around the pit until the two halves come apart. Use a spoon to scoop out the fruit of the avocado and deposit it in a food processor or blender. Dispose of the skin and the pit.^{[1]
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Turn the food processor or blender onto the puree setting. Mix the avocado fruit until it forms a smooth paste. Then scoop out the blended avocado and put it in a medium-sized pot.^{[2]
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Turn the oven on to medium heat and heat the avocados in the pot, stirring every five minutes. When the mixture starts to boil, it will start bubbling and you should notice the avocado oil rising to the top.^{[3]
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Keep cooking and stirring the mixture until the avocado changes from a light green to a dark green or brown, and the water has evaporated.^{[4]
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When the avocado mixture has stopped cooking, spoon the mixture into a bowl. Place a clean, thin cloth such as cheesecloth on top of the bowl, then holding the cloth in place around the rim of the bowl, turn the bowl upside-down and pinch the corners of the cloth together so that you’re left with a sack of avocado.^{[5]
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Squeeze the sack of avocado over a bowl to strain out the oil. The oil should come out drop by drop into the bowl. Keep changing your grip and squeezing for a minute or so until no more oil is coming out.^{[6]
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Once you have squeezed out all the oil, pour the oil from the bowl into a small bottle or into a container with a lid. Your avocado oil is now ready for use!

EXPERT TIP

Alicia Ramos
Skincare Professional
Alicia Ramos is a Licensed Esthetician and the owner of Smoothe Denver in Denver, Colorado. She received her license at the School of Botanical & Medical Aesthetics, with training in lashes, dermaplaning, waxing, microdermabrasion, and chemical peels, and now provides skin care solutions to hundreds of clients.

Alicia Ramos
Skincare Professional

Did You Know? Avocados are rich in vitamins (C, E, K, B-6, for example) and contain lots of good fats. When turned into oil, the vitamins and fats provide plenty of moisture to your skin and promote healing, among many other benefits!

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Extracting the Oil by Pressing Avocado Skins

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1
Remove the fruit from the skins of twelve avocados. Slice the avocados in half around the pit, then do a scooping motion with the knife to separate the two halves of the avocados. Use a spoon to scoop out the fruit of the avocados and set it aside. Dispose of the pit.^{[7]
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- You can use the fruit of the avocados in guacamole or other recipes!
2
Place the avocado skins in an orange press. Take the avocado skins that you just separated and stack them on top of each other. Then place the stack of avocado skins in an orange press.^{[8]
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- An orange press is designed to juice oranges and other citrus fruits, but it also does a good job of pressing the oil out of avocado skins.
3
Press the avocado skins. Pull down the lever of the orange press until the mallet of the press touches the avocado skins. Then pull down on the lever with as much force as you can. The mallet will press the avocado skins together and squeeze out the oil.^{[9]
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- The avocado oil should fall into the reservoir under the press.
- Consult the instructions on your orange press if you aren’t sure how it works.
Press the avocado skins several times to extract all the oil. If not all the surface of the skins is being pressed, reposition the skins so that you can press the un-pressed areas.^{[10]
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Strain the oil. Take the reservoir out from the bottom of the press. You may see bits of avocado fruit or skin floating in the oil. If you see anything aside from the oil in the reservoir, strain the oil by placing a coffee filter inside a fine strainer, then resting the strainer inside a bowl pouring the oil through the strainer into the bowl.^{[11]
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- The coffee filter will catch any chunks of avocado that may have gotten into the reservoir.
Keep the strainer over the bowl overnight. This allows the oil that may be sticking to the avocado pieces to slowly filter into the bowl. After it has finished filtering, pour the avocado oil into a small bottle and seal it.^{[12]
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Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Extracting the Oil by Sieving Dried Avocados

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Slice the avocados in half around the pit, then use the knife to scoop around the pit and separate the avocado halves. Spoon out the fruit of the twelve avocados and place it in a food processor.^{[13]
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2
Puree the avocado in a food processor. Once you have scooped out the fruit of the twelve avocados into the food processor, puree the avocados until you are left with a thick paste.^{[14]
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- You can also hand mash the avocados if you don’t have a food processor.
Spoon out the mashed avocado onto a baking tray, then use a spatula to spread the avocado out into as thin a layer as you can. Try to make the layer about half an inch (1.3 centimeters) thick.
4
Put the tray of avocado into the oven. After you have spread the avocado out into a thin layer, place the tray into the oven. You don’t need to preheat it, but be sure not to set the temperature to more than 155 degrees F (50 degrees C). You are trying to dry the avocado out, not bake it.^{[15]
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- You can also put the tray of avocado outside to dry in the sun for about two days.
Let the avocado dry out in the oven for around five hours. Check every hour or so to make sure the avocado isn’t burning. It should be a dark-brownish green; if is turning black, take it out of the oven.^{[16]
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After five hours are up, take the baking pan out of the oven. Use a spatula to work against the avocado layer and scratch it off of the pan. Place the avocado scraps into a thin cotton cloth or a square of gauze.^{[17]
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Lift up the cloth with the avocado and pinch the corners together so you make a sack of sorts. With as much force as you can, squeeze the dried avocado into a bowl. Readjust your grip as you are squeezing to make sure that you have squeezed all of the avocado. Stop when the avocado stops yielding oil.^{[18]
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When you have squeezed all of the avocado oil into the bowl, dispose of the cloth and the dried avocado. Then pour the avocado oil into a bottle and seal it.^{[19]
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Can avocado oil lighten/whiten the skin/face?

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No, it cannot, as it is not acidic. All skin colors are beautiful. Embrace your melanin!

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Is avocado oil is good for preventing hair loss?

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Yes, in addition to being a great moisturizer and conditioner for hair, avocado oil contains nutrients that boost hair growth.

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Can this be used as Cooking oil?

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Yes, you can use avocado as a cooking oil. It has a high smoke point and therefore can be used for frying.

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Avocado oil has a number of health and beauty uses: for instance as makeup remover or as a scalp treatment.

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Use avocado oil as a substitute for butter in baking, as a replacement for olive oil in grilling or in salad dressings.

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